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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Tenuous Link?

It was big San Diego beer news this week when Cosimo Sorrentino abruptly resigned from his job as head brewer at Monkey Paw Pub and Brewery and South Park Brewing Co.  The West Coaster published an interview with Sorrentino after his announcement.  I thought the interview raised more questions than it answered.  This passage in particular had me wondering about a larger meaning and wanting specific examples:

I feel San Diego has crossed over to a new era in brewing. The community spirit is being fractured; too many breweries fighting over the same styles, following trends for profit, not enough quality staff to provide front-of-house service…and let’s not get into the distributor issues. This was inevitable and will not necessarily be a bad thing for those making or drinking beer. San Diego beer will get better and those that succeed will benefit from the competition!

I want to know what Sorrentino defined as the new era and what triggered it.   And what does he mean by breaking the community spirit?  He ends the quote with the following statement: "San Diego beer will get better and those that succeed will benefit from the competition!"  His optimistic opening contradicts his previous statements, and the sentence ends with an ominous warning about breweries not surviving. Wow, there are deep levels of implications in that quote. 

This brings me to my tenuous link.  I have said before that breweries that make good beer will survive.  I will qualify that to say that good beer will go a long way to help a brewery survive.  Recently, I tried an awful beer from a local brewery I am not going to name.  It was a Belgian Pale Ale with Rose.  It had no Belgian yeast influence and no taste of Rose.  It was just a crappy, tepid paleish ale of some sort  Brewing and selling bad beers like this is going to put pressure on all breweries.  The craft beer craze has matured and people will not stand for subpar beers, there are too many other choices.  It made me think that there is something to Sorrentino's claim about too many breweries battling over the same style and a fractured community spirit.  I would add that some breweries are fighting with defective weapons.

San Diego Beer Week

Today, November 4, 2016, is the official start to the 8th annual San Diego Beer week.  There are multiple events every day until next Sunday, November 13th.  (Look for spillover into the following week as great beers not finished during Beer Week will remain on tap around town.)  There are too many venues to list here, but below are links to websites that have dates, beer events, and links to detailed information:

San Diego Beer Week  - The official website to Beer Week.

West Coaster - San Diego's best beer publication has a detailed calendar of events.

Tap Hunter - San Diego - This website provides tap lists of specific restaurants and bars, and lets you find what gems are still available after Beer Week ends.

I recommend checking directly with your favorite local restaurant or bar, too, or search on social media to find their schedules, as not all events are on the sites above. 

Oniony Delight

Hop Concept IPA Citra & Azacca from Port Brewing is an IPA from Port Brewing's Hop Concept brand that consists of a series of releases that highlight and pair specific hop varieties.  Its most recent beer combines Citra and Azacca hops.  The two hops alone are supposed to produce citrus, tropical, and melon flavors, but I found that together these characteristics cancel out.  To me, the beer's aroma was liquefied and brimmed with fresh earth and onions, not a fruity tropical island paradise.   It smelled and tasted like the outdoors on a damp day.  I enjoy cold damp days.  Citra & Azacca had a pointed upfront bitterness that swept away other flavors and planted itself squarely on my tongue.  The absence of citrus brought a welcome seriousness to the beer.  Its 8% abv was serious, too, but any alcoholic heat was buried under the bitter onions.  The strong hop resins gave a long finish that lingered as a reminder to what a drinkable and enjoyable beer Port Brewing created with Hop Concept Citra & Azacca.

Good Writing Good Reading

I recommend reading The Beer Nut's blog posts on his recent trip to the United States. The first two posts focus on New York City and are here, and here.  The Beer Nut is an Irish beer blog that I have read since I first sought out beer blogs more than a decade ago.  It is the best beer writing you will read anywhere.  Here is an example of a beer he liked:

Feeling gypped by the first round I doubled down and spent a smidge over €10 for a half-US-pint of Jolly Pumpkin Saison X, a beer of just 4.5% ABV. There's a sharp bricky aroma, like good lambic, though almost tipping over into vinegar. On tasting there's an immediate gritty funk which is much more saison-like, huge juicy peach and honeydew fruit, which was a surprise, and then a classic oaky sour finish, bringing us back to lambicland. It's only barely to-style, though admittedly saison does have a pretty broad set of parameters. But it was absolutely beautiful: combining the best bits of several different kinds of beer in exquisite balance. Which, at that price, it would want to.

And a beer he did not like:

I kicked off with Invasive Species, a 5.7% ABV sour ale by Brooklyn outfit Greenpoint, which incorporates Motueka and Citra hops. It's a pale hazy yellow colour and smells very farmyard. The first hit on tasting it is an eye-wateringly sharp green acid effect from the Motueka and then a surprising candy-sweet middle. The Citra succeeds in turning this into 7-Up while the sourness is merely a tangy afterthought. A chalky fruit-flavoured antacid tablet flavour finishes it off. This really didn't work well for me: hoppy and sour I like, but sweet and sour is for chicken.

"Bricky aroma" and "gritty funk" are descriptors I don't read in other beer reviews, and I will not read a more brutal slam this year than "succeeds in turning this into 7-Up."  It is hard to write this well.

The Beer Nut's focus is Irish craft beers, but he reviews and discusses American, English, and European beers, too.  He is knowledgeable and open-minded and has followed craft beer's European growth.  He is no sentimentalist and does not bemoan non-cask beer or the rise of hop-heavy IPAs, or pine for a world of 4% milds.  The beer writing on The Beer Nut is worth reading even if you never drink any of the beers or plan to visit the pubs described on the blog. 

(The Beer Nut visited and wrote about McSorley's pub in New York City, a place that if I had a Bucket List would be near the top.  I wrote about, but mainly linked to and copied and pasted from Joseph Mitchell's classic 1940 New Yorker profile of McSorley's here.)

Top Wet Hop

It is wet hop IPA time of the year.  Wet hop IPAs, true seasonal beers, are brewed with fresh harvested hops and provide intense, juicy flavors.  My favorite wet hop IPA is Ocean Beach Pizza Port's Get Wet, which I found out has been renamed Wet Lamborghini.  It is the standard by which I measure all other wet hop IPAs.  Wet Lamborghini's acute flavors provide an immediate citrus rush, and is what I think of when I here "dank" as a descriptor.  The cloudy beer is not overly bitter, but fresh and chewy.  Other breweries have wet hop beers out, and the Ocean Beach Pizza Port had at least four others on tap over the weekend, but I have not found another one that packs the flavor wallop of Wet Lamborghini.  

Stone Pale Ale 2.0 - Failure to Launch

In my last post I linked to a San Diego Union Tribune article about Stone's layoffs.  At the end of the article, journalist Peter Rowe noted that Stone has discontinued its Pale Ale 2.0, the 2015 reformulation and relaunch of its original pale ale.  I liked 2.0 but it was more a traditional pale ale than the new, leaner and hoppier pale ales being brewed by Ballast Point (Grunion Pale Ale), AleSmith (San Diego Pale Ale .394), and others.  The new pale ales deemphasize malts and are essentially IPAs with lower ABVs, but with more depth than one-dimensional session IPAs.   To Stone's credit, it did not linger over Pale Ale 2.0, and has replaced it with a "hop-forward" pale ale called Ripper.  I am a fan of the new style pale ales, and want to try Ripper soon.

Stone's Layoffs

Stone Brewing fired about sixty employees yesterday at its Escondido headquarters.  (The exact number was not released, I have read numbers as low as fifty and as high as seventy five, but the San Diego Union is stating sixty.)   The West Coaster, and other publications, posted the PR statement from new Stone CEO Dominic Engels.  The layoffs were part of corporate restructuring.  In the statement, Engles said:

More recently however, the larger independent craft segment has developed tremendous pressures. Specifically, the onset of greater pressures from Big Beer as a result of their acquisition strategies, and the further proliferation of small, hyper-local breweries has slowed growth.

It is unfortunate that Stone blames both the macro breweries and "hyper-local breweries" and not itself.  Stone has had big, cash-intensive projects in 2015 and 2016 that are just completing, which include full-scale brewing facilities in Virginia and Berlin.  These ambitious growth vehicles had to have been expensive, and are probably not at full revenue yet.  The lag between expenditures and revenue makes sense, and is something Stone should have expected and budgeted.  Stone needs to take some blame in the firings and not just point to external factors.

On a simple level, Stone's CEO is new, and therefore has no emotional history with employees.  Letting him take the blame for the firings under the moniker of "restructuring" is easy.   It is also a weasel move, letting the new guy be the bad guy, and does not reflect well on Greg Koch and Steve Wagner.

Stone is a twenty-year old company.  Upward, vertical growth is not realistic.  A small number of layoffs are not a surprise at this stage of a company's life.   As Engles's statement points out, there are "tremendous pressures" in the craft beer industry.  Stone is in as good as a position as any craft brewer to face competition.  In my opinion, it's the top craft brand, and a trendsetter.  I have written on this blog more than once that if a brewery makes good beer it will fare well, and Stone makes good beer. 

Must Read From Modern Times

Here is blog post from Modern Times' Jacob McKean rebutting an article from Serious Eats on recent craft brewery acquisitions by macro breweries.  The Serious Eats article by Aaron Goldfarb (formerly writer of the Vice Blog beer blog) is an overall positive article on how macro purchases of craft brewers benefit the small, purchased craft brewers.  McKean has seven points where he corrects claims in the Goldfarb piece, like how being sold gives the acquired craft brewers access to capital, and hops, and quality control.  The piece while scathing, is not a bash on Goldfarb, but gives a strong craft perspective to the banal macro narrative.  McKean ends with this gem:

Here’s the truth: selling to a macro-brewer is the fastest, simplest way to turn equity in a craft brewery into cash. That’s the only reason to sell to them. Anyone who claims otherwise is full of shit.

Pale Aleapalooza

My obsession with pale ales continues.  There are two new, local pale ales being released in the next week.  Port Brewing is releasing Graveyard's Pale Ale in sixteen-ounce canned six-packs today, August 26, 2016.  Graveyard's is a "6.2% hoppy pale ale," which is bright, fruity, and tropical, according to Port Brewing.  I'll be picking up a six-pack of this today.   Modern Times is releasing Trueland Pale Ale in twenty-two ounce bottles the first week of September.  In contrast to Port's tropical Graveyard's, Modern Times' Trueland is staking out "piney dankness" territory with some tangerine zest thrown in because Modern Times can.  Dank, piney, tropical, citrusy, hoppy, malty, I do not care, if a brewery has a pale ale I want to try it.

Institution Ale Co.

I first visited Camarillo's Institution Ale Co. last fall when it was located in the back corner of a light industrial building that was on a street with similar, indistinguishable industrial buildings.  Its tasting room was tiny and jammed with people.  The beer offerings were basic, and included a pale ale, an IPA, a stout, and a blond ale, but all the beers I tried were good.  It is better to make a limited number of beers well than brew a large number of beers with haphazard results.  I revisited Institution a few weeks ago and was amazed by the changes.  It has a new location, its own building along a road that frontages Highway 101 in Camarillo.  The stark, one-story, stand-alone building, in addition to housing the brewery and a small merchandise store, has a huge tasting room, which was packed with patrons, and an outdoor seating area, which was also full.  The tasting room is fitted with picnic benches for communal seating.  Institution also has limited food offerings, prepared on-site.  Here is a picture of part of the tasting room:

Institution is named after Camarillo's State Mental Hospital, which closed in 1997 after operating since 1932.  The former hospital site is now Cal State Channel Islands.  Institution's logo appears to play on the mental hospital theme, with what looks like a Rorschach ink blot.  The photo of the logo below is from an Institution growler, and I see something steam punk on the left, and my face before I get my first IPA on the right:

Institution's beer offerings have increased, but remain primarily ales.  It now offers multiple pale ales, IPAs, and stouts. (You can find Institution's current beer list by selecting the link at the top of this post.)  Institution's core IPA, named Institution IPA, is a classic West Coast IPA, which means heavy on the hops and light on the malt.  The beer is not groundbreaking, but it is done right.  The picture below is Institution IPA from the outside seating area.  I selected the Simcoe Pale Ale as a growler fill from Institution's Progressive Pale Ale series, which I found out, despite the name, is not a single hop beer.  Simcoe Pale Ale was a well made, quality beer that I enjoyed.  Like newer pale ales, Simcoe Pale Ale was hop forward and malt diminished, basically an IPA with about a 5% to 6% abv.   

The people at Institution were friendly.  They kept the long beer line moving, even getting beers and tasters for you while you waited in line.  I am glad for Institution's success.  Its new location is a huge improvement and a testament to its growth.  It beers alone are worth a stop.  They are not fancy or pretentious, but taste great.  I plan to refill my growler next time I am up in Ventura County.

Ballast Point Changes

That did not take long.  San Diego CityBeat is reporting on management departures at Ballast Point, the now Constellation Brands-owned brewery.  Constellation bought Ballast Point late last year.  The CityBeat article has this paragraph:

One brewer they are moving forward without is Yuseff Cherney. The former head brewer/head distiller was one of the four in Ballast Point's leadership to jump ship. Other casualties include CEO/President Jim Buechler, CCO Earl Kight and founder Jack White. With the departures goes years of experience in the San Diego brewing industry as well as the chief architects of the company's meteoric rise and earth-shattering sale to Constellation.

That is a big management change.  The article states that it is business as usual at Ballast Point, which sounds more like business as usual for Constellation, not Ballast Point.  White and Cherney are focused on "their new spirits venture." 

Praise the Pale

San Diego Magazine interviewed former Stone Brewing brewmaster Mitch Steele.  What I found interesting in in the article was Steele's opinion on pale ales and his comments on session IPAs.  Steele said this on pale ales:

At this point, if I look at a beer list, the first thing I look for is a pale ale or a pilsner. I love .394. It’s a great beer. Just having a beer that’s got some hop character that isn’t 7% alcohol is kind of a nice thing.

My exact thoughts on pale ales.  Instead of always looking for a high octane double IPA, now I first seek out the pale ale options.  I agree with Steele on his praise for AleSmith's .394 Pale Ale, it is one of the best beers ever brewed in San Diego.   I still drink plenty of IPAs, but I am glad that pale ales are making a comeback.

Steele, while stating his affinity for session IPAs, nails their major flaw:

Honestly, I thought the session IPA craze was going to take off. I mean, if you talk to brewers, the brewers all love it. And that’s usually a pretty good indication if something is going to succeed or not. But the problem is that people are still buying on alcohol. They’re still looking at alcohol content when they buy. The thing I learned about session IPAs is that people look at the alcohol content and equate that with price. So, when you’re brewing a beer that’s equivalent to a double IPA as far as the hopping, but the alcohol level is below 5%, people are going to balk at paying an IPA price for it, which is a shame. I think it's a really neat style and I love it.

To me, session IPAs are thin, one-dimensional beers that are boring after the first few sips.  If you want a low alcohol beer, why settle for a session IPA?  There are many low alcohol beer options that have more character and flavor than a session IPA.  Reach for a wit, or a saison, or a pilsner instead, or, wait a minute, a order a pale ale!

East County Blues

It has been a tough couple of months for East County brewers.  Twisted Manzanita abruptly closed in March, and now SD Eater has an article on the re-boot of Butcher Brewing into Finest Made Ales.  I have said before that I believe a large part of a brewery's success is in making good beer.  The beers I had from Twisted Manzanita and Butcher Brewing were nothing special.  That being said, I wish Finest Made Ales the best of luck.  I like to see all breweries succeed.

Accumulated Knowledge

Modern Times' Accumulated Knowledge IPA is one of my favorite IPAs of the year.  It is one of the least bitter IPAs you are going to find, which I didn't know when I bought it, but found immediately appealing once I stared to drink it.  The crisp, not bitter hops brought in a nuance and a dank fruitiness.   The beer was not filtered, and I don't know whether its cloudiness actually added to the dankness or it just fooled my brain to think so.  Read this article by London beer blogger Chris Hall, who actually references Modern Times in the post, as he describes the trend in IPAs away from bitterness to more complex flavors.  He could have had Accumulated Knowledge's variety of flavors in mind when he wrote the post.

Accumulated Knowledge is an exclusive release for Trader Joe's.

Arrogant Brewing

Earlier this week I learned that last year Stone Brewing split Arrogant Bastard into its own brewery, Arrogant Brewing.  A pilsner of all things - the most unlikely Stone or Arrogant Bastard source - lead me to discover Arrogant Brewing.  Last weekend I picked up a six-pack of Who You Callin' Wussie pilsner, assuming it was from Stone.  When I replied to a tweet where I recommended what I referenced as Stone's new Who You Callin' Wussie pilsner, Stone's social media group replied that while it agreed Who You Callin' Wussie was delicious, it was not a Stone beer but an Arrogant Brewing creation.  A quick internet search found Arrogant Brewing, its stories, and its lineup of beers.

I will leave it to the pilsner purists to tell me whether Who You Callin' Wussie is true to style.  I don't really care.  After drinking it, I know it is quite a beer.  It is a crisp, spot-on thirst quencher that is full of flavor.  It will never be confused with that beer that changed its name to America.  On Arrogant Brewing's website it looks like Who You Callin' Wussie is the only beer that is not an Arrogant Bastard derivative.  This difference alone makes it a beer worthy of your attention.

Juiced

Stone Brewing announced yesterday its Tangerine Enjoy By IPA is back, and was released on June 18th.  I loved the first version of this beer and wrote about it here.  I have become a huge fan of citrus IPAs.  Stone's Tangerine Enjoy By and Ballast Point's Grapefruit Sculpin IPA get plenty of deserved love, but they are not the only juiced beers in town.  Mike Hess Brewing does the whole citrus fruit thing right.  Its Grapefruit Solis IPA (pictured) and Tangerine Hopfruitus IPA are stellar, and pack as much if not more citrus intensity than the Ballast Point and Stone beers.  Mike Hess varies its regular Solis IPA's recipe with every batch, and I think it's on Batch #56 or #57.  I have not been that impressed with the versions of regular Solis I have tried.  Grapefruit Solis is another story, and for it Mike Hess created a special, non-varying recipe made with hops that accentuate the grapefruit.  If you like Grapefruit Sculpin, you will love this beer, which is available in 22 oz bottles.

Mike Hess's Hoptuitus IPA is a spring seasonal, and its regular version is a delicious IPA.  The Tangerine Hopfruitus, like Grapefruit Solis, takes the original beer to a higher level.  Tangerine Hopfruitus is so citrus concentrated that I believe I get a mouthful of fruit pulp with each drink.  Tangerine is a sweeter fruit than grapefruit, and the sugars play off the hop bitterness.  Craft beer is not immune to trends, and citrus IPAs are strong trend, but one I want to become permanent.

Moving On

Stone Brewing's Brewmaster, Mitch Steele, is leaving Stone at the end of June.  The West Coaster has details here.  Steele's departure after ten years is amicable.  Stone is not filling his position, which to me signifies the size and quality of Stone's current brewing talent, opting instead for an "innovation team."  I don't think we, as outsiders, know the significance Steele has had on Stone over his tenure, which has coincided with Stone's rocket-trajectory growth.  Stone has released multiple beers every year, reworked old recipes, and has opened and continues to open new satellite brewing facilities, with each new brewery having its own brewer.  I believe Enjoy By IPA is Steele's creation, and if the last two versions are any indication, corporate duties have not diminished his brewing skills.  According to the West Coaster and other publications, Steele was sought after by "industrial professionals," which implies some form of new brewing venture.   Good luck to Mr. Steele!

Gored

I pulled a Telegraph Brewing Rhinoceros out of my beer fridge last night.  It is a big (10% abv) barley wine.  I have had my Rhinoceros for a few years, at least, and I don't remember where or when I bought it.  It tasted fine, but I found it a bit of a slog.  It was tight and astringent dry, permitting nothing more than periodic sips.  (The glass of water after the beer was a relief.)  The booze was upfront and unrelenting, like a Stephen Curry three-point barrage.  There was some melon and stone fruit on the nose, but the strong malt presence wiped out much of the fruit flavor.  I thought I tasted a pleasant woody flavor, though.  I'm no barley wine expert, as I can think of only a few I've tried, so I don't know if Rhinoceros was true to style.  I'm guessing it probably was, knowing Telegraph's quality.  This copper giant was a pretty, big-foamed beer that I found serious, probably too serious for my mood.   The beer lived up to its name because you don't mess around with a Rhinoceros.

Star Chemist

Here is a link to a KPBS video and article on San Diego's White Labs, the biochemistry firm that specializes in creating high quality yeast strains for the craft beer industry.  The link is a bit old, the original story ran in late March, but it is still worth the time to read the article and watch the video.  (NSFW warning:  the video contains excessive beer porn.)   White Labs dates to the mid-1990s, and its growth has matched that of the craft industry.  It supplies yeast to not only San Diego's and Southern California's brewers, but brewers across the country and internationally.  It has locations in four states, Europe, and Asia.  White Labs even brews its own beers to test first hand its varied yeast strains.  It has tasting rooms at its San Diego headquarters and its Boulder lab, where you can discern the sharp influence of yeast on a style of beer, holding all other ingredients constant.  A visit to a White Labs' tasting room could result in a beer geek mind implosion.

Douchey McDoucheface

Mike Hess Brewing's Claritas kolsch-style beer won a deserved Gold Medal at the World Beer Cup on May 7th.  A few days later I went into Mike Hess Brewing's Ocean Beach tasting room to buy a six-pack of Claritas and was told someone had bought the entire stock of Claritas after it had won the medal.  What a douchebag move.  Claritas is an excellent beer, but it is far from rare.  It is not Pliny the Younger, a limited, once-a-year release; it is brewed year-round and widely available.  Cleaning out the tasting room fridge of a brewer's core beer is not just rude but unsavvy and unsophisticated, too.  Winning a Gold Medal does not signify scarcity, it rewards a quality beer. 

True True Craft

I know I should be writing about Stone Brewing's new True Craft plan that commits $100 million to provide craft brewers the needed capital to avoid the grasp of macro brewers.  This sounds great, but I can't yet focus on it.  I am too amazed by Stone's latest version of Enjoy By.  The addition of tangerine to this hop heavyweight is nothing short of stunning.   My May is shot, as the window to buy Enjoy By 5.30.2016 is now less than a month.  The sweet tangerine mixed with the citrus-flavored hops is a perfect combination.  Initially, I was wary of fruit additives to beers, but I like the beers brewed with grapefruit and blood orange and lemon and now tangerine.  Stone continues to brew stellar beers while saving the craft beer industry. 

Life Goes On

I read on Twitter last week that this year's release of The Bruery's Tradewinds Tripel is its last.  It was a 140-character punch to the gut.  When I started this blog nearly nine years ago I don't think I had ever tried a proper Belgian beer.  The beer blogs I read back then raved about Belgian beers and I knew I needed to, at minimum, have a basic understanding of Belgian styles to have any credibility writing about beer.  The Bruery, a start-up brewery in 2008 that brewed Belgian-style beers, helped my education.  One of my favorite styles was Belgian Tripel, and I loved Tradewinds.  Its prominent yeast, multi-layered complexity, and smooth taste helped define tripels for me.  How could I have drank beer for so many years without knowing about the subtle genius of even basic Belgian beers?

The Bruery applies its unique interpretation to any style it brews, and with Tradewinds it added Thai basil (a flavor, I admit, I never quite detected). Tripel is not far from golden strong ale, the delicious, benign-looking, straw colored beer that hides a vicious kick to the uninitiated.  And golden strong ale is an extension of the wide open saison style.   In short, The Bruery and its Tradewinds, along its other beers, allowed me to venture into beer styles I did not know existed.  I can trace my affinity for wild ales and sours to Tradewinds.  I plan to find a few bottles of Tradewinds and savor them not just for nostalgia, but for the great beer that is Tradewinds.

Downtown Johnny Brown's Is Closing

I just read on the West Coaster's website that Downtown Johnny Brown's is closing tomorrow, April 29th.  Downtown Johnny Brown's, which opened in 1987, was a craft beer pioneer.  It was one of the first restaurants/bars in town to have an extensive, craft-focused tap list.  More important than the number of taps was the thought that went into the beer selection.  It was not like a Yard House or other mega-tap restaurant where with fifty taps there are only about five beers worth drinking.  Downtown Johnny Brown's tap list required reading before ordering so you would not miss something good.  I liked the throwback feel, too, if 1987 is a throwback.  Downtown Johnny Brown's reminded me of a simpler time in my life, and I am going to miss it.

Good Second Choice

I have not paid much attention to The Lost Abbey's Veritas series of beers.  Last week I saw a tweet with a great beer porn picture of this year's blackberry version, Veritas 17, which announced that the beer was about to go on sale.  I went to The Lost Abbey's website and saw that Veritas was going for more than $40 a bottle.  Now I know why I had not paid attention to the previous sixteen Veritas releases.

Visiting The Lost Abbey's website reminded me that I have neglected Port Brewing beers.  Port Brewing is a San Diego craft beer pioneer, with its Port Brewing, Lost Abbey, and now Hop Concept brands.  And it still makes great, relevant beers.  With the opening of Culture Brewing's and Mike Hess Brewing's tasting rooms near my house, and the multiple releases from Modern Times, my beer focus has concentrated over the past year.  While I am not going to spend $40 for a bottle of beer, I did go buy a bottle of Port's Hop Concept Galaxy and Comet IPA.  Hop Concept is a brand of only IPAs, and it was created to celebrate hop varieties.  (Port's website lists The Hop Concept, but only has information on The Hop Freshener series of beers, and I am not sure if there is a difference between the two names.)

Galaxy and Comet IPA is fantastic, a big West Coast IPA.  Brewers are experimenting with so many varieties of hops I don't even try to keep them straight, let alone any nuances.  Some of the beers with new hops are so distinct it detracts from the enjoyment of the beer drinking.  Not so with Galaxy and Comet, even though it was brewed to highlight the two hops.  It is not overpowering, just a well made beer.  The Galaxy is an Australian hop and the Comet is an American hop, and together the two taste mainly of citrus.  Galaxy and Comet's hops are prominent, not dominant.   Its 8% abv is muted, while it should push Galaxy and Comet to double IPA territory.  While I didn't care for the tropical flavored Hop Freshener beer released last summer, I plan to get more Galaxy and Comet.

Whale Potential

I recently purchased a bottle of White Lab's Frankenstout, a beer released on St Patrick's Day.  To me, this beer has whale potential.  If it does not become a whale, it is surely a rarity.  White Labs is the yeast provider to craft brewers around the world, and it now brews beers that are available in its tasting room.  Its micro-batch beers showcase the taste differences of various yeast strains, with all other ingredients the same.  Frankenstout is the first bottled beer that I know of from the San Diego-based chemist.

Frankenstout was brewed with 96-strains of yeast.  Typically, a beer takes one strain of yeast, with two or three at most.   A beer with this many yeast strains is absurd.  I picture the 96-strains of yeast fighting in some kind of biological battle royale, with stronger strains eating weaker strains until one bad-ass yeast earns the championship belt.

My bottle of Frankenstout is now resting in a dark closet. Whether Frankenstout becomes a whale or not, I plan to drink it sooner rather than later.  Beers are brewed for drinking, not trading.

Blurry Future

I picked up some take out food at BBQ House OB in Ocean Beach a few weeks ago, and is my habit, I checked the tap list.  A number of craft sounding beers from now macro-owned craft breweries shared space with local beers from independently-owned craft breweries.  Multiple beers from Elysian, Golden Road, and Brecken-freaking-ridge polluted the tap list.  Thank God for the presence of Stone, Modern Times, and Karl Strauss to serve as the local vanguard.  The tap list at BBQ House OB is, I'm afraid, an example of what local brewers are facing today, and what will only get worse.  I expect more restaurants to adopt hybrid tap lists, mixing true local breweries with craft masquerades - Budweiser disguised as Breckenridge and Coors fronting as Golden Road.  Many consumers won't know or even care that the craft sounding industrial beers they are ordering aren't local beers, which is just what the macros want.   But I know, and won't ever order a beer from Elysian, or Breckenridge, or 10 Barrel, or any other fake craft brewery.

Dead On The Vine - Twisted Manzanita Closes

Twisted Manzanita Ales and Spirits is shutting down its brewing operations, but will continue its spirits business.  I saw last week that Twisted Manzanita had closed its Pacific Beach tasting room, and last night the West Coaster reported that the entire Santee-based brewing operation is closing.  This is sad news.  I don't have any insight into the closing, although the safe scapegoat is increased competition (although the West Coaster article lists a number of growth initiatives that never happened).  The original Manzanita Brewing beers that I'd tried were not good.  I'd heard its beers had improved recently, but first impressions are lasting, and I have not tried a Twisted Manzanita beer in years.  I've also read that it's pumpkin ale is a decent beer, but a lone pumpkin ale, no matter how solid, is no way to build a lasting brewery.

I don't believe Twisted Manzanita's decision to stop brewing beer is a sign that craft beer has peaked.  It does show that competition is tough and unrelenting.  There are many options for people that want craft beer.  While Twisted Manzanita's departure is a setback for local brewing, to me, it is more an example of people avoiding a brewery believed to have marginal beers - even if it has a prime location on Mission Blvd - than it is a broader statement on craft beer. 

Outraged?

The beer world's face of evil is invading San Diego under the guise of one of its craft brewery subsidiaries.  Anheuser-Busch's 10 Barrel Brewing, which is based in Bend, Oregon, and that was acquired by AB in 2014, has filed an application to operate a brewpub in downtown San Diego.  The planned 10,450 square foot space (which is HUGE) will include a ground floor and rooftop restaurant, and a small brewery.  I know this craft beer fraud should cause me to go on a Lewis Black-style rant, but I'm not feeling it for a couple of reasons.  Attentive beer drinkers know 10 Barrel is owned by AB, and I suspect the new brewpub will be slick and reek "corporate," like a Yard House, so beer geeks will approach it with caution.  Yard House serves some kind of purpose, and so, I guess, will the new AB/10 Barrel brewpub. More importantly, playing James Bond to AB's Ernst Stavro Blofeld is award-winning Monkey Paw Brewing.   Whether it's ignorance or arrogance, 10 Barrel's planned location is about a block from the Monkey Paw Brewing pub.  To paraphrase Mr. Bond, I bet that beer drinkers prefer their beer "crafted, not macroed."

Ageless Writing

This brilliant seventy-six-year-old profile of McSorley's Old Ale House is the best beer-related article I have ever read.  The meticulous story was written by Joseph Mitchell, and appeared in the April 13, 1940, issue of The New Yorker.  Joseph Mitchell was a New Yorker staff writer from 1938 until he died in 1996.  He is best known for a thirty-two-year case of writer's block, where despite going into The New Yorker every day until his death, never submitted an article after 1964.  The quality of his writing, as shown in his McSorley piece, is, I am sure, why he was kept on staff.  Here are a few excerpts, but read the entire article:

Customers:

It is a drowsy place; the bartenders never make a needless move, the customers nurse their mugs of ale, and the three clocks on the walls have not been in agreement for many years. The clientele is motley. It includes mechanics from the many garages in the neighborhood, salesmen from the restaurant-supply houses on Cooper Square, truck-drivers from Wanamakers’s, internes from Bellevue, students from Cooper Union, clerks from the row of secondhand bookshops north of Astor Place, and men with tiny pensions who live in hotels on the Bowery but are above drinking in the bars on that street. The backbone of the clientele, however, is a rapidly thinning group of crusty old men, predominantly Irish, who have been drinking there since they were youths and now have a proprietary feeling toward the place. Some of these veterans clearly remember John McSorley, the founder, who died in 1910 at the age of eighty-seven. They refer to him as Old John, and they like to sit in rickety armchairs around the big belly stove which heats the place, gnaw on the stems of their pipes, and talk about him.

Beer:

Bill was an able bartender. He understood ale; he knew how to draw it and how to keep it, and his bar pipes were always clean. In warm weather he made a practice of chilling the mugs in a tub of ice; even though a customer nursed an ale a long time, the chilled earthenware mug kept it cool.

Prohibition:

During prohibition McSorley’s ale was produced mysteriously in a row of washtubs in the cellar by a retired brewer named Barney Kelly, who would come down three times a week from his home in the Bronx. On these days the smell of malt and wet hops would be strong in the place. Kelly’s product was raw and extraordinarily emphatic, and Bill made a practice of weakening it with near beer. In fact, throughout prohibition Bill referred to his ale as near beer, a euphemism which greatly amused the customers. One night a policeman who knew Bill stuck his head in the door and said, “I seen a old man up at the corner wrestling with a truck horse. I asked him what he’d been drinking and he said, ‘Near beer in McSorley’s.’ ”

When prohibition came, Bill simply disregarded it. He ran wide open. He did not have a peephole door, nor did he pay protection, but McSorley’s was never raided; the fact that it was patronized by a number of Tammany politicians and minor police officials probably gave it immunity.

Customers:

The majority are retired laborers and small businessmen. They prefer McSorley’s to their homes. A few live in the neighborhood, but many come from a distance. One, a retired operator of a chain of Bowery flophouses, comes in from Sheepshead Bay practically every day. On the day of his retirement, this man said, “If my savings hold out, I’ll never draw another sober breath.” He says he drinks in order to forget the misery he saw in his flophouses; he undoubtedly saw a lot of it, because he often drinks twenty-five mugs a day, and McSorley’s ale is by no means weak. 

From what I have been able to find, McSorley's has not changed much in the seventy-six years since Mitchell wrote the story, except that McSorley's now allows women customers.  I found this marvelous story through bloggers Boak & Bailey's twitter feed.

Early 2016 Beer Round Up

It is only January and I am already falling behind in my reviews.  Below, in no particular order, is a quick round-up of some worthwhile beers from the past month or so:

Green Flash's Jolly Folly IPA:  This was sort of a red ale, and sort of an IPA, and together an excellent beer.  Green Flash's rich, new holiday ale, released for the first time late last year, is worth finding, and it is still available in many stores.  It was an enjoyable, drinkable beer without all the spices brewers feel compelled to add to winter ales.

Mike Hess Brewing's Habitus Ale:  Habitus is technically a double IPA, but at 8% abv, it drinks like an IPA.  The citrus hop bitterness was not overwhelming, which was good, and this crisp, relatively light double IPA left me wanting more.  Habitus is available year-round, and since Mike Hess opened its Ocean Beach tasting room I always seem to have a few in my beer fridge.

Modern Times' City of the Sun:  City of the Sun is another IPA on my round up list.  I'm so predictable and pedestrian.  Well, this bold and aggressive IPA was anything but pedestrian and predictable.  Its heavy dose of Simcoe, Mosaic, and Motueka hops imparted flavors of earthiness and heavy citrus, which all the cool kids are calling "dank."  I am a big fan of the dank.  City of the Sun is only available from December to February, so time is running short on this gem.

Stone Brewing's Xocoveza:  This is a Stone Brewing Holiday special beer, and with ingredients like "cocoa, coffee, pasilla peppers, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg," I closed my eyes and approached my first drink like I was about to get hit.  I was still expecting a smack on my second drink, but by the third taste I started to realize that the sweet Xocoveza was a great, smooth beer.  It had all spices and ingredients missing from Jolly Folly, but they blended together perfectly.  The coffee and vanilla stood out to me, with a warm swallow due to the peppers.  It had a light feel, which made this beer much more appealing than if Stone had brewed it with an higher abv.   Xocoveza was an impressive stout.

Stone's Enjoy After 10.31.15:  This was an IPA brewed to cellar, and I waited a whole two months after the "drink after date" to open it.  I found it a rough, two dimensional beer: sharp hop bitterness and strong brettanomyces yeast.  I should have aged this beer longer  - years not months - to smooth out the hops and mellow the yeast, and to coax out other flavors.  This beer was the most carbonated beer I think I have ever opened.  It came with a cork and cage, and as soon as I undid the metal cage, carbonation pushed out the cork, unaided by me.  I didn't finish the bottle initially, and left it uncovered in the fridge for more than a day.  The next night I poured a glass and it had just as much carbonation as when first opened.  The attached picture is from the second day pour.

Ballast Point's Homework Series Batch #6 Robust Porter:  This beer was another stellar beer from Ballast Point's Homework Series.  It had deep, roasted malt flavors with a mineral tinge, like a English bitter or pale ale.  Batch #6 had a slight bitterness on the finish that helped counter its sweetness.  It was thinner than I anticipated, because the beer had a 7.8% abv.

BrewDog's Independence Declaration

"Outgoing founders always say nothing will change. Except Everything Does. And the reality is they are powerless to stop any changes"

Scottish brewer and pub operator, BrewDog, in a great blog post just before Christmas, declared its intent - in blunt, straightforward language - to remain an independent brewer.  If you missed this post, it is worth reading.  It addressed recent craft brewery acquisitions by large macro brewing corporations, and cited the number of negative changes that have already occurred at the formerly small craft brewers.  The post ended with BrewDog acting on its convictions by changing its corporate articles to prevent a sale to a macro brewer, or as stated by BrewDog, a "monolithic purveyor of bland industrial beer."

Here in San Diego, craft brewers Stone Brewing, Modern Times, and Green Flash, have made their plans to remain independent clear. 

My Favorite Beer of 2015

My favorite beer of 2015 was Modern Times' Funky Lomaland.  I did not review it here on the blog, but that is no reflection on the beer.   I'm not writing a more comprehensive 2015 "best of" list because my reviews were too sporadic last year.   Despite this, Funky Lomaland deserves recognition.  I diligently took tasting notes when I drank it - intending to write a review - and they include a bunch of eloquent, single and double word sentences followed by exclamation points:  "Dang!," "Bam!," "Dry!," and the all-capped "BRETT BOMB!."   

I bought Funky Lomaland a year ago, but did not get around to drinking it until early October.  It was brewed with two types of brettanomyces yeast and aged in red wine barrels.  It definitely tasted like a wild ale, but the wine added depth.  Funky Lomaland was fruity initially, then the red wine brought out a sly, sour characteristic, all surrounded by the funky yeast flavors.  A low abv (6.2%) and minimal hop bitterness did not interfere with its mixture of Brett and barrel aging.   Funkly Lomaland was drinkable yet complex, interesting yet not extreme.  The double dose of Brett brought out the wild funk, but somehow this dominant flavor was restrained and enhanced by the presence of the red wine aging. 

Modern Times' regular Lomaland, is a solid, if unexciting saison that does not push the style.  It is a go-to-beer; a beer that you should always have stocked in your fridge.  Funky Lomaland proves the greatness of saison as a style when brewed by a proper brewer.   The Funky Lomaland I bought was a special release, and while I don't know if Modern Times plans to brew it again, I suspect it will, at least some variation of it.

My final tasting note on Funky Lomaland shows my real opinion on the beer: "Why didn't I buy more of this gem?"