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.