Tag: review

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Review – Surf Brewery Surf Patrol Black IPA

The last California beer to be reviewed this month comes from just up the coast and evokes the surfer lifestyle. It is Surf Patrol Black IPA from Ventura’s Surf Brewery.

Here are the details from their website:
“Our American Style Dark Ale features vibrant citrusy and floral American hops balanced against a complex malt profile of toasty dark malts with a hint of roasted barley. Just like an early morning surf session, once you start you keep going back.
16°P 67 IBU 37 SRM Alc.Vol. 6.5%”

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Review – Double Bastard

Double Bastard from Stone Brewing is next for review…..

This is the word from Stone on Double Bastard….
“This is one lacerative muther of an ale,” the braggadocious bottle warns. “It is unequivocally certain that your feeble palate is grossly inadequate and thus undeserving of this liquid glory… and those around you would have little desire to listen to your resultant whimpering.”

In a world full of glittery pageants and overproduced Hallmark holidays, it has become difficult to isolate what is worth celebrating, while eschewing the insipid propaganda that is spoon-fed to the masses. But rest assured, Double Bastard Ale’s annual unleashing is no such hornswaggle. Nay, it is a moment of gustatory excellence to be met with fervorous revelry and tintinnabulation.

Double Bastard Ale first graced our little blue oblate spheroid in 1998, sanctifying the one-year anniversary of Arrogant Bastard Ale. Nothing less than creating an embiggened version of the already elephantine Arrogant Bastard Ale would befit such an epochal occasion.

Double Bastard Ale is strictly for those with an unfettered predilection for bold unapologetic flavor, and it is for this enlightened minority that this annual tradition carries on today. However, for those who may have been at all frightened by this obstreperous and bombastic admonition, then please, close the dictionary you took out and hit delete now. Forget all you’ve read here of the Double Bastard Ale, and acquiesce into an insufferable purgatory of fizzy yellow nonsense. Remain one of the blissfully nescient, one of the mindless, barefoot sheeple, aimlessly wallowing in a cromulent cesspool of mediocrity. Sleep. Sleeeeeeeeeep…”

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Canfest – upon reflection

I have a few more photos of Canfest to display so I thought I would sprinkle some in amongst my review of the event.

There were really only two items when you talk Canfest. The Beer pairing dinner and the event itself. Both of which were well done and fun. That is a great start. But what I would add in future versions is to have a Canfest bus that you buy a ticket to that will take you to Buckbean, Silver Peak and Great Basin as well as the wonderful Craft wine and beer store. Give a flavor of the Reno craft beer scene.

As far as the events themselves, the dinner and awards is in it’s infancy but was a good, solid dinner. I really like the idea of using last years winners as the beers to pair with. But I would have loved to see a dark beer in the mix. Even though the best pairing was the dessert with an IPA which I thought was a great and unexpected pairing. I would also add a visual component to the awards portion. Just a simple name of category and winner slide would suffice.

The main event hit most of my requirements for a festival. Water was available. The space was large enough for the amount of tickets. Beer was plentiful. And what I really liked was the fact that it was such a wide geographic sampling. South Dakota. Alaska. Arizona. Oregon. Kansas. I would have loved to see Sixpoint, Two Beers, Good People or Surly or some other East Coast influence too. But that is greed on my part.

Overall a very fun trip and if you like the brewery list. I recommend giving Canfest a whirl.

Oh and a Buckbean is a marsh dwelling plant of the Tahoe area that has bitter characteristics, much like a hop. There is a reason why hops are used in beer and not the buckbean though.