No Irish Beer For Me, Thank You

Nope, not a Guinness, just a nice glass of 14 month old homebrewed Porter. Yeah, I just happened to have the day off today.

Good words to use instead of "drunk"
Blotto
Pissy Eyed
Steamsie
Hamiado
Drunko
Steamin
Trolley Eyed
Steve McKenna'd

This bottle of Green Flash West Coast IPA right here is only significant because it may be the single best bottle of beer I've ever had. I've had like 4 beers already from this 6-pack but for some reason this one tasted so amazingly good, and I had to bump up it's score to a 5/5 on my BeerAdvocate scale. It was like a tropical fruit explosion. I don't know, maybe there's just some magic hidden in the Victoria Gastro Pub glass.

Bear Republic Apex Double IPA

Had some lunch at Beachwood BBQ today. Started off with a nice refreshing saison- Lost Abbey Carnivale which is light and has a nice Belgian yeast phenolic taste to it. Still one of my favorite saisons. After that I tried the Bear Republic Apex double IPA. This beer took home the bronze at the biggest and best DIPA festival- the Bistro Double IPA Fest- last month. If it was blindly judged to be better than Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Ruination, Pure Hoppiness, and Hop Stoopid then I had to try it (none of those beers got gold or silver).

This beer pours a clear orange (it's actually a smidge lighter and clearer than the low quality Blackberry picture indicates) and has a really nice pungent but delicate fresh hop pellet type aroma. The smell gives off the impression of amazing hop freshness, although it doesn't burst from the glass like crazy. The taste is in one word "tasty." The hops don't blow you away and the bitterness is very low. But you do get a real nice smooth hop flavor out of this, and that hop flavor is very juicy. I think I've described a few beers as having a juicy taste to it, a couple of those being Alpha King pale ale, O'Brien's IPA. It's a solid combination of sweetness and citrusy hops I think. That Apex was very good overall in flavor, but if you're looking for a hop kick in the ass it may not do as good of job as a Green Flash Imperial IPA or Pure Hoppiness.

Woooo Hoooo #2!!! Celebrating with Supplication!!!

That final score right there means USC is PAC-10 TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS! They beat Cal, fucla, and ASU on consecutive days and guaranteed themselves a place in the NCAA tournament. Today USC came back after trailing by 15 at the half. I'm celebrating with another barrel-aged cherry beer today, this time being Russian River Supplication.

The victory party continues. We headed down to Pacific Wine Merchants, a little bar/wine & beer store that I've done a review on, and had pints of Stone IRS (only $5.50- nice!) to pair with our Rocky Patel Decades. Great pairing I must say. The chocolate and spiciness of the Decade goes very well with the rich dark and slightly acidic malt of the Stone IRS. They also had Stone Pale Ale on tap (they only have 2 taps there and a nice bottle list- ie. Pliny, Pig, GFWCIPA, Dale's Pale Ale, Racer 5, etc etc), so it was a good night to go to PWM. Since the place closes around 9 on Saturdays we're now heading out for some more beers, chips, and we picked up a Rocky Patel "The Edge" to share at Lucky Baldwin's.

Timmins goes a little overboard with the wine sometimes. It's amazing how I was able to even get him into beer. If he's not chugging a Pliny the Younger (yes he did and it's f'd him up), he's chugging some Merlot ("I will not drink any fucking merlot!!!"). Did I mention USC IS PAC-10 TOURNAMENT CHAMPS???!!! What a great day. It'll still be a huge battle for us to win even our first game in the tourney, but at least we're in and are guaranteed at least some fun.

We made a quick stop at Lucky B's, and after looking at the tap list, which consisted mostly of leftovers from their Belgian Beer Fest, we decided to put the decision making into the hands of our favorite and trusty bartender Chris. I said "give us something fresh and hoppy" and he went to the fridge. I turned to Spencer and said I guarantee he comes back with a Hair of the Dog Blue Dot IPA. He indeed came with a Blue Dot IPA and it was the hoppiest and freshest tasting Blue Dot I've ever had. It's easily up in my top 5 favorite double IPA's at the moment. About 2 minutes later he asked what else we wanted, and we left the decision with him again and he came back with a Hair of the Dog Adam [old ale]. That beer was excellent. Dark fruit, the ever so light roastiness, a nice hop resin that stuck to the tongue but didn't overpower the other great malty flavors in it, and this beer just had an amazing balance to it. He had served us a bottle of Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws barleywine a few weeks ago which was also an awesome beer from this brewery, although it was much more fruity than Adam. Gotta say, Hair of the Dog makes some fantastic beers (as if beer geeks didn't know that). We're starting to see a little wider distribution from these guys, as most Whole Foods carry 4 or 5 of their beers. There are a couple more I need to try, such as Ruth or Fred. Can't wait to try these soon.

Wooooooooo hooooooooooo!!! (and Red Poppy)

It's a little too late to be cracking a cold one right now, but you can be sure I'll be celebrating tomorrow. My big win celebration beer for USC basketball is Lost Abbey's Red Poppy, since we also beat ucla last year on the day of the Red Poppy release.

This year's Red Poppy is such a beautiful beer. It bursts with tons of sour cherry flavor, a puckering sourness and a dry finish. Absolutely glorious. The only negative with regards to this beer is that I can't afford more of it, because I'd drink it every day. A perfect beer to celebrate a win with over that other school across town.

Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA

As I said a couple days ago, it's almost unreal I haven't tried this beer in the 5 years I've been geeking out on craft beer. I actually did buy a 6 pack of it for my undergrad graduation party when I first got into craft beer but it was for my IPA loving friend known as the Baltimore Beer Guy. I didn't like IPA's back then so it was all for him. I digress. This beer is good. It's not the best beer in CA, in fact it probably wouldn't even crack my top 10 California IPA's, but that doesn't mean it isn't solid and tasty (it only means CA makes some kick ass hoppy beers). Upon pouring this beer the aroma strikingly resembles Stone Ruination. I'm sure there are Centennial hops in this, so maybe that's why. That aroma changed a bit over the course of the 12 ounces, and what I mainly get is a floral sweetness, maybe a little orange. The taste delivers a good amount of hop flavor, as an IPA should. Pine dominates with a sweet floral finish. The main knock I have on this beer is its body- it's too slick for my tastes. It feels like that slickness interferes with some of the bite, dryness, and even seems to shield some of the carbonation. I'm rating it a 3.85/5. Just about average for an IPA for me. Actually, as I think about it, the taste really reminds me of Alesmith IPA, one of the few California IPA's I generally don't prefer.

Hamilton's 2nd Saturday - March

Hamilton's has started this thing where every 2nd Saturday of each month they offer free food (all you can eat basically) while featuring a brewery for $3.50 pints. February showcased Karl Strauss, this month is Alesmith. I'm not a fan of any of that food they are are serving but that's a great list of Alesmith offerings.

Two Trader Joe's Mission St. Beer Reviews

The first of the (Firestone brewed) Trader Joe's Mission St. series, this is the Pale Ale. It clocks in at 4.6% ABV. In 3 words it can be easily described as a hopped up Corona. The aroma carries a grainy smell with a bit of dried leaves. The taste has a grassiness from the hops along with the lightest malt presence you can imagine. I really feel like I get a macro lager type taste, so I'm wondering if they used corn or rice in the the malt bill here. This beer was bottled on 1/14/09, so while sitting on the Trader Joe shevles didn't do it any favors, it certainly wasn't a complete gonner in terms of freshness. I'm all for a blanaced pale ale, it doesn't need to have a huge hoppiness to it, so my main criticism here would be the total lack of flavor on the malt side and a mouthfeel that was so watery it was almost absent. I give it a 3.2/5, or a C+.

After that I took a step up to the Mission St. IPA. This is what the pale ale should have been. It definitely carried a more malty base, which actually tasted a combination of a caramel and toastiness. The hoppiness was in there, but nowhere near the standards we are use to in terms of most of the well crafted IPAs in the country. In fact, this beer was very similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but with a lower bitterness. The aroma was devoid of any major hop aroma. There is a reason 6-packs of these beers cost $5.99, so I get that they won't be loaded with flavor. This one gets a 3.55/5, or a B.

Even at their very low prices, I'll still be spending the extra $4 to get a 6'r of Green Flash West Coast IPA, Racer 5, or Stone IPA.

Nostalgic Visit To Trader Joe's

The first beer store (using that term loosely) that I went to when I got into beer 5 years ago was Trader Joe's. I had heard that they let you make mixed 6-packs, so I went and bought a Trader Joe's Vienna Lager, North Coast Red Seal Ale, Spaten Optimator, and a Rogue Dead Guy Ale. Those were the good old days. I happend to be there today and took a quick glance at the beer isle. Their selection hasn't gotten much better, in fact it's probably a little worse, but I managed to put together a 6-pack of 5 beers I've never tried.

• Trader Joe's Mission St. Pale Ale
• Trader Joe's Mission St. IPA
• Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA
• Full Sail IPA
• North Coast Scrimshaw Pilsner

The SD Booze Reviews crew has told me good things about that Trader Joe's Pale Ale, which is brewed by Firestone, and I believe won a medal at the GABF for American Pale Ale (under the name Mission St. Pale Ale). I was really surprised to see a Mission St. IPA sitting right next to it so I snatched up a couple of those. As for Hop Ottin' and Scrimshaw, I have passed on these beers for years now, and I don't know why. As for Full Sail, I've had a few beers from them and haven't enjoyed them at all, but I figured I may as well give their IPA a try just to round it out. Plus, the 6 pack was barely over $7. Good deal if they turn out to be fresh (the Mission St. beers are fresh as the bottling date on the bottle indicates, the other beers are more of a mystery).

Blind Lady Alehouse Update - Glassware

There was much talk after the Blind Lady Alehouse opening concerning their beer pours and glassware. Apparently many people thought they were being short-changed because the glasses were being poured with lots of foam and room in the glass. But according to owner Lee Chase, this is the preferred method of pouring a beer at Blind Lady. They want the volume of beer you order to be served in a glass big enough to handle a good deal of foam, the way a beer should be poured. Up to this point they were using temporary glassware, and finally just received the special glassware they had ordered long ago. The new glasses are 21.5 oz glasses that can comfortably support pours of 16.9 oz's with a good deal of foam. Pretty cool I say.

And also:

And, of course, the Blind Lady's first house beer-- Automatic #1 will continue to be available until the batch runs out! This is the Organic Belgian single ale, with Ginger, Coriander, and Toasted Oak that I brewed at Mission Brewery last month. Complex and Refreshing.

That's a $50 bottle of beer

A couple of friends went down to SD today and Blackberry'd this pic to me. Looks like they are enjoying some fine beers! That'd be a little too rich for my wallet right now.

Homebrewing Thoughts

A sinus infection has put me out of commission for a while but I felt like doing a little beer-related writing. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of beer things by next weekend but I'll have to play that by ear. In the meantime I've been focusing a lot of time on homebrewing. I bought a Beersmith subscription a couple weeks ago and I've been addicted to it since then, putting together a bunch of recipes that I want to brew in the next few months. I really like doing 3-3.5 gallon batches because it costs less, it's less to bottle, and I can even do some all grain recipes at this size. But being the novice I am, I'm always looking for suggestions or discussion regarding homebrewing. There are a few really good homebrew discussion boards that I frequent: HomeBrewTalk, Northern Brewer Forums, The Brewing Network Forums, and MoreBeer! Forums. I also love to listen to The Brewing Network programs, namely The Jamil Show and Brew Strong. Not only are both immensely informative but these guys are great entertainment.

Back in January my friend Brian who was in town from Baltimore came over and we brewed a simple batch of Belgian Strong Pale Ale using two yeast strains, which still needs to be named. He's more creative than I am so I'll leave that up to him (we will call it Genesis). The batch sat in primary fermentation for 3 weeks and then in secondary for 2 weeks. It cleared up pretty nice in that time. Last weekend I checked the bottles (which had been carbonating for 7 days) and noticed I had cracked one during capping. So that this thing didn't become an accident waiting to happen, I carefully uncapped it and poured it in a glass to examine the flavor and aroma to this point. It was at room temp and it wasn't close to fully carbonated but what I could tell was that it had an awesome fruity smell from the two Belgian yeast strains we used. The taste also seemed pretty good, although I hate tasting uncarbonated beer at room temperature. At this point it has about another week to carbonate and then it should be good to go. I'm real excited about this one.

The beer I brewed last weekend, which I've name Graduation Wit, is done fermenting and I'll probably transfer it to bottles next week. I have no idea how it will turn out. I think I hit the malt profile pretty nicely, with equal parts of Belgian Pilsner and Flaked Wheat, with about 10% of Flaked Oats thrown in. The spicing was the hardest part to figure out. In all the recipes I researched online there was quite a difference in the amounts of corriander being added. I think I ended up adding about 0.4 oz for this 3.3 gallons. In addition, I didn't even bother getting Curacao bitter orange peel, so I used about 0.5 oz of zested Navel orange peel and 0.25 zested lemon peel. We'll have to wait and see if this brew turns out to be good.

I think my next beer will be an IPA based loosely on Alpine O'Brien's IPA. Obviously the hops are amazing in that beer, but there is a rich (but not sugary) maltiness to it as well. And it's also dry, as it should be. I don't know what they use other than pale malt (and probably some Crystal 40L), but I'm thinking they may throw some Munich or Vienna malt in there. I may email Alpine to see if they would give me any tips on this. As for hops, I'm leaning towards a combination of Amarillo and Cascade, with some high alpha Nugget for bittering. I don't have a huge range of hops available to me so I gotta work with what I can.

Southern California Beer Happenings In March

First, Stone has put 13th Anniversary Celebration tickets on sale as of NOW. The date is set for Saturday, August 22nd, and will be at Cal State San Marcos again. Tickets are $35. Check Stone's website for more information.

On March 6th, Churchill's in San Marcos is having their Hopocalypse with some great IPA's on tap. List includes casks of Ruination and Ballast Point Dorado Double IPA, plus other great IPA's such as Pliny the Younger, Poorman's, Racer X, and Hop Henge to name a few.

O'Brien's will be tapping casks of two Sierra Nevada beers in the upcoming weeks (when do you ever see those?). The first is Chico IPA on Thursday, March 5th and the second is an imperial porter on March 12th. There will also be a cask of Green Flash Imperial IPA to accompany one of these.

O'Brien's is also having another mini Russian River night on Friday, March 6th. A keg of Pliny the Younger will be tapped at 11am and will be accompanied by other draft and bottled Russian River beers.

Also on March 6th, The Bruery in Placentia will hold their monthly "first firkin Friday." This month it will be Saison de Lente. You can enjoy it on Saturday the 7th too. On Saturday, March 14th they will have a pre-St.-Patrick's-day celebration of sorts. It will be a Belgian Saint's Day, and involve a new special beer.

For St. Patrick's Day, Churchill's will be putting Guinness, Harp, and Smithwick's on tap to go along with offerings such as Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig, Ballast Point Sextent Oatmeal Stout, and Firestone Velvet Merkin.

Pizza Port in Carlsbad will be holding their annual Belgian Beer Party on March 28th (session 1 is 10-4, session 2 is 5-11). It's the only event across this nation where you can drink Belgian beer while feeling like you're standing in the middle of a Bad Religion concert (ie you can't move around).