Dock of the Bay: Long Beach, CA

 Stopping in for a few pints at the Belmont Brewing Company. 

You gotta love this place if only for it's ocean side location.  It provides a nice view while sucking down beers.  

It's a little more spendy then some places, but not prohibitively so.  One can still stop in for some decent eats and a couple of beers and not be squinting at the bill hoping to the gods that total is really a phone number.

That being said, nothing all that staggeringly exiting in the beer department.  Not bad, not by any means, but nothing that really sets it apart... except for the view.

And onto said beer:

Strawberry Blonde: As anticipated, this fruit beer had a pretty heavy strawberry aroma.  The beer itself is quite sweet and the strawberry flavor is very pronounced. Basically the proverbial 'beer for people who don't like beer'.  But for what it is, not bad.

Pale ale: Pretty heavy citrus hop aroma.  It is very heavy on the hops without a lot if malt to back it up so it at first taste it's more like a lighter IPA then a pale. 

Marathon Blonde: No aroma that I could detect.  Light, sweet... light ... ... that's about it. I could detect some faint fruity flavors in there but otherwise not much complexity to speak of.

Top Sail: Nice, warm toasted aroma.  Slight roasted grain character with just a touch of bitterness in the back for a simple but rather nice amber ale.

Long Beach Crude:  No real aroma to speak of again.  Full bodied unsweetened chocolate.  With a slight herbal licorice quality.   Dry finish.  Very nice dry stout 

Just for the Helg of it IPA:  This IPA is brewed with a rather novel hop from Western Australia known as the Helga hops.  The aroma seems pretty familiar, citrusy, slightly spicy and floral.  In the flavor, the hop character is tempered nicely so there a ton of flavor without a lot of bitter.  Drinkable but pack full of citrusy floral flavor.  One of the better IPA's I have had for the sheer amount of hop flavor they managed to pack in while still making it palatable.

Left Coast Redemption: Long Beach, CA

I first came into contact with Beachwood Brewing company here in Nebraska, strangely enough.  This Southern California brew pub was one of the few to brave the Great Planes and bring a couple of pints up.

And frankly, their appearance didn't make the best of impressions suffice to say, their pale ale... meh.

I am now convinced that whatever hell-brew they schlepped up to Nebraska was something they must save for out-of-towners because, not only did I not see this rather unexciting pale on their menu, but the beers they had on tap were much better.  Nothing that will make the beer acolyte rethink everything they know about hops and barley, but very good none-the less.

The cool thing about this place is the fact that this is a place where the local beer geeks gather.  To illustrate this point, there was one moment where the bartender discretely pulled a small bottle from behind the bar and passed it to a group of guys at the other end of the bar.  They all gasped and stared in a kind of reverence one only normally runs into in a religious setting.  I asked about the bottles and the bartender said, "Goose Island is coming out with a new line of sour beers.  There was only two available and I got both of them."

Yeah... it's that kind of place.

And speaking of beer:

Melrose IPA: Loved the floral citrus aroma on this beer.  This beer packs a lot of bitterness, but it's one of those beers that's got enough citrus and hops from the hops to really make this beer enjoyable.  It's a hop bomb, no doubt about it, but in that pleasant way.

James Brown Ale:  This brown ale has a deceiving coffee mocha aroma on it.   I say deceiving because it's got some serious hops for the style.  I pick up a heavy amount of herbal earthy hop character underneath a roasted malt back.   It's different but not terribly appealing to me personally.

Utter Love Stout: Nice big roasted aroma on this milk stout.  The flavor contains big bodied, sweet  coffee mocha notes. It makes for a wonderful winter beer in a part if the country that doesn't really have any winter to speak of. 

Hops of Brixton: A familiar floral citrus aroma on this ESB.  It has an interesting blend of citrus bitter hops with a kind of fruity malt background.  It's a remarkably good balance and leads to a wonderfully bitter drinkable ale.

Oat monster:  A lot of sharp roasted aroma with maybe a hit of licorice.  The flavor is very smooth, full bodied yet fairly dry with a bit of an herbal floral finish.

Hop Ninja: Okay, this double IPA frankly scared me a little. Their IPA had a massive dose of IBU's but they managed to get away with it.  But with a double?  The urge to go completely overboard was just too great.  They would end up with hop bomb that obliterate any taste sensations I had left.  The aroma is pure cascade hops.  It was like putting my face in a hop bag.  The taster wasn't bad but it tasted like cascade hops with some sugar added.  It was pretty good but I don't think I could finish an entire pint.

Ryeco Suave:  Belgian with a spicy clove and fruity esters aroma.  The flavor is mild, smooth and wonderful.  There are some spicy qualities with the banana and tropical fruit.  Pleasant beer all around.

I've got one more dispatch from Southern California before I leave this area of the country.  Until then, cheers!

Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 3

Well folks, it that's time of the day.  It's the time in which where, after a day full of heavy drinking, people start getting touchy feely.  It's the time of day where it is not unusual to see two men walking arm in arm from tent to tent.  In the distance you can hear slurs of, "I love you man..."  So let's get through this before things get awkward.

 Plowshare Brewing, Rumbleseat Rhubarb Beer:  The gentleman running the tap poured me a glass and said, "You'll like this.  It's got the same sweet tart qualities as rhubarb."  That was a really accurate description.  The rhubarb is the most prominent flavor, but it's given a little sweetness from the malt.

Beach Wood, Pale Ale: One more out of towner from California and, to be honest, kind of a so-so representative.  Citrus hops on the nose, light caramel flavor with citrus hops... pretty much the quintessential pale ale.  Not bad but nothing special.

Confluence Brewing Company, Farmer Jon Multi Grain Ale: A Des Moines brewer proving that multi-grain isn't just for bread that helps you poop.  This is an ale brewed with wheat, barley, rye and oats.  That being said, this is a lighter ale there's not a lot of added quality to it.  It's a refreshing light beer with a bit of extra body.

Funkwerks, Tropic King: Belgian ale from Fort Collins.  Tones of fruity esters, banana, tropical fruit and a hint of pepper spice.  Comes out with a banana nut aroma.

Nectar Ales, IPA: A kind of Belgian, IPA cross from California.  I picked up some citrus aroma combined with some of those fruity esters on the nose.  The fruity flavors are very pronounced but there is a very distinct hop bit that comes on slowly but really lingers.

Schlafly, Pumpkin Ale: I finished the festival with, appropriately enough given the current season, a pumpkin ale.  This St. Louis ale comes out with a nose-full of pumpkin spice.  This is one of those pumpkin pies in a glass that some people absolutely cannot stand.  I quite liked it, though... although by this time, I doubt there was much I wouldn't like.

And that's the Great Nebraska Beer Fest.  I hope you enjoyed this whirlwind tour of what the Midwest has to offer.  We're back to the cross-country bar hopping next week.

Cheers!

The Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 1

It is my opinion that, cities like Milwaukee and Chicago notwithstanding, the Midwest was late to the microbrew revolution.

It's the fifth year of the Great Nebraska Beer Fest, my first year attending and proof that they are learning fast, boy.

The great thing about the Great Nebraska Beer Fest (hereafter known as the GNBF because I am freaking lazy, deal with it) is that they bring the Midwest beer out in force.  Besides the major cities in the area, the hinterlands of Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska are well represented.  Some of big breweries from elsewhere have a presence as well, but they are a minority.

It is a celebration of Midwest Brewing.

The other cool thing was the size.  I've been to beer fests in  Idaho and Oregon and they very much bring the crowds.  This means, however that one gets a beer and immediately jumps into the line again for the next one.  By the time they get to the front of the line, it will be time for another beer.

Here, this is not the case.  It's a smaller event then I've been to in the past, but there are more then enough breweries bringing strange and unusual beers to make it interesting and there are rarely any lines whatsoever.

The location has something to be desired.  I have no knowledge of what went into the process of finding a venue for the GNBF, but a strip mall parking lot?  For one it was one of the hottest weekends of the year in Nebraska that weekend and there was probably three square feet of shade, each crowded with pale drunks trying to keep from catching on fire in the direct sunlight.  The blacktop doesn't help.

Anyway, on to the avalanche of beers.

Nebraska Brewing Company, Fathead: A new selection from a brewery I've covered in a previous post.  Very new, actually.  Truth be told, it's not even available for another month, but this is a special occasion.  It has a nutty, dark fruit and red wine aroma.  I picked up licorice, vanilla, roasted nut and a surprising dash of bitter hops.  It reminds me of a bitter scotch ale.  The flavor combination was interesting, but they clashed a bit.

Big Wood Brewing, Morning Wood: Coffee stout, a beer style for those mornings when a drunken haze is the best way to approach a day.  It has a heavy sweet mocha, espresso aroma, but those qualities diminish slightly in the flavor.  It was lighter and watery.  Good but lacking some of the body I was hoping for, I think.

Big Wood Brewing, Bark Bite IPA: This, appropriately, had a woody, pine aroma with a hint of honey.  It was quite sweet and malty at first, and it helped temper the herbal pine hops that followed soon after.

Blue Blood Brewing, Blue Blood IPA: This is a brewery that I just recently became aware of, I found a couple of their brews at the supermarket and included them in the last bottle beer tour.  The aroma carried the promise of citrusy hops.  A promise that was kept, although not to the intensity I expected.  Like the Morning Wood, the flavor just wasn't there, especially for an IPA.  In that heat, it was a welcome and refreshing beer, but lacked something for the style.

Free State Brewing, Ad Astra: Though I had never had a chance to sample their beer until now, I've always had a soft spot for Free State Brewing.  Kansas is a state that gave up prohibition very, very grudgingly... which is strange because you'd thing people would be in favor of anything that makes the state more livable.  Anyway, until 1989, brewing was still illegal in Kansas.  Just to emphasise what we are dealing with, there was a time that Kansas even outlawed any liquor on aircraft crossing Kansas' airspace.  (So next time your flying over Kansas, feel free to raise your drink and a middle finger) When the law was finally repealed, Free State became the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years.

Anyway, history lesson over.  Beer!  The Ad Astra has a very light aroma.  The flavor is nutty, fruity and contains hints of red wine.  Very nice, sweet, malty amber ale.

Free State Brewing, Storm Chaser: Seasonal offering from Free State.  Citrus hop aroma that pretty much follows in it's entirety to the flavor.  The hops are enough to produce a back-of-the-throat bitterness, but there's enough flavor that I didn't find it overpowering.

CIB: Yola: Here's the best description I can offer for CIB Brewing.  Somebody has gone out and started doing legally what Grandpa had been doing in the barn for years.  CIB specializes in 'high alcohol farmhouse ales', specifically beers fermented with wild yeast and bacteria.  That makes CIB the place to go for sour beers, a style so obscure that only Portland or a pack of lunatics in the wilds of Iowa could possible pull it of.   The Yola Artisnal Ale starts off with a fruity honey aroma.  The first thing I noticed on the flavor was a very sour citrus that was followed by some nutty dark fruit notes.  It was one of those beers that took me quite a while to decide whether I liked it or not.

CIB: Cherry: There was some considerable plum and cherry sweetness on the aroma here.  The flavor had much more sour cherry along with some very complex earthy flavors.  It was quite nice, but I don't know if I would drink a lot of it although the complexity of the flavor would have me reaching for another glass.

Left Coast Brewing: Voodoo: One of the few breweries from outside the neighboring states.   This had a roasted coffee aroma.  The flavor has a lot of that coffee along with some dark roasted grain.  There was a heavy dose of herbal hops that showed up and kinda clashed with the rest of the flavor.  I kinda enjoyed this beer right up to that point.

That's the end of part one.  More goodness from the Midwest to follow in the coming weeks.  Cheers until then.

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.

Tengo Gatos in Mis Pantalones: San Jose, California

There was absolutely no reason for that title at all... I mean none.  I mean, other then the fact that the brewery I am talking about this week is called Los Gatos, but even that isn't an excuse.  A very real part of me that never matured past the age of about six demanded I commit that phrase to print.

Anyway, yes, this week it's Los Gatos Brewing Company in San Jose.

I wanted to talk about this place last week, but on the day I went to slip inside for a pint or two I found out that the bar was closed due to a company party... the entire bar.  That was probably a bad sign.

When I stopped by again, I was rather disappointed by their selection.  They only had four beers on tap, and I only had the urge to try three of them.  What can I say?  I doubt that this brewery, of all breweries is going to redefine the pilsner style for me.

Also there was the price.  This bar, she be pricy.  That, in and of itself is not unusual in the world of craft brewing; you get what you pay for after-all.  The beer here was good, but not that special and the food was sub-par for the price.

All in all, this is a place where people with big-important downtown jobs go after work to talk about how important their jobs are.  Not really my environ.

DunkleWeisen

Cats Meow Continental Ale: The term 'continental ale' was new to me as well.  The bartender gave me a long description of the style that basically boiled down to this:  The brewer got tired of calling it an octoberfest, so he calls it a 'continental ale.'
Okay to be fair, it's kind of an amber crossed with a pale.  The aroma was grassy and the flavor was dominated by a grassy, pine hop profile.  The beer finished very bitter.

DunkleWeisen:  I have notice that I have a love-hate relationship with this style.  Well, maybe not love-hate, per se.  It's more like a love-...meh, relationship. The aroma was wonderful, like a chocolate covered bananna.  The flavor is a bit of a let down as it lacks some of the intensity of the aroma.  But it does have a nice malty taste with just a hint of clove spice.

Wild Bay

Wild Bay Mild Ale:  This beer was available on tap or cask-conditioned, so I went with the latter.  It came out with a toasted, caramel aroma.  It was malty off the top with some woody oak or hickory flavors combined with a bit of leather.  It finished with a bite of bitter hops.






So, meh not really my top ten.  But lest this post come across as overly negative; one thing I did like was the men's bathroom door.  So... you know.  That's something.  Cheers!

Astride Beer Nation

Today's post is one of those where I take a bunch of random beers I've sampled in my travels and pack them into one post.  In this case, it is beer from literally all over the country.  There a some beers from Maine to California... and New York and Utah and Louisiana.  What I'm trying to say is I've got six random beers from five random states.

All five were from a couple of beer bars stuck here and there.  First, Lager's Ale House in New Orleans, which I have already spoken of.  The other was The Brit in San Jose.

A few words about that bar, overall it was a lot of fun.  The staff there was just fun.  Besides keeping the beer flowing they would hang around and bullshit, which was kind of cool given it was slow there.  They had a free beer tasting on the night I was there and a strange act where a guy drug his guitar onto the stage and invited patrons to sing karaoke-style while he played.  Ironically, less irritating then actual karaoke.  I think the thought of playing with actual musical accompaniment keeps the more tone-deaf away.

Anyway, beer!

Brooklyn Brewing Company, Brown Ale:  This beer has a malty caramel coffee aroma.  The flavors start off sweet with some light dark cherry flavors.  It finishes moderately dry with slightly bitter black coffee.

Abita Brewing, Raspberry Wheat: Pretty much as advertised, a very sweet, fruity beer.  That's about as simple as it gets.  This is the type of beer people talk about when they say, "I don't like fruit beer."

Firestone DBA

Firestone Walker Brewing, Firestone DBA (Double Barrel Ale):  This English bitter has really no aroma to speak of.  Flavor has just a hint of fruit sweetness before spicy, lemony hops dominate the flavor.  On the hoppier side of a session beer, but still a good choice to pour back a few.

Allahash White Ale: Tons of clove and banana in the aroma of this wheat beer.  I picked up a similar profile in the flavor with maybe a little bit of cider flavor added.  Finishes with floral hops.

Hermitage Hoptopia

Hermitage Brewery, Hoptopia IPA: Local selection while I was on the West Coast.  I got citrus and a hint of caramel on the aroma.   I got a hint of caramel and maybe peach off the top just before it was plowed the hell down by citrus hops and a whole lot of heavy bitter herbal, back of the throat flavor that was going to be there for a while.

Unita Brewing Company, Hop Notch:  Just a little bit of floral citrus aroma.  The flavor was a slightly different combination of hops then normal.  I got lots of light grassy flavors off the top followed by intense pine, medicinal flavors shortly after.  Not terribly good, but, like I said, different.

Back to more of the regular format next week for another report from San Jose.

Cheers!

Lala Land: Los Angeles California

Down in sunny Southern California which is cloudy and cold just to really annoy me. I've got a lot of friends in this area.  When I sat down and thought about it, I travel so much that I have more friends in this city then in the one I call home.  Anyway, knowing me like they do they took me out to a local brewery and didn't get annoyed when I started tapping out notes about the beer I was drinking mid-conversation.

 Redondo Beach Brewing Company is located in a marketplace district outside the tourist heavy spots making it a nice place to go and hide for a minute.  It's more or less your standard brewpub;  good eats, a small but fairly distinguished selection of beer on tap, all in all a fun place.   They had six beers on tap while I was there and got a sample of each.

Rat Beach Red: I suspect there might be a story behind the name of this beer, but bugger if anyone seems to know.  It has a very light aroma.   The flavor packs a lot of citrus and clove with a slightly roasted background.  Fairly nice lighter session beer.

Pale Ale: This became one of my favorites.  It has a fairly intense citrus and floral aroma.  Northwest citrus hops dominate the flavor, but do so without packing a huge load of back-of-the-throat bitterness.  It's smooth, easily drinkable and just slightly sweet enhancing the floral citrus flavors of the hops.

Blueberry Wheat:  The sample of this selection came out with about five or six little blueberries in the glass, but I'm not completely convinced they actually brew with blueberries at all.  No aroma and a light slightly sweet malty flavor.  There is some fruity flavors that might be blueberry, but it doesn't stand out at all.  It's just a very light wheat beer. 

Rodondo Beach Blonde:  Another very light ale.   The flavor is also just slightly sweet and malty but there's just not a lot to pick out.  Mostly likely a beer designed for the die-hard domestic fans.

Double IPA:  Heavy floral citrus aroma.   The flavor starts slightly sweet with a hint of light fruit before becoming dominated by bitter floral, citrus hops. The finish is very dry and bitter.

Double Dark IPA: I really really liked the aroma on this beer, it had lots of caramel, coffee and mocha in there.  The sweetness didn't show up in the flavor as much and was mostly  bitter coffee and unsweetened chocolate against some floral hops that lingered just in the background  It was kind of a strange combination but very effective overall.

Wandering around this state a little longer, back with reports from San Jose next week.
Cheers!

Pizza and Beer: Los Angeles, California

Pizza and Beer.

I'll say it again, Pizza and Beer.

If those words don't give you a slight tingly feeling, you might be reading the wrong blog.  It is the essence of food pairing.  Not only does one compliment the other, but they work together to create something that neither can accomplish together.

Oggies Special with a Scottish Ale.  Awesomeness achieved!

This place is a little different, the local chain Oggies is primarily known for their pizza, and rightly so.  It's pretty awesome.  But, with the rise of the microbrew revolution, they hit upon a way to separate themselves from other pizza chains in the area.  Most microbreweries focus on their beer and create a menu to compliment.

Oggies kind of flips that around.  The beer stands on it's own, don't get me wrong.  Although it's a pretty standard set of offerings.  There's an hefenweisen, a stout, an amber and, of course, two different IPAs.  I mean you gots to have IPA's especially on this coast.  Each is kind of what you would expect from the style, with one or two slight exceptions, so you're not going to run into a mind-blowing hops and barley related experience.

But remember food pairing.  It's a team effort here and the combined effort is pretty awesome.

California Gold Blonde  Starts with a light, lemony aroma.  Hint of citrusy hops off the top.  It's not the big floral, grapefruit flavor of cascade hops but something lighter with a stronger bitter flavor.  It finishes smooth and is a pretty good light session beer.

Duck Dive Hef:  See above with a fuller, creamier mouthfeel along with a slightly sweeter, spicy taste mixed in.  It really is eerily similar to the point of being almost interchangeable.

Paradise Pale Ale: As expected, it has a Northwest citrus hop aroma.  Cascade hops dominate the flavor profile, without being overpowering.  There are some malty flavors mixed in, but it's a pretty typical pale.

Oggies Tasters Flight

Torry Pines: The aroma is very light, slightly floral, but the flavor is totally different.  It starts out with some port wine and raisin flavors dancing in front of a massive pine and herbal hop background.  It pushes some serious IBU's and if not for the complexity up front, would be enough to knock you off the barstool. Even with the malty sweetness to balance it out, this is a big beer.  

Double Up IPA: This also presents with a very light hop aroma, but it's hiding something under there.  Did I say the other was a bit heavy?  Yeah, this is an atomic hop bomb.  The flavor hits the palate with the subtly and grace of a ballet-dancing elephant.  The flavor is nothing but an explosion of flowery, medicinal hops that run strait to the back of the throat.  As a fan of balanced IPAs, I'm going to pass on this one as it bears too much resemblance to chewing hops resin out of the brewpot.

Sunset Amber: A quick tip for fledgling beer tasters out there; save those massive IPA's for the end of the tasting.  On of those with a high hop bill will carpet bomb your pallet.  Seriously, I think I was still tasting hops when I left the bar.  That being said, I should follow my own advice sometime.  This amber starts with a light fruit aroma. The flavor is warm, hazelnut and malty.   There's decent hop bill with some significant bitterness in the back, but I'm not 100% sure that it wasn't partly because of the previous beer.

McGarveys Scottish Ale: Starts with a caramel and raisin aroma.  It's appropriately malty for the style with lots of caramel and roasted barley flavors with just a little bit of red wine in the back for added complexity.  

Black Magic Stout: This has a nice roasted aroma.  As a dry stout, it lacks the creamy, chocolate flavors of most stouts.  Instead it has lots of black liquorish, herbs medicinal flavors with a bone dry finish.  I'll give it points for it boldness and unique qualities, but its too bitter face inducing for a stout in my opinion.  Those that expect a creamy, sweet stout should probably avoid this one all together.

I've got one, maybe two more stops before the New Year.  Next week, I find myself in the hub city of Indianapolis once again.  Until then, cheers!

Flailing About like a Drunken Monkey: Dayton OH

This week found me in the wilds of Ohio.  Not even a place particularly interesting in Ohio, just kind of... well in Ohio.  I was close to Dayton which basically means I wasn't even in Dayton, but farther in the endless suburbs to the South.  Pickens is slim. 
We did manage to find a pretty cool taproom by the name of Chappy's Tap Room.   

Overall, it's a place where there is good beer and good burgers to be had.  If that is your thing, and you find yourself in that part of Ohio, then you owe it to yourself, you might even owe it to America to go there.
The terrorist win otherwise.  At least that's what I've heard.

While I was there I had sips and pints of whatever happened to catch my fancy.  There was a lot to choose from here, so this is going to jump around a bit.  From brewery to brewery, state to state, this is a sampling of some of the goodness going on around the country.

First, from Denver Colorado is the Great Divide IPA.  It had a sweet citrus aroma.  The beer was well balanced overall.  The citrus hops were mixed with a bit of pine and medicinal flavors.  Overall a very good IPA for those that like the hops but also like enough malt to stand up to them in a fight.

Next, from Grand Rapids Michigan, is Founder Brewery's Dirty Bastard.  This runs screaming to the opposite side of the malt, hop spectrum.  The aroma is all chocolate and caramel.  It has a big creamy body with some sweet coffee and chocolate flavors with some subtle dark fruit flavors hidden somewhere in it's beefy folds.  It ends dry with a tiny hint of bitterness in the back of the throat.

From there it was a sample from an old friend in California.  Lagunitas brewing in Pentaluma is one of those breweries that has achieved almost legendary status from beer geeks.  At this taproom in Ohio they were still pouring their August seasonal beer, the Daytime IPA.  It's kind of billed as a low APV beer to drink during summer days without passing out in the bathtub before lunchtime.  It has a very lemony aroma almost to the point of being lemonade.  It doesn't pack that IPA punch to the palate that most do.  I suspect that it has enough hops to plant itself firmly in IPA territory, but the flavor is far from overpowering.  It is a very smooth, highly drinkable beer that seems perfect for it's intended purpose.  I could see myself drinking this all day although I couldn't because after a couple sips the guy across the table was already giving me that look that says, "Gimme my beer back you freak!"

Okay, it's back to Michigan, Kalamazoo (A city that exists purely so that people can say it's name.  Seriously that word is fun just to type) and Dark Horse brewing.  The word 'Dopplebock' evokes something primal in me.  There is something about that style that almost guarantees awesome is afoot.  When Dark Horse first made their dopplebock however, they weren't impressed.  It just seemed too... well... normal.

So they gave the middle finger to German Purity Laws and came up with the Perkulator Coffee Dopplebock.  The aroma and flavor are pretty self-explanatory, I feel.  It has a coffee with cream sensation all around with a slightly dry finish.

To finish up it's back Founders Brewing and their seasonal breakfast stout.  It's billed a the coffee lover's stout, but I didn't pick up the java bomb they were promising.  It might have been because of the Perkulator, I don't think mankind's palate is designed to handle that much bean after about 10am, but it just didn't have that big flavor.  It had the big body and a sharp roasted barley note with some bitter roasted coffee aromas, but it was basically just another stout.  A very, very good stout, but just a stout in the end.

That was all the flailing I am prepared to handle in one sitting.  Back to some more focused (or not) discussions later. 
Cheers!

The Coldest Winter: San Diego, CA

I'm down in San Diego this week. As a man who is used to spending the winter freezing my freaking balls right off, San Diego in December is kinda surreal. It is as if I just skipped winter all together and emerged in springtime. As I am sure my readers in the frigid northlands have absolutely no sympathy for me, I will move on.

Of course the pirmier brewery in San Diego is Stone Brewing. I thought hard about visiting, but I came down with a sudden case of not wanting to try and fight crowds on a Friday night in San Diego...itis. Its been going around. Besides, the West Coast is basically the micro brewery breeding grounds. I was talking to my client this afternoon. After the meeting I stated that I was going to find a place to relax. As if she knew exactly what I meant by that statement, she pointed me to a nearby microbrewery called Callahan's pub and grill.

Callahan's is a vaugly Irish themed sports bar that happens to brew its own beer.
I started off with the Monster Mash. As near as I could tell this was basically a porter. There was lots of caramel toffee and coffee aroma. Mildly sweet roasted flavor. Slightly bitter coffee flavors on the back. This was a pretty good one, and came just behind the nut brown, which I will talk about later.

Extra Pale Ale: Not expecially pale. Aroma is all northeast citrus hops.
I have to admit when the barman, Ted, said the name "Extra Pale Ale". and described it as "kinda like an IPA," I was scared. Was there a brewer out there who wussified the IPA? A man who sipped a hop bomb and said, "That won't do, there is far too much flavor!"
The answer is, no. This is just an IPA with vowel replacement identity disorder. It has a medium body that helps balance out the generous load of citrus hops. Kind of a middle-of-the-road IPA.

Nameless Nut Brown
This quickly became my favorite. True to form it has a very light roasted aroma. It feels like there is light fruit off the top, slightly toasted flavor, and just a hint of spice. Has a warming quality that would be great on a winter night... Not that anyone here would know.