Coors Tries to Catch the Attention of Craft Beer Drinkers with Batch 19

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Coors Batch 19, Coors craft beer, Pre-Prohibition Style Lager

I have mixed feelings about Batch 19, Coors Brewing Company’s Pre-Prohibition Style Lager. On one hand it’s good to see the big beer companies making an effort to make good, flavorful beer. On the other hand I personally don’t want to support the big beer companies at the expense of smaller craft beer companies. If I have the choice of two similar quality beers, one made by a big beer company and the other made by a small, independent craft brewer, I’ll pick the one made by the craft brewer every time.

That being said, I was pretty interested in trying Batch 19 when a PR company offered to send me a sample. While beers within the style can vary widely, I’ve enjoyed many of the “Pre-Prohibition” lagers I’ve tasted. Craftsman Brewing Company’s 1903 Lager is one of my favorite beers when I’m in the mood for something on the light and refreshing side.

Batch 19 is said to be a variation (due to changes in brewing techniques and availability of ingredients) of a recipe Coors was brewing before Prohibition. Batch 19 certainly isn’t the best beer around, but when compared to the other beers Coors produces now it certainly stands out. It has a toasty malt sweetness with a crispness that makes it easy to drink. At 26 IBU the hops don’t really stand out, but they do restrain the sweetness a bit.

That being said, I wouldn’t recommend it over any of the craft beers in the same style, and I’d urge people to support craft brewers over the big breweries when ever possible. Try it if your interest is piqued, but be mindful of who your beer purchases are supporting: a company that has been making bland beer for years and is now trying to capitalize on the popularity of craft beer; or those companies that are making craft beer because it’s their passion and are part of the reason for it’s popularity. Batch 19 isn’t bad, but there are plenty of Pre-Prohibition style lagers made by craft brewers that are better (the aforementioned 1903 Lager being one of them).

Batch 19 has been around for a little over a year in a few test markets, and Coors recently expanded distribution into a handful of new markets, San Diego being one of them where if can be found on draft at a few local watering holes (see the Batch 19 beer locator here).

While Batch 19 is far ahead of many of Coors other beers in taste, it’s a pretty good beer, not great, but not terrible, it has an off putting marketing feel to it reminiscent of big beer advertising. There’s a romantic story and a fancy website. I was surprised with the bottle the beer came in, for being a draft only release (although bottles may be available in the gift shop at the Coors brewery in Golden, CO) it was pretty fancy with a well designed label, branded cap and what appears to be a custom bottle with “1919” embossed on the neck.

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Cuvee Rene on The Sea of Cortez

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Cuvee Rene

Cuvée René at The Sea of Cortez

You may have noticed I haven’t been blogging nearly as much lately, San Diego Beer Week took it’s toll again this year, I think I went about a week without even thinking about beer let alone drinking it. Then I went down to San Felipe for Thanksgiving (where the above photo was taken).

I’ll slowly be getting back into the swing of things over the next month but posts will still be sporadic through the holiday’s as life and work get in the way of beer drinking and blogging. I hope to update the Events Calendar soon, there’s plenty of great stuff going on.

San Diego Brewed: AleSmith Yule Smith (Winter)

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winter yulesmith, yule smith, yulesmith

San Diego Brewed is sponsored by Bottlecraft.

Bottlecraft is a retail shop and tasting room in Little Italy showcasing local, domestic and international craft beers. They offer hundreds of beers for your enjoyment in their onsite tasting room or to-go, as well as daily beer flights, events, glassware, merchandise, and gifts. Open Noon-10pm seven days a week. 2161 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101.

Let me preface this by saying (Imperial) Red ales aren’t my favorite style of beer. AleSmith’s Yule Smith (Winter) is an Imperial Red. AleSmith releases two different versions of Yule Smith, this one in the Fall/Winter and another in the Summer (Christmas in July!), and Imperial IPA. Winter and Summer aren’t used on either label, but the images on the label should make it obvious which is which. (So be careful if you’re picking up a bottle at a shop that isn’t good about selling through their beers, I’ve seen Summer Yule Smith on shelves well past it’s prime).

For a style of beer that isn’t my favorite, Yule Smith is pretty good.

The piney, citrus like hops are apparent as soon as you start to pour from the bottle to a glass. The initial taste is dominated more with sweet, caramel like malts than the hops. The hops come next, pine and grapefruit really stand up to the sweet malt to balance things out — balance might not be the right word. Technically the big hops balance out the big malt so neither dominates the flavor, but balance just doesn’t feel like the right word.

One thing that detracts from my enjoyment is the high alcohol. Yule Smith is 9.5% ABV, and doesn’t mask the booze at all. The alcohol is present throughout, fairly sweet and pretty hot.

For being so high in alcohol and so sweet Yule Smith does finish fairly dry, it’s not the driest beer you’ll ever have but the sweetness doesn’t stick around too long.

San Diego Brewed: Green Flash Double Stout

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green flash double stout, silva stout

San Diego Brewed is sponsored by Bottlecraft.

Bottlecraft is a retail shop and tasting room in Little Italy showcasing local, domestic and international craft beers. They offer hundreds of beers for your enjoyment in their onsite tasting room or to-go, as well as daily beer flights, events, glassware, merchandise, and gifts. Open Noon-10pm seven days a week. 2161 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101.

For some strange reason (that I haven’t really been aware of until now) I often pass up Green Flash’s Double Stout, a 8.8% ABV Double (Imperial) Stout in favor others. I’m not really sure why that is, Silva Stout, the bourbon barrel-aged version of Double Stout that was first released last year was probably my favorite new beer to come out of a San Diego brewery in 2010, but for some reason I passed over Double Stout regularly when looking to drink a bigger stout. Thankfully I picked one up recently and won’t be neglecting it any more.

Double Stout isn’t the biggest stout around, many Imperial Stouts are coming in upwards of 10% these days, but it is insanely drinkable. Double Stout is 45 IBU, but I don’t think many people would describe it as hoppy. It has a fair amount of roasty bitterness, but think dark chocolate instead of coffee.

Green Flash uses oats in the grain bill to give it a smooth, creamy mouthfeel which I think adds to the chocolate comparison. In addition to the dark chocolate roastiness there’s also some toasted malt flavors, not a grainy texture but tasting like toasted grains. This all adds up to a nice rich and easy to drink stout.

Double Stout comes in 4 packs (12 oz bottles). I picked this bottle up at Bottlecraft as a single for $2.05, well worth the price (that’s the equivalent of a $3.75 22oz bomber).

San Diego Brewed: Ballast Point Victory at Sea

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caffe calabria, Victory at Sea

San Diego Brewed is sponsored by Bottlecraft.

Bottlecraft is a retail shop and tasting room in Little Italy showcasing local, domestic and international craft beers. They offer hundreds of beers for your enjoyment in their onsite tasting room or to-go, as well as daily beer flights, events, glassware, merchandise, and gifts. Open Noon-10pm seven days a week. 2161 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101.

The most recent release of Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea (an Imperial Porter with coffee and vanilla) is my favorite batch yet. It’s a big beer, 10% ABV, but it’s dangerously easy to drink. Past years releases of Victory at Sea have always been good, but there’s something about this one that’s just great. Ballast Point uses cold brewed coffee from Caffe Calabria in North Park and the roasty coffee seems to come through much more than I remember it previously.

The vanilla is still present, and comes through mid sip along with some chocolate like flavors. There isn’t much hop bitterness, far more coffee roastiness, and the alcohol is there but pretty well hidden. Like I said it’s dangerously easy to drink.

Coffee flavor in beer can fade rather quickly. But big dark beers like this can age wonderfully. I highly recommend picking up a few bottles and drinking some fresh and aging some if that’s your thing. And be on the look out for Bourbon Barrel-aged version of Victory at Sea on draft popping up around town (especially at Ballast Point’s two locations) every once in a while.

Typically Victory at Sea is released once per year and usually sells out pretty quickly. I picked up a few 22oz bottles at Bottlecraft for $7.75 each (which I’m pretty sure was cheaper than buying at the brewery). Worth every penny.

Radio and TV

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san diego beer community, san diego beer industry, san diego beer scene, san diego explained, san diego explained beer

Shooting at Bottlecraft

Last week I was a guest on KPBS Midday Edition, along with Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens pastry chef Andrew Higgins, we talked about some of the things going on during San Diego Beer Week. KPBS put up a blog post about it and you can listen to the segment on that same page.

Tomorrow around 6pm (or today, Wednesday 11/9 if you’re reading this in your email) I’ll be on an NBC San Diego/Voice of San Diego segment called San Diego Explained about San Diego’s beer industry. I’m not sure exactly what will be discussed, and I think my interview will be a small part of the larger overall segment, but it should be interesting, even to people that know quite a bit about our local beer community.

Photo: Brian Jensen/Bottlecraft

Hess Brewing Looking at Expanded North Park Location

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hess brewing north park, north park brewery, north park post office

I’ve been hearing talk for a while now that Hess Brewing is looking to expand — they’re currently brewing on a 1.6 barrel system in the Miramar area. More recently I had been hearing that they might be looking for a location in North Park. Sign On San Diego’s Peter Rowe confirmed that today with a post on his Brewery Rowe blog. He spoke to Michael Hess over the weekend who told him they’re looking to run a 30-barrel system in North Park while maintaining their current nanobrewery in Miramar.

No word on exactly where Hess is looking in North Park, but the talk I’ve heard is that someone (although maybe not Hess) has been looking at the old Post Office building at the corner of Grim Ave and North Park Way to bring a brewery to North Park.

Hess tells Rowe that if all goes as planned they hope to be open by mid 2012.

I’ll post more on Hess’s move to North Park, and anything else beer related I hear about the old post office building as soon as I get more details.

San Diego Beer Week – First Weekend

San Diego Beer Week 2011 is underway and the first weekend is now coming to a close. I decided this year I needed to take things a little more slowly than I did last year (if I remember right I didn’t drink beer for about two weeks after SDBW 2010) so I missed a few things this first weekend (and surely will miss more events for the rest of SDBW) but here’s what I drank.

Golden Road Hefeweizen

I started SDBW a night early at Tiger!Tiger! for their Golden Road showcase Thursday night. Golden Road is a new brewery in LA that opened just a couple of weeks ago. From what I hear they have no plans to start distributing outside of LA at this time, but decided to bring a few kegs down to Tiger!Tiger! for San Diego Beer Week. Co-founder Meg Gill (formerly of Speakeasy Ales and Lagers and Oskar Blues) and brewmaster Jon Carpenter (formerly of Dogfish Head) were on hand but I didn’t get a chance to speak with them.

They currently have three beers and brought all of them down. Hefeweizen is a nice flavorful hefeweizen that’s easy to drink and won’t knock you down after a couple of pints at 4.6% ABV. It’s a beer I wouldn’t hesitate to order again (especially on a hot day) but I’m not sure that it stands out when compared to other craft hefeweizen’s.

Point the Way IPA stands out for being full of flavor and on the lower side of the IPA ABV spectrum at 5.2%. The aroma was fantastic and while the flavor didn’t quite stand up to what I expected from the smell it was still good.

Burning Bush is a smoked IPA that was pretty interesting. The smoke was there but not overpowering. At 8% ABV it’s stronger than Point the Way IPA and much more malty. The hops are there, but don’t jump out nearly as much with the smoke and maltiness. And while it’s a very different beer, it reminded me a bit of Rumble (oak aged IPA) from Great Divide. The smoke really is very subtle, it’s there if you look for it but doesn’t overpower the rest of the beer.

Friday night I didn’t go out, opting to spend the night with the family sharing a couple bombers with my brother. We had the recent release of Ballast Point’s Victory at Sea along with Stone Brewing Co.’s 11.11.11 Vertical Epic. This might be my favorite batch of Victory at Sea to date. I don’t have any tasting notes from previous batches, but the coffee seems much more prominent in this batch. The vanilla is still there but it has a nice roastiness to it.

11.11.11 Vertical Epic is an amber colored Belgian-style ale brewed with chiles and cinnamon. I felt like there was a bit too much going on with it. The chile flavor is delicious, it’s right up front giving plenty of flavor without a ton of heat. It’s one of the most flavorful and not overwhelming chile beer’s I’ve had. After that though it seems to drop off a bit. I get some toffee like sweetness from the malt but I didn’t taste much from the Belgian yeast. The cinnamon came out at the end and I really didn’t like it. It wasn’t overwhelming but definitely there and was the last impression with each sip.

Saturday was the San Diego Brewer’s Guild Festival at Liberty Station. There’s a lot to be said about the festival itself, but I’ll leave that for another time. I had a number of beers, one or two I didn’t like at all, quite a few I thought were good and a couple I thought were great. Barrel Aged Tourmaline Trippel from Pacific Beach Ale House really stood out. I think they get passed over quite a bit because of their location but brewer Erik Jensen know’s what he’s doing and makes good beer. This was inoculated with Brett and aged in a previously used bourbon barrel for a few months.

Mary Jane IPA from Rock Bottom La Jolla also stood out. I didn’t get the ABV but I’d guess it’s in the 6-7% range. It was easy to drink with nice pine and tropical fruit flavors.

Green Flash’s 9th Anniversary IIIPA (not sure of the official name, one handwritten sign said Green Bullet but I don’t know if that’s the actual name) was also very good. It was big and hoppy with plenty of hop flavor along with the bitterness. Brewer Chuck Silva told me they used hop extracts in addition to the regular hop pellets. If you get a chance to try this I’d highly recommend it as it might not be around too long.

Later that night I went to Assembly, the vegan beer dinner I helped plan with LoveLikeBeer and Sea Rocket Bistro. The dinner went well with great beer from Jolly Pumpkin and delicious food from Chef Chad White. Fuego del Otono, La Parcela, Bam Biere, and Bam Noire were all served.

Bison Organic Chocolate Stout and Barrel Aged Chocolate Stout

Sunday I stopped into Bottlecraft for the Bison Brewing event. They had Bison Organic Chocolate Stout and Barrel-aged Bison Chocolate Stout being served side by side. The barrel aged version was aged in Four Roses Bourbon barrels (and I was told but didn’t confirm it with the brewer) that they were second use barrels. It’s been a while since I’ve had the regular Chocolate Stout but I was reminded of how much I enjoy it.

The barrel aged version didn’t quite live up to my expectations, it was good but I think I enjoyed the regular version more. Gone was the subtle chocolate sweetness, replaced with a mellow bourbon flavor. At 6.1% ABV it’s lower in alcohol than many beers that are aged in bourbon barrels so it didn’t have the same mouthfeel that one might come to expect from barrel aged beers. Still good, but I’m plenty happy with the regular Chocolate Stout.

There’s still seven days left of San Diego Beer Week. If you’re looking for some things to do for the remainder check out these guides for my take on some of the best beer events and the best beer and food events.

Blind Lady Ale House Meet the Brewer Tasting Flights

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guided beer tasting, meet the brewer, san diego beer week, San Diego Beer Week events, sdbw, sdbw blind lady ale house

Chuck Silva of Green Flash Leading a Flight Tasting During SDBW 2010

Yesterday I posted a roundup of what in my opinion are some of the best events happening during San Diego Beer Week. (And also posted a list of some of the best looking food and beer events as well).

But I wanted to highlight a series of events that Blind Lady Ale House did last year and will continue to do this year, Meet the Brewer Guided Flight Tastings. Throughout the week they’ll have a handful of different brewers in leading tastings through some of their beers. Last year I went to guided tastings at BLAH with Mark Jilg from Craftsman, Chuck Silva from Green Flash and Pat Mcilhenney of Alpine Beer Co. All were extremely educational, there’s no better way in my opinion to learn about a beer than to hear the brewer himself talk about it while tasting it, and affordable. Last year prices were around $25 per event. I haven’t seen prices this year, but I’d guess they will be similar. In order to keep things fun and make sure everyone can hear and ask questions BLAH limits the size of the events, which take place in the Hamm’s Room (West room at BLAH). So make sure to get there early if you’re interested in sitting through one of these guided tastings.

Blind Lady’s Meet the Brewer Guided Flight Tastings start tonight (technically SDBW Eve) and go throughout San Diego Beer Week. The full schedule (subject to change, so check with BLAH) is below.

Thursday, November 3rd 5pm with Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey and Port Brewing Co.

Friday, November 4th 12:30-2:30pm with Jeff Bagby of Pizza Port Carlsbad

Sunday, November 6th 12:30-2:30pm with Mother Earth Brewing Co.

Wednesday, November 9th 5pm with Yiga Miyashiro of Pizza Port Ocean Beach

Thursday, November 10th with Chuck Silva of Green Flash

Friday, November 11th 12:30pm with Patrick Rue of The Bruery

San Diego Brewed: Mission Hefeweizen

Tags

American Hefeweizen, craft beer hefeweizen, mission hefeweizen

San Diego Brewed is sponsored by Bottlecraft.

Bottlecraft is a retail shop and tasting room in Little Italy showcasing local, domestic and international craft beers. They offer hundreds of beers for your enjoyment in their onsite tasting room or to-go, as well as daily beer flights, events, glassware, merchandise, and gifts. Open Noon-10pm seven days a week. 2161 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101.

Mission Brewery’s Hefeweizen, one of the five year round beers, is an incredibly easy to drink, yet full flavored hefeweizen. I realize that could be ad copy from the label, I don’t intend it to be, but hear me out. Shortly after I drank this Mission Hefeweizen, I had another hefeweizen from an old German brewery, I won’t name it, but I’ll just say it’s considered one of the classics. I expected to be blown away with how much better the German classic was, but to my surprise I found it lacking, a bit boring and bland. That’s not to say the German hefeweizen, one of the pillar’s of the style for many years is a bad beer. It’s just that Mission Hefeweizen hit’s the sweet spot for this beer drinker raised on American craft beer.

Mission Hefeweizen has a sweet smell too it, reminding me of banana and bubblegum. There’s also some spice in there, but the sweetness dominates the aroma.

The taste is just the opposite, there’s a hint of banana but spices stand out more. Flavors of clove and maybe even something similar to black pepper mix well with the subtle sweetness. It’s well carbonated and has a good mouthfeel and isn’t too thin or watery.

Just to be clear the spices don’t dominate. You won’t mistake this for a Saison or a spiced beer, but they’re there.

I’m not saying it’s better than the classic German hefeweizen’s, but it might be better suited to the palate of someone used to American craft beer.

As you can see from the photo this 22oz bottle was $4.50 (at Bottlecraft). Photo by Chris Hammett