Russian River Janet's Brown Ale

I was given this growler by a couple friends who happened to stop by Russian River in Santa Rosa on their way back down to Southern California from Oregon. They asked the bartender which beer on tap would be the rarest to someone who lived down in this area and he recommended a new beer from Russian River, Janet's Brown Ale. The story behind this beer made it especially cool to me. Over the last couple years I listened to The Brewing Network quite a bit, going back through their archives and listening to everything. One of the brewcasters goes by the name of Mike McDole, who you may remember for winning a spot in the Sam Adams Longshot competition with his Double IPA that is more or less a Pliny the Elder clone. Well, I remember him talking quite a bit, especially on The Jamil Show, about his brown ale. Turns out Russian River decided to brew this beer with him.

We cracked the growler open today during the start of the USC-Ohio State game. What I remember of his recipe was that it's along the lines of an imperial brown (I think up there around 8% ABV) and is hopped a ton. And it is. A good amount of hops in this, no mistake. You get a real green sorta flavor from the hops... some pine and maybe grassy. The body is quite toasty with some chocolate to it, but not too much. It's actually a real easy drinking beer, the body not being too thick (probably slightly more thin than Indian Brown). A real winner of a brown ale, with a little different take on the style. A big thanks to my friends Loren and Rene for picking this up. Loren was able to share part of the growler and he along with everyone else who sampled some really liked it.

Daily Pint's Stone Vertical Epic Release Night Recap

Wednesday night's 09.09.09 Vertical Epic release was a big success at The Daily Pint in Santa Monica. After braving a bit of heavy traffic on the 10 fwy filled with people who were probably heading to see the pier's 100th year birthday party firework show we arrived at a pretty packed bar. The bartenders were working their magic and it didn't take long before we got our pours of 09.09.09. To be honest I was expecting a bit more. It was a good beer, don't get me wrong, but other than what I may normally expect out of an imperial porter there seemed to be nothing else. I didn't get any citrus from the tangerine peel, or vanilla from the vanilla beans. Even the Belgian yeast quality seemed to be very muted. I'll be opening up the bottle of this beer tomorrow and hope it leaves me with a different impression.

Aside from the Vertical Epic, lots of other good Stone beer was flowing, most notably the Smoked Porter with vanilla bean. It was the most vanilla tasting batch I've had, by far. It was the perfect beer to wash down my Frank's Hot Dogs "Hot" Dog with extra hot sauce. Tasty dog but I must say it was quite overpriced. $5 for something that wasn't even that big? I thought you only paid that much for a hot dog at Dodger games. I could get 2 huge ass burritos from a taco truck for the same price as that hot dog. Aaanyway, it was a fun night with the Beer Geek LA gathering going on there, and it was good to finally meet the head Beer Geek... er "Beer Guy" - Dave - of Hair of the Dog Dave fame who I have conversed with for a couple/few years via email and these blogs. Thanks for the glass of La Folie by the way Dave, if you still read this.

The Daily Pint is definitely worth future stops on my trips out to the west side.

Funny Thread On BeerAdvocate

Title: Do west coast BA's rave about east coast DIPA's like us east coaster do a west coast DIPA?

Didn't even read the thread but the question posed makes me LOL

Wednesday's 09.09.09 Vertical Epic Day in Santa Monica

As Ron Burgundy once said, "That is GOOD news!" Actually it's awesome news coming from the Daily Pint in Santa Monica.

Vertical Epic Day falls on a Wednesday this year, so we’ve got some very special mid-week beers that are going on tomorrow. On deck to be tapped tomorrow are a whole handful of Stone beers, including 09.09.09, Sublimely Self Righteous, Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Bastard, Old Guardian, 13th Anniversary, and Imperial Russian Stout.

The always popular Vanilla Bean Porter will be tapped as well, but this time we’ve got a keg and not a firkin! This beer is extremely rare outside of the brewery and will be a special treat for all you fans of the cask version. Here’s an article from the Stone Blog about the creation of this beer.

In addition to these great beers, the Pint will also be welcoming the Let’s Be Frank hot dog wagon, which will be serving up fine 100% beef hot dogs. For more information on Let’s Be Frank, you can check out their webpage for their mission statement and info on sustainable farming, or follow their truck on Twitter.

The frankomobile will be around from 6ish-9pm, so come on out to the Pint for some 09.09.09 Vertical Epic and some great dogs!

I think this will generate my frist trip to this popular beer bar.

Beer of the First College Football Saturday

The best time of the year arrived yesterday and that would be USC football season. The tailgate beer we decided to go with was Sierra Nevada Kellerweis, the beer which has replaced the old Sierra Nevada Wheat Beer in their year round lineup. I definitely can't throw up a formal review yet because we were drinking these out of their bottles, but it was definitely a tasty and easy beer to throw a handful down before the game, especially on this hot hot morning in LA! That won't be the last time I spend some quality time with the Kellerweis.

As is tradition, we concluded the tailgate with a toast that includes Stone beer. Most often the beer of choice here is Stone Ruination, but superstition dictates that Ruination is specifically only needed for a couple certain games. So for San Jose State I decided to pick up a Stone 13th Anniversary. The toast always includes our friend Brian, The Baltimore Beer Guy, but it's always my sister who calls him so I have no idea what he was drinking for the toast yesterday. What say you Brian?

As for the 13th Imperial Red Ale... I took a sip of my friend's pint a month or so ago at a bar and didn't care for it. I just didn't know how I would be able to drink something so ridiculously aggressive and enjoy it (it tasted like Tongue Buckler x2). But yesterday it was so smooth and deliciously hoppy. Maybe it was the plastic cups (ha)? Everyone else liked it as well.

I can already tell you what the toasting beer will be for next week when USC travels to Columbus to face Ohio State. Stone's 09.09.09 Vertical Epic comes out this week and it sounds delicious. A Belgian Imperial Porter brewed with malted barley of the chocolate variety, tangerine peel, dark candi sugar, and vanilla bean. This really strikes my beer geek nerve because Stone uses that vanilla bean so well (see Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean) and I'm sure they've done a good job here. The Belgian yeast thing should make this recipe interesting as well. Will be looking forward to that in a week.

Blue Dot IPA

Hair of the Dog Blue Dot IPA at Lucky Baldwin's this morning- getting some age on it but it's still amazingly tasty. Wish I ever had the opportunity to get it fresh on draft. And ManU 2-1 Arsenal! Woo!

Beachwood Sour Fest 2

10oz of new belgium love barrel #13 and a 5.5oz of Russian River Consecration batch 2
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Beachwood BBQ Sour Fest

The sour fest has kicked off as of yesterday morning and I stopped by for an hour to check it out on my way home from Long Beach. Lots of familiar things on after having attended the Stone Sour Fest a month ago. Anyone remember Chili Wonka? That was one of the most talked about beers at Stone and deservedly so.

I started off with a 5.5 oz glass of Allagash Confluence. It is their blonde ale made with a couple strains of brett. It has quite few similarities to Russian River Sanctification, especially with the way Sanctification has been going lately (less tart). Confluence has an extra dimension though since they also use their regular house Belgian yeast to ferment some of it. It's super light, earthy, slightly lemony, mildly tart and super easy to drink. It has shown up around my house in bottle form for $20, might be worth a bottle or two for a special occasion.

The next glass I got was of the Cantillon Bruocsella Grand Cru '07. My intention was to smack the shit out of my palate with some ultimate Cantillon-brand sourness. This Lambic did not produce the mouth puckering sourness I was inaccurately expecting. It's spontaneously fermented and aged in oak barrels for 3 years. It is also a still beer- no carbonation. It pours a murky deep gold and was moderately tart with some malty sweetness behind it. Other than that it was unremarkable to me, although I could have come up with more to say about it over a full glass perhaps.

The last glass was the always fantastic Bruery Berliner Weisse. It's hard for me to see this beer on tap anywhere and not order it, so I did. As I've said a million times before, I could drink this allllllll day. And good news for non-So Cal area residents, it's being bottled now so it'll be easier to get.

Tonight they feature New Belgium sours, and Thursday they'll feature Lost Abbey sours. I won't be able to make either but you definitely should.

Long Beach Area Brewery Hop

Finally made an effort to experience some of the beer destinations around Long Beach with a friend who lives down here. I'm in the area fairly often and have slacked at trying out these places.

The first stop was Red Car Brewery in Torrance. They only had 4 beers on tap and I went with their IPA which was listed as 9% ABV and 65 IBU. It was drinkable but not particularly aggressive. As for their buffalo wings, I'm a fan of pepper but wow, these things set my face on fire.

The second stop was San Pedro Brewing Company. I tried their Pale Ale (picture 1). It was nothing special, only slightly hoppy but not with any major faults. This place appears to be a bRuin bar so I probably won't be back :-P

Third stop was Rock Bottom in Long Beach. They had a good number of beers on draft. I went with the Coffee Stout (picture 2) which was on cask and it was delicious. My friend ordered their IPA which had a very nice smell, similar to Blind Pig, but lacked that full and aggressive flavor.

The last stop was Belmont Brewing in Long Beach. Cool place with good beers on their guest list (picture 3). I tried the Belmont Hop Head Red (picture 4) which was tasty, and as expected fairly hoppy.

All in all, this circuit of beer stops around Long Beach isn't really anything to go out of your way for but there are formidable options if you happen to be in the area, like on a Monday when Beachwood is closed.
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Beachwood BBQ Sour Fest

Starting Tuesday is Beachwood BBQ's Sour Beer Festival. The festival will run all day all week and feature special breweries on the first few nights (The Bruery, New Belgium, Lost Abbey). Beachwood is the highly acclaimed beer bar in Seal Beach also well received for their top notch food. There will no doubt be some amazing sour beers on tap (think Stone sour fest encore) and I'll try to brave the ridiculous crowds that will pack this tiny joint and surely send a few claustrophobics running for open air.

The beers to be tapped as posted on BeerAdvocate:
Abbey St. Bon Chein 07
Allagash Confluence
Avery Brabant
Avery Voltron
Avery Vogelbekdieren
Ballast Point Sour Wench
Bear Republic Cuvee de Buba
Boon Oude Lambic
Bootleggers Kentucky Wild
Bruery Berliner Weisse
Bruery Cuvee June
Bruery Sour in the Rye
Bruery White Zin
Cantillon Bruocsella 1900 Grand Cru 07
Cantillon Lou Pepe Frambiose 05
Craftsman Summers End Sour
Deschutes Green Monster
Deschutes Little Budha
Duchesse de Bourgogne Cellared 1 year
Echte Kreickenbier Cellared 3 years+
Green Flash Grand Mantis
Ichtemans Grand Cru
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja Reserva
Lost Abbey TBD
Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomee
Lost Abbey Duck Duck Gooze
Lost Abbey Phunky Duck
Lost Abbey Isabelle Proximus
Lost Abbey Red Poppy
Moonlight Sourpuss Black cellared 1.5years
Moonlight 25 to Life
New Belgium La Folie
New Belgium La Terior
New Belgium Lechee Tart
New Belgium Love #30
New Belgium Transatlantic Kreik
Ommegang Rouge Batch 07
Ommegang Rouge Batch 08
Rodenbach Grand Cru
Russian River Consecration batch 1
Russian River Consecration batch 2
Russian River Temptation
ST. Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition
Telegraph Reserve Wheat
Valley Brewing TBD
Valley Brewing TBD
Valley Brewing TBD
Valley Brewing TBD

Russian River Temptation on draft

If you are in the Orange County area and crave the tart bliss that is Russian River Temptation, their sour blonde ale aged in French oak chardonnay barrels, better get on over to Hollingshead's Deli and get it while it lasts. It's not often that Russian River's sours show up on draft in Orange County, and last time Hollingshead's had on Consecration it went in a day or so. By the time you read this Temptation might be gone too.

Miscellaneous Night

Watching Step Brothers with a couple brews. That Choklat is now 2 years old or so and still drinking very well. Tastes like a blend of malt balls and chocolate milk. It's definitely one of Southern Tier's better brews as far as their extreme series goes (which I think they call Blackwater series).