A Cold Stone

OSide – Now I love shortening names and utilizing acronyms as much as many ‘Mericans but I might have steered clear of that as a name for a foray into Cold IPA.  But back to the beer, I am intrigued as to how Stone Brewing will handle the Cold IPA craze in their latest One Batch Dispatch.

Cold & ….

If the descriptor “cold” wasn’t causing enough confusion. Is it just an IPL re-brand? Is it even a lager? Well, I think the semantic picture is only going to get more blurry.

Cold looks to be getting into the brand extension game. There is the above BC/IPA from Fort George and Ecliptic but I do feel that is the first wave of many.

If I were a beer style weather forecaster, I would be predicting DC/IPAs, TC/IPAs probably even Belgian Cold IPAs.

Holiday Cheers – Day 21 – Hopbominable from New Realm Brewing

You kinda expect New Realm Brewing to have a winter IPA since brewmaster Mitch Steele wrote the book on IPA while at Stone Brewing.

“ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, NOTABLE HOP-LOVER & FIEND FOR COLD DOUBLE IPAS! A UNIQUE MASHUP OF STYLES, COLD IPAS DELIVER THE CLEAN, CRISP FINISH OF AN AMERICAN LAGER WITH THE FULL HOP CHARACTER OF A DIPA. WE PACKED A CHILLING AMOUNT OF CASHMERE AND AMARILLO HOPS INTO THIS FRIGID BEAST TO PROVIDE NOTES OF MELON & CITRUS WITH HINTS OF COCONUT & PEACH.”

Cold is Here…

…to stay? Looks like the debate as to where a Cold IPA lands in beer style taxonomy hasn’t hurt or stopped breweries from producing more, and here is another from Firestone Walker (a blog favorite brewery)…

..though still not a fan of the artwork palette or style, I do like the Escher touch tied to the name which is a nod to the what is it really talk.

Review – 2 Fremont Collaborations

Fremont Brewing of Seattle (and Earth) has a pretty solid reputation and thankfully we get a bit of their beers here in L.A. Specifically a couple of IPA collaborations with sone equally well-known breweries…

Let’s start with Specific Void the ominous sounding IPA with Burial Beer Co.. Even the NW Fremont bird on the label has a museum exhibit quality to it.

This smells very NW to me. Pine backed by a slight fruit note. Very precisely targeted. Little banana on the taste. More malt than hops initially. Has a soft quality to it. Tastes closer to a Belgian Pale Ale to me and not in a bad way.

The next partner is Bale Breaker who also farm hops, so why not put those hops into a Cold IPA, Cultivision. Bird seems a little less goth on this label. Great aroma here. Quite earthy and dank to start. Very crisp. A bright yellow color to this one. Grassy overall.

I would take the Cultivision over Specific Void based just on crispness alone.

Cold Sabro

And not just Sabro featured in the new beer from Los Angeles Ale Works, Hopped Out Cold Cold IPA

“Crisp, clean and crystal clear. You won’t find any malty sweetness distracting you from the real showcase here – the hops. Sabro, Mosaic and Citra play off one another with a restrained bitterness and refreshingly balanced notes of dank pine, coconut, black current and lemon.”