Lucky Baldwin's Christmas Beer Fest Has Started

It runs for quite a while too. November 29th to December 28th. Brian the Baltimore Beer Guy and I got there Sunday around lunch to have a few. The list was much better than I expected. I was really not in the mood for 10% ABV Belgian Christmas beers, so thankfully they had a bunch of American seasonals on tap too. I'll list what I can remember:



Sierra Nevada Celebration
Alesmith Yulesmith
Stone Russian Imperial Stout
Anchor Porter
Anchor Christmas Ale ("Our Special Ale")
Lost Coast Winterbraun
Sam Adams Winter Lager
Port Brewing Santa's Little Helper
Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout
Anderson Valley Winter Solstice
Alaskan Smoked Porter
Fuller's Old Winter Ale
Pyramid Snowcap Ale
+ A couple handfuls of Belgian Christmas Ales.

Part 2 Of A Good Friday Night: The Westvleteren Series

After finishing off the Masala Mama it was time to get down to business and get to the Westvleteren blonde, 8 (dubbel), and 12 (quad) that I've been holding onto for close to a year. If you're new to beer, the Westvleteren 12 is routinely ranked as the #1 beer in the world by major beer rating sites, and the 8 is usually around the top 5. If you indeed haven't heard of these beers I urge you to research this brewery because the lore surrounding it is quite remarkable.

Anyway, we went through the beers and I took a few notes on each one. To be honest I couldn't really describe them very well. It's either because they were over my head, or because they were a lot more simple than I thought they would be. I'm still not sure. I must confess I don't regularly drink dubbels and quadrupels, much less Belgian beer which I have kinda strayed away from in the last year or so.

The first, of course, was the Blonde (5.8% ABV). It poured very clear, pale straw yellow, and was super lively in the glass with tons of bubbles streaming from every inch of the new Brewer's Art goblets that Brian gave me. The smell was very lagerish with light fruit and a very light earthiness. I really enjoyed the smell on such a light bodied beer. The taste was somewhat weak in characteristic. Reminded me in certain ways of a macro lager with moderate bitterness. I couldn't really detect much else beyond that. Overall very light, effervescent and grainy. It's a Belgain blonde ale. We wanted to think there should be some sort of crazy flavor to it because of the Westvleteren 12 reputation but we had to remember beer is beer, and to not think this should be some unique, earth shattering rendition of a Belgian blonde. It was ok, I wouldn't really seek it out again.

Next up was the 8, their dubbel (8.0% ABV). It poured a somewhat clear dark brown with reddish highlights and an off-white foamy head that looked as if it could have built up as much as we wanted it to. The smell was really one dimensional. The best I could describe it was being like grape candy, like the Alexander the Grape otter pops. The taste was like grape sugar. As sweet and fruity as it was it was also pretty dry. I just didn't find this beer to be anything great. It didn't seem like it had a whole lot going on in it, other than grape of course.

Lastly was the 12, their quadrupel (10.2% ABV). This beer poured a very similar color to the 8, brownish with red highlights when viewed in the light. The smell however was a little different. Black currant was dominant here (which is similar to grape to me anyway), and again I couldn't get much past that one dominant characteristic. The taste was a little but more full in terms of malt. Dark fruit and an ever so lightly roasted malt. I don't mind thinking that maybe my palate is not mature/experienced enough to detect the nuances here. There wasn't a whole lot I could say about this beer but I knew for sure it went down really easy. This one I liked quite a bit.

We obviously talked about the beers quite a bit as we were tasting them but it'll be interesting to see what Brian's final verdict was when he gets around to writing up his experience with these beers.

Part 1 Of A Good Friday Night: Masala Mama IPA

In honor of my good friend Brian, aka The Baltimore Beer Guy, returning back to San Diego on one of his bi-(or tri)-annual trips from Maryland to California, I decided to arrange for us to be able to try what is the #1 ranked IPA on BeerAdvocate.com. This would be the aforementioned Minneapolis Town Hall Brewing Company's Masala Mama IPA. The trader I acquired it from said that Town Hall purges their growlers with CO2 upon filling, so that's nice because this growler was filled on 11/20, got to me on 11/25, and was consumed 11/28. I like my IPA's as fresh as possible.

It was apparent this beer made the haul from Minnesota to California in good shape. It smelled and tasted really fresh. As you can see it pours a pretty clear but dark amber to brownish-orange in color with a really nice creamy head that can build up to as many fingers deep as you want. The smell is pretty pungent and the word "oil" keeps popping into my head. Probably somewhat citrusy as well. What really jumps out in the flavor is what I perceive to be a high alpha acid, somewhat harsh bitterness. There's a nice juiciness to it overall though. Pine without a doubt, but it ends with a somewhat harsh dry bitterness. I don't mind harshness in an IPA... sometimes I like a hoppy beer to hit ya hard, but this was kinda weird.

Reviewing well crafted beers is often like splitting hairs. This was a good beer. I would drink this beer a lot if it were on tap at a local establishment. But in relation to all my other favorite IPA's (Blind Pig, Stone, Alpine O'Brien's, Racer 5) it has a harshness to it that is kinda distracting. Pretty good overall though. I give it a 4.05/5, or A- on BeerAdvocate.

I Was Past Due For A Cold Virus

I had the pleasure of coming down with a cold Sunday night and have been popping Cold-eeze, Emergen-C, Sudafed, Claritin, Ibuprofen and doing the salt water gargling around the clock. I don't really feel horrible but I'm just dreading this thing moving into my chest, which will cause a lingering cough for a couple weeks. I know the minute I drink a beer my health will go downhill even more, it happens every time. The worst part is I just received a growler of Minneapolis Town Hall Masala Mama IPA, which has long been the #1 ranked IPA on BeerAdvocate, in the mail. I plan to share that with The Baltimore Beer guy, when he comes over Friday, whether I'm cold-free or not.

I've been looking forward to trying Masala Mama for a loooong time now, but as far as I've been able to tell it's only available at the brewery and then maybe on tap at some local establishments- although I'm not sure about the latter. In reading reviews, this IPA definitely gets the most compliments of any IPA in terms of "drinkability," or as I would say, ease of finishing the glass in front of you. I actually like to replace that with the term "enjoyability"... it just makes more sense to me and is a bit easier to define for each individual if you ask me. Will probably have a review up Friday night sometime.

San Diego Needs Its Own "Beer Week"

Philly started the revolution and San Francisco promptly followed with plans to host their own in February of 2009. Even Baltimore has fallen off the beer-week-wagon and has started to plan for one in the Fall of '09. After the great success that was the 2008 Craft Brewer's Conference hosted in San Diego, this great city shouldn't be far behind from naming its own beer week. I haven't heard any talk about this in the past, but maybe I'm just out of the loop. I think it's obvious that the people of San Diego would embrace this, but I also think this event would draw droves of beer enthusiasts from the Los Angeles and Orange County areas. Lord knows us Angelenian's are semi-deprived of a great beer culture and would jump at the chance for any sort of assemblage of events like this that's less than a couple hours drive away.

Photo from Today's Local News

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, For Breakfast

Nevermind that I haven't ever ventured further East than family trips to New Mexico and Texas when I was 7 or 8 years old, but here is a beer that lets me experience the state of Kentucky at its finest. The fact that it's made in Michigan you can just ignore. This beer is the Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, which I've been holding onto for a year and a half or so now. Maybe I was scared to drink it, figuring that so many imperial stouts have let me down in the past- making me decide that for the most part this style just isn't for me. What I've also realized is there are a few imperial stouts that are crafted truly well for my tastes. Founders' regular Breakfast Stout is one of those. I love it. So I was really hoping their Kentucky Breakfast Stout would buck the trend of bad to very average imperial stouts set by Dark Lord, Jah-Va, and others.

Kentucky Breakfast Stout pours as seen in the photo into my mug. There's no mistaking that this is one viscous brew while pouring. The initial smell is boozy, the bourbon/wood character is noticeable, but even more so is the coffee and bittersweet dark chocolate. The taste mirrors that. Coffee dominates, as it should, but there's a nice bit of chocolate and wood flavor, all the while having that roasted coffee bitterness. The soy flavors of stouts that I hate so much are limited in this. The licorice or anise flavors that can be way overdone are non-existent. This is a good stout. Founders has done a remarkable job of finding great flavor combination of roast and chocolate in their big stouts to make them enjoyable. At 10% ABV, Kentucky Breakfast Stout might qualify as a sipper, but it goes down pretty easy, especially in the morning.

My BeerAdvocate Score
Appearance: 4
Aroma: 4
Taste: 4.5
Mouthfeel: 4
Drinkability: 4
Overall: 4.2 / A-

The Power of Pliny

Pliny the Elder doesn't just pack a ton of flavor, it packs some magic too. A few weeks ago I was watching TCU play an undefeated BYU and we really needed BYU to lose (for the good of college football). I decided to crack a Pliny open and proclaimed that I would give them "Pliny Power" and the game was basically over before it started with TCU blowing them out.

Today, while watching a fairly close Syracuse vs. Notre Dame game, Notre Dame took a 23-10 lead. Figuring that this horrible Syracuse team (2-8 overall) needed a little extra help I decided to open up a Pliny and give them some "Pliny Power." Well, the sequence of events unfolded like this...

Here is the Pliny, opened up as Syracuse had just gone down by 13 points to Notre Dame. If you look real closely you can see all the magical power contained within it.

As I started to enjoy my Pliny, the power became evident pretty quick. Syracuse drove down the field the first time they had the ball after uncapping, and pulled to within 23-17.

After looking like all the power might have run out, Syracuse got back on track and scored a TD with just under a minute left in the 4th quarter to take the lead 24-23.

Notre Dame got the ball and after a couple long incomplete passes they had one last gasp. "The Chosen One" Jimmy Clausen heaved one of his trademark jump balls down the field to Golden-Hands-Tate who as always, miraculously came down with the ball. At this point it was The Power of Pliny vs. Touchdown Jesus. As one might think, Pliny won out as ND missed a long FG with time expiring.
The Power of Pliny is real people.

Beachwood Happy Hour Is Back!

Per Beachwood BBQ's November newsletter:

We've brought back the Beachwood Happy Hour.
Tuesday-Friday, 3pm-6pm
Great deals on appetizers, $5 sandwiches and $1 off all draft beer

If you haven't been there you really should drop what you're doing and get to this awesome beer spot in Seal Beach ASAP- happy hour or not.

Walking 3,000 Miles Deserves Something Good Right?

And that good should be beer. Well, other than the good amount of money that must have been raised for the the American Legion Legacy Scholarship fund by Nick Moffatt who decided to walk from New York to California over a span of 5 months. To celebrate, The Daily Pint in Santa Monica will be throwing a nice little "Victory" party which will feature what looks like 4, maybe 5 casks.


This event starts at 8pm, Wednesday, November 19th.

Here is the lineup for tonight:

• Stone Pale Ale with corriander
• Stone IPA with Centennial and Amarillo hops
• Dean's English Style IPA
• Dean's ESB
• And quite possibly Stone Ruination with Simcoe and Strisselspalt hops if ya'll drink enough to make room for it.

Late Birthday Present

Pete the Greek "A-14" brought over a growler of Stone Smoked Porter with vanilla bean. Our favorite porter.


Pete enjoying some vanilla bean smoked porter. No he's not related to Petros Papadakis

Features Of A Good Beer Bar - The Online Tap List

The Baltimore Beer Guy had an excellent commentary about what features a good craft beer bar should have. His post was concerned with a bar's ability to non-verbally communicate to the patron what beers are on tap. This has been a big issue for myself as well. Especially being in the Los Angeles area, most people can't just skip down the road a few miles to a great beer joint. Nope, you really have to venture out, almost always on the freeway, and who knows how long it could take. Who wants to do that when they don't know if anything interesting is on tap? Let's face it, there are some places we all love to frequent, but sometimes we just wouldn't go unless we knew something was there that piqued our interest.

That leads to the point of emphasis; pubs advertising what is on tap via website or newsletter, so that the patron doesn't only have to find out the minute they pony up to the bar. This is a good thing. Some great examples of this in the Southern California area are O'Brien's, Beachwood BBQ, Toronado SD, Hamilton's Tavern, and to some extent Hollingshead's Deli and Churchill's Pub and Grille. Each of these places has a website that is updated frequently- from Beachwood BBQ's HopCam of their tap board that refreshes every 15 minutes to the other places who update their webpages every couple days to a week. The key here is to keep those lists updated! I've seen pubs completely forget about them for weeks or months, leaving those in the dark who have to travel relatively far. Is that a lot of work if an establishment already has a website? I doubt it. I can't imagine it taking more than 10-15 minutes to update what is on tap at least once a week. And at least as far as I go, these online lists do a lot in terms of getting me to want to make a trip. If I didn't know what was on tap, I wouldn't make it to these places near as often.

I really do wish more places would embrace the online, frequently updated tap list.

Thanks to The Daily Pint, a beer bar in Santa Monica I've heard more than a fair share about via Hair of the Dog Dave's website for alerting me that they also have updates on their taps, which can be seen on their draft list and on their blog which updates about new beers.

Soon I'll put a category in the sidebar with a list of all the bars and links to their frequently updated tap lists. If you own a bar/pub that does this or know of one, let me know here with a comment or at my email address TrojanAnteater@gmail.com and I will add it to the sidebar when I make it.

Another College Football Saturday, and Beer

Been watching all the boring Big 10 games that come on at 9am here, as usual. They are starting to wind down now and I decided to pour my first beer coming from a growler of Pizza Port El Camino IPA that I picked up last week. This is a beautiful IPA, in appearance and taste. It has a real crisp and very piny and grapefruit zest oil bitterness to it. At the same time it's got a faint orange sweetness to it and some grainy, or maybe bready malt like cracker behind it. Just a really nice beer that shows off some great hops and aggressive bitterness.


After a couple pints of El Camino IPA I switched gears and pulled a Stone out of the fridge. I meant to pull an 08.08.08, but instead I grabbed an 07.07.07 and didn't realize it. I thought it looked different as it poured...ha. It's much more carbonated with an orangish color. The smell is quite fruity, and very remarkable. The taste has a good amount of earthiness in it, but the fruit comes across quite a bit still. I can't remember that well how this tasted when it first came out, so I'm not sure how it has changed, if at all. I think the fruit may be dominating more now after 1 year.