A Brewpub's Demise

It's not every day a brewery fails in San Diego, or one of its suburbs.  The Hop Daddy's Beer Blog was the first I read to report the closing of El Cajon Brewing Company.  I never made it out to the East County brewpub, but judging by some of the threads on BeerAdvocate, including this one, trouble seemed to plague El Cajon Brewing almost from its opening.  I never like reading about a brewery closing, but sometimes issues are bigger than the beer.

Coffee / Hop Experiment Gone Bad

I love coffee and I love IPAs.   One is a great start to a day, the other a relaxing finish.    A mixture of coffee and hops should therefore be a serendipitous combination, right?  After drinking the Dayman Coffee IPA collaboration between Stone Brewing /  Aleman / Two Brothers I know that each needs to stay in its own orbit - as far away from each other as possible.    Dayman is a cloying IPA dominated by the coffee not the hops.   Every taste reminded me in an unpleasant way of coffee ice cream - and I love coffee ice cream.   As the beer warmed the coffee flavor and sweetness intensified, making it harder and harder to drink.  (I finished the bottle, so I'm either a dedicated trooper or a shameless boozer, or maybe I just didn't want to offend the drain.)  I scoured the fridge after drinking Dayman searching for something - anything - hoppy to cleanse my palate.  Compared to Dayman, week-old growler dregs didn't taste half-bad.

Dayman is not a black IPA, and its clear, ruby appearance is its best attribute.   Its aroma is all coffee.  There is enough body and hop presence to give a long, bitter finish, but it's marked by the awkward coffee/hop flavor dissonance, making me wish the beer was thinner.  Coffee and hops are both bitter, but bitter in their own way, and mixing the two just didn't work for me.  Dayman's ABV is nearly 9%, but it's not boozy, or high enough in alcohol, which is unfortunate because self-lobotomy is the only thing that could have improved my opinion of this beer.  

AleSmith Growler Policy

AleSmith Brewing Company announced a new growler policy in an email yesterday.  Here is the policy from the email:

Recently, the ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) clarified to breweries in California their approved laws on filling growlers.  With the recent clarification, AleSmith has been hard at work on creating a tag that will satisfy the requirements and allow us to begin filling blank growlers in the AleSmith tasting room.  We have submitted a tag for approval and as soon as we receive the appropriate approval, we will be filling blank 32 & 64 oz growlers of our ten year round beers. 

For the time being, we will only be filling blank growlers (no other company markings) and it will only be with our ten year round beers.  Look for these changes to take effect within the next sixty days. 

We will post to both our Facebook and Twitter as soon as we're approved to start filling the blank growlers.  Additionally, we will still be selling AleSmith logo growlers and filling them with all of our beers that are available for growler fill. 

I appreciate the move, but who owns a blank growler?  I don't want to buy or store another growler.   A label covering sticker for any growler is a better idea.  Local breweries need to collaborate on a San Diego County-wide policy that covers all breweries.  This would benefit breweries and beer drinkers.  Trying to remember a brewery's sticker policy before you go fill a growler is insane. 

(I want to use Societe Brewing's steel growler at other breweries. It's a cool design that takes up less space than glass growlers.  But, I think I may have an old Ballast Point growler that just has a sticker label rather than an etched label.  I need to try and fit it, and remove the sticker.)

Local News Fail

Check out the photo gallery to the left of this NBC San Diego article on new restaurants.  Major fail as the first picture is of Bud and Goose Island beer bottles.  The picture below is part of a slide show, but I tried to capture it:

Sorry for quality of the picture.

Hey NBC, there are a few local San Diego brewers that bottle beer.   It'd be better get pictures from them rather than from the biggest brewer in the world. 

Firestone Walker's Wild Side

I saw the link to this article from LA Weekly about Firestone Walker's Buellton Barrelworks tasting room on Beer Samizat's twitter feed.  The article is worth a read.  The beers I've had from Firestone Walker have been good, but I wouldn't categorize it as an edgy brewer.  That perception has changed.  It sounds like Firestone Walker is doing some creative, experimental brewing: 

In addition to being a place where brewery-only releases can be created and tapped, Barrelworks is an ode to the flavor complexities of the oak barrel and the warehouse is in the beginning stages of a grand experiment to invite in bacteria and wild yeast and create a house flavor like all those wacky Belgian farmers did by mistake centuries ago. It’s a created terroir concept akin to Bear Republic’s Sonoma County open inoculation for Tartare except there is a room of 400 used and fresh char oak barrels and everything from Lil Opal to Double DBA within the staves.

I need an excuse to get to Buellton to try some of these wild beers, although I'll pass on the barfing part. 

Finally, A Best Beer City List To Believe

I have shaken my head in disgust or disbelief at more than one "best beer city" list.  This article from Seattle's Seattle PI (not sure if I'm writing this correctly) is the most realistic, beer-centric list I've read.  And, it's not because San Diego is ranked first, it's because the article's author, Steve Body, obviously knows beer and what makes a great beer city, and did the research to prove it.  He eviscerated weak articles to make his his point:

I read a total of 23 lists, including one in which the author names a tiny, ramshackle brewpub in rural Montana in his top five and left off Portland and San Diego altogether.

 His list of top-ten best beer cities:

1.  San Diego
2.  Portland
3.  Seattle
4.  Denver-Boulder, CO
5.  Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo, MI
6.  San Francisco
7.  Longmont-Ft. Collins-Lovelace, CO
8.  Bend, OR
9.  Boston
10.  Chicago

Most beer geeks have already had compiled a similar list for future beer travels, regardless of what other articles may have proclaimed.  Read the article and decide for yourself.  Mr. Body gives an Honorable Mention to the State of Vermont and Asheville, NC, but I'd add New York City, too, as you can get good beer in a variety of places.

A Hop Battering Ram - Stone's Enjoy By

I have had three iterations of Stone Brewing's Enjoy By IPA - 9.21.2012, 12.21.2012 and 2.15.2013 - and I've started this post more times than that.  (Here's a link to a Stone video on Enjoy By for those that don't know the story behind it.)  What to say about this beer?  A single sentence can tell you all you need to know:  Enjoy By is a freaking massive double IPA. 

Stone brews two of the best IPAs ever in its flagship Stone IPA and its Ruination double IPA.  Enjoy By is a double IPA, too, but when compared to Ruination, Enjoy By is aggressiveness squared or cubed.  Enjoy By is the new arrogant bastard.  It challenges your IPA preconceptions, and ultimately mocks you.   Don't take this beer lightly, it'll knock you down with a hopped-up sucker punch you won't even see coming.

You can smell the rich pine resin before the first taste, and pine dominates Enjoy By's hop assault on your palate.    I thought I noticed a bit of tropical fruits alongside the pine (I can't believe I just wrote that). It's redundant to say Enjoy By is bitter.  It's ABV is 9.4%, but it drinks bigger, although the alcohol is well masked by the bitter taste of hops except for some heat on the finish.  Enjoy By is sweet, but here lies the brilliance that went into crafting it.  Rare is the double IPA with Enjoy By's hop strength and alcohol level that isn't cloying and syrupy.  Enjoy By is neither, which makes it drinkable and leads back to my point about mocking you while knocking you down. 

Did I enjoy Enjoy By?  Yes, I liked this beer.  Ultimately, I am not a beer masochist and don't like keeping one eye on a beer while I drink it, so Enjoy By is a periodic treat. Stone has done a fantastic job marketing Enjoy By, it sells out in a matter of days, or even hours wherever Stone releases it.   Be careful with this beer, respect it or you'll regret it.

Get Providential While You Can

I am late on this post.  If you haven't already, get over to Trader Joe's and pick up a bottle or two of its Providential Belgian Style Golden Ale before the supply sells out.  It was brewed especially for Trader Joe's by Canada's Unibroue, which also brews Trader Joe's Vintage Ale, a dark Belgian style strong ale.

Providential is new this year, and at $5.99 for a 750 ml bottle, it's a steal.    It's a smooth, easy drinking golden ale.  It has spices and flavors of the yeast.  I opened a bottle and it was done before I knew it.  I didn't even take a picture.  I keep meaning to pick up another bottle, but I haven't yet.  Strong golden ales, like saisons, are open to wide interpretations and range from approachable to what-the-heck?.  Providential falls into the approachable category, yet it's complex enough to keep you interested.

(I linked to BeerAdvocate's description and review page above.  I apparently liked this beer more than most reviewers, which is why I don't like to read BA reviews before I drink a beer.)

Death By Hops

I read late last week in Brandon Hernandez's San Diego Reader blog that Green Flash Brewing is releasing six "hop forward" beers in 2013.  Green Flash is calling this a Hop Odyssey.  My liver's crying.  According to the blog post, the first beer is a black IPA, and is scheduled for a February release.  The following is a list, which I reformatted from the post, of the beers and their scheduled release date:

• Imperial Red Rye IPA (8.5% ABV, 80 IBU, brewed with Columbus and Mosaic hops, and available in April) 
• Citra Session IPA (4.5% ABV, 45 IBU, Citra, June)
• Cedar Plank Pale Ale (6.3% ABV; 45 IBU; Cascade, El Dorado, Warrior; August)
• Symposium IPA brewed as the commemorative beer for the 2008 Craft Brewers Conference (7% ABV; 75 IBU; Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, Tomahawk; October) 
  
• Double Columbus IPA (8.8% ABV, 98 IBU, Columbus, December). 

My beer drinking is way too confined to hoppy beers.  Just when I think it's time to expand my style horizon, I see a list like the one above, and think "what's the point?"  I like hoppy beers, and better just go with the bitter flow.

North County Knockout

Breweries are opening so fast in San Diego it's hard to keep their names straight, let alone their beers.  Vista's Mother Earth Brew Co. is now considered a veteran with its 2008 start date (I did not hear about it until 2010).  Its beers are still hard to find at taps around San Diego due to its small size, but it recently started bottling select styles, and a few weeks ago I picked up a bottle of its Kismet IPA.

I had had one other Mother Earth Brew, an IPA (not sure whether it was Kismet or not) at Blind Lady on Father's Day two and a half years ago.  Blind Lady was so crowded we didn't even order dinner, but I remember the spot-on good Mother Earth IPA, and I've kept my eye out for it ever since.  When I saw Kismet in the bottle I had to give it a go, whether it was the beer I'd had a few years ago nor not.

Kismet is a bold, hop forward IPA, brewed with Nelson Hops, which give it a sharp, pine resin smell that translates to an intense, piney, complex flavor.  The pungent hops are well balanced with malts, to make Kismet a smooth, drinkable beer.   The beer's ABV is 7.2%, which when combined with the aggressive hops and malt, pushes Kismet to the upper limit of the IPA style, and imparts a welcome richness.  The bottom line:  Kismet is an excellent beer.

In a town full of good IPAs, a new brewer (even if it's in its fourth year) is up against tough competition when crafting a new IPA, and for me, a bad or mediocre IPA can quickly relegate a brewer to inferior status.  If I don't care for the IPA, I won't rush to try a brewer's other styles.  Mother Earth's Kismet holds its own against the best IPAs in San Diego. 

An Epic Rebound

Eleven beers in, I am not going to going to explain the history of Stone Brewing's Vertical Epic series.  It's hard to believe it's over, as 12.12.12, the namesake and release date of the series' last beer, always seemed so far away.  Looking back, it seems that it came and went too fast.  Stone's Vertical Epic concept was brilliant, and it inspired other brewers to create annual themed releases, or special, limited one-time series.

Vertical Epic 12.12.12 is an exclamation point on the eleven-year, eleven different Belgian beer-inspired bonanza.  Stone gets back on track with the saga's final installment, after two experimental whiffs in 2010 and 2011.   VE 12.12.12 is dark, rich, complex and delicious.  Its sharp spices punctuate this chewy beer.   It has flavors of dark dried fruits on the front, and a welcome hop bitterness to balance out the long finish.  Yeast, which is a major flavor contributor to so many Belgian beers, is minor player in this beer letting fruits and spices take the lead role.  The ABV is a muscular 9.0%, but while noticeable, it's not obtrusive or distracting.

VE 12.12.12 is a remarkably easy drinking beer.  I have already had a couple (not at the same time), just because I enjoy it.  A few weeks ago, I would have said it's a perfect Holiday beer, today, it's an excellent winter Belgian ale. 

When I had my first Vertical Epic, 03.03.03, I didn't know anything about Belgian beers.  I remember liking it, thinking it one of the most unique beer's I had ever had up to that point.  But, unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to store one away.  (Who was storing beers in early 2003?)  Thirteen months later I was wiser, and have been drinking and storing Vertical Epics ever since.  I have at least one Vertical Epic starting with 04.04.04, and yes, I even have the misguided 10.10.10 (wine wannabe?!?!) and 11.11.11 (chili).  Now it's time to make room in my closet, I just need the right venue.

I liked the Vertical Epic series, looked forward to each release, and will miss it.   I'm not sure what, if anything, Stone does for an encore, but I know I'll seek it out.

Slate's Take On Beer Auctions

Here is a good craft beer article from Slate that starts as a story on beer auctions, but goes much further.  The passage below shows the extreme, unsettling side of craft beer:

At New York’s Blind Tiger bar one late afternoon last March, a slight, unsmiling young man in a dark windbreaker ordered several pints of beer from the bar, transferred them one by one to a canteen, then slipped away. “He’s going straight home to resell that on eBay,” muttered a patron standing nearby. The perishable beer in question was brewed by Shaun Hill at Hill Farmstead brewery in Vermont, which is currently rated the sixth best brewery in the world by the users of RateBeer.

Of course, now I want to try a beer from Hill Farmstead!  If you can get past the disturbing thought of who would actually buy three pints of beer some stranger bought at a bar, the article, written by Christian DeBenedetti, morphs into some excellent fodder for beer geeks:

Most of the 100-point beers on both RateBeer and BeerAdvocate are reminiscent of the wines favored by revolutionary critic Robert Parker: intense and dark; higher in alcohol, tannins, and oak; and sometimes almost excruciatingly rich. Kirk Kelewae, service director of New York’s celebrated Eleven Madison Park, divides aged beers into two categories: barrel-aged and bottle-aged. Barrel-aged beers are matured in wooden casks, a process which imparts the flavor of the wood, adding notes ranging from vanilla to a chardonnay-like butteriness to the bracing acids of wild yeasts that flourish in wood. Most bottle-aged brews skip the oak aging, but are packaged with live yeast. “As the bottle continues to age, the yeast will go through a process called autolysis, the breakdown of yeast cells, which produces nutty and meaty flavors,” Kelewae says.