Halloween Night

Starting off with a Bear Republic Racer 5. Heading to Lucky Baldwin's Delirium Cafe in Sierra Madre for the night.













Pliny the Elder and an '06 Double Bastard in the background at Lucky B's


Blind Pig at Lucky B's


Loren and his Russian River Salvation


Lucky Baldwin's Delirium Cafe, Sierra Madre, CA

Some Quick Tidbits on Celebration, Redemption, and Supplication

This is the newest release of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (2008). It's a little different than years past. For instance the color. Usually it is perfectly clear. This batch seems to have some haze in it, and seems more orangish brown than the orangish-red of the past. The taste still delivers a lot of that piney goodness, although I detected quite a bit of citrus coming from this, something I've never noticed in Celebration before. Really has that "juicy" feel to it this year.


I haven't tasted Russian River Redemption since the very first time I had it over a year ago at the brewery. I liked it quite a bit then and those feelings were reaffirmed again. This is a very light, tasty Belgian... nicely flavored with a light fruitiness, and only a very tiny amount of the Belgian yeast earthy characterstic coming through... it's actually a fairly clean beer.


Sour beers are good.

Lucky Balwins/Stone 12th Anniversary Party Menu

Here is the actual tap list, as of this last Sunday afternoon at least (10/26), at the Sierra Madre location. Click on it, as usual, for a larger, clearer picture.

Afternoon at Lucky Baldwin's 12th Anniversary

They had Sierra Nevada Chico Estate Harvest on tap which was excellent. Then decided to close it out with an old favorite- Blind Pig. My beer drinking brother ordered a Stone 10th Anniversary double IPA.


Russian River Blind Pig IPA


Stone 10th Anniversary IPA - strange beer after 2+ years of aging...

Lucky Baldiwns + Stone 12th Anniversary Celebration

Staring this past Saturday, Lucky Baldiwn's, located in Pasadena and Sierra Madre, CA will be holding a 2 week 12th anniversary celebration at both pub locations. Coincidentally, it's also Stone's 12th anniversary so how appropriate is it that Lucky B's is putting on a ton of Stone beers? For past anniversary weeks they've put on an abundance of their Pasadena hometown local brewery Craftsman beers to celebrate the ocassion. It appears they'll still have a handful of Craftman beers on, and a lot of other stuff too.

Here is a partial list (from the Lucky Baldwin's newsletter) of what will be on tap:

• Stone 7^th Anniversary
• Stone 8^th Anniversary
• Stone 9^th Anniversary
• Stone 10^th Anniversary
• Stone 11^th Anniversary
• Stone 12^th Anniversary
• Stone Smoked Porter
• Stone Arrogant Bastard
• Stone Oak Arrogant Bastard
• Stone Double Bastard 2006
• Stone Russian Imperial Stout 2007
• Stone Cali Belgique IPA
• Stone India Pale Ale
• Stone Vertical Epic 08-08-08
• Stone Old Guardian
• Russian River Salvation
• Russian River Pliny the Elder
• Russian River Blind Pig
• Russian River IPA
• Sierra Nevada Anniversary
• Sierra Nevada Harvest
• Sierra Nevada Big Foot
• Alesmith Little Devil
• Alesmith Old Numbskull
• Lost Abbey Witches Wit
• Craftsman Baldwin 10
• Craftsman Edgar’s Ale
• Craftsman Honesty Ale
• Craftsman Cabernale
• Craftsman El Prieto

College Football Saturday at Home... A Long Day

11am: My game doesn't start until 7:15 pacific time tonight, so I have all day to kill and nothing to do. Just sitting around watching some of the early games this morning, went for something light- a Port Brewing Panzer Imperial Pilsner at only 9.5% ABV. Read about the story behind it here... My quick thoughts on it were that it was an OK beer, maybe I was expecting something more, or something that it wasn't suppose to be. Still, it's not like it was a drain pour or anything, and that 9.5% can kick your butt in the morning. I thought it would have a bit more of a snappy hoppiness to it like my favorite pilsners, but it was not to be.

Thinking about what my next choice will be...

4:30pm: Stone Veritcal Epic 08.08.08. I seem to be drinking this once a week. It's somewhat expensive at $6.99 so I don't know how much more my wallet can take. The interesting thing is, each bottle has tasted slightly different. The first one I tried had a really nice citrusy hop finish, the second one had a really big sweaty-like yeast presence, and this one seems to have a little more saison-like, and in addition has a unique bubblegum smell to it. I'm not sure this one will hold up nicely until 12.12.12 (although I think that can be predicted for a lot of the Vertical Epic beers). This ranks right up there with my favorite Stone beers... in fact, thinking about it, here would have to be my top 5 Stone choices-

1. Ruination IPA (somewhat sentimental choice)
   
2. Smoked Porter w/ vanilla bean
3. 08.08.08
4. IPA
5. Imperial Russian Stout

6:00pm: For dinner we smoked a pork butt which I decided to pair with my 2006 Alaskan Smoked Porter. This exact beer won a GOLD medal at the GABF in the "aged beer" category. Compared to fresher Alaskan Smoked Porter I didn't think it was as good. I think the smokiness comes out a lot better in the newer bottles. It was still pretty good though, and especially when it warms up a lot, the smokiness comes out big time.

TAPS Pumpkin Ale

That's all you get. A blurry picture. And I'm going to bed now. The beer was not bad. Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale was better.

More Holiday Beers - Troegs Mad Elf

This bottle was saved from their 2007 release. It looks like the 2008 Mad Elf is just hitting stores along the Mid-Atlantic. This robust 11% ABV ale brewed with honey and cherries can be classified as a Belgian Strong Dark Ale. It fits that mold pretty nicely. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Scaldis, another high octane Belgian dark.

It pours a reddish-brown color, kinda nice as it hits on that Christmas and/or cherry theme. This is a sweet smelling and sweet tasting beer. The cherries are pretty evident in the aroma after a couple minutes and there's a lot of sugar smell to this. The same kind of sugary smell I'll get in a Leffe Brown or a Scaldis. Belgian yeast earthiness and a sugary sweetness come through in the flavor along with its slick, but not syrup-like texture. It's actually pretty easy to drink overall. It doesn't get too cloying but it comes kinda close. The fruit characteristic give it enough of another dimension to keep it interesting, and drinkable.

I think it qualifies as a good seasonal/holiday brew. 4.2/5

Still Celebrating 2007

I rarely every advocate cellaring or withstanding from drinking an IPA for 12 months after purchase, but that's what I did with my last bottle of 2007 Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. As the 2008 batch has started to arrive on shelves I decided it's time to clean out the old stock, which was just one last bottle. This beer has been refrigerated constantly since I bought it last November.

The look never changes, it's a beautiful crystal clear orange with a red tint. I love that red tint. My picture doesn't do it full justice. Off white head builds up nicely into a finger's worth of froth and fades down leaving some good lacing. The smell- this doesn't smell like a year old beer. It smells bitter, which is a term I rarely use to describe a beer's aroma, but it also has this resinous pine smell. For a year-old refrigerated beer, it's got a good deal of freshness in it. The taste, pretty close to how I remember. A piny resin hits your tongue and coats it with a formidable bitterness. There's a substantial malt to this, but they keep the body it on the lighter side of medium, or maybe the heavier side of light. Where that malt comes though in the taste is hard to discern, because the pine overwhelms everything so much. There's a toastiness there though, mostly coming through in the finish.

Don't ask me how Sierra Nevada does it, but the fact that this thing holds up for a year almost perfectly, even in the fridge, is amazing to me. I've had other hoppy beers kept in a fridge that long that easily fade away. The 2008 stock should arrive around LA area stores within the next week.

Ommegang Ommegeddon With A Year Of Age On It

This bottle was from the first batch purchased in 2007. From Ommegang's website:

Ommegeddon is 8% ABV Belgian-style ale with a wild twist- a dose of Brettanomyces yeast and a blast of dry hopping. It’s a strong blonde ale with a sharp citrus flavor that, like the other Ommegang ales, has a dry finish. Its dryness and funkiness begat the name of Ommegeddon for the time when the forces of light and dark battle for world dominion. It’s time for you to pick your side.

Since this bottle is over a year old, aging may increase the Brettanomyces character but surely the dry hopping character will be gone. That makes for an interesting tug-of-war. It seems odd to add an ingredient (Brettanomyces) at bottling that takes quite a bit of time to develop and assert its character, while at the same time giving the beer a characteristic (dry hopping) that will fade relatively fast with cellaring.

Anyway, time to drink after a year I suppose. The aroma I get out of it at first is similar to a brut champagne. As far as funk expected from the Brett, not so much. There's a bit of a dirt character in there, probably accentuated by the dryness. Faint citric lemon-like in aroma too. In the taste the dryness is apparent right off the bat while flavors of faint lemon juice starts you off and finishes with a yeasty earthiness. Seems like there is a lingering tannic bitterness, similar to a beer that had spent some time on wood, though I don't think this one ever touched wood. Really dry overall.

Well, it started out as kind of a disappointment to me, I thought it'd be either more tart or more funky. It wasn't really either, in terms of my expectations. The beer did grow on me and I enjoyed the whole bottle, but would not enjoy it again at the price I obtained it at ($13 I think).

Not Getting Too Stoopid

So today I had the pleasure of having a beer that has probably been referred to by the most puns in regards to its name among beer lovers than any beer ever created (hence the title of this post). A year ago I ignorantly passed up this beer on tap when I saw it at a local pub during a week long Lagunitas fest, instead opting for their Sirius Cream Ale and 12th Anniversary Undercover Shutdown Ale (two good brews though!). That was probably my best chance without driving really far to get super-fresh Hop Stoopid. Since then I have seen it at stores but just haven't had the motivation to buy it, until I started hearing rants and raves about it from my friend Brian, the Baltimore Beer Guy. So while out at a store the other day I picked up a bottle which was refrigerated and looked forward to trying it.

Popped it open today and the smell was fairly disappointing. Sure there was enough hoppiness to get the sense it was a double IPA, but it wasn't the sort of hop blasting I was expecting. There was quite a bit of sweetness observable as well. The taste followed suit. Did it taste really old? No. Did it just taste like a pretty good double IPA- yes. Floral hoppiness and a moderate bitterness were wiped away with a big caramely sweet ending. I finished the whole 22oz bottle, which goes to show that I liked it enough, but there wasn't the "wow" factor that I was looking for based on what I've read about this beer. When I see it on tap again I will definitely order it again to confirm I had a somewhat aged bottle.

College Football Pairs Well With Stone

Starting it off this morning.