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.