Tongue Buckler's LIttle Brother

I missed the news on Ballast Point's new Homework Series of beers.  According to the Full Pint, which is quoting from the San Diego Reader, The Home Work Series is a "spin-off" brand developed to honor Home Brew Mart.  The new brand has its own label, which not only distinguishes it from other Ballast Point beers, but that also provides detailed ingredient information for the home brewer.   Ballast Point Brewing's Homework Series Batch #1 Hoppy Red Ale is the first of the series.  (The picture I took of Batch #1 would not load correctly, so I borrowed picture of the label below from mybeerbuzz.com.)

Batch #1 Hoppy Red Ale is just that, a hoppy red ale.  This limited release beer is excellent.   The beer poured a dark mahogany, with big, sand colored foam that laced all the way down the glass.  Batch #1 is rich and full bodied, and it drinks bigger than its 7.0% adv due to its richness.  The hop bitterness is balanced by a sweet, caramel malt character.  The strong roasted malts provide the beer's heft, and according to the label, six different malts were used in the brew process, including Briess Caramel Vienna and Briess Caramel Munich.  The beer's two hops, CTZ and Centennial, held their own against the malts, bringing a commanding bitterness.


Batch #1 is chalky dry, which adds to its complexity.  Batch #1 reminded me of Ballast Point's Tongue Buckler, a massive 10% abv imperial red ale, which has a huge hop profile (hence the name Tongue Buckler).  While Batch #1 may cede some abv to Tongue Buckler, it compromises nothing in flavor.  There are not enough red ales, and even fewer hoppy red ales.  I don't know the future plans for The Home Work Series, but I hope Batch #1 Hoppy Red Ale is not a one-time release, and I'm already looking forward to Batch #2.

Hop Apostasy

Here is a good article from Slate on the craft beer industry's and consumers' love of - or as the piece states, addiction to - hoppy beers.  The author calls on brewers to ease off the hops and focus on other interesting ingredients, like wild yeast strains.  My favorite line was this one:

"There are many craft breweries that seek to create balanced, drinkable beers that aren’t very bitter at all, like Patrick Rue’s the Bruery in Placentia, Calif.,"

I wonder what The Bruery beers the author researched?  I doubt it was 5 Gold Rings, or some of The Bruery's other complex creations.  It must have been Mischief. 

I'm all for more sour beers, wild ales, porters, stouts, Belgian pale ales, dubbels, tripels, quadrupels, but don't stop my hops, I must have hops.  I NEED HOPS!

Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens Opens in Liberty Station

We were invited to a soft opening Friday night at the new Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens in Liberty Station.  It was incredible.  Stone has outdone itself with this new restaurant, and it is immediately one of San Diego's top destinations.   From the service to the facilities, Stone does not overlook any detail.  The space is huge and inviting, and somehow Stone figured out the noise, because the restaurant was full, music was on and you can still have a normal conversation.   Thank you Stone for inviting us to the soft opening, and thanks for the discounted price and complimentary beer.

It is my opinion that the central San Diego location of Stone's new World Bistro and Gardens is a giant step forward for local craft beer.  Stone's Escondido headquarters and home to the original World Bistro and Gardens is amazing, but it's an event destination.  The Liberty Station location  - five minutes from downtown, five minutes from the airport, five minutes from SeaWorld, five minutes from Mission Valley and five minutes from the beaches - opens the wonderful world of San Diego craft beer to people who would never venture to Escondido.

I plan to write more on the importance of this new restaurant and brewery, craft beer and what I feel they mean to San Diego and its civic identity, but in the mean time, here are a few pictures:

The bar area.

The main dining area.

Outdoor space and bocce court.

Brewing system.  Stone is brewing here, but the new beers are not yet available.

Ruination IPA.

Expanded Tasting Rooms

San Diego's City Council voted 7-0 to allow breweries to expand their tasting rooms.  The following is from Peter Rowe's column this afternoon on the decision:

In the past, breweries within the city were limited to tasting rooms or diners of 3,000 square feet or fewer. That was a problem for fast-growing breweries like Ballast Point and Green Flash, whose tasting rooms are overrun by fans on most weekends.

Under the new ordinance, San Diego breweries can expand up to 25 percent of their total gross floor area. In zones near airports, occupancy limits and uses will also have to approved by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. Similarly, new or expanded dining or tasting rooms west of Interstate 5 will need to California Coastal Commission review.

This is good news.  A local NPR piece on this same story reported that two unnamed breweries were considering leaving San Diego unless tasting room restrictions were changed.  I guess they can stay in San Diego.

Now, if something can be done about those annoying tour buses!

Everyone Needs A Harlot

I was near Societe Brewing yesterday and just happened to have a clean growler in the car.  (Hey, I was a Boy Scout for a month and a half and still take that 'be prepared" motto seriously when it comes to beer.)   I fought my usual IPA temptation, selecting instead the Harlot, one of Societe's Belgian beers.  The Harlot is a 6.0% abv Belgian extra, which I am guessing is not too different from a Belgian pale ale, except maybe lighter. 

This sneaky good beer is one of the first beers Societe released when it opened last year.  It poured a golden yellow with a white, solid but fast dissipating foam.  The beer wasn't cloudy, but not quite clear either.  Its carbonation was moderate, not the intense effervescence like some bigger Belgian golden Ales.  The initial taste was crisp, with a forward, biscuity Belgian yeast.  It's a dry beer with a fruity characteristic that faded into Harlot's long, hoppy, bitter finish. This is a well balanced beer with an appropriate body.  The Belgian extra style won't elicit wide excitement, but I found this beer delicious.  I have raved about Societe's IPAs, but the Harlot deserves attention, too.

NY Times on Brettanomyces

Here is an excellent late December 2012 article from the New York Times on wild beers, sour beers and the unpredictable magic unleashed by Brettanomyces yeast.  Make sure to read the beer wonk verging on beer douche correction at the end of the article.

Not a Grimm Ale

I was expecting some edge from a special "cuvee" ale created by a brewery named after a troll.  I wanted some funk; strange unidentifiable spices; and grimaces until my taste buds acclimated to intense complexity.  I wanted a nasty, Grimm Brothers' troll of a beer.

Instead, Cuvee des Troll from Belgium's Brasserie Dubisson Freres sprl, is the equivalent of a good troll.  It wasn't an angry, belligerent monster that terrorizes entire villages and eats children lost in the forest, but a benevolent creature that walks wayward children home, admonishes their parents for negligent supervision, and then makes sure homework's complete, teeth are brushed and bedtime curfews kept.  Even the picture on Cuvee des Troll's bottle looked more like a happy Paul Galdone elf than a JRR Tolkien description of a dangerous troll. 

Cuvee des Trolls is a smooth - oh, so smooth - Belgian golden ale.  It poured a cloudy, pale yellow with massive white foam due to the tight carbonation.  The elegant, light bodied beer had a whisper of yeast on the initial taste and a fast-disappearing finish.  Its hop profile, if any, was invisible, allowing a sweetness to engulf the beer's flavor profile.  Its 7% abv was no factor.  Cuvee des Trolls was good, but so safe and benign it was boring.  You won't find a more approachable, drinkable Belgian beer than Cuvee des Trolls, but don't expect any excitement.

Housekeeping

I am attempting to update the links on this site.  I have added links to a number of new breweries, but I don't think the list is exhaustive.  I deleted some of the beer blog links due, primarily, to inactive posting.  I will add more beer blogs to the list as I come across ones I feel offer quality information and opinion.  I try to stay away from numb nut beer writers and journalists that seem to write to to small audience of insiders and to gain favor with brewers, preferring instead knowledgeable amateurs that write well and have a passion for a good beer.

Causation or Correlation - All About The Beer

Early last week I listened to a NPR: Planet Money podcast, What Causes What, on the relationship been causation and correlation.  Last Friday I read on the Eater San Diego blog that La Jolla Brew House is closing and thought of a causation and correlation example related to San Diego breweries.  Are the rise of brewery-only tasting rooms and the food trucks that visit them helping cause traditional brewpubs to close?  La Jolla Brew House's closure follows the recent shutting of El Cajon Brewing Company and last year's closing of The Brew House at East Lake.  It seems strange to me that brewpubs are closing in a town where a new brewery seems to open every month. 

Take a fancy brewery tasting room, like at Green Flash, or Alesmith, or Societe Brewing or Coronado Brewing, or any number of local breweries, add a food truck and all of a sudden it's an instant brewpub.  It's easy to check on Facebook or Twitter what food truck is visiting what brewery to plan your beer and food afternoon or evening.  Why limit yourself to a fixed brewpub menu when you can check a few brewery websites or Twitter feeds, and target your eating and drinking? 

I know that the closure of three brewpubs is a small sample.   But there does seem a weak, but positive correlation, as three traditional brewpubs have recently closed while a new tasting rooms seem to open every month, followed by the inevitable arrival of food trucks.  Causation - proving that the brewery-only tasting rooms and visiting food trucks directly helped cause the closures - is more difficult to determine.  I'm sure there are many unique reasons why the three brewpubs closed, which could include poor management, difficult location, high prices, mediocre food, lousy beer, or any other reason.  I don't know.

My non-scientific, non-statistical beer gut opinion is that brewpub failure is, ultimately, all about the beer.  It's always about the beer.  If the beer is good, people will seek it out whether or not it's at a brewpub or a brewery-only tasting room.

Hip Brewer Plays It Safe

I have wanted to try Vermont's Hill Farmstead beers since reading about them on the Kaedrin Beer Blog, and subsequently, in other publications.  This small brewery is uber hip, and its limited distribution feeds the buzz.  I had never seen one of Hill Farmstead's beers here in Southern California until a few weeks ago, when I saw - and immediately bought - a Hill Farmstead collaboration beer, La Vermontoise.  It's a saison brewed with Belgium's Brasserie De Blaugies. 

I knew nothing about this beer (or Hill Farmstead's collaborative brewer, Brasserie De Blaugies, for that matter) when I bought it, other than the label information stating that the beer was a classic saison.  It poured a pale, opaque yellow with intense carbonation that created a thick white foam.  It had the taste of a traditional saison, much more along the lines of Saison Dupont than the wild, unpredictable Fantome.

La Vermontoise was a spicy, yeast-forward beer, with a marked dryness.  The Amarillo hops imparted a gentle bitterness through the long finish.   This was a drinkable, approachable beer.  A safe beer.  It was straightforward in its construction, and didn't pull any flavor twists.  I noted that I felt it a serious beer despite its straitlaced approach to the saison style.

I liked La Vermontoise.  Saison is a style open to liberal interpretation and variation, and I appreciated La Vermontoise's traditional take on the style.   Initially, with Hill Farmstead's trendy reputation, I was expecting an edgier beer, but its edginess was its traditionalism.  It is easier to find a beer's flaws when a brewer adheres to a strict style script than when playing loose and pushing boundaries, and I didn't notice any mistakes in La Vermontoise.   Once I realized La Vermontoise's was a formal saison, I was able to enjoy it for its excellent construction, and most importantly, excellent flavor.  I'd like to try more Hill Farmstead beers, in particular ones that helped create its trendy reputation. 

Coronado Brewing Takes Elephant Gun To Tusk and Grain

Coronado Brewing has shut its specialty brewing line, Tusk and Grain, just as I was starting to see its beers around town.  I first read the rumors on Twitter, and yesterday Brandon Hernandez confirmed the rumors on his San Diego Reader blog.  Hernandez said Coronado's decision was based on "a series of internal happenings," whatever the heck that ominous, open-ended phase entails. 

Maybe the Tusk and Grain line just wasn't that special.  I'd seen a Tusk and Grain IPA, ESB and stout, which don't seem that different from Coronado's regular ale-centric beers.   A specialty line needs to differentiate itself from regular offerings by more than just a name.

I tried the Tusk and Grain ESB and liked it (pictured at right).  It was solid and true to style, with prominent malts and the mineral taste you expect from a good English ESB.  I want to try the IPA, Loutish Madras, before it goes away. 

Separately, if you haven't made it to Coronado's new tasting room in Bay Park, it is well worth a visit.  It is huge and well laid out, with a wide range of Coronado beers on tap.  Full pints are available, too.

Back In The Rotation

The Beer Rovette and I went to Blind Lady Ale House several times the first year or two after it opened.  We loved the food - some of the best pizzas and salads we know of in San Diego - and the twenty-plus beer tap list.  As a beer geek I appreciated its clean tap lines, correct glassware and adherence to proper pours.  But we became increasingly annoyed at the crowds, which seemed to grow larger with each visit.  Apparently we weren't the only ones who liked Blind Lady.  The crush of people became too much for us and we stopped going to Blind Lady.

Last Friday, we ventured back to Blind Lady for a late lunch.  It was fantastic - same excellent pizza and salad - and the crowd was reasonable.  Since our last visit, Blind Lady expanded its space, easing its seating pressure.   We were able to get a seat at one of the picnic benches and have a relaxing meal, which allowed us to appreciate the quality of the food, without feeling the weight of anxious eyes pleading for our seats. 

The Blind Lady's house brewing operation, Automatic Brewing, has kicked into gear, and there were three Automatic beers on tap.  I tried the Shark IPA, a full bodied IPA brewed with Simcoe and Citra hops.  It has a forward, pine hop bitterness, complemented by an earthy undertone that rounds out Shark's long, subtle finish.  With its multilayer of flavors, you won't find a more complex IPA than Shark.   It dances along the border between IPA and double IPA.  Its 7% abv qualifies it as an IPA, but its flavor is bolder, richer and more sophisticated than many double IPAs.  (I didn't snap the picture after drinking the top quarter of the beer; this is how Blind Lady serves it - correctly, at the pour line.)

The Blind Lady's tap list was outstanding.  I wish I had taken a picture (and I can't find a current tap list on-line).  From memory, some of the beers included ones from Russian River, Craftsman, Societe, a DuPont beer I'd never seen, and a few draft-only Ballast Point beers.  Restaurants with a half dozen or more craft beers on draft are all over San Diego, but ones where the beer list is serious, proportioned and obviously selected by someone who knows and cares about beer - rather than by a distributor - are rare.  The Blind Lady is such a place.

We are going back to Blind Lady, soon.  I am still not going to brave a Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening, or probably any evening, but count me in for a late lunch or early dinner.