Thursday, December 29, 2016

Rocking Red Ale

I usually choose Culture Brewing's pale ale to fill my growler.  It's a creamy, easy drinking weekday beer.  For the past few weeks Culture has had its Red Ale on tap, and I bucked my chronic pale ale habit and brought home a growler of it.  I was told this version of the Red Ale was slightly different than previous releases, with an increased level of hops.  I am picky with red ales.  I like them hop-forward, where the bitterness is stout enough to counter the heavy malts.  Culture's mahogany Red Ale captured this combination, and it managed to add an unexpected dryness that sits at the top of your mouth.   The hop bitterness, which sliced through the malt, allowed me to enjoy the beer, and each drink did not feel like I was eating a slice of heavy brown bread.   The dryness, to me, made this beer.  It added a chalky crispness, which gave the beer a sense of lightness.  Culture's Red Ale is not a complex beer, although I doubt complexity was the brewer's intention, but it tastes good and is well made.  I recommend stopping in at Culture's tasting room for a pint of this gem if you are in Ocean Beach.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Don't Overlook Stone

The West Coaster ran a series of year-end summary blog posts this week on San Diego's best new breweries, most improved breweries, and best breweries right now.  The three lists were not mutually exclusive, but only Karl Strauss made more than one (most improved and best breweries right now).  There are so many breweries in San Diego, and I have not tried beers from all the breweries on the list, so I cannot knock the judgement of author Brandon Hernandez or West Coaster.

I would make one addition: Stone Brewing.  It should be on the list of best breweries right now.  I hope the biggest Stone news of the year is not that it cut 5% of its staff, or that head brewer Mitch Steele left, or that it hired a new CEO, or that it opened locations in Berlin and Richmond, Virginia, but that it continues to make great beer.  Stone's incredible Enjoy By, which seems to change with every release, is reason alone to put it on the best breweries right now list.  Stone's new Ripper Pale Ale, replacing the short-lived Pale Ale 2.0, was released in early November and I expect it to compete with AleSmith's .394 as one of San Diego's best pale ales.  Stone's decision to re-release some of its Anniversary Ales in 2016 brought back some stellar beers.  My favorite was the 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA.   Stone increased its seasonal releases adding a red ale, a citrus wit, and a stout.  It has so many good beers that they overshadow the rare miss, like the RuinTen affront.

Stone has been around for so long and is such a craft beer presence, especially here in San Diego, I think people tend to overlook it.  That is a mistake.  Stone could sit back and just rework its core beers, add a fruit salad of ingredients and repackage the beers as new, but it does not.  Yes, Stone does release variations of its core beers, but most importantly it continues to create new exciting beers, like its Arrogant Bastard brand's Who You Callin' Wussie pilsner, the above mentioned seasonal beers, and the many draft-only and experimental beers available at Stone's breweries. To me, Stone does not seem satisfied to rely on its past successes and reputation, but continues to push forward so that its future exceeds its past.  That is why Stone is one of the best breweries right now.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Buy Local

In my last post I gave two simple recommendations for holiday beer gifts:  a generic growler and a brewery gift card.  I forgot to mention that you should also buy local.  If you buy a gift card from a brewery it is likely that you will purchase it directly at a brewery.  There are more than 130 breweries in San Diego so it should not be hard to find a brewery near you or your work.  Here is a list and a map from the San Diego Brewers Guild to help you find a local brewery, not one owned by Big Beer.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Beer Gifts

I have posted beer gift ideas twice before, here and here.  The list from two years ago holds up pretty well.  This year, to make it even simpler, I narrowed the list to two essential items for the beer drinker:  A blank, flip-top growler or a gift card from a brewery. 

In California, to fill a growler of beer to go, most breweries accept either their labeled growlers or unlabeled growlers.  I have been to some breweries that will only fill flip-top growlers.  Apparently, the screw tops don't keep beer fresh long enough.  (For some reason I don't seem to have this problem with my screw top growler.)  I recommend a generic 64 oz stainless steel flip-top growler, which can be filled and refilled at multiple breweries.  Skip the urge to buy a 32 oz growler, a jug this small is kind of pointless. 

A gift card from a brewery is beer cash.  Not much more to say about a brewery gift card other than do not be stingy.

Last year I broke my cardinal rule about not gifting beer and sent a family member some fresh IPAs.  On a visit, I noticed the once-fresh IPAs languishing in the fridge eight months later.  This year the family member is getting a lovely holiday pillow.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Brewery For Sale

West Coaster is reporting that Lightning Brewery is for sale.  The Poway-based brewery is ten years old and comes with a 5,500-square-foot facility, which includes a 30-barrel brewhouse, a cellar capacity of 490 barrels, a bottling line, and a tasting room with a patio.  According to West Coaster, Lightning made the mistake of focusing on distributing its beers in bottles rather than emphasizing a tasting room.  I felt Lightning could have had more draft accounts, as I don't see its beers in that many locations.  In what may have been its biggest miscalculation, Lightning shunned IPAs for a long time.  In a town and era that demands IPAs, Lightning offered a pilsner and hefeweizen instead.  Lightning's core Elemental Pilsner and Thunderweizen are excellent beers, but they are bold beers, which may have limited their appeal.  Lightning now offers several IPAs, which I have yet to try.  I am glad Lightning's owner Jim Crute is selling the brewery rather than closing it.