I don’t usually combine a 1st visit to a brewery with a 1st (or even 2nd or 3rd) anniversary, but plans change and I trekked south to see what Gunwhale Ales was celebrating…
After finding myself on a toll road and getting a little lost, I finally located Gunwhale and their Coastal Ales. The beer was smartly splitt between three stations. The taproom with the basics, if you can call a pretty lengthy list basic. Then one smaller side with a mix of variants as well as an outdoor station with even more variants. Watermelon, fennel, cranberry, clove and many other ingredients too were to be found in the combo of table beer, saisons and IPA’s.
Gunwhale has a good sized patio facing Randolph Avenue and I wish more places had them. On the downside, I am not big on the wildlife trophies in the main taproom or the auxiliary one. Though the latter was offset by a cool farmers hositing cold ones mural.
This is a great location near The CAMP warren of stores and restaurants. I wonder if any cross-over or if that would be too much OC walking.
But on to the beers that I tried:
Chickabiddy – Table Beer – medium good
Pau Brah IPA – with grapefruit and white tea – too much tea not enough hops.
Old Rackatee Farro Saison – little bit of orange in the way back more menthol
Cockrow Breakfast Stout – with Brauhaus coffee not bad.
Chickabiddy with guava ginger raisins and rum soaked oak chips. – maybe some ginger. Just a jumble to me.
Polarized DIPA – tropical aroma. Not bad but didn’t really hit me.
Hop for Mama Belgian IPA – nice funky aroma. Less IPA and more Belgian. Little thin.
Flooded Fields with jasmine tea and milk sugar – low ABV. Will the tea overwhelm here too? Yup. Way too much jasmine. More tea than beer. Super dry.
