Tequilahoppers in Upland, CA

In my last year or so of undergrad (about 2004-5, just when I started to get into craft beer), my friends and I frequented a place about a mile down the street called Tequilahoppers. After having been to this place weekly for over a year or two span I stopped going. The scene was just not my thing (think 909 bros) and I had moved to LA, but they did boast 80 taps, about 50 of which are macro swill. Yeah, seriously, they somehow fill about 50 taps with macro crap. They have about every Michelob, Bud, Coors, and domestic or import fizz water you could ever think of. In additon there are nights you can get pitchers of Vodka/Monster for $9 or Vodka/Cranberry for $6. It's a 21 year old's dream. But being that I'm long past 21 and almost never go out with the purpose of just getting shitfaced, they do have some other taps occupied by the likes of Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Firestone Double Barrel and Walker's Reserve, Stone Pale Ale and IPA, beers from Kona Brewing, Sierra Nevada, and Anderson Valley. The picture to the right was taken at one of the Wednesday Bud Light nights a handful of years ago. I didn't know better, lol.

So after about 3-4 years since the last time I was there I decided to go check it out again. The place is the quintessential 909 sports bar. About 100 tv's, lots of tattoos, waitresses with 5 lbs of silicone in them (yeah!) and lots of Fox Racing or Skin shirts. But with a couple of nice cool pints of Stone IPA I was happy. This place has a new theme every day. It may be karaoke one night, or gothic night another, but at least in the late afternoon it's just plain old happy hour- half off everything, and that's pretty cool with me.

Upland is your standard just-outside-of-LA suburb, but it really doesn't have much in the way of beer. We have an English pub a few blocks up with a few good beers on tap but occupied by tons of people you went to high school with and wish to never see again, and a bunch of other really lame dive bars.

I must say I am excited to go have a beer and cigar at a newer place that is in old downtown Upland at the Metrolink stop. It's where I buy my homebrew supplies and it's called Pacific Wine Merchants. It's a store specializing in a lot of wine, a good amount of cigars, and a little bit of beer. They mostly have wine there at their bar but every time I go in they always have 2 drafts, and one is always Alesmith. I'll be checking that out soon.

Sunday Suds

Today was a long day of watching football and brewing. We started off with the just-released Alpine O'Brien's IPA which I think is my favorite lower strength IPA they make (between Duet, Nelson, and O'Brien's). My friend Brian brought this up from San Diego. It's got a really nice citrus and earthy hop kick to it with a tasty malt profile as well. Normally I don't like any sort of sweetness to get in the way the of the hops in an IPA but they work this well and it's a very drinkable beer.

Brian also brought a Ballast Point Sculpin IPA so we made quick work of that. What an amazing IPA that is. Rock solid all around. I know this blog is like a broken record. Lastly we tried to give some Pliny Power to the Baltimore Ravens as they found themselves in a quick 13-0 hole but they could never work their way out of it. Pliny can only do so much you know.

With the day off tomorrow for Martin Luther King's Birthday I'm throwing around the idea of heading over to Hollingshead's Deli for lunch. Then again, just lying around the house sounds really good too.

The Best Hoppy Beer From The East Coast

So good, so fresh, so much pine. This is a great beer. They call it an imperial amber ale but thankfully they don't overload it with malt. The hops shine perfectly in this.

The Latest Pliny Convert

I got an unexpected message the other day from my friend Lisa who was about to delve into the world of Pliny. That is her to the left of Brian the Baltimore Beer Guy and my sister. Although she's partaken in the world of craft beer before with toasts of Ruination before USC games as well as other times I'm sure where I haven't been present, she is by all accounts still a craft beer neophyte. What a way to get your feet wet than with a Pliny.


Here were some messages she sent me along with a picture after drinking:
"Yum"
"I was sort of shocked one bottle was $4"
"Definitely worth the $4.09"
"I'm getting a nice chill buzz"
"Had to replenish my carbs after the gym"

You better watch out Lisa, this stuff is like crack and your bank account will feel the effects if you don't watch it. haha

Nectar Is Coming!!!

I look forward to January every year now just cause that's when Troegs releases Nugget Nectar. This beer knocked my socks off last year so I had to arrange to have some more sent to me from the East Coast this year. Hopefully a half a case will hold me over for a little while.

Some New Beers Had In San Diego

Tried a couple new ones while at Toronado in San Diego. This is what was left of my Green Flash 30th Street Pale Ale. Probably much closer to an IPA. In fact it had way more hop flavor than many of the more average IPA's or DIPA's. It was a real resiny hoppiness and kinda harsh. That's a compliment though.



The next was Firestone Velvet Merkin. An oatmeal stout, I'm not sure of its ABV. It was pretty good. Kinda weird in that when I tried to smell it I got absolutely nothing. A friend confirmed this. After I got about half the glass down I was able to get a small roastiness out of it. The flavor was a bit more robust. Chocolate and roasted barley... very nice, fairly silky from the oats. A good beer.


I don't really remember what this next beer tasted like. It was a champagne beer like Deus I think but I didn't order it. In fact this is what my friend Steve ordered. Me and Brian had imperial pints of Blind Pig to work on. About 5 minutes after Steve ordered this he got the chain around his neck pulled on and had to go pick up his girlfriend from work. We got left with his lunch and this $20 bottle of beer. Thankfully the whole tab at Hamilton's later in the night was on him.




Lastly, after a couple glorious pints of Green Flash West Coast IPA and Bear Republic Racer 5 at Hamilton's we went with a new beer and picked Fantome Noel. Crazy thing this is. It was basically a dark farmhouse ale. Lots of chocolate in this thing but with all that Fantome yeast funkiness of sweaty socks. Was pretty good.

Loose Saturday San Diego Schedule

We have a full, long day ahead of us but myself and BBG plan to hit some great beer spots in SD. The only thing that looks to be set in stone are a trip to Lost Abbey for at least the first half of the Ravens game (from 1:30 to 3 or so). Maybe a stop in to Churchill's for the other half. Before that we may hit O'Brien's or Green Flash for a pint. We will probably find ourselves in the North Park area after the game, most likely Hamilton's and perhaps other places such as Ritual Tavern, Toronado, or Downtown Johnny Brown's.

Perhaps a trip to Alpine on Sunday around noon on the way home depending on how I feel, and only if they are pouring O'Brien's IPA.

This Is Bad Ass - MyBeerPix LIVE

A view of what's going on at the Lost Abbey-

http://www.mybeerpix.com/live/

That's not me in the middle but it is the Baltimore Beer Guy who is in town for a couple weeks. I caught him in the middle of throwing up a USC Victory Sign. We'll be having many many more pints tomorrow when I head down to SD.

Stella Artrois, With A Glass Please

I happened to be out at a few local hipster places night in downtown Claremont and found myself at a Hookah bar with a macro-lager beer list only. In retrospect I shoulda ordered a bourbon... that would have been good. Anyway, I try my best to not be a beer snob. I can enjoy a Landshark Lager while watching a game, or a Miller 64 over some mexican food with my Dad, but there are just some things I can't drink, and that includes Stella Artois out of a bottle. I hate drinking stuff that tastes bad and a lot of (not all) beers out of a bottle taste bad to me. Anyway, I asked the guy if he could bring me a glass for it and he did, very quickly. I was expecting it to be the same glass they were using for water but they actually had Stella glassware. If you got it why not use it????

The Late Great Pumpkin Beer Taste-Off

I've had all these pumpkin beers I traded for sitting in my fridge for a few months now. I got like 2 or 3 bottles of each initially and think I sampled about 4 different ones on different occasions. This will be interesting to try them all head to head. I start with the lighter ABV ones.



Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale (4.9%) - Somewhat similar to Brooklyn in aroma. Taste is nothing out of the ordinary in terms of pumpkin ales, aftertaste is nice, a bit sweet. The whole middle of the palate though is quite dull. Fizzy mouthfeel.

Brooklyn Post Road Pumpkin Ale (5% ABV) - maybe the most clovey smell of the bunch. A real sorta floral, artificial candle taste in the smell. More bitter at the end. Key word here is artificial. Slick mouthfeel.

Saranac Pumpkin Ale (5.4% ABV) - The darkest of the bunch, nice mixture of spices on the nose, although it's not too potent (that's not necessarily a bad thing here). Definitely by smell has the biggest malt base here. In a blind tasting one might not be able to guess this is a pumpkin ale, although it does have an overall "ale" feel to it. Doesn't taste adjuncty. Nice caramel backing. Maybe just like a very lightly spiced amber ale. Full body for this style.

Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (6% ABV) - The most perfumy and potent on the nose. A somewhat artificial taste similar to Brooklyn. Maybe it's the combination of spices that give it that quality, I don't know. Really light, slightly watery.

I ranked based on Appearance (10%), Smell (30%), Taste (30%) and Mouthfeel (20%). Each % is the weight I assigned to it based on my preferences for this specific style. The rankings are as follows:

Beer Name	Appear	Smell	Taste	Feel	Weighted Totals	Rank
Buffalo Bills	4	3	3	3	2.8	3
Brooklyn	2	4	4	2	3.0	4
Saranac	1	1	1	1	0.9	1
Smuttynose	3	2	2	4	2.3	2

For the next round I went with the higher ABV end of the spectrum.



Southampton Pumpkin Ale (6% ABV) - Really nice clear orange color. They hit that part spot on. Thin to no head. More spicy aroma compared to DFH. Fairly light on everything here as far as taste goes. Really nothing interesting about it. Watery thin feel.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale (7% ABV) - Little bit lighter orange with a tinge of gold compared to the Southampton. More malty aroma. Much more interesting taste with a nice little malt backing, kinda toasty, mild caramelized sugars in the aftertaste. Nice body for a light pumpkin ale.

Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale (8% ABV) - Pours hazy orange. Almost a sour smell to it, not sure where it's coming from. That definitely doesn't smell right. Not like the last full glass I had a couple months ago. The earthy taste in this makes you think you're chewing on a flavored candle. Not my favorite.

Southern Tier Pumking (9% ABV) - Holy crap that smells weird compared to every other sample I've tried. This thing takes spiciness to a whole new level and warps it into something new. Smells super buttery. Kinda nasty to tell you the truth. Yes this smells exactly those buttered popcorn jelly bellies taste. It tastes exactly like that too. I don't know how people pick out anything but BUTTER in this beer. It's actually not a whole lot offensive but who has ever had/wanted a beer that tasted like a buttered popcorn jellybean? Very sweet overall too. While the taste isn't revolting, it might be if I tried to drink a glass of this. I'll settle with my 3 sips. I gave my beer-uneducated-but-always-beer-sampling mom a blind taster glass of this and her face immediately lit up as she described clove and spices in the beer, and said it was really nice and "festive." I asked her how the hell do you get clove out of that and not buttered popcorn. I dunno.

Beer Name	Appear	Smell	Taste	Feel	Weighted Totals	Rank
Southampton	1	1	2	2	1.4	2
Dogfish Head	2	2	1	1	1.3	1
Weyerbacher	4	3	3	3	2.8	3
Southern Tier	3	4	4	4	3.5	4

What I learned from this tasting was that I let these beers take up way too much valuable fridge space for 3 months, which could have been filled with Pliny, Blind Pig, anything Stone, etc. I also learned that I won't be drinking many pumpkin ales in the future, except maybe Dogfish Head's Punkin' Ale.

Places To Watch The Chargers Game In San Diego

If I get enough done in the morning tomorrow I'm thinking of making an excuse to head down to San Diego to drink good beer and take in what should be an exciting game. I'm leaning towards O'Brien's, though space is very limited down there, but they do have a terrific amount of great IPA's on tap right now; Sculpin, Green Flash West Coast, Racer 5, Port Solana Swami's IPA, Pliny, Pig, RR IPA, Alpine Pure Hoppiness and Bad Boy. Pizza Port is a possibility although I'm sure that place will be slammed. Churchill's would have to be another great option as they have a lot more space in that place than O'Brien's. We'll see how I feel tomorrow morning.

End of Beer and College Football Season For Me - The Rose Bowl

Today was, at least for me, the last meaningful day of the college football season. Sure there are a few games left and I'll definitely watch them, I just don't care about them anymore. Today my USC Trojans dominated Penn State for a good 3 quarters before sputtering and holding on for a 38-24 win. With the power of great craft beer filling our bellies, we were able to root our Trojans to victory.

I wasn't planning on going to this game, because we basically go to the Rose Bowl every year now and tickets are expensive ($185 face), but my friend Loren gave me a ticket for Christmas (which he said will be the last time he gives me a ticket since I most likely won't be entirely broke after I graduate). Loren, his girlfriend Veronica, myself, and our friend Steve Timmins, along with my sister and her boyfriend who scored free tickets the night before the game threw together a nice little tailgate. Timmins brought his 2 Russian River growlers he had left from his trip up north last weekend- Blind Pig and Perdition. I brought my last growler of Alpine Nelson, and as usual, a bomber of Stone Ruination IPA for toasting purposes before the game. That Perdition might be the best breakfast beer ever. This was the second time I've had that in the early morning out in the open air and it's perfect for that occasion.

It'll be a long off-season having to wait for the excitement when our Trojans take the field again and we hit the tailgates hard for another year with great craft beer.