Lime!

No I'm not enjoying it... The beer that is... Gimme a crown n coke
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Alesmith Summer Yulesmith

At lucky baldwins, my first taste from this year's summer version. Not as outright hoppy as I remember. More round... Not necessarily a good thing. Just a tad too much sweetness. In the end I did not really like this beer, and I have liked it before (not loved it). But my friend Spencer and some random chick who is a Coors Light drinker really liked it.

This is how I celebrate being done with board exams...

(As long as I passed both of them)... Green Flash DIPA- the definition of grapefruity beer. I could sure go for a nice cold Blue Dot IPA and chips tonight too... Hmm we'll see what the rest of the day brings...

Yum, Hair of the Dog Blue Dot IPA and chips

Bruery

Berliner weisse, my favorite Bruery beer
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Pabst

Pabst in a can in Hollywood... Wow!
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A view of Beachwood BBQ on a weekday evening

Seal Beach, CA

San Francisco Beer Questions

I'm pretty close to finalizing a few day trip to the Bay Area, mostly up to Santa Rosa because that's my favorite place to stay, but I can't go through San Francisco without stopping for a while. A mandatory first stop in the early afternoon will be Toronado, of course. But there are a few other places I am thinking of grabbing a beer at, just to check them out.

First is The Monk's Kettle. This place looks really cool and I like their mix of local drafts.

Another is Magnolia Brewpub. I've heard a lot of talk about this place as being a solid brewpub, and that's something I don't do enough these days: head to a brewpub and sample their wide selection of styles.

A third I've pondered is La Trappe. I love the dark basement look of the place and it has the highest reviews of any of these places, but the all-Belgian draft selection doesn't do much for me. I can get almost all of those beers anywhere, yet their bottle list is very extensive. Looks like a fairly expensive place and not sure it's worth it just to go have a bottle of Belgian beer.

A sausage from Rosamunde and a slice from Blondie's and I'll be set.

Any thoughts for me on the aformentioned beer establishments if I could only hit 1 of them?

Joseph Brau Summer Brew Kolsch style

Nana picked up a 6'r of this brew at Trader Joe's for me and had a frosted mug ready to go when I came over for lunch today. Pretty awesome huh? Well overall it was awesome but the beer tasted like a Pilsner Urquel from the green bottles. Nothing to write home about but nice to accompany Nana's homemade calzones.
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Stone 13th anniv imp red ale

Holy shit that is some RAW stuff right there... I could definitely not drink a whole pint of that, and now I will go take care of my vaginitis
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Russian River IPA @ Beachwood

Planning a trip to russian river w/ my buddy Milty for july 20-24 at this very moment
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Drake's Belgian Ale at Beachwood

Really easy drinking Belgian... Has got to be a Belgian single
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Recent/Upcoming Happenings

Well it's getting close to the end. Two months of board exam studying culminates with 1 test this week and 1 next week. Things have recently been pretty bleak on the beer path for me after suffering a major bout of gastroenteritis a week ago in which I think I lost about 5 gallons of water from my body in one night. Since then it's been kinda hard to want to eat or drink anything. Hopefully I'll be ready to roll on some stuff soon....

Sunday July 19th- Stone Sour Fest. This is almost a can't-miss this year. The list is even more amazing than last year, and last year was pretty damn good. Sipping sours in the Sunday sun makes for a very nice day. It sounds like they are expanding the designated sour fest area too, which is nice because last year at the little outside bar it got kinda crowded.

Pismo Beach July 24-26. Heading up with some friends to stay at my buddy Pat's place. We usually hit the Firestone in Buelton on the way up, but this time we're going to the brewery in Paso Robles. Apparently after that we're going to do some wine tasting along the 42 before ending up at the seafood restaurant of all seafood restaurants. If time permits somehow, I would love to give Hollister Brewing Company another whirl on the way up through Santa Barbara, as well as Telegraph which I've yet to visit.