San Diego Beer Events March 31th – April 6th

Tags

hamilton's firkin friday, knb beerbq, mad river brewing company, shipyard brewing company, steelhead dipa, Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans, toronado tart tuesday

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday Mar 31st:

I haven’t heard of anything special going on. If you know of something please email events@sandiegobeerblog.comto get it added.

Friday April 1st:

Mad River Brewing Company makes some seriously good beers. At last year’s Great American Beer Festival they won the Small Brewing Company of the year category and took home a gold, silver and bronze medal. Hamilton’s Tavern will have their Steelhead Double IPA on cask for this week’s Firkin Friday. Chances are good they’ll have a few other Mad River treats as well.

Saturday April 2nd:

Now that it’s spring it’s time for KNB Wine Cellars to start up their BeerBQ’s again. This time it’s with Portland Maine’s Shipyard Brewing Company. They’ll have around 15 beers from Shipyard on draft paired with traditional New England food. Check out more details on Facebook.

Sunday April 3rd:

Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans seems to be showing on draft at more bars and restaurants recently, but the only way to get some to enjoy at home is to get a growler filled at the brewery in Escondido. They don’t do fills all the time, so if you’re a fan head on up Sunday to get a growler full.

Monday April 4th:

Pint night at both Toronado and Eleven with $3 drafts. Eleven offers all of their on-tap beers for $3 from open to close while Toronado offers locals for $3 from 6pm to close.

Tuesday April 5th:

Toronado hasn’t announced many details on this one yet, but they’re calling this “Tart Tuesday” and say it’s a night sour lovers won’t want to miss. I expect Toronado will post more details here as the date nears.

Wednesday April 6th:

Small Bar will have some beers from Poway’s Lightning Brewery on tap with a keep the glass special. $5.50 gets your glass and first beer and refills are only $3.50 after that. No word on exactly what they’ll have on draft but Lightning is a nice change of pace from some of the overly hoppy beers around town.

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New English Brewing Co. Coming to Bottles and Casks

Tags

explorer esb, mission brewery building, new english bottles, new english cask, new english tasting room, pizza port real ale festival, troppers tipple ipa, Why?Not American Wheat Beer

New English Brewing Co. has been around for a couple of years now on draft at various bars and restaurants around town, but it seems like they might be stepping things up hoping to become more visible in San Diego’s ever growing craft beer landscape. New English’s current lineup of four year round offerings don’t put them atop the list of beer geeks looking for rare, barrel aged, high alcohol beers but it is a solid lineup of easy to drink flavorful beers.

New English recently purchased some firkins and pins to get their cask program under way. They had a cask of their Why?Not American Wheat Beer at The Linkery last month and they’ll be at the Real Ale Festival at Pizza Port in April. New English’s Explorer ESB and Troopers Tipple IPA seem like a perfect fit for cask conditioning.

In addition to casks, New English’s beers will be coming to bottles soon and will quite possibly be available in a bottle shop near you. They’re working on label approval for all four of their beers. Simon Lacey owner and brewer at New English tells me he recently took delivery of a bottle filler and labeler last week and already has bottle distribution lined up. His hope is that the bottles will start showing up at local bottle shops around the first of May.

And one more bit of news. New English’s lineup might not be limited their four standard beers for long, a picture they posted to their Facebook page of a new tap handle suggests that seasonal and special releases might be coming in the future.

New English Brewing Co. is located in the Mission Brewery building on Hancock Street near Washington. Confusingly, New English shares this building with 5 Points Brewing Co. but not with Mission Brewery who just opened their new brewery downtown.

New English’s tasting room is open Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons and they just might have the best growler fill prices in town. Check out their website for more info.

San Diego Beer Events March 24th – March 30th

Tags

awesome beer drinkers, brewdog, brewdog bashah, brewdog keep the glass, brewdog tokyo, Bruton Brewery, cantillon, cantillon Classic Gueuze, Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary, Iacopo Lenci, Jean Van Roy, Mango Mongo DIPA, march madness beer tasting, mission valley craft beer festival, Paradox Imperial Stout, suds for surgeries, The Handlery Hotel & Resort, union jack ipa

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday Mar 24th:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is doing a Pizza Port Keep the Glass night. They’ll have a tun of Pizza Port OB beers as well as a few favorites from the other PP locations. They’ll also have some treats from Lost Abbey as well including Red Poppy.

Friday Mar 25th:

More Pizza Port fun, Downtown Johnny Brown’s is doing a Pizza Port/Port Brewing Co. night with 17 different beers on draft. They’ll also have a cask of Mango Mongo DIPA.

Live Wire might not be the first place you think of when you think craft beer, but some say they’re the original San Diego beer bar. They’re featuring a Firestone Walker showcase with four draft beers, including Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary as well as a cask of Union Jack IPA.

Saturday Mar 26th:

My friends over at West Coaster, Awesome Beer Drinkers and Best Damn Beer Shop have teamed up to host a charity beer tasting at The Beer Company downtown. They have an insane VIP bottle list lined up as well as a more standard regular session with a chance to try five beers from The Beer Company, including three never seen before.

Sunday Mar 27th:

Jean Van Roy, owner and brewer at Cantillon, producer of some of the world’s most sought after sour beers will be at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens Sunday afternoon. They’ll have Classic Gueuze on draft and six other Cantillon beers available in bottles. All Cantillon beers will only be available at the outside bar in 4oz pours only.

The Handlery Hotel & Resort is hosting the Second Annual Mission Valley Craft Beer Festival, Suds for Surgeries to benefit Fresh Start Surgical Gifts. They’ll have unlimited tasters as well as food and live music, all for a good cause.

Monday Mar 28th:

Another European brewer will be in town, this time it’s Iacopo Lenci from Italy’s Bruton Brewery. He’ll be at Hamilton’s Tavern with five of his beers.

Tuesday Mar 29th:

I haven’t heard of anything special going on. If you know of something please email events@sandiegobeerblog.comto get it added.

Wednesday Mar 30th:

There’s a lot going on for a Wednesday night, but BrewDog night at URGE Gastropub looks the most promising. They’ll have two different kegs of BrewDog’s Paradox Imperial Stout aged in different Scotch Whiskey barrels and have it on cask as well. They’ll have kegs of the 18.2% ABV Tokyo as well as the  BrewDog/Stone Brewing Co. collaboration Bashah. They’ll even send you home with your own BrewDog glass.

Stone/Green Flash/Pizza Port Highway 78 Scotch Ale

Tags

highway 78, highway 78 scotch ale, stone collaboration, stone green flash pizza port collaboration, stone highway 78

The Stone Brewing Co./Green Flash/Pizza Port Highway 78 Scotch Ale collaboration might have been the collaboration beer I was looking forward to the least out of all the Stone collaborations released to date. My experiences with Scotch ales is limited because I just haven’t liked the majority of Scotch ales I’ve had. Thankfully Highway 78 Scotch Ale exceeded my expectations.

Highway 78 Scotch Ale is named after Highway 78 which more or less runs from Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido past Green Flash in Vista and ends near Pizza Port in Carlsbad. This 8.8% ABV beer is stronger than many of the Scotch ales I’ve had in the past which I think helped balance it out.

It pours a very dark red with almost no head (with a careful, but not too slow of a pour). The smell seems a bit muted, I don’t get much out of it, although it is a bit sweet, think toffee or caramel. The taste is sweet and smoky, a bit of toffee and breadiness with quite a bit of smoke. The high alcohol is also apparent, but helps balance out the sweetness. One of the things I often don’t like about Scotch Ales is the cloying sweetness that can often make them hard to drink. This isn’t the case with Highway 78.

Unlike most beers Stone puts out, hop bitterness is almost nonexistent. They used East Kent Goldings and Target hops, which they say “provide a very modest backbone of peppery hops”. There was a very slight bitterness to the finish, but nothing about this beer would I describe as hoppy in the least.

Highway 78 Scotch Ale was released February 14th, 2011 and should be available in most market’s Stone is in. Here in San Diego it’s on the shelves at most better bottle shops and on draft at some bars and restaurants. I picked up this 12oz bottle for $2.99 at Palm Springs Liquor in La Mesa. Stone collaborations tend to be available for a while at many liquor stores, this is certainly a beer I’ll drink again. I’ll also be on the lookout for more higher ABV Scotch ales to try.

Farmhouse Friday: Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere

Tags

Bam Biere, jolly pumpkin, Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere

Jolly Pumpkin has quickly become one of my favorite breweries. All the beers I’ve had from them (which is only a handful, but they’re that good) are funky and tart, but not overwhelmingly so, and still possessing plenty of other characteristics.

This was actually my first time having Bam Bière, one of the many farmhouse ales they brew. This 4.5% ABV beer is light and refreshing but still has plenty of character. I drank it on a cool evening a few days ago, and while I greatly enjoyed it, I think it would be much better on a warm summer day.

I purchased this 750ml bottle for $13.99 at Texas Liquor in Carlsbad, I realized later that I had over payed for it by about $4, I’ve seen it at other liquor stores for $10 since. There was no date code on the bottle but it had a sticker that said “Batch 470”. I wasn’t able to find any sort of list online that matched batches with brew or bottle dates but a bit of searching leads me to believe this is could close to a year old. If so it’s certainly held up well, but I would like to try it from a known fresh bottle sometime.

The bottle foamed up quit a bit when I opened it, but I wouldn’t call it a gusher. The foam reached just past the top of the bottle but didn’t spill. I started carefully pouring it into the glass but there was no hope, it ended up more than half foam. I spent about 10 minutes letting the foam settle and pouring more until I got what you see in the picture. The foam was a fine silky white and the beer itself was a hazy light gold color.

The smell was tart and reminiscent of green apples, Granny Smith apples to be exact. There was a little bit of breadiness in the aroma, but it was mostly tart apple. The taste was much the same. The first sip was almost overpowering with it’s tart green apple flavor. After my taste buds adjusted it got better, the apple flavor seemed to fade (or I just got used to it) and it was more of the regular sour/tart flavor you might expect. There was a lot of citrus, maybe lemon peel, and more bread flavors as well. It felt a bit thin, but not enough to detract from the beer. The thinness might help make it more refreshing when it’s warm out.

Bam Bière was far more sour and tart than most other Saison/farmhouse ales, but that is to be expected with Jolly Pumpkin. There weren’t many spices or spicy yeast characteristics that many other farmhouse ales have. This could be due to the (potential) age of the bottle. It’s a solid beer, good with age on it, but I do plan to make a point of trying it again when I know it is fresh.

San Diego Beer Events March 17th – March 23rd

Tags

2007 Stone Imperial Russian Stout, blackball belgian ipa, coffee rain, firestone walker 14th Anniversary ale, Fortuna Hiberniae, Framboise de Amorosa, la bella pizza, Matt Bryndilson san diego, McIlhenney's Irish Red, saint patricks day san diego, san diego citybeat beer club, shipyard stout, st patrick's day san diego, stone brewing co. sunday funday, union jack ipa, velvet merlin

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday Mar 17th:

Plenty going on for St. Patrick’s Day. Blind Lady Ale House will be open for lunch and will have a ton of porters and stouts including six on nitrogen offered as a flight including Automatic Brewing Co.’s latest beer, Coffee Rain. Both Main Tap Tavern in El Cajon and O’Brien’s Pub will have casks of Alpine Beer Co.’s McIlhenney’s Irish Red. Pacific Beach Alehouse will have a cask of their Shipyard Stout. Small Bar, Hamilton’s Tavern and Toronado will all have Guinness keep the glass specials in addition to some nice sounding food specials.

Friday Mar 18th:

Matt Bryndilson, Brewmaster at  Firestone Walker will be at Hamilton’s Tavern from 5pm-6:30pm and then at Small Bar until 8pm. Hamilton’s will have Union Jack IPA on cask with a few other Firestone Walker beers on draft including their 14th Anniversary Ale and Velvet Merlin. Small Bar won’t have a cask but they’ll be doing some keep the glass specials.

Saturday Mar 19th:

Framboise de Amorosa is being released at Lost Abbey. 375ml bottles are $15 a piece with a limit of six per person. I’ve heard good things about this one, but never tried it myself. It’s not expected to make it into regular distribution so the brewery will be the only place to purchase it.

Hess Brewing Company is celebrating St Patrick’s day a bit late. They’ll have Fortuna Hiberniae, their all organic coffee stout on draft and nitrogen as well as all their other beers. They’ll have food from BBQ Republic and music from Family Wagon.

Sunday Mar 20th:

Another great Sunday Funday release at Stone Brewing Co. They’ll be filling growlers with 2007 Stone Imperial Russian Stout. Stone IRS ages well, this one should be delicious.

Monday Mar 21st:

In addition to the regular $3 beer nights at Toronado (locals only) and Eleven (all drafts) Stone is holding another beer class, Beer U: Craft Beer Around the World. Tickets are $25 and often sell out, so purchase in advance if you’re thinking about going.

Tuesday Mar 22nd:

Whether you’re a dedicated homebrewer or want to start, the monthly QUAFF meeting at Randy Jones BBQ in Mission Valley’s Hazard Center is the place to be Tuesday night.

Wednesday Mar 23rd:

San Diego Citybeat’s monthly Beer Club will be at La Bella Pizza in Chula Vista. They’ll have 8oz cask pours of Karl Strauss’s Blackball Belgian IPA for only $1 in addition to plenty of other great beers. You’ll need to be on their list to get the discounted prices, sign up here.

Stone Brewing Co./Nogne/Jolly Pumpkin Special Holiday Ale

Tags

Collababeire Special Holiday Ale, jolly pumpkin, nogne, special holiday ale, special holiday ale vertical tasting

This past weekend a few friends (on Twitter: @RedTheTrucker, @thepegisin and @deniserat) invited me over to taste some beers. Big thanks to them, they provided all the beer, I owe them big time, and were great company to spend an afternoon drinking with.

Special Holiday Ale is a collaboration beer from Stone Brewing Co., Nogne Ø, and Jolly Pumpkin. Each brewery brewed a batch of the beer at their own facility, using the same recipe which included chestnuts, juniper berry, white sage, caraway seed and 25% rye malt. The first to be released was Stone’s in late 2008. I haven’t verified it with Nogne Ø but the general consensus is that they brewed 2 batches, one released around November of 2009 and one released around November 2010. Jolly Pumpkin brewed three batches, one in April 2009 and two in late 2009, all were oak aged and blended together before being  bottled in late December 2010.

The Stone and Jolly Pumpkin versions were listed as 9% ABV while the Nogne Ø version was listed as 8.5%. I’m not sure what accounts for the discrepency since all were brewed from the same recipe.

The Stone and Nogne Ø versions were very similar but I preferred the Nogne Ø beer. At a little over 2 years old the Stone version may have been past it’s prime. It was a bit nutty (the chestnuts?) and much sweeter than the other, the sage seemed to have faded quite a bit but the juniper was still very strong in both the smell and taste. The Nogne Ø version had much more sage in both the smell and the taste, it was much less sweet and seemed to have more balance between the spices and the sweet malt flavors.

The Jolly Pumpkin version is the most different, oak aged and soured (with Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces) it was obvious this was the same beer, just with a lot more going on. The smell was very tart and sour like many of Jolly Pumpkin’s other beers. The taste wasn’t nearly as sour as the smell let on. It had a very bitter finish, not from hops but from the other spices used, possibly from the caraway.

As far as appearances go, the beer from Jolly Pumpkin was the darkest while Stone’s was the lightest with Nogne Ø’s version in the middle.

My favorite of the three was Nogne Ø’s version. I enjoyed the Jolly Pumpkin version quite a bit, but would have preferred it to have been more tart and sour. I remember liking Stone’s version quite a bit when it first came out, and it’s still not a bad beer but it has change considerably. If you’re sitting on any bottles of Stone’s version I would say drink them soon.

You can read more about the collaboration on Stone’s blog and Beernews

This post was updated 3/23/11. Thanks to Jeff below in the comments on clarification on a few points I was unsure of originally.

Farmhouse Friday: Lost Abbey Carnevale and The Bruery Saison de Lente

Tags

carnevale, saison de lente

This is the first post in what I hope will be a regular series highlighting various farmhouse ales. Farmhouse ales (also known as saisons) have quickly become one of my favorite types of beer. It’s a very loose category of beers as their can be great differences between many beers all with the same label of “farmhouse” or “saison”. I’ll write more about the style later, let’s get on to the beer.

This past Tuesday, Ritual Tavern had two farmhouse ales on draft, Lost Abbey’s Carnevale and The Bruery’s Saison de Lente and I tasted both side by side.

Carnevale is brewed by The Lost Abbey as a celebration of Carnival (Carnevale in Italian) as far as I can tell the recipe changes every year, according to RateBeer in 2009 it had Brettanomyces, I couldn’t find any info on this year’s release (other than the fact that it should start make the rounds in kegs and bottles soon) but I couldn’t taste any Brett in this batch. It’s 6.5% ABV.

Saison de Lente is the Bruery’s spring seasonal which does contain Brettanomyces. Bottles tend to stick around at some liquor stores throughout much of the year and it’s often on tap at beer bars in the spring. It comes in at 6.5% ABV, 35 IBU and 4 SRM.

Both beers were nearly identical in color, a pale gold or straw color with white foam. The Saison de Lente originally had quite a bit of head (more than the Carnevale) but it quickly disappeared. Carnevale had much less foam on it, but it stuck around for some time.

Carnevale had a very sweet and noticeable bubblegum or candy smell and the first tastes I took of it were similar. It was very well carbonated, which I think detracted some from the taste at first. There were some peppery spices and it finished very phenolic and clove tasting. The finish was dry for how sweet it started out. I liked it more as it warmed up, it got less sweet and the spices really came out. Lost Abbey recommends serving it between 45 – 52F, but I’m not sure what temperatures I was drinking it at.

Saison de Lente had a sweet smell but it was far more subdued and not nearly as reminiscent of bubblegum. The taste was slightly sweet and very floral up front. There was some earthy funkiness, probably the Brettanomyces but it wasn’t overpowering or detracting at all (I like Brett but those that don’t shouldn’t worry about it in this beer). The carbonation was much lower than Carnevale but it also felt thinner which did detract from it a bit. There was a good deal of lemony citrus and the finish seemed to be more hop bitterness than clove phenols.

Both were overall very good and I wouldn’t hesitate to drink either of them again.

The photos are not of the beer I had (both were on draft) but my camera phone didn’t snap a good pic.

Have a favorite Farmhouse ale? Leave a comment below and I’ll try to check it out!

Click here for more info on Carnevale

Click here for more info on Saison de Lente

Photos CC Flickr. Carnevale: ttam_elbanak, Saison de Lente: mitch_j

 

San Diego Beer Events, March 10th – March 16th

Tags

2010 Double Bastard Ale with Chipotle Peppers, aha rally, aison du BUFF, american homebrewers association, brewbies, crime, Double Dry Hopped Lukcy Basartd Ale, Duet, Exponential Hoppiness, karl strauss 22nd anniversary vanilla imperial stout, laura ulrich, Mchilhenny Red, oak barrel aged Double Bastard Ale, punishment, stone brewing co march madness homebrew competition, Stone Imperial Russian Stout GK's Mad Man Mix, token imperial porter, while the wife's away ipa

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday Mar 10th:

I don’t have many of the details on tonight’s “mini-Brewbies” Fest at Toronado, but they say they’ll have a few pink beers on tap and will be donating a significant portion of the money they make tonight to the Keep-a-Breast Foundation. There’s sure to be some great beer, and you’ll be supporting a great cause.

For those of you in the East County (of even if you’re not, it’s not that far of a drive) The Press Box Bar and Sports Lounge in Rancho San Diego/El Cajon is hosting Lightning Brewery. Head Brewer Jim Crute will be on hand with Lightning’s full lineup of beers. The $25 tickets include beer and food samples. If you’re set on going call ahead to reserve your spot. 619-713-6990

Friday Mar 11th:

Seems like it’s a slow Friday night beer-wise this week. Of course there’s always plenty of great beer around town, but Pizza Port Ocean Beach will be tapping a cask of While the Wife’s Away IPA at 5pm.

Saturday Mar 12th:

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) is holding one of their homebrew get togethers (called the AHA Rally) at Stone Brewing Co. I attended an AHA Rally a few years back in Colorado and had a great time, I’m sure this one will be much larger with a lot more homebrew. The Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens sounds like the perfect setting. It’s free for AHA members or you can sign up at the door. Space is limited so RSVP (or get on the waiting list if it’s already full)

No Firkin Friday last night (at Hamilton’s Tavern anyway) means it must be Second Saturday. This month they’re hosting the Alpine Beer Co. They’ll have Duet and Token Imperial Porter with Oak and Vanilla Beans on cask and a whole slew of other Alpine beers on draft, including what is one of the last kegs of Exponential Hoppiness around. As with all Second Saturday’s, they’ll have complimentary food, this month an Irish feast with Mchilhenny Red Corned Beef and Cabbage, Token Porter Bread Pudding and more.

Sunday Mar 13th:

Know of a great beer event happening? Email events@sandiegobeerblog.com

Monday Mar 14th:

Pint night at both Toronado and Eleven with $3 drafts. Eleven offers all of their on-tap beers for $3 from open to close while Toronado offers locals for $3 from 6pm to close.

Tuesday Mar 15th:

Tipsy Crow is tapping a cask of Karl Strauss’s 22nd Anniversary Imperial Stout with Vanilla Beans. This is one of my favorite beers I’ve had on cask recently. There probably aren’t a whole lot of chances to get this on cask again. It’s good on draft, but great on cask.

This month’s installment of Chicks for Beer at The High Dive will feature Stone Brewing Co.’s Laura Ulrich (I wrote about Laura in the March issue of West Coaster). Ulrich, along with two other female brewers, brewed the first ever all female commercial collaboration beer earlier this year. Buy your tickets in advance and remember, this one is ladies only.

Wednesday Mar 16th:

The monthly DrinkAbout is happening at some of the Uptown bars. A free shuttle runs from 7pm-11pm between Hamilton’s Tavern, Station Tavern, Sea Rocket Bistro, Ritual Tavern, Blind Lady Ale House, Small Bar, Livewire and Toronado. There are sure to be plenty of specials but I’ve only heard of two so far. Sea Rocket will have flights from Manzanita Brewing Co. and Hamilton’s and Small Bar will have Brekle’s Brown, a new brown ale from Anchor Steam. This is the first time it will be on tap in San Diego and they’re doing a keep the glass special.

Up at Stone Brewing Co. they’re featuring Crime and Punishment keep the glass specials. Crime is Double Dry Hopped Lukcy Basartd Ale with chili peppers and Punishment is oak barrel aged Double
Bastard Ale with chili peppers. They glasses will be small (I can’t imagine wanting more than a taster of each) but you’ll get to take them home with you. They’ll also be filling growlers of Saison du BUFF, 2010 Double Bastard Ale with Chipotle Peppers, and Stone Imperial Russian Stout GK’s Mad Man Mix in the company store.

Brew Minions a Brew Masters Parody

Tags

brew masters, brew masters parody, brew minions, Dave Thibodeau, Sam Calagione

I actually haven’t seen a single episode of Brew Masters, the Discovery Channel show about Sam Calagione and Dogfish Head that focuses on their making of new and unique beers. Regardless of never seeing the show (which appears to have been cancelled after only a few episodes), I still fully appreciate this parody from the guys at Ska Brewing Company in Durango. To be fair I used to live in Durango, and some of these folks are friends of mine, but I think anyone that is  remotely interested in craft beer and has a sense of humor will enjoy it. And to keep things local, keep an eye out for Ska’s President/Co-founder Dave Thibodeau wearing a Hamilton’s Tavern t-shirt in the first couple of scenes.

Brew Minions, A Parody from David Thibodeau on Vimeo.