Bottle Beer Tour #4: Beer, the Great and Powerful

I was down in California a couple weeks ago.  Sadly my free time was dominated by eating enough food and getting enough sleep so that I could be half-way functional for the job I was doing down there.  So now brewery trip.  I did, however bring a few old friends back with me.  So it's bottle beer tour time again, this time featuring some beers that, although I have had many times before, I have never written about and, quite frankly, I can't get them in the Midwest and I miss them.

Dogfish Head; Palo Santo Marron: Okay, so I didn't pick this one up in California.  But it was in the beer fridge and it was begging to be opened. 

Proving the commitment, drive and complete and utter insanity of the good people at Dogfish Head, the Palo Santo Marron is fermented in huge 10,000 gallon fermenters crafted out of a rare South-American wood.  There's commitment and then... well then there's pure, blind obsession.

The aroma has a light caramel, vanilla flavor.  The beer is fruity with hints of spice, vanilla and maybe a little smoke and herbs on the back.




Lanunitas Brewing; IPA: Heavy pine and citrus aroma.  Flavor has lots of the same qualities, but they hit and they are overtaken for a minute by some more malty flavors.  The hops do end the palate leaving a dry herbal taste.  The flavors are smooth enough that, although this is a very dry, hoppy IPA, it's one of the more approachable of it's type.








Widmer Brothers; Hefeweizen: Talk about an old friend.  This was my first exposure to wheat beer and was probably one of the first, if not the first, microbrews I ever had.  The aroma is citrusy and almost like a sweet white wine.  Flavor is light and sweet with some light peach fruit and grassy notes.  The flavor turns slightly herbal and lemony towards the end of the palate.  Was and will remain almost the quintessential summer beer for me.

Stone Brewery; Levitation Ale: Stone is known, first and foremost as the brewer of Arrogant Bastard, a beer that... well that's a pretty accurate description.  It's a big beer with flavors about as subtle as an axe to the head.  For this, they were going for more of a session beer.  The aroma is lemony and herbal.   Herbal, citrus hops hit right off the top and stay.  They have some light malty support right off the top, but it quickly disappears leaving the bitter, hoppy flavors to carry the show.  It's a good beer, but as far as a session ale, I prefer something a little more subtle.  This is too similar to an IPA for a good sit-down-kick-back-have-a-pint, beer.