Tag: Infinite Wishes

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Review – Infinite Wishes 2024 from Smog City Brewing

Back to Smog City Brewing and their 2024 edition of Infinite Wishes, a barrel-aged stout, after a lager review detour.

The 2024 pours an inky black with a nice coffee foam head that dissipates in a bubbly fashion. For such a big ABV beer, this is not thick sludge but rather a sprightly beer. The predominant note is oak. Dark and roasty and far more dry than sweet. As it warms, a little chocolate pops through the wood but curiously not much bourbon coming through on this. Just perfect though for a spring day.

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Best Beers of March 2024

Time to get into the time machine and tab the top beers of March before we head into the April drinking session.

Honorable Mentions go to Long Beach Beer Lab for their Brewte (Brut) IPA, good to see this sub-style pop up on tap and this was a nice executed crisp, dry and pear version. Next to mention is the pilsner High 10 from Highland Park Brewery. The menu board had re-brews of past years and there were many High 10s to choose from but I really liked the West Coast Pilsner. I also quite liked the latest Short-Lived IPA from MadeWest brewed with Firestone Walker. Crisp and biting with nice fruit notes.

The March winners was the strawberry whipped Infinite Wishes from Smog City Brewing. Filled with berry notes and a slight touch of vanilla, it was luxury when paired with a bourbon barrel imperial stout.

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Review – Strawberry Dipped Infinite Wishes from Smog City

Imagine my surprise when a delivery person knocked on the door with a box from Smog City Brewing. Inside were two wishes, both infinite.

Today, I will talk about the Strawberry Whipped variant.

Once I got through the blood red wax, I immediately got a rush of strawberry. When I got another sniff, it was like a See’s chocolate with a strawberry middle. Just super berry notes. That perfume follows into the beer but then the milk chocolate takes charge. It is straight up strawberry truffle. This is a decadent dessert beverage. Lava cake would be a great pairing because this beer despite the double digit ABV is still light and would cut the richness of the lava while the chocolate would sync from beer to cake. This is a luxury ale.

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Tomorrow is Infinite

As in the annual Infinite Wishes Day at Smog City.  I am a bit of a purist so I will be sticking with the first beer on the list but #2 piques my interest as well.

1. OG – “as always the pure, unadulterated Infinite Wishes batch”
2. Almond Joyous – “a little coconut, a little chocolate, all delicious”
3. French Vanilla – “smooth, creamy and rich, a classic”
4. Strawberry Dip – “chocolate covered and sinfully sweet berry notes”

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Infinite 2023

Smog City will make wishes come true March 17th through 19th with Infinite Wishes Weekend.  I bring this up now because the pre-sale of bottles starts this month on February 26th.

I will follow up with more Wish Weekend information when those details are made public.

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Infinite (Well, Two) Wishes

I hope that you purchased your Infinite Wishes from Smog City Brewing, I bought two of the variants and here are my thoughts…

Coconut Vanilla – I always worry that coconut will be too overpowering. But this smells and tastes like a Mounds bar. Back when they were made with actual chocolate and actual coconut. So smooth. A little ABV and carbonation bite at the end but that just balances the books as it were. Nice lingering dark chocolate flavor.

Double Bourbon – I guess that I was expecting DOUBLE. Aroma times 2. Flavor times 2. Luxury times 2. Instead, this tasted a bit thinner than the coconut/vanilla. The aroma is nicely bourbon and the taste is nice and strong but it is a bit slight. Maybe because it is bubbly on the tongue that is cutting the strength.

Such a different duo.

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Dual Review – Infinite Wishes 2020 and Infinite Wishes / Peanut Butter 2021

Normally, I would review the standard Infinite Wishes as well as any and all 2021 variants. Since normal is still a few months away, I have cracked open a 2020 as well as the Peanut Butter Cup version.

Now let’s review these two from Smog City…

Oh the Wishes I should have made this time last year.  But let’s talk about this waxed Bourbon Barrel Imperial stout, which the label describes as “a bourbon chocolate pie”.  I initially get a red wine vinous note along with a touch of coconut.  As it warms up, the chocolate starts to cone through. A mix of milk and dark versions.  A tiny hint of oak adds a different taste along with a bit more carbonated sparkle than I expected. 

Now let’s turn to Reeses, Jeff, Skippy or wherever your personal peanut butter fix comes from…

Big peanut hit upon popping the bottlecap.  It is not a candy aroma or taste though.  More peanut butter cookie to me.  Maybe a cookie dough effect. Less carbonated than the previous Infinite Wishes which I think works better. The bourbon barrel flavors are effectively removed. I wish that some more of that remained to create a boozy cookie simulacrum. 

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Wishes Delayed

One of the fun points in the LA beer calendar is being delayed a bit for safety reasons which I applaud. Here’s are the details on the coming Infinite Wishes release from Smog City.

“One of the best parts about Wishes Day is getting to try all the variants, talk about your favorite variant (or the OG) with you, which one you’re most surprised by, and which one you’re going to buy a whole case of. Since we can’t share that experience with you if we can’t serve beer onsite, we’ve decided that delaying the release was the best thing to do right now. Also, Wishes day always draws a huge crowd (yay!) and we all know that now is not the time for crowds, even if it’s for an amazing beer. 

What we can tell you is that we are concocting 4 delicious variants in addition to the straight IW release and no matter what, the day is going to look different than it has in the past. Rest assured, we are working on creative ways to encapsulate the excitement and thrills of Wishes Day while still keeping our community safe!”

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Infinite Loops

Well, maybe closer to (4) variants of the annual Infinite Wishes release from Smog City. You can buy 2/Max bottles of the following: Regular, Coconut Vanilla, Cinnamon, Double Bourbon and licorice.

Smog City throws a good party and they have the crowd control and lines down too. So head out to Torrance on January 25th and look into the infinite.

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Up From the Cellar – (2) from Smog City

I am ever so slowly draining my cellar of beer and a weekend back, I decided to pull up two beers from Smog City. One from 2014 and one from 2015.

Goldie (2014) pours a deep amber color. This beer lets you know it’s big but not in an aggressive way.  Cheeks aren’t warm but you can feel the effects of the beer. The bourbon character melds with the strong ale equally. Hint of pineapple and caramel.  Slight burn with each sip. A little tiny touch of honey sweetness leads to a dry finish.

Infinite Wishes (2015) Pours dark black but not much head to it. The barrel has left this building. There is some red wine aged notes. Odd that a 2014 strong ale with less ABV in Goldie lasted longer.  This may have turned just past the point of maturation. Getting some cherry notes making it a little bit sour.  Chocolate is the predominant taste.