Again, it’s been too long folks. Adam and I are brewing homebrew and breaking in my new place. While the beer is going great, these are uncertain times. It calls for inner strength, exploration, and fucking great beer from Lagunitas. The brewery themselves call this beer “a malty, robust, jobless recovery ale”. Well Adam and I are all three of these when put together so we were ready to get down and get bottoms up. Oh and it’s ‘get retarded’ cheap. That was an awful description. Whatever.
Brewery Home: Petaluma, CA
Serving Style: Bomber into two pint glasses
Beer Style: American Brown WTF
Appearance: Dark amber red/brown with a sightly offwhite head. Lacing is strong and whispy, my glass is coated! Perfect clarity.
Aroma: Fragrant, with hints of almost berry (wort?! well we are brewing right now, dont listen to us), the hops are there but in the background? On more sips the hops become more and more apparent, they’re in there, lurking. Sweet malty overtones, dominated by caramel not roast. It makes no sense, almost like the name and the description on the bottle. Great!
Taste: My first sip was dominated by a wave of herbal American hops that subsided into well well rounded malts. The carbonation is light but on par for whatever style this is, the sip ends semisweet but not sticky; great for a brown. 64 IBUs? WUT? Best way to describe this beer is eyebrow raising. Adam: “it doesn’t make any sense”. Andy: “it’s fucking confusing and I like it.” Dangerously drinkable. Here is too the recovery…
ABV: 7.8%
Drink one or all?: 1 bomber should do you in.
Cost: $5/bomber
Overall: Adam: 16/20, Andy: 16/20. “Potent session beer.”
BUFF == Brewers United for Freedom of Flavor. The Brewers == Dogfishead, Victory and Stone. Whoa whoa whoa whoa. This is a heavy hitter prepared to body slam your tongue. The brewers dug deep into the spice cabinet and poured them in without shame or hesitation. You’ll thank them for bringing the ‘pain’.
Brewery Home: San Diego County, CA (Stone Brewing)
Serving Style: 12oz into Belgian beer glass
Beer Style: Saison
Appearance: A whispy white head rests atop a light straw gold body. The head falls gently back into the body with echoes of lacing around the glass.
Aroma: WHOA. HOLY SPICE THIS IS NICE. Not subtle. Brilliant aroma that rocks you with pepper, sage and herb. Some whiffs remind me of a spicy candied ginger and lemon?
Taste: Big, bold and beautifully refreshing. Haha! Weird, but the very first edge of a sip reminds me of a massive ginger beer I homebrewed a while back. Richly herbal and bright the flavor tickles my nose with an excellent balance of the spice rack. The back end settles down and leaves you with a surprisingly clean pepper-y kick of a saison (with a twist of belgian style hot-alcohol perhaps?) that you crave. Carbonation is maybe a little lower than I’d like, but doesn’t detract from anything. This is a dangerously, dangerously good summer beer.
ABV: 6.8%
Drink one or all?: None. Leave it all for me.
Cost: $3/bottle (12oz)
Overall: 19/20
The Bruery is a small, well respected brewery out of Cali that many of my fellow beer nerd friends have been talking up for a while. All of their beer is bottle conditioned and never pasteurized. Luckily, my go-to beer store recently expanded and started carrying some of their beers. This is likely the first of many from this – keyword – intriguing, brewery.
Brewery Home: Orange County, CA
Serving Style: 750ml into Belgian beer glass
Beer Style: Saison / Farmhouse ale
Appearance: Cloudy, dark orange or rustic gold. Fine bubbles rise quickly from the head and settle back into the body with a small amount of lacing.
Aroma: Yeah! Brett! Brettanomyces to be exact. The bright twang of bacterial fermentation hangs up there with bready rye, musty/sweaty aromas. There is a fair amount of spice balancing the yeast and bread notes; coriander? grains of paradise? It ends generally sweet (maybe with some citrus?!), hints of aged hops in the background. Enjoying swirling up my glass for the unique bouquet!
Taste: Intriguing; my first impression is that the flavor does not bring the same bright profile as found in the aroma. I can detect a mix of rye and Brett twang that melds with bready malts. The spices follow soon after but they are accompanied by a dull bitterness that can almost be perceived as metallic in some sips. The flavor has some phenolic qualities – hints of green apple and ginger-like flavors – that ebb to and fro on the pallet. Light alcohol burn, likely from the higher fermentation temperatures typical for the style. Medium mouthfeel.
ABV: 8.5% ABV
Drink one or all?: One got me all warm.
Cost: $12/750ml
Overall: +16/20. Intriguing but not exceptional. Look for more from this brewery.
Super Bowl? How about Super Brew? I’ve spent tonight enjoying many awesome beers and remembered I should share some of that flavor here. Here is another excellent brew from local brewers Two Brothers. Bottoms up!
Brewery Home: Warrenville, Illinois
Serving Style: Bomber into pint glass
Beer Style: American (coffee) porter
Appearance: Very dark brown that becomes almost opaque with a frothy, grabby light brown head. Medium to low carbonation.
Aroma: Sweet, sweet malts with what I think is German noble hops on the tail end. Any coffee notes are dispersed with roasted malts. The darker sweet character makes me think almost more of a brown than a porter. Unusual! Apparently the brew is based on their imperial baltic porter recipe; it’s pretty but I am searching for the coffee. I wish I could compare head to head.
Taste: Well rounded malty sweetness with tinges of malt and coffee roast that coat your tongue. Any hops are light and delicate, leaving a roasty barista-inspired beer. “Eyes open” indeed! The nose is deceptive, this is a coffee lovers coffee porter. The beans are prominent in the flavor profile, supported by seemingly-creamy-carbonation. It should be noted that any alcohol (its 9.2%?!) is tamed and mellowed by an excellent almost vanilla bean profile. My only issue with this brew – in this drinkers eyes, remember try and judge for yourself – is its very light mouthfeel given the style…but maybe I am totally wrong with this one. It is a pretty pretty beer.
ABV: 9.2%
Drink one or all?: One bomber. Slowly. Smile
Cost: $9?/bomber
Overall: 17/20. Artisan brewing.
Well, as some of here say: ITS A CELEBRATION BITCHES! I nabbed this one with a whole host of other holiday beers that you will soon see here to stay warm and enjoy during this chilly season. Oh and I know it has been a while, we are still here. Again a reminder that these days I spend most of my time here homebrewing. Stop on by.
Brewery Home: Chico, CA
Serving Style: Bomber into pint glass
Beer Style: American IPA (Holiday)
Appearance: Full fisted strong head with super glue lacing. Lots of proteins grabbin’ on to the side of the glass in this one. The foam itself is a light creamy yellow/gold. Body is faintly cloudy copper with what appears to be mid-to-high carbonation. Maybe I’m just really psyched for this but damn does this look like well crafted beer.
Aroma: Sharp and flowery hops are balanced out with an almost minty, malty tail. I definitely detect the slightest minty edge that may just be some piney hops bleeding over, but the overall composition is strong; mature and balanced.
Taste: Powerfully bitter, but not shocking. The hops are on center stage bringing their aromatic qualities straight to your tongue. It has a lightly dry finish with the same hop-resiny character as their pale ale, only more rounded by some crystal malty sweetness. Well…let me correct myself now after a few more sips. I am noticing my lips are a little smacky and I am tempted to get out my hydrometer and take a reading (its a device used by homebrewers to measure malt sugars left over in beer); this could be less dry than I though…still nice. Even though this is a holiday offering I don’t detect qualities that make it a uniquely holiday brew compared to the rest of their line. Even saying that though is a compliment, this is a great beer.
ABV: 6.8%
Drink one or all?: One bomber is a celebration.
Cost: $7/bomber
Overall: 17/20. Try it for yourself.
This was just into Binny’s and it was fortunately on sale! I figured its about time to celebrate the oncoming winter, and what better way then with a hopefully delicious seasonal brew!
Brewery Home: Brouwerij Het Anker, Belgium
Serving Style: Bomber into pilsner glasses
Beer Style:
Appearance: Deep deep brown. light brown creamy head. Adam went ahead and poured his like an ass and the head looks like a root beer float of seasoned goodness. Tiny little bubbles coming up very rapidly.
Aroma: Smells like citrus and spices. For the ABV and how thick it is the smell is pretty subtle. We just thought it would smell more like Christmas. Regardless, it smells like dark sugars and fruits and the alcohol percentage is not evident in the aroma.
Taste: Wow there bubbles! Burst of bubbles on our pallets that settles down to a thick creamy spice. The spices are reminding us of black liquorish . Its like black liquorish was turned into a very high ABV beer… But its not that minty weird obnoxious liquorish. Its actually quite tasty. The alcohol is present but it comes and is accompanied by dark fruit and sugar flavors that mix it extremely well. After every swig my tongue waters and craves for just a little more. As it warms it opens up and the alcohol taste becomes more of a warm wine-like flavor.
ABV: 10.5%
Drink one or all?: 12. if you can handle it…
Cost: $9/Bomber (normaly $11)
Overall:
Adam:17/20
Cannon: 17/20
Solid choice for a random evening. Very warming and just a “comfy” kind of beer. something that would be paired with cheese and a warm fire very very well. ( Also, I’m really digging on this brewery)
