Stone SoCal Hop Salute Black Double IPA

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national homebrewers conference commemorative beer, Stone Escondidian Imperial Black IPA, Stone SoCal Hop Salute Black Double IPA

While I generally enjoy them, Double/Imperial IPAs aren’t my favorite style. Stone SoCal Hop Salute Black Double IPA also embodies two trends in craft beer right now: Black IPA and Citra hops. I don’t have anything against Black IPAs as long as they’re enjoyable. Citra hops on the other hand aren’t my favorite. Many people love Citra, they’re just not for me.

Thankfully I looked past my biases because I really enjoy this beer. The Citra hops are kept in check, there’s a bit of citrus bitterness but it’s not overwhelming. SoCal Hop Salute Black Double IPA really blurs the line between Double Black IPA and Hoppy Imperial Stout, I don’t think I would object to it being classified in either style.

It’s as black as most Imperial Stouts with a citrus hop smell and just a hint of roasted malt. The taste starts hoppy with some citrus then transitions to a more roasty bitterness before a more earthy hop bitterness covers the taste buds and lasts quite a while after swallowing. The beer finishes dry leaving me reaching for drink after drink.

Stone SoCal Hop Salute Black Double IPA is listed as 9.9% ABV and 110 IBU but its surprisingly easy to drink. Sadly this is my first, and probably last time ever having this beer. It was one of three commemorative beers given away at the National Homebrewers Conference.

Later this summer Stone will release their 15th Anniversary beer, Stone Escondidian Imperial Black IPA, which reportedly will be similar but not the same beer.

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San Diego Beer Events June 30th– July 6th

No write up of events this week, I’ll hopefully get back into the swing of things and post the weekly curated list next week. For now check the calendar below (if you’re on the main page click “read more” below or click here).

And whatever you do make sure to safely enjoy the holiday weekend.

Pizza Port Carlsbad Poor Man’s IPA Earns Best in Show at 2011 San Diego International Beer Festival

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2011 San Diego International Beer Festival results, 2011 San Diego International Beer Festival winners, big wednesday belgian ipa, good grief brown ale, poor man's ipa, Red Poppy, San Diego International Beer Festival results, San Diego International Beer Festival winners, shark attack, veritas 008

The results are in from last weekend San Diego International Beer Festival competition and this year Pizza Port Carlsbad’s Poor Man’s IPA took home the gold medal for Imperial IPA’s as well as the best in show top honors. This marks the third year in a row that a beer from one of the four Pizza Port locations has been designated Best in Show. Last year’s Best in Show winner was Big Wednesday, a Belgian style IPA from Pizza Port Solana Beach. In 2009 Pizza Port Carlsbad received Best in Show for Good Grief Brown Ale (which recieved a Bronze this year in the English-Style Brown Ale category).

Plenty of other San Diego breweries took home medals this year. Stone Brewing Co., Tailgate Beer, Green Flash, Karl Strauss and AleSmith all walked away with a gold medal each. Pizza Port Ocean Beach took home two gold medals while Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey was awarded three gold medals (Shark Attack on the Port side and Veritas 008 and Red Poppy on the Lost Abbey side) as well as receiving the most overall medals out of any brewery with six total by my count.

Click here for a PDF of the full list of medal winners.

 

Stone Sour Fest 2011

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5th Annual Stone Sour Fest, cantillon, Cuvee des Champions, Iris, Oude Tart, Sinners Blend 2010, sour lavender, Stone Sour Fest, Tart of Darkness, The Bruery Sour Cherry Kriek, The Wanderer

Pouring Tart of Darkness

Over 100 different sour beers were available at Stone Brewing Co.’s Fifth Annual Sour Fest yesterday at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens in Escondido. Among the 100 beers offered there was good variety of beers that were just barely sour to those that were so tart they made your mouth pucker.

Sour beers definitely aren’t for everybody, but you wouldn’t know that from how quickly Stone Sour Fest sold out this year (weeks in advance, no tickets were available at the door). Personally I love sour beers, but don’t have a lot of experience with them. Many can be pretty hard to come by and often rather expensive so there are a lot of well known and classics as well as obscure and limited release sours that I’ve never had before. Looking over the list I was excited to try plenty of new beers that I had either never heard of or just never had a chance to try before.

Cantillon, a Belgian brewery founded in 1900 is well known around the world among beer geeks for their sour beers, and they hardly ever make it to San Diego, so plenty of people were excited to sample their offerings. From what I’ve been told Cantillon Cuvee des Champions was the first beer at the fest to run out, one friend said it was gone by the time he got there at 10:10am, 10 minutes after the fest officially got under way. Another much sought after beer was The Bruery’s Sour Cherry Kriek, put on after The Wanderer ran out, word got around the through the crowd and a line quickly formed. I don’t know how long it took for the keg to kick but it didn’t take long, it was marked as empty soon after I got my sample.

A few of the standout beers I sampled are below.

• The Bruery’s Tart of Darkness. This one is around 5% ABV and has some good roastiness in addition to the sour tartness. I think it’s available in 750ml bottles as part of the Provisions series at The Bruery Provisions in Orange. I highly recommend picking some up if you get the chance.
• Cantillon Iris. One of the classics I had never had before. Quite a bit of funk in addition to the mouth puckering sourness with an extremely dry finish.
• Craftsman Sour Lavender 2010 and 2011. Both were good but I preferred the fresher 2011. I’m not a huge fan of lavender but I really enjoy this beer.
• The Lost Abbey Sinners Blend 2010. Bourbon, vanilla and a bit of caramel, this was sweeter than I expected while still being pretty acetic. One of the more heavy beers of the day.
• The Bruery’s Oude Tart. I absolutely love this beer. Dark fruit, leather, vanilla and oak, this is a beer I could sip on all day.

See below for a few pictures from the day.

News and Photos from the National Homebrewers Conference

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cheesesmith, Doug Constantiner, greg koch, julian brewpub, mitch steele, national homebrewers conference 2011 photos, nhc 2011 photos, peter zien, stone Cherry Chocolate Stout, Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA, tom nickel, travis smith, vince marsaglia

Photos by Chris Hammett
Last weekend’s National Homebrewers Conference brought nearly 2000 homebrewers, professional brewers and other beer lovers to San Diego. The conference included a Pro Brewer’s Night where around forty professional breweries were pouring their beers, Club Night where homebrew clubs from all around the country brought some of their best brews as well as plenty of seminars and panels with subjects ranging from homebrew techniques to topics on going pro and everything in between.

During those seminars a few bits of San Diego beer related news and info were announced.

Peter Zien of AleSmith spoke about cheese making and other food related hobbies. Zien is in the process of opening an artisianal cheese making company to be called CheeseSmith.

A bit more beer related news from Zien was that AleSmith is working on getting label approval for bottles of single origin coffee versions of Speedway Stout. Zien didn’t mention what single origin coffee’s they had in mind, or if this would include bottling the much loved, and previously very-limited draft only Kopi Luwak Speedway Stout, but one can hope.

Doug Constantiner, who is working with Travis Smith (both of whom formerly brewed at The Bruery) to start Societe Brewing Company here in San Diego revealed to NBC San Diego that Societe would be located in Kearney Mesa. No word on the exact location but it will be a nice stop between downtown and some of the breweries farther north. They hope to be open in early to mid 2012.

Tom Nickel of O’Brien’s Pub announced that he is working with Vince Marsaglia of Pizza Port to open a brewpub with BBQ food in Julian, CA. According to Taphunter the land in Julian has already been acquired and General’s American Pub, which Nickel was hoping to open in Scripps Ranch is no longer going to happen.

During his talk on collaborations, Greg Koch of Stone Brewing Co. mentioned a few things about their two upcoming collaborations that are in the fermenters now. He said that they’re currently working on getting fermentation restarted on Stone Cherry Chocolate Stout, this year’s AHA Rally Winner brewed at Stone by Mitch Steele, John Togner of Tröegs Brewing Co. and winning homebrewers Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard. The yeast apparently didn’t like the addition of the cherries. No release date has been planned but Koch said it will be out “at somepoint in the not too distance future”.

He also mentioned that Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA, a collaboration between Stone’s Mitch Steele, Bryan Baird of founder of Numazu, Japan’s Baird Brewing and Toshi Ishii—former Stone brewer and now founder of Guam’s Ishii Brewing Company should be out in early-mid July.

Home Brews and Gardens Brewing Co.?

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big hop llc, homebrews and gardens brewery, north park brewery

I doubt that’ll be the name they end up going with, but last week Home Brews and Gardens, North Park’s homebrew and gardening supply and ingredients shop on Thorn Street applied for a type 23 small beer manufacturer’s license.

Seems like you can’t got a day in this town without hearing about a new craft beer bar, brewpub or brewery opening.

Assuming they pass all the scrutiny of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, getting past neighbor complaints and protests and are issued a license, then they can start commercial brewing and selling their beer.

For an area as beer-centric as North Park, the prospect of this, what would be the first brewery in North Park is pretty exciting.

Green Flash Chuckvar

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Chuckvar, Fizzy Yellow Beer, green flash chuckvar, premium chuck lager, product of the chuck republic

It might be fizzy and yellow, but it certainly isn’t for wussies.

Green Flash Brewing Co. recently bottled about 400 cases of their Fizzy Yellow Beer, a Bohemian-Style Lager, with the label seen to the left. The beer was rebranded as Chuckvar and described as a “Premium Chuck Lager” and a “Product of the Chuck Republic”. Chuck of course being Green Flash’s brewmaster Chuck Silva and the label paying homage to (or a parody of?) Czechvar.

Green Flash CEO Mike Hinkley tells me the packaging came as a surprise to Silva and that about half of the cases were given as gifts to employees. The rest he tells me will be available at Green Flash’s tasting room.

“We are in this business to make great beer and have some fun.  This accomplished both,” Hinkley said. I have to say I certainly agree.

Click through to see a picture of the original Czechvar.

Monkey Paw, a new Brewpub Coming to the East Village from the Owner of Hamilton’s and Small Bar

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downtown san diego beer, east village beer, east village brewpub, monkey paw brewpub, monkey paw downtown, monkey paw east village, monkey paw san diego, san diego brewpub, scot blair

Update: As of 5pm, Tuesday 8/23/11 Monkey is now open! Monkey Paw on Facebook.

If you’re reading this blog you probably recognize the name Scot Blair. If not you almost certainly will recognize the names of his drinking establishments: Hamilton’s Tavern, Small Bar and Eleven. Soon Downtown’s East Village neighborhood will have a new brewpub, courtesy of Scot Blair.

Monkey Paw will be located on the corner of 16th St at F St where the Jewel Box used to be. Blair says things are moving along well and he expects the bar and restaurant portion of Monkey Paw to open within 60-90 days in late summer or early fall. The interior space is being completely remodeled, with almost nothing remaining from before. When Monkey Paw opens it’s doors they’ll have somewhere between 35 and 43 taps, pub food similar to Hamilton’s and Small Bar with a great cheesesteak as well as quality spirits. But Monkey Paw won’t only be a pub like Blair’s other establishment’s, it will be licensed to brew on premise making it a brewpub. “A brewpub has always been what I wanted to go after,” Blair tells me as he explains the idea behind Monkey Paw.

The brewing portion of Monkey Paw will come sometime after the bar and restaurant portion opens, Blair says he hopes to be brewing by the end of the year but doesn’t yet know if it will happen. They’re still in the process of acquiring brewing equipment, which he tells me will be either a 7 barrel or 10 hectoliter (approximately 8.5 barrels) system. A brewer for Monkey Paw is lined up and they’ve been refining some of the beers they expect to brew at Monkey Paw on a homebrew pilot system but declined to name the brewer at this time. He did tell me the brewer is an award winning homebrewer, of which I have a guess or two as to who it might be, but won’t speculate right now. Beers brewed at Monkey Paw will get sprinkled around to other places, most likely Blair’s other bars and some beers might even make their way up the coast to LA or San Francisco, but not to expect the full lineup of Monkey Paw’s beers in one place outside the brewpub itself .

The downtown neighborhood’s have come a long way in terms of craft beer in the last fews of years and it looks like Monkey Paw will continue this trend with another spot to get great beer downtown in addition to quality cocktails and food in what Blair assures me will be an unpretentious environment that aesthetically looks different than his other bars.

Only time will tell what will happen with Monkey Paw and craft beer downtown, but if the success of Hamilton’s Tavern is any indication it could help turn Downtown’s East Village into a real beer destination as it adds to what is already there (Neighborhood and Mission Brewery).

Image via Monkey Paw’s Facebook Page

Ballast Point Indra Kunindra

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alex tweet, colby chandler, indra kunindra

This beer is like no other beer I’ve ever had before. Brewed with madras curry, caynne pepper, cumin, toasted coconut, and kaffir lime leaf, Indra Kunindra is a 9% ABV stout brewed in collaboration with homebrewer Alex Tweet. Indra Kunindra was the winner of Holiday Wine Cellar’s 2nd Annual Homebrew competition last year, which is why it was chosen to be brewed at Ballast Point and I believe it is Ballast Point’s entry for the Pro-Am competition at the National Homebrewers Conference going on in Mission Valley right now.

Indra Kunindra smells like walking into a highly aromatic Indian food restaurant. It smells like a plate of curry was set down right in front of me. The taste is much the same, I tasted cumin and coconut and a bit of citrus which I can only assume was the kaffir lime leaf. I felt the heat from the cayenne pepper soon after I finished my first sip, but it wasn’t an unpleasant heat. The beer felt much thinner than I expected from a 9% ABV stout, but that isn’t a complaint just an observation.

The four ounce taster, which cost me a dollar plus tax at Ballast Point Linda Vista/Homebrew Mart, was probably just the right amount of this beer that I would want to drink in one sitting. One friend told me the aftertaste lingered unpleasantly for quite a while, which I didn’t experience but I could easily see that happening. As soon as I took my first sip I did immediately wished I had some food, something like a garlic naan bread. This is a beer that seems like it was made to go with food, but you would have to be careful to find the right combo where the beer wouldn’t overpower the food.

The June issue of West Coaster has a recipe for a scaled down version of Curry Stout that looks to be very similar to this one as well as a recipes for Prawn Curry with Fresh Pineapple & Asparagus and a Curry Paste courtesy of Ballast Point’s Specialty Brewer (the brewer that collaborated with Tweet on this beer) Colby Chandler.

Edit: Ballast Point recently received label approval for 22oz bottles of Indra Kunindra

San Diego Beer Events June 16th– June 22nd

Tags

blind IPA challenge, blue bridge coffee stout, frogs breath ipa, Green Flash Imperial IPA, palate wrecker, Tanzanian Devil

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.  Not all of the beer events happening in a given week make it on the list below, I pick one or two per day to avoid information overload. Make sure to check out the Events page or the calendar below this post for all the week’s events. As always, events are subject to change, check with the venue putting on the event before hand for more details.

The National Homebrewer’s Conference is in town this weekend, so in addition to the events listed on the calendar a lot of bars have some extra special beers on tap and in bottles.

Thursday June 16th:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach will be featuring Coronado Brewing Company for a Keep the Glass night with plenty of pint specials. They’ll have Blue Bridge Coffee Stout, Frogs Breath IPA and more.

Friday June 17th:

Friday’s seem to be the day most bars serve cask beer so they can ensure it all gets drank before oxidizing. As always Hamilton’s Tavern will have their Frikin Friday, this week with Green Flash Brewing Co.’s Imperial IPA.

Over at Blind Lady Ale House their Progressive Cask (they put it on at 11:30 for $2 a glass and the price goes up by a dollar each hour after 2pm until it runs out) will be Automatic Brewing Co.’s Tanzanian Devil. It’s a dark English mild with Tanzanian Peaberry coffee. It’s only about 3.8% but it’s mighty tasty.

Saturday June 18th:

Mission Brewery’s Grand Opening is officially sold out. So head on over to Bottlecraft’s Grand Opening in Little Italy. I’m not sure exactly what they’ll be doing but it will be a good time to check out the new bottle shop if you haven’t been. Bottlecraft is both a retail store and tasting room. Look for more on them in next month’s West Coaster.

Sunday June 19th:

Test your beer tasting and identifying skills at Blind Lady’s Blind IPA Challenge. They’ll give you a flight of IPAs and you have to identify which is which. It’s hard. Very hard. But even if you can’t pinpoint what’s what, you still get to drink some great beer.

Monday June 20th:

CityBeat Beer Club’s 3 Year Anniversary is happening at Blind Lady, read more about it here.

And as always Toronado has $3 local beers because it’s Monday.

Tuesday June 21st:

Wreck You Palate with Green Flash at Small Bar. $5 pints and $3.50 refills. Plenty of great hoppy beers from Green Flash including Palate Wrecker and more.

Wednesday June 22nd:

Stone Brewing Co.’s South Park Store officially opened last Wednesday, but they’re having a grand opening party which includes events at many local bars and liquor stores this evening. Mayor Jerry Sanders will be in attendance as well. Check out what’s going on here.