12 Days of Christmas – Yule Smith
December 20, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
On the eighth day of Christmas…
Yule Smith! Yep, Santa loves me. I just love that I can get more and more San Diego brews up here in chilly Massachusetts, getting better everyday.
Ale Smith is one of my favorite breweries and Yule Smith is one fine beer. This is the best beer I have had in this little Christmas series.
Yule Smith is brewed twice a year, Summer and Winter. The summer Yule Smith is an Imperial IPA and the winter is an Imperial Red. Both are amazing!
The Winter Yule Smith is thick and sweet with strong warming characteristics. It is big on everything, hops, malt, alcohol. But hey there is balance, so weird it just all works. LOVE!
Beers like this make me wish it was Christmas everyday
Alesmith Evil Dead Red
November 11, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
One you can only get in So. Cal. The seasonal brew from Alesmith, on cask at Churchills. Evil Dead Red is malt crashing with hops in a very drinkable American Amber. There is so much going on in this beer, and yet it is so drinkable.
Green Flash Bourbon Barrel Double Stout
November 10, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
While warming a stool at Stone I had the fabolous Green Flash Bourbon Barrel Double Stout, on cask! WOW, step back step up this is a fab beer!!! Dark, viscous, creamy, smooth, fab! +
Stone Cali-Belgique
November 7, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Well as I headed into San Diego I met my folks at Stone for my beginning to San Diego Beer Week! My timing for a visit was spot on and the beers, fabulous!!! Had an amazing Mac n Cheese and the Stone Cali-Belgique. Yeah for San Diego!! It was really dark at our table, so no live photo, sorry folks.
Bashah
BrewDog, one of my new fave breweries, and Stone, one of the most amazing breweries (IMHO) join together! To make, Bashah.
First off, they make me laugh. The Scots join the bastards and come up with Bashah,
Next, they make me smile. As I take a read of the bottle Black Belgian Double IPA. Not like I have any illusion that I know what a Black Belgian Double IPA. I get actually everything except the Belgian bit. Was this the yeast they used? If you keep reading, you will keep laughing.
So, take a whiff. You will smell so much here. First off, it is an IPA and smells like one. But then there is a sweetness and chocolate. It is also like sticking your nose in a hop bouquet. The floral bit is strong and good.
Oh, a bit on the appearance. Yes, its black. There is a slight brown tinge to the colour. The off-white tannish head is fairly big from my aggressive pour but dissipates quickly. Beautiful beer.
Now the fun stuff, the flavour. There is more going on here than I think I even understand. The chocolate comes our, a bitter chocolate none of this sweet stuff. But there is a sweetness, caramel? And then there is a hoppy bitterness, and then there is a smoked peat hint too. After tasting that smoked peat full force in BrewDog’s Storm I was quickly able to identify the hint of it here.
This has a medium body and is slightly milky (you know not milk milk but like a milk stout). For 8.6% the alcohol is fairly hidden. It is smooth bitter and sweet.
Wow, what a beer.
Hop15
I have been so excited about this beer! I just love Hop 15 from Port Brewing Company in San Diego. I brought it with me the other night but we ended up having that impromptu beer tasting. At the end of our beer tasting a friend asked if I wanted to crack Hop 15 open. I laughed, it is 10% ABV double IPA! It needs to be consumed on its own. Saturday was Hop 15′s night and I shared with no one.
Hop 15, as it’s name implies, is very hoppy. I was at a BBQ so I didn’t have the correct glassware, as you can see from the photo. Filling up my plastic cocktail glass I could smell the floral and slightly citrus bouquet over the smell of the yummy chicken on the grill. My nose was getting more and more excited as the beer flowed into the glass. The beautiful slightly yellow head crowned this beautiful golden ale. The lacing on this beer is beautiful, all the way down the glass. Now you might be like, “dude, you were drinking out of plastic” Yes, I was but my friends were too and their beer didn’t look like this.
Every sip is a dream. This is a very hoppy, resiny, slightly viscus beer not for the faint of heart. It is one of the most beautiful West Coast Style IPA’s, IMHO.
Why is it named Hop 15? Well, because according to their website, Hop 15 has 15 different hop varieties added to the beer every 15 minutes of course. Duh.
BTW… if you have not tried this beer bottled in the past couple years please give it another go. I have heard that people used to have a hit or miss with Port’s bottled ales. This has clearly been straightened out and is not the case anymore. Some older reviews of this beer are not anything close to what I tasted.
Also, CONGRATS to Dr. SHAY WELCH!!!
Port Brewery Midnight Sessions
April 9, 2010 by justin · 2 Comments
It’s not often that a beautiful day in April comes along. In fact weather like we had Thursday in April is about as rare as, “a great swell coincides with a full moon. But when they collide, nature affords us a rare opportunity to paddle out long after everyone has called it a day.” Yes, I grew up surfing so the analogy on the bottle works perfectly for me. And, it is true. The Port Brewery Midnight Sessions dark lager is a perfect balance of hearty warmth and crisp refreshingness.
Port Brewery Midnight Sessions was perfect for a fine dining style BBQ with some friends. My friends like their stake rare (as you can see) and the Midnight Sessions went well with the moo-ing stake. Someone on Beers,Beers,Beers said that, “it’s made from the second runnings of Lost Abbey Serpent Stout” I’m not sure if that is true but based on the flavour it is a good comparison.
The aroma is malty, smokey, and a medium coffee smell. This beer is more sweet than bitter but the slight hopping balances it out to make it fairly dry. There are some hints of caramel in here as well. Not too heavy and it is crisp and refreshing.
Beautiful lager. Beautiful friends. Beautiful day.
Not quite midnight but beautiful footage here:
2nd Anniversary Double IPA
After yesterday’s beer failure. My friend came over for a drink and I broke out the good stuff. Port Brewery’s 2nd Anniversary Double IPA is a very nice double IPA. Port also brews Lost Abbey in San Marcos, California (in San Diego County)
Over Christmas I went to Port/Lost Abbey with my mom one Sunday afternoon and drank my way through the Port lineup. We had a blast and their strong ales knocked me off my keg (their stools are kegs with barley bags on top).
The 2nd Anniversary Double IPA pours a golden/wheat colour with a thick medium size head. This was a beautiful glass of beer. The aroma is very tropical. Kinda like pineapples and guava. In fact, now that I think about it, it smelled like the P.O.G. I had for lunch (Pineapple Orange Guava). With this tropical aroma there are some malt and hops strongly present as well.
This double is very viscus. The hops are strong, as they should be in a double, and complex. Throughout the bottle you can taste various hops and they dance on your tongue. Good thing I shared this one with a friend. It is a high ABV (I am reading 9.5% but seriously felt higher to both of us) and brought cheer to my afternoon, which before the beer really was fairly sucky.
This was a very limited release, only brewed once. The fact that it made it out here to Massachusetts a year and a half later is amazing. People on Rate Beer give it an overall 97 rating, I agree. This is a great double.
Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter
March 27, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
What did you have for dinner? Mussels in garlic sauce, fresh locally baked sourdough bread with brie and a Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter? Oh my word, so did I.
What a marvelous pairing. The succulent mussels in the garlic sauce were just perfect with the brie and sourdough and the porter, I sipped it throughout my meal and its smooth flavour and finish was refreshing and light compared to the meal but heavy enough to hold its own. Serious success here.
And this my friends, launches “Porter Week”! No it is not any national or international or even local event. I have dreamed it so. For the next 6 days (seven including today) I will drink porters and tell you about them. I encourage you to do the same and tell me about your experiences by replying to my posts. This is an interactive week. So join me!
The Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter is brewed in my hometown San Diego. Actually more specifically it is really brewed really close to where I grew up. A few years ago I visited Ballast Point and sampled their brews. Everything coming out of this place should be tried. Ballast Point does hop their brews more than many breweries do but as far as San Diego brewers go they take it easy. I don’t hear the buzz about these guys like I do about Lost Abbey, Stone, and Ale Smith. So, you can try something your friends should be buzzing about but aren’t.
The Black Marlin Porter pours almost solid black and you and smell the chocolate coffee fruit notes right away. This suckker is s-m-o-o-t-h. The malt is not smokey it is more nutty, like cashews that melt in your mouth. The hops are very present but there is no bite. There are strong coffee and chocolate notes but they sit in harmony and only peak their heads out to say hi. Drink this beer,
Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
March 6, 2010 by justin · Leave a Comment
Long day at the New England Small College Queer Summit. The students did amazing work and I was so glad to help make it all happen. And, what a beautiful day in Williamstown! It was sunny and cool, warm for this time of year. I’m still coughing, and a bit more tired today than I normally am. You don’t even know how happy I was to arrive home and see one of may favorite beers sitting ready and waiting for me, Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale.
What was once extremely rare is now available in 12oz bottles. I first had this amazing beer on tap at Stone. It was great then and is great in the little bottle as well.
Yes, this version of the infamous Arrogant Bastard Ale from Stone Brewery is Oaked! What does Oaked mean? It means that it is “ale aged with American oak wood chips” (as said on the bottle) These oak chips balance this beer out, it is smoother than than its un-oaked sister beer Arrogant Bastard Ale, and I like this one better.
The hops, of a “classified” variety, kick you down when you take a sniff of the beer. They are more grassy than floral with a bit of grapefruit aroma. The flavour is more hops, with a smooth malt, and some alcohol warmth. All of this is sweetly melded together for tons of drinkable fun in a bottle.
If you are Japanese, you can read more about this wonderful brew, in Japanese, here!
Tomorrow my new couch, already named “The Beer Couch” should arrive! Yeah! It is a broken-in brown leather couch. Yip-yee. Reviews from the beer couch will hopefully begin upon its arrival.