Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Since I was planning a trip north to my hometown of Milwaukie next month, I wanted an Oregon beer. And what did I see first? Grade A West Coast IPA from Crux Fermentation Project.
This Eastern Oregon IPA pours a dark yellow with orange tints. Getting Naval orange peel in the aroma. The first hit of flavor is more candied orange. I would peg the bitterness level above average. The significant malt backbone creates a nice counterweight.
I am more afraid of cults and their MLM tendencies than the dark so the druids on the Paperback Brewing label of their Irish Stout would only scare me if they had a credit card POS in their hand. But enough with the verbal potshots, time to taste the beer…
Pours an impressive dark brown, near black with an espresso head to it. Getting a nice smokey roast from this and just a touch of minerality to hold it to the Irish Stout mark. There is also a little touch of cola taste tucked in as well adding another dimension.
The new private label beer at the lovely little Altadena Beverage shop is a hazy IPA from Radiant Beer Co. I like the retro look of the label and the light blue UCLA color scheme and now it is time to taste the beer…
This has a proper hazy look to it and it also has the requisite palate grit as well so it is off to a solid start. The dominant flavor is lemon. One of the most lemony Hazies that I have had in recent memory. It has a really soft mouth feel but the hops keep delivering through it.
Even those the font on this new hazy IPA collaboration from Highland Park Brewery and Alvarado Street Brewery looks more like Buffon (former Italian goalkeeper) and not Button, I do like the 8-Bit game look of this label.
And does this ever pour hazy, a yellowy orange murk greets the eye. The first aroma is coconut and pineapple. Very Tiki. And this tastes like a smoothie. The hop bitterness has had every edge sanded off. There is a touch of grassiness when first sipped but that dissipates so the juice can flow.
I have expectations when it comes to Smog City Brewing and barrel-aged beers. They continue to set a high bar and their latest OE barleywine ages in Brandy barrels exceeds expectations.
The brandy just pours out of this. It must have been a super wet barrel. Near dessert levels this. Pours a dead black color. Lots of sugar to me with a growing abv heat from the over 12% barleywine. Getting some cake like notes here. Not that I am aficionado of fruit cake but this is redolent with that fullness. But mostly this is a brandy show and it is great.
Back again with another N/A beer review, still staying positive that there are additional good ones out there and I may have found one…
It is from Sober Carpenter and their Discovery Series and it is a Black IPA. When popping the can, there is a mini rush of piney hop notes that dissipates quickly but is a good omen. The green wort-y taste is there but the chocolate malts cover that enough so that the minimal hop flavor can make an appearance.
For me, I have found better beers in the darker realm. Most N/A seem to have muted hops and muted adjuncts but a good roasty malt can really help. It is why I like the Guinness 0.0 too.
Sober Carpenter has a new Mexican Lager out as well so, if I see it, I will see if they can do medium malty beers as well.
Burn Off is one of the trio of newly re-branded beers from El Segundo Brewing and a brand new hazy from a brewery that tends to prefer West Coast IPAs.
There is a good haze here. Light yellow in color and tasting more WC to me. Getting a sharp pine note with a bit of orange peel in the back. Sorta soft in mouthfeel but more hybrid to me. Not bad but I think it needs to lean into the haze more.
I will admit that a cute label occasionally overrides my normal beer buying thinking, it doesn’t hurt if the beer style is left of center too. Such was the case with the Lucky Chicken Red IPA from Lucky Brew aka Kizakura Sake Brewing.
This is from Kyoto, Japan and who knows how fresh this will be so take the following review with a grain of malt. It pours a real dark brown color with a worty malt smell that comes on hard. Sorta tastes old to me which doesn’t jibe with the aroma. Not locating much in the way of hops and in fact, this tastes more English than anything.
So, a while back I read and reviewed a book about the love / hate of the liqueur Malort. A midwest, mostly Chicago, rite of passage drink. I enjoyed the book, not so much some of the people from it and really wanted to have a taste of it.
Fast forward to near Christmas and a boutique liquor store, Bar Keeper in the Virgil Village section of Los Angeles were selling little mini bottles. Perfect! I got one for myself and fellow imbiber Richard to taste. Below is his series of texts while tasting….
I did not enjoy it either. It tasted like a candle. A flea market home made candle. I knew the taste was going to be off putting but what really surprised me was that there was zero alcohol burn. None. There was also no sweetness or viscosity to it either. Plus the pee yellow color did not help matters. It was just chewing potpourri.
I guess I am in the camp of why would you ever drink this.
There has alway been the smallest of slivers of organic brewers out there. It is not an easy road to take paperwork and sourcing wise and considering how the word organic has been pushed and pulled like salt water taffy, makes it even less desirable a road to take.
But Rancho West Beer has been testing the organic market for a bit now most notably at that high end smoothie emporium known as Erewhon, so I thought I would give their IPA a run.
The can says Malibu, CA but the beer is brewed south, in San Diego. Where exactly, Google and its AI would not divulge. The West Coast IPA pours a bright orange color and gives off a solid pine aroma. Decent amount of bitterness here but also an undercurrent of oily viscosity on the palate. A bit one note overall but if you are looking for organic options, this is not a bad choice.