Great Divide Titan IPA

This beer has been sitting in the fridge for a little over a month after a trade with a fellow BA. Realizing that I want my IPA's as fresh as possible I decided to stop being lazy and enjoy my first beer from Great Divide out of Denver, Co. On the side of the label they actually tell you what month and week the beer was bottled. I LOVE this feature and wish that more breweries out there used it. This particular one I'm drinking was bottled the first week of June, making it relatively fresh. From the writing on the bottle:

Brewed for hop disciples, Titan IPA is a big, aggressively hopped India Pale Ale - starting out with piney hop aromas and citrus hop flavors, and finishing with a rich, malty sweetness that is balanced with crisp hop bitterness.

On the pour it is one of the best looking IPA's I've seen. A perfectly clear and crisp golden orange, with a well developed frothy head (which was actually better than what is pictured, as I snapped that a couple minutes late). The aroma is pretty good, reminding me much of the Ballast Point Big Eye IPA, with some piney and floral character from the hops, but also a distinctive sweet aroma. The hops come across to me as earthy, leafy, and piney. By the back of the tongue you get a lot of slick malt sweetness, almost reminiscent of a double IPA. The carbonation in the bottle is very fine (seems like smaller bubbles than usual), creating a pretty smooth and un-harsh type of mouthfeel. In the top tier of better IPA's I've had, earning it a 4.4 on BA.

Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean

Many of us are probably familiar with Stone's Smoked Porter, and judging by it's acceptance rate on BA we all find it very nice. You can find this vanilla bean enhanced version on tap in the Stone Company Store for growler fills occasionally, which I was lucky enough to do this past Sunday while I was down there for brunch with the family. Four days later I opened it up to celebrate the first day of the college football season, and it instantly became one of my favorite porters.

I don't pick up any smoke from this, but I do get a lot of chocolate, vanilla, and caramel. It is a very sweet tasting porter and has a lot going for it by keeping the vanilla to a perfect minimum. It's not overpowering but definitely enough to deliver a vanilla flavored beer. A must try if you see it around the Stone World Bistro & Gardens.

First Annual Lost Abbey Barrel Tasting Party Wrap-Up

Let me start by saying that this event was worth every penny of the $50 admission and then some. The evening consisted of at least 13 different beers to sample, so I'll take you through the progression, the few mental tasting notes I can remember, and some of the awesome twists that Tomme threw in.

We arrived right at 6pm, and from about that time to around 6:30 they filed everyone in. The crowd was just over 100 people. As we walked through the door to sign the guestbook they gave us two sheets. One was a pre-ordering form of all the barrel aged beers we would try that night, and the other was a sheet with two tickets attached- this being the first twist. We were to take this sheet with the tickets to their bottling machine and we would be bottling our own bottle of Veritas, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale with sour cherries added. On our way to stand in line for the bottling there were glasses of Devotion being poured at the bar to have while we waited. Along the path of this bottling line were barrels set up with cheeses, crackers, grapes, and other vegetables. As we kept waiting in line (the wait was pleasant, no complaints here) we could get refills of Devotion, or the many bottles of Avant Garde or Red Barn that they were opening. After about a half hour since entering (and a few Devotions, Avant Gardes, and Red Barns) we got to the bottling line and we bottled our own Veritas in a 750mL corked and caged bottle. Because the labels were not ready at the time of this event we kept half the ticket to go claim our bottle later. Thus concludes the pre-tasting part of the event.

The next part of the evening consisted of tasting 5 different beers, but with a twist. We would sample not only the barrel aged version of each beer, but also either its base or its non-barrel aged version- meaning 10 different beers from this point on. First up were Lost and Found and Amazing Grace- the barrel aged version of Lost and Found. We drank this while Tomme gave a very nice short lecture on the barrels and the types of oak, and also thanked us for "dropping $50 on flat beer," which got a chuckle out of everyone. To address the flat beer thing, yes, all the barrel aged samples were flat or near flat because they had to fill decanters with the beer before-hand in order to serve everyone. Nobody was complaining. The Amazing Grace had a big red wine character to it, and that's really all I can remember for that one. At about this time they were also cranking out different styles of pizza breads, which I had two of.

The next beers to try were the Red Poppy Ale and its base Dawn Patrol Dark, a brown ale. The Red Poppy has the addition of sour cherries and is aged in French oak for one year. Essentially this is a sour cherry beer. This was my favorite beer of the evening, and would be a great digestif or pairing to a dessert. You immediately get a rush of puckering sour cherries but the finish is sweet cherry juice. I reserved the max amount of bottles I could (two 375mL bottles) so I can have this again. As for the Dawn Patrol Dark, it's a mild, sessionable brown ale.

Next on the list was Cuvee de Tomme. I can't remember if we tried a new and aged version of this, or if it was two different style barrels. I'm pretty sure it was an aged and young version though, but I can't remember a whole lot of the qualities because it is such a complex beer that I would have a very tough time trying to describe in a 4 oz. sample. I do remember it had a definite wine character to it. Tomme was up giving another lecture (he did for each beer basically, but I missed this one because we were standing by the food and the part of the brewery where there was air flow).

After everyone was poured Older Viscosity Tomme gave a short slideshow presentation on barrel aging. He talked about how certain breweries like New Belgium, Cantillon, and Boon use barrel aging, as well as some other small details and neat facts about barrels. I believe everyone was poured Old Viscosity as well before his slideshow but I missed it (again standing by the airflow and talking to Molly who let us grace her blog) and being that I was driving home I could live without it. Older Viscosity though was not what I expected at all. I expected something deeply roasted and boozy, but this came out tasting very tangy with dark chocolate malt and a bit of booze as well, of course. Dessert was also served at this time, and consisted of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate and like a caramelized brown sugar type of sauce along with something similar to a churro.

As the evening was about to conclude, Tomme stood atop the bar and gave thanks to some of the volunteers and his coworkers, and led a "Happy Birthday" rendition for a customer whose birthday it happened to be. After that two types of The Angels Share were poured. One was pre-barrel aged and the other was barrel aged. The pre-barrel aged was a beautiful beer. Lots of residual sugars making it sweet but there was also a pronounced bitterness to it. The barrel aged version was potent, volatile, explosive.... as Ron Burgundy would say, it stings the nostrils. Yeah it surely had a huge Brandy character to it, and would be my personal definition of a "sipping" beer.

Overall it was a really great night. If I had known beforehand I would have gotten a hotel room, but with the 4 hour length and figuring we consumed maybe 45-50 oz of beer (albeit very strong beer) it actually didn't hit any of us too hard. A bit of relaxing in the parking lot and hanging out in town for a few extra minutes enabled us to be perfect for the hour drive home. If one thing is clear at this point in time, Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey is doing some amazing and innovative stuff down there in San Marcos.

Founders Black Rye

I went out to a liquor store (that I've talked about many times) by home here that miraculously carries Founders Black Rye and Founders Red Rye, after listening to the guys at Craft Beer Radio give high marks to the Black Rye. Founders Black Rye is a "dry hopped dark ale made with rye" at 6.8% ABV and 64 IBU's released in the winter. The beer is dark brown, just barely able to see through when held against light. It looks like a porter, and for that matter smells and tastes a lot like a porter. Roasted and chocolate malt form the first rush while the taste fizzles out with some roasted bitterness that turns into chocolate in the aftertaste. This bottle might be a bit old so the hop character could be diminished, but I still can pick up a bit of floral or perfumey hops that are hiding way behind the scenes. I'm actually still not sure what rye is suppose to taste like in beers. I've had a Juniper Rye, which tasted completely of juniper berries. I've had the Terrapin Rye, in which I didn't detect anything out of the ordinary. The only beer I think I've been able to notice something different from the rye (though I can't explain what it is) is the Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye. I'll keep searching for that elusive rye character, but for now this Founders Black Rye is a nice dark porter style beer. I gave it a 3.9 on BA.

Top Rated Beers Invade the Summer of Beer!

In a trade with an exceptional fellow BeerAdvocate, I was able to acquire the #1, #2, and #9 top American ranked beers. Numero Uno being the Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout, number two being the Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, and number nine being the Founders Breakfast Stout.

After these are consumed there will only be four beers in the top 10 I will still be seeking out for the first time- Pliny the Younger (I've stupidly passed this one up a couple times at different bars), Masala Mama, The Abyss, and Dreadnaught IPA (though I can get Dreadnaught at a local store, I'm just not sure how fresh it is).

I plan to have a couple week span in November or December where I have these three newly acquired stouts as well as formal blog reviews of Stone Russian Imperial Stout, Alesmith Speedway Stout, Great Divide Yeti and Oak Aged Yeti. That should be a fun time...

Lost Abbey Barrel Tastsing

This Saturday the 25th will be the First Annual Lost Abbey Barrel Tasting. I got a couple tickets so I'm really excited. It's limited to 100 people and last I heard there are still some left, so if you are in the area and missed the news, you may want to jump on this.







The beers to be sampled are:

1. Amazing Grace
2. Red Poppy
3. Older Viscosity
4. The Angel's Share
5. Cuvee de Tomme

What's cool is you can also reserve bottles of these beers if you are there (most of them are set to be bottled next sometime in the Fall). The website also points out that guests will receive something that should be pretty special...

Guests will also receive a special release created by Messier Arthur just for the evening and have the opportunity to reserve their own allotment of each release they sample that evening.

Some people are skeptical of barrel aged beers, and they may be right in many cases (especially with how highly priced they tend to be). But for me, I would pay the same price if we were sampling these beers from kegs. It's just a fantastic lineup of beers. I will definitely have a wrap-up the day after.

Beer Review: Lost Abbey Lost and Found Abbey Ale

This Abbey ale pours a dark brown but on closer examination it really is a clear reddish brown. The head was airy and composed of very fine bubbles, almost reminiscent of the head you get with stouts served on nitro, but less creamy. The aroma has a bit of wine-like characteristic, not really because of alcohol but probably the raisins which lend a sweet fruity grape smell, along with your classic dark Belgian ale type of aroma. The taste is malty as you would expect (they use two row pale, wheat, English crystal, Special B, and chocolate malts) but it comes with a sweet dark fruitiness that shines early in the sip. Later it finishes with what I want to describe as a mildly bitter earthiness (is that the Belgian yeast strain or the German Magnum or Tettnang hops?). The first time I tried this beer was on tap at Port Brewing and it blew me away from the first sip. The bottle version is still very good, though I notice some differences between the draft and bottle, much like I experienced with Lost Abbey's Avant Garde (very nice on tap, didn't prefer it so much from the one bottle I had). Gave Lost and Found a 4.3 on BA.

Lucky Baldwin's Belgian Beer Fest II

Belgian Beer fest #2 at both Lucky Baldwin's locations starts this Saturday the 18th and runs through Sunday the 26th. I am going to head out there tonight and see if they put anything special on the night before like they did for the Lagunitas fest. If they don't I'll have to make a return trip on Sunday or Monday. I will report back later tonight or tomorrow.

UPDATE: So they did have their entire Belgian lineup on tap a night early. Score! Right? Well when we arrived it was pretty packed so we grabbed the last table outside. Unfortunately they didn't have a beer list printed up yet so after asking if they had the Chouffe Houblon on tap and being rejected she asked us if we would trust her to pick out a good choice. Sure why not? We both said we were in the mood for a Belgian Strong Dark Ale (my buddy added the requirement of something not sweet). She brings him an Urthel Dark and me a Maredsous 10 triple (uuuuuhhh?). Anyway, I adjusted my expectations and drank the Maredsous. Quite different than any other triple I've had (not that I've had more than a handful). This one was way more boozy, but it did have the spiciness and Belgian yeasty characteristic to be expected. The fumes on this were almost exactly reminiscent of champagne, that's how explosive it was. It wasn't as bad as I'm making it sound. I gave it a 3.75 on BA. Next up I ordered a Leffe Blonde (since they were out of Saison Dupont). Not a whole lot to say about this other than it was a pretty good light Belgian ale. Mainly sweet, a little fruity, just what you would probably expect from a Belgian Pale Ale.

Santa Rosa / Russian River Roundup

After the quick updates on Thursday we still had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to get through. On Friday we headed out for an early lunch to The Flavor Bistro because I heard they had a nice lineup of Moonlight beers. I wouldn't have even known about them if not for Jay at Hedonist Beer Jive who is a big fan of their beers, especially the Death & Taxes black lager (pictured left), so naturally that was the first beer we started with. It was a very nice roasty beer with a light mouthfeel (you could have probably guessed that on your own though). The advantage here is getting a lot of the taste you get in a stout without it being too full or thick. Next I tried the Twist of Fate Bitter Ale which was also a nice beer. Very floral in aroma and a biting hop bitterness. The body on this is a little towards the heavy-light or light-medium side which took me just a bit off guard as I was expecting it to be a little lighter and easier to quaff. On our way out the door the owner of The Flavor Bistro thanked us for coming and I thanked him for having such a great beer selection. After a minute of talking about the Moonlight beers he shared a secret which was to take a spoon with a very small coating of balsamic vinegar and dip it into the Brown Ale (which was in his opinion Moonlight's best beer). Apparently this gives it just the right feel in body and a little bit of something extra he couldn't really describe, that I guess makes the beer really great and interesting (and this wasn't his original idea, this was a tip from someone way at the top who he wanted to remain nameless ;-) After this nice experience at the Flavor Bistro we walked over to Russian River where I was able to get the Blind Pig IPA. I was actually so full at this point that it wasn't the best idea in the world, though when I had Blind Pig again on Sunday it was every bit as good as it was when I had it for the first time a couple months ago.

We decided to call it a half and head home for a nap. Later that evening we went back out to Russian River and then over to Third Street Aleworks. We ordered the sampler which consists of a 4 oz. glass of every beer they have at that moment, in our case being 12. Our favorites to note were the Stonefly Oatmeal Stout, Bodega Head IPA, Annadel Pale Ale on cask, and Stepchild Red. Later that night when our friends Loren and Rene arrived from their drive we went back out to Russian River to have a few beers. Loren ordered a Lap Dance Pale Ale which looked like it contained something that kinda looked like a nice flemmy loogie to us, though I'm not saying that's what it was.

We got home at a decent time and went to bed as we had to leave for our white water rafting trip on the Cache River by 6:30 am. The rafting trip was great, though we didn't take any beer cause we didn't prepare well enough, plus I don't really like drinking craft beer out of bottles anyway (I'd just assume drink a swill from a can). Sunday when we got back to the hotel after 2 days of rafting we went out one last time to Russian River. We put together a case of beer to take home (5 Toronado 20th Anniversaries, 5 Sanctifications, 2 Redemptions) plus some shirts and glassware (I love that Blind Pig jar). Interestingly, the woman who was behind the bar serving us our beers we found out was a former manager at Father's Office in Santa Monica, just before Christina Perozzi took over, so it was kinda nice to meet someone from our area.

In the end it was a fantastic trip, and Santa Rosa is a pretty cool town. I'll be looking forward to the day when I go back.

Another Quick Update From Russain River

Got back to the pub last night after a really nice nap and ordered up the Toronado 20th Anniversary Ale (pictured right along with my buddy "the other Steve" aka Milty). If you like Supplication, the pinot nior barrel aged brown ale with sour cherries, you will love this beer. It had a little more body and a bit less acidity but still plenty of tart grapes to satisfy the sour beer lovers. I really enjoyed it a lot.

After that I tried Redemption, a really nice light Belgian pale ale. Light in aroma and light in taste and light in alcohol. Probably doesn't sound that great for many people but it really is a nice beer to drink. A bit of belgian yeast earthiness along with a light fruitiness and light creamy mouthfeel.

Lastly I tried Bravo, a beer made with 100% Bravo hops. It's listed as an American IPA on BA I think, but they had it listed on their chalkboard under Belgians, and it definitely did have a belgian background to it. The hops take front stage and those Bravo hops sure are tasty. They were more citrusy, not too dry, in fact pretty juicy, and fruity. Again, this was also a very good beer.

Day 1 in Santa Rosa was quite nice. We'll see what happens today.

Update from Russain River

After only 3 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours, we made it to Russian River and got fresh beer straight from the source. I started off with a Lap Dance Pale Ale, one of the best pale ale's I've had. This beer bursts with piny hops, and a nice clean bitterness that seems more than the 30 IBU's they report. Then went with a Pliny the Elder just cause it's a great beer and I wanted it at its freshest. Again, great stuff. Finished it with a Perdition which I've had before but probably liked it more the first time I had it (my buds were probly fried from the Elder), though it's still a very very good beer. Now it's time to take a nap and get back to the pub around 6pm so I can sample the Toronado 20th Anniversary Ale, and Redemption, both of which they aren't tapping until 6pm. Pictured is the Sampler my friend got.

Deaparting for Santa Rosa

Me and my buddy Milty (aka the other Steve) head out tonight at 1:25 am from Union Station in Los Angeles. We are doing the entire trip by public transportation thanks to him having a bunch of money left over from work vouchers. We depart via bus from LA to Bakersfield and then catch the Amtrak around 5:00 am and arrive in Martinez, CA around 10:30 am Thursday morning. The next bus we catch then drops us off in front of our hotel in Santa Rosa around noon. We are about 0.6 miles from the Russian River brewpub and that's where we plan on spending most of our time on Thursday and Friday before we head up north a bit to do a day and a half of rafting. I'm glad someone mentioned that there was going to be a Toronado 20th anniversary party at the Russian River pub on Thursday night. I'm really excited to get a taste of the Toronado 20th Anniversary Ale that Vinnie made specifically for this anniversary occasion. Might be able to check in while I'm up there, but otherwise I'll have a roundup on Tuesday.