Green Flash West Coast IPA

It took me a handful of stops over the last week to finally pick up a 6'r of Green Flash West Coast IPA. It seems like in the 909 it is almost impossible to find certain beers very fresh. I was in a BevMo this morning and there was 1 Green Flash WCIPA 6'r left in the fridge (and in the whole store). Since Green Flash does not put any sort of freshness info on their bottle, there is no way to know how old it is. So I looked around at a couple other beers. The Union Jack was about 6 months old- bad. They still had cases of Deschutes Hop Trip, easily past its prime by now. I was a little skeptical of how fresh the Green Flash might be so I bolted. I ended up biting the bullet at a store less than a mile away from me called Liquorama that seemed to have a little more of it in stock, so I figured it may be a somewhat fresh, though I still had my worries (I don't really like to throw away $11 for a stale 6 pack).

Opening one up at home tonight, I realized this stuff is still in very good condition. Hits the nose with a ton of grapefruit off the bat and the taste is as assertive as always with a huge lingering bitter bite. Really looking forward to finishing off that 6-pack with Kevin on Saturday when we homebrew.

On my day off today I also took a little trip over to Riverside to hit MoreBeer!, my new favorite homebrew shop. Being such a huge operation, they have tons of everything you want in stock. I love my little shop down the street but he doesn't keep a lot of stuff in stock. This Saturday I'm brewing up a quenching beer for my graduation party in May. It's going to be a Witbier. The recipe is as follows:

• 3.0 lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
• 2.75 lbs flaked wheat
• 0.50 lbs flaked oats
• 0.75 oz Hallertauer hops at 90 min
• 0.25 oz coriander
  
• 0.25 oz Curacao bitter orange peel
  
• 0.25 oz Valencia orange zest (or 0.50 oz if I can't get any Curacao by Saturday)
• 0.10 oz Grains of Paradise (if I can find any)
• WLP400 Belgian Wit yeast
  

It's only gonna be a little over 3 gallons with an ABV of 4.5-5.0%. I was hoping they would have some acidified malt in stock so I could throw a couple oz's in the beer to give it a little acidic bite, but it was only for online order. I've never brewed this style so I at least hope it comes out easy to drink and tasty.

On that graduation party subject, I've started to think about what beers should be on hand. My mom doesn't care how much it costs but I don't want to spend excessively. There are two possible routes I can take here (ok three, i'll get to that...). I can go fill up some of my various growlers- I would probably get growlers from Alpine (Pure Hoppiness and any other IPA's they have at the time), Pizza Port/Lost Abbey (El Camino IPA and Red Barn), Stone (Ruination), Green Flash (WCIPA and Imperial IPA), and The Bruery (Berliner Weisse). Probably about 10 growlers total (5 gallons) focusing on mostly hoppy beers, and a few 6-packs of various offerings. The other option would be to get a 5 gallon keg of something which would be cheaper than filling up all the various growlers, because growler fills are generally $10-15 a pop. A 5 gallon keg of something good will be $75-85. Highest on my list that are easy to obtain would be Wipeout IPA from BevMo or Green Flash West Coast IPA from Hi-Times. It's never too early to start thinking about important details like this. Oh yeah, the 3rd option would be to get a full keg of PBR for only $90! Ah the choices.