Lagunitas Lucky 13.alt

Review #10

Brewer: Lagunitas Brewing Company
Beer: Lucky 13.alt
ABV: 8.9%
Location: Petaluma, CA
Style: American Strong Ale

The large majority of my previous reviews have featured some beers from Southern California Brewers, along with my grumblings about not being able to enjoy those beers regularly. While I’m sure many of the few readers this blog sympathized with me over my whining, I should bring up that we (Albertans) are actually pretty lucky. Though not actually from Southern California, Lagunitas Brewing Co. out of Petaluma, California, offer up an unbelievable line of beer that has never disappointed me. What’s more is that, as far as Canada is concerned, they are only available in Alberta. So if anyone is curious as to what I’m talking about when I mention West Coast IPA’s or something, these guys provide unbelievable examples. So anyhow, the beer that I have on the bill today is a seasonal from them, and the time of review was rather fresh… unfortunately I don’t believe it’s available any longer in the province, but I’m sure a couple of you have had this. It is Lucky 13.alt and the style of beer is an American Strong Ale, which is pretty well the widest umbrella possible other than Ale for American beer. So on to the beer then. Wow. This beer actually looks unreal. It’s super orange, and might as well be glowing. Like it is super bright, crystal clear, and had a really crisp tight bubbled head. That head dies out pretty quickly, but I’m not complaining.  When I first popped the cap on the bottle, it smelled exactly like a fresh loaf of bread, but as soon as I smell it from the glass, I get tons of piny hops and then some caramel comes in; no malt toastiness or roastiness, but more of like a super ripe apple. I think I’ve mentioned before that sometimes a beer tastes like it has this over ripe, but not rotten, apple kind of taste to it. It’s super sweet smelling but without any tartness. Can’t really smell any alcohol, and It’s 8.9%, so we’ll see I guess. Right away it’s that kind of apple caramel malt I got in the nose, really sweet, but the pine pushes its way in too. Then there’s a pretty abrupt shift, as you can start to taste the alcohol, and I get a good deal of bitterness. The alcohol burn is pretty tame but there’s spiciness there too. Not like Belgian yeast spiciness, more like a black pepper kind of spice, but it works great with the alcohol and the bitterness. Also as it warms up a bit, there’s a really fresh orange taste that comes out, like when you were in elementary and that jerk would squeeze an orange rind into your eyes at lunch and the oils would spray out and blind you for a bit… no? Just me then? Fair enough, but it works really well with the rest of stuff going on in the beer. It’s a full-bodied beer for sure; the mouth feel is substantial, definitely on the higher end of medium, and not a whole lot of carbonation. It’s really robust, and just about every aspect of a beer makes itself known. They don’t really compete with each other, because I can pick them out pretty well at different times during a taste. If I could complain about one thing it’s that the malt on its own is a little too one-dimensional, it’s just really sweet. It doesn’t taste dark or roasted, but just sweet. But I think because of the strong hop profile (and friggin’ delicious one at that) and the alcohol, the beer more than makes up for that. Actually this beer reminds me a lot of their Hop Stoopid. The exception being that the Lucky 13.alt concentrates on the malt a whole lot more. Which reminds me, although this beer is likely no longer available, do yourself a favour and pick up a Hop Stoopid; but be warned, the alcohol isn’t nearly as noticeable out of that beer 8%, from my experience anyway, and a 22oz bottle can lead to an irritable morning.

Rating: Take it from the TGS on this one.

Paddock Wood Loki

Review #9

Brewer: Paddock Wood Brewing Co.
Beer: Loki
ABV: 8.7%
Location: Saskatoon, SK
Style: Double IPA

Though this kind of breaks my tradition of San Diegan Beers (as I still have load of beer reviews that I wrote from the IPA’s I brought back, that have yet to make it on to this blog), I’m still going to stay within the framework of IPA’s/IIPA’s. Truth is I’ve been really busy lately, and well, I know the demand for me to spit these out is non-existent, plus what do I know about beer anyway? Anyway, this is a beer that I reviewed probably 2 months ago now, but it was fairly fresh at the time of the review, so let’s just pretend 1 of the 2 following situations: This review is being transposed 2 months back, or the production date of this beer is being fast-forwarded 2 months forward. The beer at hand is Paddock Wood’s Loki IIPA. I have not had a single beer that has disappointed me from Paddock Wood, especially the stuff they collaborate on with Sherbrooke (if you can get your hands on Jeff Werstiuk’s beer he designed for their collab, Heartstopper Hot Chocolate Stout, DO IT!). The colour on this is a rich brown/deep orange. I’d assume its bottle conditioned, because this is one hazy beer, but there’s also a lot of condensation on my glass. Nice big fluffy head came up on this one, and even though it’s down to a real thin layer now, it leaves lacing all over the glass. The smell is really nice too. Tons of citrusy hops, so much so that it smells like a grapefruit massacre. But there is a really strong malt profile when I smell it again – like caramelized sugar. No alcohol presence, despite it being very fresh and 8.7% ABV. First taste is mostly malts for the flavour, and lots of bitter from the hops. It’s kind of like toffee without being cloying, and some graininess.  Second taste I get a lot more of the pine. The malt is noticeable, but it doesn’t take over, it balances really well with the piny flavours. I would say that the bitter form the hop is really strong on this beer. It is way more dominant than anything else, and lasts a long time. So understandably the finish is really bitter, and just like the smell, there is no alcohol presence whatsoever. There’s this like extra toastiness that comes in during the finish too. It mixes with the hop bitterness and creates what I’m inclined to call an almost burnt toast character. The mouth feel is really nice, it’s not thick at all, and the carbonation helps I think to stop the malt from making this beer taste syrupy; the strong hop character does work there too. However, I happen to really enjoy a god hop palate shredding, so this isn’t something that bothers me. I wouldn’t say that It’s an Imperial IPA that will blow your mind or anything, especially depending on what style of IIPA you tend to favour. I mean like West Coast IIPA’s are pretty orange in color, with tons of citrus and tropical notes mixing with the pine, and very little malt. Whereas most of the East Coast varieties I’ve tried tend lean more towards a caramel/brown colour, with a bigger malty sweetness and more pine or grapefruit than other hop notes. Again this is just from my experience, but I would say Loki fits itself comfortably in the East Coast area, and honestly I think it is a really flavourful IIPA that actually has quite a bit going on.

Rating: If you like what's going on here, you should like this beer...

Hair Of The Dog Blue Dot

Review # 8

Brewer: Hair of the Dog

Beer: Blue Dot

ABV: 7%

Location: Portland, OR

Style: Double IPA

Even though I picked up this beer in San Diego, it comes from a brewer just north of California – in Portland, OR. Hair Of The Dog doesn’t produce a huge line up of beers, but from what everyone I spoke to in San Diego told me, everything they do make is fantastic. I saw a couple more of their line down there, but most of them seemed like beers that didn’t really fit my mood, I guess given the warm weather down there. I actually intended on drinking this down there, but ran out of time to drink all of the beers I greedily grabbed. Oh well, I could have worse problems to deal with. All I know about this beer is that it seems to an ode to the Planet, and celebrates Earth Day, even though every year they release it during a different season… I don’t get it, but they don’t pay me to. In fact, they don’t pay me at all; I paid them for this beer. My particular bottle just says summer 2011 on it, so I guess it can’t be too old. As for its looks, it pours a crazy hazy light orange color. I just had an apricot, and it looks legitimately like that. Like it is totally opaque, nothing is visible through it. Kind seems like what would be produced if apricots could lactate… yum. Smell is a lot of sweet tropical fruits. Not much in terms of pine. It has some pineapple and tons of peaches going on. Very light citrus, maybe a sweet kind of orange, not much to be said in terms of grapefruit though; nothing really bitter coming at me. I found somewhere that its 100 IBU’s and I really hope that comes through on taste. Slight perfumy kind of smell, like a potent flowery hop sort of smell. I have to say that the beer looks weird though. Smells a lot like those dried apricots too actually. Even though the smell is rather one-noted (lots of sweet hops), the taste really delivers. Definitely it’s the apricot juiciness and a little bit of pineapple that hit me up front. It mixes with that strange perfume, kind of flowery hop. Those flavours hit up front, and then I get a swift but smooth shift to pine and grapefruit flavours. That said, they don’t dominate, because the bitterness from those hop flavours really start to move in quite strongly. I was worried that it would be too just light and sweet, and have no bitterness because of the aroma, but the flavour on that first sip puts this beer where I was hoping it might be.  Yeah it’s sweet at first, and then slight citrus sour flavours, then I get some bready malt briefly before that grapefruit and pine bite comes in. It really doesn’t look like a carbonated beer at all, but the bubbles really feel nice on the palate. That’s one thing I’ve found with every West-coast IPA that I’ve tried thus far, is that they use the perfect amount of carbonation to play off that intense hop bite. I was surprised that this IIPA was 7% when I read the bottle, but the taste definitely supports that. There’s no alcohol flavour, or burn, but this thing definitely has flavours as big as any other IIPA. It’s medium bodied and the finish is bitter, but not dry; it’s really enjoyable. Yeah this is a really great IIPA, I know it’s good, and it’s not that I’m underwhelmed by it or anything, because if I saw it on the shelves again, I would buy it, but I still can’t help but feel like I am underwhelmed. It’s really stupid I know. Like this thing is really delicious, maybe I need more time with it, or maybe it’s just because my stomach is a little queasy from earlier today. Let’s see I guess. Yeah I mean this is a great IIPA. I really can’t complain, there is nothing wrong with anything in the taste. I’ll admit the look of it, and my slight nausea, is putting me off every time I bring it up to taste it, but the flavour is just really nice. Lots of peach and grapefruit and a slight caramel/malt sweetness near the beginning. I feel like a bastard for not feeling as enthusiastic about this beer as I know I should. But oh well, still a great beer, with cool bottle art, and wish I grabbed more of their stuff. 

Rating: I would bet it tastes better than this.

 

AleSmith IPA

Brewer: AleSmith

Beer: IPA

ABV: 7.25%

Location: San Diego, CA

Style: India Pale Ale

Even though I actually drank/reviewed this beer a week ago tomorrow, I’m gonna keep on plugging through with more west coast IPA’s, because I wanna get all the beer from my So Cal haul in here together. Run-on sentences. And Ironic fragments… Anyway, the beer “today” comes from yet another world class craft brewer, making beer that anyone would be hard pressed to dislike. A ballsy statement to make for sure, but I've heard worse. My only regret about this beer is not trying more of their line while I was down there; just about every liquor store I went in had most of their line-up. I’ll complain to you guys more some other time, but for now I’ll stick to the review. Pours a super orangey amber; a lot more orange than Pliny, but a lot less brown than The Maharaja. Small but very tight bright yellow-tinged but mostly white head; the bottle talks about how the beer is bottle-conditioned, and you can see a fair amount of bubbles streaming up from the bottom. This beer is following in the style of all the San Diegan IPA’s I’ve had, being quite foggy, you can still make out stuff through the beer, but its hazy. (again evidence of bottle conditioning). Smell is lots of grapefruit and other really sharp and crisp citrus bitter, but juicy, hops. Not so much tropical fruits, but like a bitter sour grapefruit smell. There’s some pine, and very little malt, but definitely smells like a resiny hoppy bomb. In the taste, up front its amazingly clean, with more bright crisp citrus flavours. There’s lemon and sour grapefruit, not altogether bitter at first, mostly a juicy fruity hop that has a nice bit of sweetness. Then I can feel the hop profile building, and while that juicy hop character sticks around, the bitterness very slowly creeps its way in a pretty sneaky way. The more that it warms, I definitely get more malty flavours, but that Hop bitterness hasn’t died out at all. It’s just as slow as the first go, but hot damn it feels like it is so much stronger – and for me that’s a good thing. So needless to say I’m left with hoppy bitterness in my mouth with some peppery/spicy notes, and realistically no alcohol, but I wasn’t really expecting to get any. I would say its medium bodied, definitely full of flavour though, and the carbonation is fairly noticeable – perfect for the style in my books. It’s not like champagne or anything, but it’s a lively carbonation that works really nicely with the alpha acids of the hops to tickle your tongue… if that doesn’t sound to lame...which it always does when you have to question it. It’s really a graceful beer in the way the flavours develop (again lame). It’s amazingly well balanced, and extremely flavourful, and the manner in which the hoppy bite comes in I’ve never experienced in a beer before. At first you feel like you might be missing out a little bit, and that the beer might be lacking that hop slam, but the flavour profile slowly yet exponentially builds.  I’m left feeling like I’ve just licked the rind of a grapefruit. Seriously flavourful IPA, and I’m glad it’s time in my suitcase didn’t kill the extraordinary hops at play in the beer. I’m confident this is the grapefruitiest beer I’ve had. If you put a grapefruit, skin and all, into a blender, pureed and strained it, this beer would still taste more like grapefruit than that. If I lived in Sandy I would legitimately buy this every day. Holy crap it’s good and cheap. Like $5 for the 650ml bottle. Kick me in the teeth.

Rating: This beer achieves the same level of grapefruit as this painting, for $975 less.

Avery The Maharaja

Review #6

Brewery: Avery Brewing Co.

Beer: The Maharaja

ABV: 10.2%

Location: Boulder, CO

Style: Imperial IPA

So once more I'm writing up a beer from my journey’s to Southern California, which means, yet again this beer is not available in my, and most likely your, local market. That said it isn’t actually brewed in California at all; it comes from Avery out of Boulder Colarado. Unfortunately, for those of you who didn like none of them map learnins in grade school, a quick visit to google maps will show that Boulder Colorado is pretty much just as out of the way from Edmonton. Furthermore, it is a limited release from the brewery, part of their Dictator Series, but it’s available for most of the spring and summer, in a large variety of markets in the US. So if you find yourself in a bigger US city between March and August, you’ll likely be able to find this one. I remember first stumbling upon this beer last year, when in New York, my brother bought it cause it looked hilarious, but I think we were both surprised at how god it was. That said, when I saw it for $6 at Whole foods, I pretty much had to buy it. And now I’m gon’ drink it. Pours surprisingly dark, like there’s some orange, but it’s definitely a lot browner than any of the Imperial IPA’s I’ve seen lately, granted, pretty well all of those have been San Diego IPA’s so this is quite different. According to their site, they’re using a butt-load of malted barley to give it a darker hue, so mystery solved… It has a nice fluffy head that disappears pretty quick, but leaves lots of lacing. In the aroma there are tons of fruity hops: tangerine, light grapefruit, you can really smell some caramel/date-like quality from the malt. When I swirl the glass around, and let the carbonation build up, I can pick out some pineapple. There’s very little on the piny aroma, again I can detect some bitterness of a grapefruit though. The label says it was bottled in June, so It’s at the late end of an IPA’s shelf life, but it was in constant refrigeration at the store, and afterwards. That said, fresh there would probably be a stronger pine presence from the Simcoe hops.  Oh crap that’s good. Man this thing has layers. It comes off with all fruity hop at first, then you get legitimate caramel taste. And it blends with the body of the beer so that it seriously feels like caramel; definitely more viscous than most Imperial IPA’s I’ve had (and rest assured I would say I’m pretty well versed in them at this point.), but damn does it work. So yeah up front you get a lot of maltiness, but then there’s this shift, and I don’t know if it’s the alcohol that is causing a slight burn or if it’s the high alpha acids from the hop that are just wrecking my palate, but huge hop bitterness stabs your tongue like the Maharaja does to Indie with that voodoo doll in Temple of Doom. It’s stupid good. You get to taste some alcohol as that kinda fades, and then piny hop flavour and bitterness come in and ride out the most of the rest of the taste. Not as much fruit taste as is in the aroma, but I think it could be argued that there is some grapefruit rind quality present in the hop bitterness. Again the mouthfeel really works for this beer, where its thick and matches that caramel up front, and the tasty flavour of the alcohol. If it was a lighter or thinner beer, I think the beer would come off as dry and just too sharp; that said, the carbonation saves the beer from tasting syrupy. Like the video says on the site page for this beer, this is not a balanced beer, and they didn’t want it to be one. It’s got stupidly robust flavours and really is a hop explosion with huge malt character and strong alcohol presence, not a burning one, but at 10.2% it’s pretty noticeable. It definitely relies more on the caramel flavour from that malted barley than the San Diego Imperial IPA’s, but man it definitely contends in regard to beating your tongue with hoppy bitterness. Late Update (it’s a big bottle to get through ok?): Man this thing grates the palate, really can taste the barley malt. As it warms, I‘m surprised to get more of the citrusy hop flavour. Usually I get lots of citrus, and as it warms up, there’s more malt, but this beer flipped me on my head. Food Pairing: Would definitely go good with chilled monkey brains.

Rating: All the Sankara Stones

Dark Force

Review #5
Brewer: HaandBryggeriet
Beer: Dark Force
ABV: 9%
Location: Drammen, Norway
Style: Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout

So today I have a review from a Norwegian brewery that came into Edmonton a couple of months ago. This is a little bit shocking as apparently they brew their beer on an insanely small scale, so to get their stuff all the way out here is kind of a treat. That being said, it would seem as though only 3 beers from their line have made the journey: a Traditional Norwegian Ale, and 2 Imperial Stouts. I’ve got a bottle of their Odin’s Tipple sitting in my cellar, and honestly it’s gonna stay there for a long time, 'cause when I smelled the one my brother had at The Sugar Bowl a while back, it smelled like soy sauce (plus its 11% so it can handle the aging). That said, what I have today is kind of a hybrid beer. They made an imperial stout, but instead of using your standard chocolate malts, black malts, barley malts, etc. They threw in wheat malt and wheat yeast which are common in well… wheat beers.  So they have ever so humbly dubbed it a “Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout”, and if that name isn’t ridiculous enough for you, the bottle is laden with Star Wars references, so try it just for that. But enough with my preamble, this pours legitimately pitch black, like there is no light coming through or any hints of brown; and it’s pretty viscous looking too. This thing probably has the darkest brown head I have ever seen from a beer and it’s big. Sometimes people say beers have a mocha-colour head, meanwhile I’m thinking “pff that ain’t mocha ya dingus”… yeah, this is actually mocha in "foamal" form. The smell has lots of chocolate, roasted malt and coffee. The roasty-ness borders on smoky, and with HaandBryggeriet being a Norwegian brewery, that’s not altogether shocking. That’s because with their Norwegian Wood, they’ve roasted the malts by wood fire giving their beer this smoked meat characteristic, kind of like a Rauchbier. But, I don’t know if they roasted the malts with wood fire for this specific beer, so high five for useless information. There’s another dark sweetness that I can’t really place, kind of like liquorice, but not. The taste definitely brings that smokiness right up-front. I’m now pretty certain that they roast the malts with wood fire; I mean I would be shocked if they didn’t roast them that way - but don't take that as absolute truth. Right after that, I do get an alcohol burn, it’s not intense and it fades pretty quickly, so I can definitely deal with it. Then I get a little bit of sweetness, really dark bitter chocolate, but the smoke and roast is really what is predominant in this beer. If you're not a fan of smokiness, then be forewarned: It's a Trap! It’s a pretty new bottle, from December 2010, so I’m sure with age some of the flavours would mellow out, and you would get more of the chocolaty flavours, but it’s the roast that lasts the whole way through for the time being. It’s full bodied, got some carbonation, and is really a well crafted and interesting beer. Actually as I drink more of it, I think I’ve become more accustomed to the smoked flavour, it’s not really attacking my palate as much anymore, so the characteristic Imperial Stout sweetness is much more apparent, but it still takes a back seat. Also, the wheat malt really makes itself known the more that I drink it; it’s not like a Hefeweizen or anything, but you can still taste it. It’s definitely not what I expected from an Imperial Stout, but I’ve never had an “Double Extreme Imperial Wheat Stout” before, so I guess that explains it? Super smoky beers are definitely not something that I scour the shelves for or anything, so this beer would not be my No. 1 choice for a stout fix. That said it’s still really good, and would be extremely satisfying on a terrible rainy day, and something about their way of traditional beer making/pushing boundaries I find really cool. As their website claims, I reckon Sidious would truly love this beer.

Rating: 7,000 Midichlorians

Russian River Pliny The Elder

Review #4

Brewer: Russian River Brewing Company

Beer: Pliny The Elder

ABV: 8%

Location: Santa Rosa, CA

Style: Douple IPA/Imperial IPA

OK, so currently I have a backlog of like ~16 beers that I’ve reviewed but have not gotten around to posting. Reason being, I usually make some pretty basic tasting notes that are lacking in fluidity or prawpur grammuhr, so I can just get on with relaxing and enjoying my beer. Also no one is really reading these at this time so it really doesn’t matter much as I literally have 0 demand to have to supply for, so yap. Anywho, I figured I would say to hell with the order of the beers that I reviewed as I have recently acquired something rather special, and for the sake of making some kind of temporal sense, I should probably post this one rather soon. Last week I had the pleasure of visiting San Diego which in the craft beer community is known as an IPA, and just generally a Craft Beer, Mecca. Well after getting to try this beer on several occasions while there, I had to bring a bottle back to drink at home. The beer in question is Russian River’s Pliny the Elder, and it is hyped up as being one of the best IIPA’s out there, and while it is pretty difficult to track down (it's always sold out erwhere), it is technically available year-round. Extra useless information: Its named after a badass Roman Historian/Scholar/Philosopher, and is probably the ugliest bottle I've seen... It looks like a damn olive. My particular bottle was bottled on August 9^th, so for someone like me to able to taste this beer at home in Canada with just barely a week of age on it is something special. If you don’t know why I stress the fresh drinking of this beer, well the bottle has some humorous warnings and imperatives about why you shouldn’t age it, but just look it up on google ya damn kids! On with the review then: This thing pours a gorgeous amber gold and is slightly foggy. It may be its reputation influencing me (and my memory of its flavour), but it is really one of the greatest looking beers I think I have seen, but I mean, realistically it could look like Orbitz and it wouldn’t change how much I like this beer. Holy crap the aroma Is absolutely unreal. Pine, resinous hops, dank, almost cannabis-like, slight pepperiness, some light tropical fruit and citrus – super ripe peach, but not too sugary smelling. First taste is remarkably balanced. Smell made me feel as if it was going to be a palate wrecker, like really was just gonna have its way with your taste buds like an angry Eewok, but frick me if it is not the cleanest IIPA I have ever had. Tons of that tropical fruit hop, a little bit of a malty sweetness,  mouthfeel is unreal and velvety. It’s definitely thicker than an IPA, less so than an Imperial Stout, but works great with the carbonation.  You get so much damn hop flavour up front; it’s that tropical fruit and resiny madness, that blends perfectly with the malt and upped alcohol that everything balances out perfectly. I always figured it would be this unworldly bitter hop bomb but, they just do so much with the flavour of the hops that it becomes this wonderfully juicy beast of an IIPA. I do get a little bit of bitterness that fades in a few seconds after swallowing but its soon gone and that juicy awesome hop flavour sticks around for the long haul. At 8%, I don’t get an alcohol burn at all in the finish; however I can feel a great warmth in my throat as I breathe out. Again the mouthfeel is great and can only be described as silky or velvety. Before I ever tasted it, I really had a different Idea of what this beer would be, figuring it would be akin to like a Ruination or something, but it far surpassed those expectations and I’m glad. That’s not to say that the Ruination is worse than this, or even that Alley Kat’s Bad Hare Day is either for that matter, each is doing something totally different with the style, while remaining true to it, and the outcome in each case is truly fantastic. However I can’t deny how awesome this beer is, and how it is the epitome of a quality IIPA. Like there is no off-putting grainy-almost-mustiness, or sometimes I get this grain like flavour that’s just too overpowering in some IPA’s and their variants. I dunno, maybe it’s the different water that is being used, or just the quality of the malts, again I don’t know, but this beer definitely avoids all of that. So there you go. Go down to California right now and buy one. Or better yet go to their brewery and drink it fresh, then drink some Pliny the younger and laugh at me.

Rating: as Epic as the way the namesake died. Killed by Mount Vesuvius when it destroyed Pompeii. What the what?!