San Diego Beer Week

San Diego Beer Week is in full swing.  This extravaganza gains strength every year.  Here are a few quick resources:

West Coaster - summaries and links to summaries

SDBW - the official website of San Diego Beer Week, with an event calendar here.

Brandon Hernandez's breakdown of various events (via West Coaster) are here (San Diego Magazine), here (Reader, scroll down for a day-by-day summary) and here (Pacific San Diego magazine pages 60 - 63).

I'm not sure what events I will hit, but I usually make one or two.  Tonight's release party at Green Flash Brewing where it presents its 10th Anniversary Flanders Drive, a sour red ale, looks like an interesting event.  I was told yesterday that Flanders Drive is very limited and the party tonight is the only time this beer will be available.

AB InBev In BusinessWeek

Here is a long article on AB InBev in BusinessWeek.  I didn't read the whole thing, but the first few paragraphs are hilarious.  It tells the outrage of a Beck's drinker that realized the US version of Beck's is no longer brewed in Germany.  Instead of bitching, why didn't the guy look for a craft beer pilsner?  He would have been kicking himself for not searching out craft beer alternatives sooner.

Alpine Email

I have not retired or stopped drinking beer.  I've just been occupied with work and other things that have pushed recreational beer blogging down the importance list.  Expect post frequency to increase in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, here is the majority of an email I received from Alpine Beer Company this morning:

It seems like an eternity since I sent a few words of encouragement to the world at large. Inspiration sometimes is fleeting, and I lost a step or two recently. But, back with a vengeance we will attempt to tease you with tasty descriptions of our recent releases and some more yummy brews on their way. Nelson was gone but now it’s back, so guess what I’m drinking right now? The universe, in its infinite darkness that makes us wonder if we’re alone, aligned properly a few weeks back so our “out-of-this-world” beer is on tap again. Look for more Duet and Nelson next year, like a lot more! Anyone for a “Flanders Red?”

We have released, for your ghoulish pleasure, our spiced holiday ale “Ichabod 2012.” Available in 22 oz. bottles, no growler fills, and on draught in the pub. For those that don’t know, Ichabod is supposed to be an annually produced beer that always uses “pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg” but has a different base beer. Annually has been an issue. But, this year’s version has a base of a nice chocolaty Porter. It comes in at 6% abv and is creamy, dark and smooth with the spices and pumpkin kicking in as a nice compliment. We have always had a hard time getting the pumpkin to contribute its flavor. So this year we used 240 pounds of pumpkin puree from Oregon. We used it in the mash tun, the boil kettle and the fermenter too! That amount of pumpkin is about 5 times more than our previous versions. Dam it, I want pumpkin flavor. I even called Dick Cantwell from Elysian Brewing, the pumpkin beer king, to get sourcing and advice. Elysian only ordered about 12,000 pounds of pumpkin puree, wow.

“New Millennium” extra pale ale is fresh and delicious and available for growler fills and on draught in the pub right now! This dry-hopped gem is made with Millennium and Galaxy hops for an out-of-this-world drinking experience.

Okay, so we ran out of “Nelson,” our golden rye IPA made with New Zealand hops. But, it is back on, fresh and as good as ever. I said it tasted like candy after my first gulp returning from its hiatus.

This is potentially some of the biggest news to ever come out of Alpine Beer Company. With the signing of a couple of hop contracts we have positioned ourselves to produce an additional 2,000 barrels of Duet and an additional 2,000 barrels of Nelson starting in late 2013. A “barrel” is two kegs. We plan on new packaging with a 16 oz. bigmouth twist off can along with 22 oz. bottles and kegs. There is little more I can currently say about how we are going to pull this off but know there is a lot of work to be done to assure the quality and standards are met while stepping up production. And, with Water being the largest ingredient in beer, it becomes the primary flavor contributor and is a highly important part of beer itself. Let’s just say we found a killer water source and a place to make more beer, yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

We brewed “Ned” the other day and if all goes well we’ll see it shortly after the new year. “Ned” is our Flanders Red and is aged in used red wine barrels long enough to get the special bugs to impart their tartness and sourness, yum.

Beer Blog Reading

Twitter is a great way to recommend blog posts, but sometimes the scrolling timeline moves too fast, so I am going to link to two blog posts posts I feel are worth reading.  I was floored by Russian River's Row 2 / Hill 56.  Beer Kaedrin Blog's take on Row 2 is worth reading, even though I was more impressed with the beer.  You should bookmark this prolific blog.

I have been reading the Beer Samizdat blog since it started, and it's another beer blog you should bookmark. (Beer Samizdat author Jay's Hedonist Jive blog is excellent reading, too.)  In a blistering review, Beer Samizdat gave The Bruery's Tart of Darkness a rare 3 on a scale of 10.  Jay doesn't mince words describing Tart of Darkness:

"(I)t's a beer for masochists only. It smells sour and overripe, and it tastes accordingly. Like sock. Like creamed toe."

Ouch.  I had a small taster of Tart of Darkness in July and was impressed enough to fork over nearly $20 for a bottle.  I'm no masochist or foot fetishist, but am looking forward to finding out whether the sample I enjoyed translates on a larger scale. 

Wet Hop Schedule - San Diego

I look forward to wet hops beers, mainly because wet hop beers tend to be juicy IPAs.  We're probably a few weeks or more away from the first wet hop beers, but it's not too early to start planning.  West Coaster has set up a web page to track the release of all the wet hops beers in San Diego.  I'll be checking this web page frequently over the next month.

The Sublime And The Outrageous

I recently had Russian River's Hill 2 Row 56 pale ale.  It is Russian River's tribute to its Washington State hop farmers, and is only brewed with Simcoe hops from select farmers in the Yakima Valley.  In an era when brewers constantly one-up each other with ever bigger IPAs, double IPAs and triple IPAs, the lowly pale ale gets lost as an anachronistic reminder of the early craft beer movement.   I'm as guilty as anyone  - probably more guilty - of falling for the "bigger is better" fad beer of the moment.  I routinely dismiss pale ales based a groundless assumption that they'll be thin and boring, and I  instead look for what I think is a bolder or more interesting beer.

But sometimes I wise-up and buy a beer like Hill 2 Row 56, and am reminded of the brilliance of a well made pale ale.   Row 2 is sublime.  It's brewed with only Simcoe hops, which gives the beer a sharp citrus flavor.  The hop bitterness is matched by the malts to bring a wonderful balance and drinkability to the beer.   I was amazed at its complexity, and by its compelling, robust flavor that kept Row 2 interesting from start to finish.  Row 2 is not only a tribute to Russian River's hop farming suppliers, it's a tribute to the craft of brewing.

The Lips of Faith series Super IPA collaboration beer from Alpine Beer Company and New Belgium is just that, a monster double IPA.  Your taste buds are immediately smashed with a fusillade of hop bitterness, which doesn't relent.  The hop flavor is pure, dripping pine.  The malts are ramped up necessarily to compete with and balance the hops.  The beer has a mouth coating, sweetness that flirts with, but never becomes cloying.  Super's ABV is listed at 9%, which is big, but it tastes and drinks bigger.  I'd put it along the lines of an Avery Maharaja or other double IPAs with ABVs greater than 10%.   Hop heads won't be disappointed with Super IPA, it hits all the double IPA hot spots, and is a textbook example of the aggressive end of the style.  Ultimately, I found Super IPA boring, despite its bold flavor.  It was hoppy and bitter, yes, actually super hoppy and super bitter, it just wasn't anything we haven't had before, as any depth was drowned in hop resin.  

Beer Round Up

I have not spent as much time as I would have liked writing about beer lately.  I have had a few interesting beers, though, and some longer posts are in the works.  I want to note three beers in a short post.  I went to dinner at the always reliable, always delicious The Linkery earlier this month.  When I arrived, Brewery Ommegang's Biere de Hougoumont had just been tapped and a Linkery employee had not even finished writing the beer's name on the restaurant's chalk board beer lists.  I'd never heard of this beer, so I had to order it, sight unseen and description unknown.  Hougoumont came in a small glass and is on the left in the picture.  The ruby-colored beer was probably not the best choice to start a meal with on a warm evening.  It was a heavy beer that was sweet and malty.  I don't know Hougoumont's ABV, but it was boozy.  (I checked BeerAdvocate and Hougoumont's ABV is listed at 7.3A%.  It drank bigger.)   Don't get me wrong, Hougoumont was a good beer, but with its malt prominence and high ABV, it's a beer better suited for a cooler day.  (Hougoumont is a Biere de Garde.)

After Hougoumont, I had a casked half-pint of Arrogant Bastard.  I had never had Arrogant Bastard on cask before.  What a treat.  It was a completely different beer from the regular Arrogant Bastard.  Casked Arrogant Bastard was fruity and sweet, almost floral.  Its usual strong roasted malt and sharp hop flavors were subdued, making it a smooth, enjoyable beer.  The Linkery gets its cask beer right.  I have had several cask beers there and all have been excellent.

The Stone Brewing / Dogfish Head / Victory Brewing collaboration beer, Saison du BUFF, made its return this summer.  I had a pint one eventing at the sleeper craft beer spot, SOL Market and Bistro.  Saison du BUFF is my favorite Stone collaboration beer, at least of the ones I have tried.  I noted in a previous post that I could not detect the spices in a Fantome saison.  There are no obscure taste blends in du BUFF, it's all sage, from start to finish.  It has other herbs, too, but sage dominates.  Saison du BUFF is an approachable, easy drinking beer.  

Stone Goes Lemony For its 16th Anniversary Beer

I remembered this morning that it's almost time for the release of Stone Brewing's Anniversary Beer.  I last thought about this annual beer in late spring, wondering then what beer Stone would brew to commemorate its 16th birthday, but forgot about it with all the double IPAs that came out it June (Stone Ruination 10th Anniversary, Ballast Point's Dorado and AleSmith's Summer Yulesmith).  I checked on the Stone's website this morning, and hidden in its list of beers I found the 16th Anniversary's description below:

This year our brewing team was inspired by some exotic-ish additions of the lemony persuasion. Yes, it's a Double IPA (can you really say you're surprised?), but as we strive to do with all our Stone Anniversary Ales of the let's-take-this-IPA-in-a-new-direction variety, we've brewed up a Stone-worthy divergence from tradition. The amount of rye malt we used isn't quite enough to warrant the appellation "Rye IPA," but it still adds hints of spiciness that contrast deliciously with the tropical fruit flavors and aromas of the Amarillo and Calypso hops. Add a few European specialty malts, some lemon verbena, and three more hop varieties to the mix, and you have a highly complex brew melding both bitter and fruity hop notes with rich toasted malt character punctuated by nuances of spicy rye and subtle lemon.

The light taste of lemon verbena mixed with chewy rye malt makes an intriguing combination.  I am glad I hadn't thought of looking for this beer sooner, because I want one this evening.   Now I only have to wait until around the beer's August 13th release date.

A Mystery Spice In A Ghost Saison

The Kaedrin Beer Blog had an excellent write-up earlier this summer on the expansive characteristics of saisons.  I agree that it's hard, if not impossible, to corral saisons into a style box.   Once you think you've figured out the style, a beer comes along to bend that perception, and when you drink a beer from Belgium's la Brasserie Fantome all notions of saison style are turned upside down.  When you choose a beer from Fantome, you leave the drinking safety of beers like Saison Dupont, and explore the far reaches of the saison realm.  

Fantome's Saison Hiver is a spicy, complex beer that's not for initiates.  It is a dry beer with minimal hop bitterness, and the flavor action is in the yeast and spices.  Hiver had a distinctive taste I could not determine.  I wanted to label it anise, but it wasn't.  I don't normally do this before I write my beer comments, but I checked Hiver's reviews on BeerAdvocate, thinking a reviewer would identity the spice and trigger an acknowledgement on my part.  No luck.  The reviewers were focused on lemon along with the generic term spice.  I didn't notice too much lemon, if any, but there was definitely a "spice" -  a phantom spice.

Drinking a Hiver takes a brief taste acclimation, because the spice hits you immediately, but after a few sips you appreciate that it's an excellent beer.  Like the other Fantome beer I've tried, Printemp, the further down the bottle you go, the better Hiver becomes, leading to dismay when the bottle's finished.  Hiver's's alcohol weighed in around 8% abv, which I'm sure added to its complexity, but the alcohol was not present, allowing you to enjoy the spice and yeast.  I'll sum up my comments about Hiver with one word:   sophisticated.  Don't spring this beer on someone new to saisons, save it for yourself.

Craft Beer-trepreneurs

I'm sure I'm not the only craft beer drinker that has an ambition or fantasy to one day open a brewery or pub.  I recently read two articles on new breweries, one that made the thought of opening a brewery seem daunting and financially frightening, and one that made it seem downright enjoyable, almost a game alchemy. 

A few Sundays ago, the LA Times profiled Torrance brewery Strand Brewing Co.  I'll admit that after reading the article I didn't want to run out and start a brewery.  Far from it, but after reading the article, I had an admiration for its founders' work ethic and persistence.  The passage below is almost nightmarish:

Joel Elliott and Rich Marcello built Strand Brewing Co. in a tiny space at a Torrance industrial park by working 100-hour weeks for three years, without vacation or pay or employees.

They borrowed money from relatives and friends. Then they hit them up again, and again, and again. They tapped out their own credit cards.

There is a happy ending so far:

Sales nearly tripled the second year to $309,000 and are on pace to hit $750,000 in 2012. The partners hired their first employee in April, an assistant brewer, and have signed with a distributor, Wine Warehouse — freeing Marcello from making every sale and delivering every keg from his van.

According to the article, Strand has more than 200 accounts, and last weekend I saw Strand's pale ale on tap at Ocean Beach Pizza Port, so that's a good sign for the young brewery.

Then I read this blog post by Brandon Hernandez on Rip Current Brewing, and its founders, Paul Sangster and Guy Shobe, sound like they are having way too much fun.  I assume they're having fun - they have to be - if they're taking the time to play chemist and change water properties to adjust to beer styles:

Shobe notes that San Diego water isn’t optimal for making stouts because it is high in calcium and sulfides, which are great when brewing IPAs and hoppy red ales, but do not sync up well with malt-forward brews. Hard water doesn’t work well with the astringency of malts. So, in order to optimize the water for a stout, the duo will up the chloride so it’s present in higher quantities and forms a better chloride-to-sulfide ratio.

Rip Current's tasting room looks well appointed, and it expects a fall opening. 

I realize I'll probably never start a brewery, heck I've never even tried to brew a batch of beer, but it's a fun thought.  I wish both Strand and Rip Current well.  I know there will always be room for a brewery that can craft a decent beer.

A Black Jack Hop Smack

I had a small glass of Firestone Walker's Wookey Jack Black Rye IPA at a 4th of July barbeque, but it got lost in the sampling of other beers before and after it.  I liked it enough, though, that I wanted to try it by itself without competing distractions.  As its name states Wookey Jack is a black IPA, which to me means its a hoppy beer with roasted malts. Wookey Jack fit this description.   It didn't look completely black (despite what the accompanying picture looks like), but more a deep mahogany with a cream foam. 

The beer's rye was present throughout, and gave Wookey Jack flavor depth, a full mouthful, and provided a complement to the hops.  Wookey Jack also had a slight mouth coating texture, a sensation I don't usually appreciate, and I'm not sure whether it came from the rye or the alcohol.  It wasn't prominent enough to change my opinion of the beer.  The abv was 8.3%, but it wasn't noticeable, getting lost in the roasted flavors.   Wookey Jack had a smooth aftertaste and a nice, long lasting bitterness.

I don't know of a beer style that generates the passion - love or hate - more than black IPAs, although the controversy seems to have passed.   Beers like Wookey Jack should help the style, because it's a no nonsense, unpretentious beer that tastes good.  It should appeal to those that don't like black IPAs as there is depth and character to it, which makes for a drinkable, interesting pint.

A Rare Whiff

I looked back over my recent reviews and I'm dismayed that it's been one rave review after another.  Not every beer I drink is a good beer, and I don't just write about the good beers.  I just haven't been as good as documenting the bad and mediocre beers as I have the good beers, even though negative reviews are easier and more fun to write. 

Linchpin White IPA, a collaboration between Green Flash Brewing and Founders Brewing wasn't a bad beer, but I'd call it a boring and mediocre beer.  It's unique in that it's not only a wheat IPA, but it's also a Belgian IPA.  You don't find too many wheat IPAs, I can't think of another, and after Linchpin I see why.  I didn't find it that hoppy, nor did it have much Belgian yeast flavor.  The best I can say is that it was a hoppy wit.  As with most wits I drink, a little bit goes a long way, and I grew tired of Linchpin long before I finished the bottle. 

A couple of issues worked against Linchpin.  I drank the bottle during the Lakers' elimination game against the Thunder, which soured my mood.  I also have such high regard for Green Flash, I'd come to believe it couldn't brew a bad beer, or in Linchpin's case help brew a mediocre beer.  If Linchpin was brewed by another, lesser brewer, I probably would have had a better opinion of it, which is a ridiculous bar I've set for Green Flash.  Maybe I should just blame Founders, whose beers I have never tried.  If I see Linchpin on draft somewhere I'll give it another shot.