White Labs Tasting Room Now Open

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white labs tasting room

I haven’t been able to stop in yet, but I noticed a Facebook post stating that White Labs Tasting Room is now open at their facility in the Miramar area (conveniently located just about halfway between Alesmith and Ballast Point). The tap room features 32 taps and will feature beers made with different yeast and brewing and fermentation techniques.

White Labs is the local company that provides many local (and not so local) breweries and homebrewers with liquid yeast.

Doggie Beer Bones posted a picture on Facebook of some of the beers offered last night, they included a Saison and Red Ale each fermented with six different yeast strains and a Brown Ale with four different yeasts. A lot can be learned about just how much yeast influences the flavor of the beer by tasting a few fermented with different yeast strains side by side. The White Labs Tasting Room looks to be as much (or more so) about education as it is about just drinking a tasty beer, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion.

White Labs Tasting Room is at 9495 Candida Street, San Diego, CA 92126 just off Kearny Villa Rd. The tasting room will be open Thursday and Friday 4-8pm and Saturday 12-8pm until June when their hours will expand.

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If You Have to Drink Green Beer on St. Patrick’s Day…

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1809 Berliner Style Weisse, berliner weisse, Down's Family Irish Stout, green beer, Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, waldmeister, woodruff syrup

Please skip the Bud/Miller/Coors with green food coloring added, and instead try a Berliner Weisse with Woodruff syrup added.

Honestly, with the weather being forecast for San Diego this weekend I wouldn’t recommend either of the above mentioned green beers, and would instead opt for a nice dark, roasty (and quite possibly higher ABV) stout. It might be a good time to pull an Imperial Stout you’ve been aging for a year or two out of the cellar. If you’re dead set on the Irish theme of St. Paddy’s day you could stop into Monkey Paw for a pint of their Down’s Family Irish Stout which I’ve heard great things about.

But if you really want the green beer, pick up a bottle of Berliner Weisse, The Bruery’s Hottenroth Berliner Weisse is a good locally made choice, or opt for a bottle of 1809 Berliner Style Weisse straight from Germany. Then head up to Tip Top Meats in Carlsbad and pick up a bottle of Woodruff syrup. Pour the Berliner Weisse into some nice stemware, add a bit of syrup to taste, and you’ve got authentic green beer.

For more background on Berliner Weisse check out the Wikipedia page, or this post on Beervana.

Photo: CC flickr user the__photographer

“Don’t Bro Me if You Don’t Know Me” – How Not To Build Community Around Local Craft Beer

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don't bro me if you don't know me, Neighborhood bottle shop, Stone Mixed Tape-GK & LU's Blend Vol. 1

3/10/12 See update with info from Arsalun Tafazoli at bottom of post.

I have no idea if this pint glass, adorned with the Neighborhood name and logo along with the Stone Brewing Co. name and gargoyle is a commentary by Neighborhood aimed at Sid Mikhail of Best Damn Beer Shop. If you know Sid you’ve probably been greeted by him with “Hey bro” at least once, it’s something he’s fairly well known for in the local beer community. I’ve had multiple people bring it up with me when talking about Best Damn Beer Shop. Granted some people don’t like it, some people find it a little odd, others just understand it’s the way the guy talks and don’t mind it (myself included).

Neighborhood recently had a fairly public dispute with Best Damn Beer Shop when they announced plans to open a tasting room and off-premise bottle shop near their current bar/restaurant at 8th and G St Downtown (which happens to be just a few blocks from Best Damn Beer Shop). You can read more about that here (and be sure to read the comments).

An email to Arsalun Tafazoli, owner of Neighborhood, asking about the glasses and if they are a commentary about Sid Mikhail was not returned. Neighborhood’s publicist who sent me the image of the glass and info about the night had this to say about it: “It’s just a Neighborhood saying that means just that. A quote from Arsalun I believe.”

I’m perfectly willing to admit that there’s a chance that this has nothing to do with Sid and Best Damn Beer Shop, if that is the case it is a most unfortunate coincidence. Previously Arsalun Tafazoli said his opening a bottle shop wasn’t about competition but rather about building community in craft beer. If that’s really what he’s after this certainly isn’t the way to do it. Arsalun is a smart guy, and pretty on top of things, it’s hard for me to imagine that even if it weren’t his intention he wouldn’t know that some people might see this as a comment about Sid at Best Damn Beer Shop given what’s gone on between the two businesses recently.

And just why is the glass co-branded with Stone Brewing Co.? The glasses will be given away Tuesday night (March 13th) with the purchase of any Stone Brewing Co. beer at Neighborhood, when they’ll also be releasing for the first time a new custom blend which they just got ABC and TTB approval for, Stone Mixed Tape-GK & LU’s Blend Vol. 1 will be on tap for the first time ever. It’s a blend of Stone Levitation Ale, Stone LeVariation Ale (Levitation w/ our Belgian yeast strain), Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, Stone Smoked Porter, Stone Cali-Belgique IPA, 2011 Stone Imperial Russian Stout and 2011 Stone BELGO Anise Imperial Russian Stout with added notes of sage, peppers, lemon thyme, and Citra hops.

In an email Greg Koch CEO of Stone Brewing Co. distanced the company from the glass and any potential bad blood between Neighborhood and Best Damn Beer Shop, “I’m not aware of the source of the “Bro” thing.  We were not part of the design process of the glass.  We are not part of any ‘spat,’ and I’m not aware that the glass is either.”

As for the beer I’ll say it sounds interesting — in both the I am really genuinely curious how that will taste sense of the word, as well as the way one might stretch out the first syllable when they say the word, innnnnteresting, to denote that they might have a few reservations about it. One way to find out how the blend works out is to try it, 6pm Tuesday at Neighborhood, Koch will be on hand to see how folks respond to it.

Update: Arsalun Tafazoli of Neighborhood wrote back to say this has nothing to do with Sid and Best Damn Beer Shop and that glasses were actually planned and made for a San Diego Beer Week event that had to be bumped due to scheduling conflicts. So it turns out that this is just a really unfortunate coincidence as I previously wrote could be the case. I asked around a bit before publishing this post yesterday and every one I talked to assumed this was aimed at Best Damn Beer Shop, so regardless of intention, I wasn’t the only person that interpreted it as such. Tafazoli’s email is below.

San Diego Beer News Roundup

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Chez Monieux, churchill's renaissance, Exponential Hoppiness, Neighborhood bottle shop

I’ve been a bad blogger lately, with a ton going on at work and home I haven’t been blogging much. Things might be a little slow for a while longer, but here’s a quick roundup with some links to keep you up to date.

According to Amy T. Granite, the CCDC has approved Neighborhood for an off-site consumption permit. They still need to get a license (or a change to their current license depending on how they will be operating) but it looks like they’re one step closer to opening a spot to sell bottles to go near 8th and G downtown. Here’s a post with a bit of back story on their proposed bottle shop/tasting room. Check out the comments to see what folks are saying about it.

Live from the CCDC public hearing: @NeighborhoodSD has been approved a permit for off-site consumption. #bottleshop

— Amy T. Granite(@saysgranite) March 1, 2012

This Saturday is Churchill’s Renaissance at Churchill’s Pub and Grille in San Marcos. The tap list looks amazing (dare I say Pliny the Younger is the most pedestrian beer on the list?). They’ll also have a limited amount of bottles of Port/Lost Abbey brewed Churchill’s Finest Hour available for sale to go, if last year was any indication it’s a good idea to get there early if you’re looking to score a bottle.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is also the second Turista Libre TJ Craft Beer Tour, the last one was a ton of fun, it’s great to see ambitious homebrewers turning out good beer south of the border.

Pat Mcilhenney at Alpine Beer Co. sent out a newsletter earlier in the week in which he announced a few changes to the ways their beers get released. First off he says they won’t be giving much notice when a new beer is coming out, maybe they’ll announce it the day before it goes on sale, maybe once it’s already on sale, or (Mcilhenney  doesn’t explicitly say this) but maybe they won’t announce beer releases at all. Much of his email is about rewarding local and loyal customers, not out-of-towners and those looking to resell Alpine’s beers and make a quick buck. Which brings up the part that got everybody talking (just check out the comments at Beerpulse):

You have seen your very last growler of “Exponential Hoppiness” ever to be dispensed. [The link included no longer show’s the auction which was ended soon after the email went out, here’s a link to the seller’s Ebay page]

Since I previously stated if I ever saw a growler of “Exponential Hoppiness” for sale on ebay there would never be another growler sold again. Don’t blame me, but you can see who to blame on the above link. As for bottles of “Expo” on ebay, I’m seriously considering never bottling it again. This is not just a personal issue, it’s illegal.

Mike Shess at West Coaster and Peter Rowe at Brewery Rowe both followed up with Mcilhenney, and it sounds like he may change his mind somewhere down the line, but I wouldn’t expect to see Alpine filling growlers of Expo during the next release.

And not to be forgotten in the hoopla, Alpine released bottles of the always delicious Chez Monieux Kriek this week. No word on how fast it’s selling (or if it’s sold out already) but I’d hurry up there if you want some.

Speaking of West Coaster, the March issue is out now, and if you didn’t get a chance to pick up the February issue, my column about “imitation” craft beer was posted to the web a few days ago.