Random Tuesday Tasting

Warmed up with some rum

A few Tuesdays ago my buddy Eric of Addison Homebrew Provisions stopped by to hang out and have a few beers.  I took advantage of the opportunity to get some one on one feedback on my Rhino Stout (not to be confused with Imperial Rhino Stout still in secondary), discuss the schedule for some demos I’m going to do for him in October and give him a New Glarus Belgian Red I knew he would enjoy.   My wife Bonnie joined us sporadically as she was cooking and taking care of our daughter.

After getting feedback on the Rhino, too thin and green, it was time to start opening some bottles.

Nice little surprise

The IPAs

I’ve been a little lupulin deprived lately so we decided to start with some IPAs.  This presented a great opportunity to open some of the extras I’d received in some recent beer trades.  We started with the Old Man Hopper's India Pale Ale from Rust Belt that I received in The Barrel Aged Yeti Trade.  Overall it was a pretty good IPA; it wasn’t overly bitter or harsh just well balanced. Some hop aroma was present, could really tell if it was dry hopped or just had a solid aroma boil addition. Definitely towing the line between a pale ale and an IPA. 

Fight Dead Hop Flavor
Drink IPAs Fresh!

Next up was Arctic Panzer Wolf from Three Floyds. I got this beer as an extra in the Math Trade #4 - The Quad Lazer.  Killer name, killer label and killer beer, I’ve had some many bad imperial/double IPA that I’m pretty gun shy about them, so the fact that this was really good was a nice surprise.  Lots of really nice piney hop aroma with a gorgeous color and well balanced flavor profile. No mistaking the bitterness here but again it was nicely focused.

Ended this section of IPAs by opening a year old Stone 14^th Anniversary Emperial IPA.  I guess the only thing that annoys me more about using the term Imperial on any beer not a stout is a random spellings of it.  Last year when it was fresh I had a debate with my buddy Marshall on whether or not the beer needed to age.  I personally enjoyed the beer fresh while he thought it could use some age.  I wish he could have made it over so I could grab his notes on it now.  Definitely lost what made it good a year ago, Eric and I described the aroma as dead hops.

Bambic in my broken Zeno glass

The Sours

As I’ve been really into sours lately and knew Eric was an enjoyer of them as well I decided to open a few bottles I’d been dieing to try, starting with Jolly Pumpkin’s Bambic.  The story behind Bambic is pretty cool; it’s a blend Bam Biere and Batch 2 & 4 Lambic done to celebrate Winking Lizard’s, a beer tavern in Ohio know for their World Tour of Beer, 25^th Anniversary.  Now this was an excellent beer, the sourness was up front, great nose with excellent notes of the oak.  I got a good laugh when I gave Bonnie a sip, she just doesn’t do sour beers.

More of a dark sour then a stout

After that we opened a bottle of The Bruery’s Tart of Darkness… I’ll be honest this is a good sour beer, but not as fantastic as I’ve heard.  The sourness was a little one dimensional and while the label lists it as a stout there were no stout in it outside the color.

It’s really just a dark sour. I have a couple more bottles that I’m going to sit on and to see if it changes with age. 

The Rest

After the sours we sort of drifted into opening random beers from the beervault.  Eric had brought over an Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence that he wanted to try so we popped the cork on it next.  For most of the time we’d been drinking we’d also been letting this bottle warm so it was at a really nice temperature when we started to drink it.  It had a lot of good bitter chocolate notes on the palate and in the nose which paired nicely with the coffee undertones. The label lists it as a Belgian style chocolate stout but I didn’t get any yeast notes that would give me Belgian style.  Eric who does not like coffee wasn’t a fan which Bonnie the coffee connoisseur loved it.  Bonnie’s Notes: It had deep coffee flavor, possibly a French roast/Italian roasted coffee (dark roast) and a nice note of chocolate.  It was dyn 'o mite. Shouldn't be called chocolate indulgence, should be coffee goodness. First stout I’ve really liked in a long time. 

More like coffee goodness - BJB

I decided to then open the last bottle of brother Ryan’s pale ale that he brought back the last time he was in town.  This was the second time I’ve had it and everyone agreed it tasted off.  It might have been his hop choices, but I really believe it comes down to temperature control for primary fermentation.  This is a subject that can, should and will be its own post.

 

Bonnie had the next choice of what to open and decided to grab out her bottle of Ballast Point Sculpin that Total Wine now feels is a limit one kind of beer.  This was not the Sculpin that’s been swimming around the top of the craft beer scene this last year. It was definitely off and just didn’t sing to anyone of us.  Bonnie was let down as she really loves this beer.  Bonnie’s Notes: inconsistent, have had fresher (odd considering it was a fresh batch), too sweet on finish.

At this point I needed a palate rinser and my cider wasn’t getting it done so I reached for a ribbon, a blue ribbon that is.  I drink and enjoy PBR as it is a perfect example of a light American adjunt lager.  After that I cracked a Yeti which is one of my favorite imperial stouts.  Either it was off or my palate was off because it didn’t taste right.  It had a mineral graininess on my tongue that I didn’t care for.

Overall I had a great time.  There are few things I enjoy more these days than sitting in my garage drinking and discussing beer with a good friend.  The ability to talk about homebrewing was an added bonus.

Cheers

-SNB

The Line Up (Left to Right): Rust Belt - Old Man Hopper's IPA (nice IPA but almost a pale ale), Three Floyds - Arctic Panzer Wolf!, Stone - 14th Anniversary (aged IPA experiment - better fresh), Bambic - AWESOME!!!, The Bruery - Tart of Darkness (Get the stout off the label this is a dark sour), Homebrew Pale Ale, Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence (do you like coffee? yes - you'll love it, no - just ok), Ballast Point - Sculpin (was the batch off?), PBR (always a winner), Yeti (either it or my palate was off).

Beachwood BBQ and Brewing

Outside Seating Coming Soon

Bonnie and I have been going to Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach for the last couple of years.  The food is incredible southern style BBQ and both the tap and bottle list have always been incredible.  It’s always been a place we both enjoy to go and I’ve never been let down even when trying some outside the box.  On my last birthday Bonnie took me there and I had my first Sour Stout while talking with the Owner/Head Chief Gabe Gordon about both his food and beer selection process. 

Given Gabe’s attitude on craft beer and his intense focus on preparing awesome food I was very excited when it was announced they would be opening a second location.  What made it even more exciting was the fact that they would be brewing their own house line up of beer.  It was soon announced that they had settled on a location in Long Beach and that they would be bringing in Julian Shrago as co-owner and head brewer. Julian is a well known homebrewer who has brewed at the commercial scale with several breweries including Port Brewing and Triple Rock.

Enough background let’s talk about Beachwood BBQ and Brewing Long Beach.

Bonnie and I stopped by after taking babyRaptor to the Long Beach Aquarium on Sunday the 24^th.  This was my second visit as Shawn and I had stopped by a few weeks earlier shortly after the grand opening.  On this trip they had 8 of their house beers on tap and had started doing taster flights.  Bonnie and I both selected the following flight; Punk Wheat Ale, Uno Belgian Single Ale, Breaker Pale Ale and Melrose India Pale Ale.

The House Beer  Menu

Punk Wheat -This was a dynamite American Wheat reminds me a lot of New Glarus Dancing Man Wheat

Uno Belgian Single Ale - The name is spot on, this was a very nice light Belgian

Breaker Pale Ale - Classic pale ale with the prefect amount of bitterness

Melrose India Pale Ale - This was the beer I was most excited to try and it did not let me down, absolutely brilliant!

After completing my taster I immediately ordered a full pint of the Melrose and spotted Julian who was in moving some beer around.  I’d met him a few times now and he’s a really cool guy, as most brewers are.  Most of our discussion centered on my impressions of the beers and how things were going.

Of course the beer is only half of the reason we go to Beachwood.  For lunch we had an order of the smoked chickens wings (it was like eating bacon on the bone), smothered fries (really good), Bonnie got the BBQ chicken salad (dynamite as always) and I got the steak salad (probably the best cooked steak I’ve had in a while).

We had planned on meeting a friend there for lunch but while already running late had managed to go to the Seal Beach location.  While we waited for her I ordered the Kilgore Stout.  I’d had this stout before and really enjoyed it.  I’d say it’s a bridge between a classic stout and an American pale ale or IPA.  Good amount of roastiness with some sweetness and a nice hop nose. Big thumbs up.

Much Better Shot!

Before leaving a grabbed a growler of the Melrose to go and unlike the Rockbottom growler I had, I guarantee this one will be refilled often! (of course it helps that we bought a yearlong membership to the aquarium so we could have a place to take babyRaptor)

Cheers

-SNB

Updated 14-Aug-11 with New Pictures

Guest Tap Board

Taster Flight

The Correct Pressure for Every Keg!