San Diego Brewed: AleSmith Yule Smith (Winter)

Tags

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.

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San Diego Brewed: AleSmith IPA

Tags

AleSmith IPA, American-Style Strong Pale Ale, gabf, great american beer festival

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.

AleSmith IPA recently picked up a Silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category. It might seem weird that a beer called IPA and marketed as such would be entered in any category other than an IPA, but that’s one of the interesting things about beer judging, brewers get to choose which category to enter their beers in (although the American-Style Strong Pale Ale and American-Style India Pale Ale categories are very similar).

Until recently AleSmith IPA was bottle conditioned resulting in some sediment in the bottom of the bottle which could cause for a cloudy beer if not poured carefully. But AleSmith got a new bottling line this summer which allows them to force carbonate some of their bottled beers and results in a nice clean looking beer.

AleSmith IPA has a big hoppy smell and a taste to go along with it. There’s a lot of pine and citrus bitterness fairly well balanced by some slightly sweet caramel like malt and maybe just a bit of toastiness from the malt as well. In San Diego, the land of big hoppy IPAs this might be considered a balanced IPA, but that’s not too say that it isn’t hoppy.

At 7.25% ABV it’s a bit warm from the alcohol, constantly reminding you that it’s not a low ABV beer, but it’s still pretty easy drinking. It finishes dry with a bitter pine like hop finish.

This isn’t the hoppiest of West Coast IPAs, but it’s no slouch. No complaints here especially because it’s widely available and reasonably priced.

AleSmith doesn’t date their bottles so make sure to buy from a shop that has good turn over (I picked this bottle up for $5 at Bottlecraft and it was pretty fresh). The bottles still mention being bottle conditioned even if they’re from the new bottling line and were force carbonated, so don’t let that fool you into thinking you’re getting an old bottle. Just hold the bottle up to the light and look for sediment in the bottom, if it’s clear you can be fairly certain you’re getting a bottle from the new bottling line.

San Diego Brewers Bring Home Awards Aplenty at 2011 GABF

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gabf 2011, gabf san diego 2011, gabf san diego awards, gabf san diego medals, great american beer festival, san diego beer awards

Last year San Diego breweries brought home fifteen medals from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Saturday afternoon the awards were announced in 83 beer categories with San Diego breweries bringing home twenty medals. In addition to the individual beer categories six brewery awards are given out and San Diego breweries brought home two of those titles.

Pizza Port Carlsbad was named Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year for the third year in a row. Pizza Port Ocean Beach and brewer Yiga Miyashiro took home the award for Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year for the first time. Overall the three San Diego Pizza Port locations dominated, bringing in twelve of San Diego’s twenty medals (Pizza Port San Clemente took home one bronze medal).

Pizza Port Carlsbad alone brought home six medals, tied for second place for most medals with Firestone Walker (Rock Bottom also took six medals, but all Rock Bottom locations were entered together, not separate for each location as Pizza Port was). Pizza Port Carlsbad also tied for second place with Firestone Walker for most gold medals won with three. Sun King Brewing in Indianapolis took home the most gold medals (four) as well as most medals overall with eight.

California breweries took home the most medals with 51 total while Colorado came was second with 44. The state of Oregon was third with fifteen medals. Think about that for a moment, San Diego breweries alone came home with five more medals than the entire state of Oregon and San Diego accounted for nearly 40% of California’s medals.

Congrats to Pizza Port Carlsbad, Pizza Port Ocean Beach, Pizza Port Solana Beach, Rock Bottom La Jolla, Rock Bottom San Diego, The Lost Abbey/Port Brewing Company, AleSmith and Karl Strauss for their awards. Keep reading for the list of San Diego winners and a link to the full list.

San Diego Weekend Beer Events Thursday 9/29 – Saturday 10/1

Tags

Art + Beer, Beer + Art, big sky brewing co., Evil Dead Red, grand teton brewing co., katie scott, kinsee morlan, san diego citybeat, tour de fat, Wake-up Call Coffee Imperial Porter

I won’t be posting all events, and just because an event isn’t listed doesn’t mean it isn’t worth going to. I’ll just pick one or two a day. I try to keep the Events Calendar up to date, so check it for the full list of things going on around down. If you know of a beer event that isn’t listed send me an email, events@sandiegobeerblog.com

Instead of posting a weeks worth of events at once, I’ll be posting the weekend events on Wednesday night or Thursday and then posting on Sunday or Monday if there’s anything noteworthy going on Monday-Wednesday of a given week.

Thursday, Sept. 29th, 2011:

Getting a little self promotional here, my wife (San Diego CityBeat Arts and Culture editor Kinsee Morlan) and I have partnered up to put on an art show and beer tasting at Bottlecraft. From 7-10pm the artist Katie Scott will be on hand with plenty of her work showing. There will be three different flights available for purchase as well as all the rest of the great beer at Bottlecraft. More info here.

Friday, Sept. 30th, 2011:

It’s 30th on 30th and there are a couple great casks getting tapped Friday night. AleSmith Evil Dead Red will be at Ritual Tavern and Hamilton’s Tavern will have Grand Teton Wake-up Call Coffee Imperial Porter as well as plenty of other great Grand Teton and Big Sky Brewing beers on draft.

Saturday, Oct. 1st, 2011:

Grab your bike and head down to Golden Hill Park (technically part of Balboa Park but nowhere near where it was held last year) for New Belgium Brewing Co.’s Tour de Fat. The bike parade starts at 11am and other entertainment will run throughout the rest of the day.

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.

 

News and Photos from the National Homebrewers Conference

Tags

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.

San Diego Beer Events June 9th– June 15th

Tags

2008 Barrel-Aged Speedway Stout, 2009 Barrel-Aged Decadence, black ops, blind lady ale house mini sour fest, blue bridge coffee stout, Consecration, coronado black ops, frogs breath ipa, miho gastrotruck, miho gastrotruck anniversary, miho gastrotruck pint giveaway, national homebrewers conference, national homebrewers conference san diego, nhc events, Red Poppy, san diego beer hall, summer yulesmith, Tanzanian Devil, Treasure Chest

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.

Thursday June 9th:

Stop by AleSmith for a special preview cask of Summer YuleSmith, it’s only a ‘pin’ (smaller than a firkin) so stop by early if you’re interested in trying it. AleSmith is open today from 2-7pm.

Friday June 10th:

This Friday kicks off the San Diego Beer Week Preview Weekend with the Beer Hall at The Lodge at Torrey Pines. It’s $65 per person for beer and food pairings from some of San Diego’s best breweries and restaurants in an amazing venue.

Friday is also the release of Treasure Chest, a Belgian Pale Ale from Green Flash with proceeds benefiting Chicks for Beer. It’s only available in 12oz bottles and only sold by the case at the Green Flash tasting room

Saturday June 11th:

Second Saturday at Hamilton’s Tavern hosts Coronado Brewing Company this month. They’ll have plenty of great beers including the newish Black Ops (Black IPA) and Frogs Breath IPA, as well as the Blue Bridge Coffee Stout which I’ve heard good things about. The food theme this month is Baja Fish Fest.

Sunday June 12th:

The Sierra Nevada beer dinner at O’Brien’s Pub is almost sold out, so hurry if you’re still looking for tickets.

Homebrew Mart/Ballast Point will be teaching a homebrew class at their Linda Vista location. If you’ve never homebrewed before (or even if you have) learning to brew with some of the pros will be sure to teach you some tips on making great beer.

Monday June 13th:

As always Monday night means $3 local pint night at Toronado.

MIHO Gastrotruck will be celebrating their 1 year anniversary at Blind Lady Ale House from 6-8pm with a pint glass giveaway for the first 50 customers.

Tuesday June 14th:

Automatic Brewing Co. kicks off their CASKoDAY at Blind Lady Ale House with a new cask of Tanzanian Devil, a 3.6% ABV coffee mild. They’ll be tapping a new cask every day until Saturday.

Wednesday June 15th:

With the National Homebrewers Conference in town this upcoming weekend there’s sure to be plenty of events going on. Wednesday seems to be the kick off with all sorts of options.

AleSmith will be releasing bottles of their 2008 Barrel-Aged Speedway Stout and 2009 Barrel-Aged Decadence at noon. Tickets which will allow bottle purchases must be picked up at 8:30am.

Blind Lady Ale House is doing a Mini Sour Fest with plenty of great stuff on draft including Lost Abbey Red Poppy and Russian River Consecration and more. They’ll open for lunch at 11:30am.

It’s also the monthly DrinkAbout with plenty going on at all the various area bars, be sure to check the calendar below for all the details.

LOVELIKEBEER and Vegan Beer Dinners

Tags

Le Freak, Le Freak Belgian IPA, LOVELIKEBEER, Red Barn Saison, ruination ipa, speedway stout, Stone Ruination IPA: Double Dry Hopped with Citra Hops, Stone/Green Flash/Pizza Port Carlsbad Highway 78 Scotch Ale, vegan beer dinner, vegetarian beer dinner

As a vegetarian beer dinners don’t often hold much sway for me. Sure, pairing awesome beer with some of the best chefs in town is great, but when you can’t eat half the food on the menu there’s no point in going. I don’t think I’m the only vegetarian/vegan that feels left out when it comes to beer dinners, Stone Brewing Co.’s Master Pairings Vegan Beer Dinner happening tonight sold out well in advance.

Thankfully for us vegetarians there’s a new group in town, LOVELIKEBEER, with a focus on vegan food and craft beer. They’re putting on their first vegan beer dinner at Sea Rocket Bistro this Thursday (May 12, 6-10pm) and the beer list, along with the food each beer is paired with looks fantastic. Each pairing is $10 for the food and 6oz beer, which means you can have a full five course meal or you can just have a few of the pairings. While all of the food and beers sound good,  I can’t wait to try the cask of Ruination IPA dry hopped with Citra hops.

If you’re not a vegan or vegetarian, don’t let the lack of meat scare you away. Check out the menu below including beer pairings.

Click on over to LOVELIKEBEER‘s website for more info.

Green Flash Brewing Co.’s New Location

Tags

green flash mira mesa, green flash new location

As I blogged about last year, Green Flash Brewing Co. is moving. At the end of the month they’ll shut down operations at their current facility in Vista and then start things up at their new brewery in Mira Mesa.

Sunday May 29th will be Green Flash’s last day brewing in Vista, they’ll celebrate with a Customer Appreciation Party from 12-4pm. Just a few days later on June 1st they’ll officially open the doors at the new facility at 6550 Mira Mesa Blvd. in San Diego. This will put Green Flash in good company not too far from AleSmith, Hess Brewing Co., and Ballast Point Scripps Ranch. The grand opening celebration will happen on Saturday July 23rd from 12-4pm.

The new location will have a 4000 square foot tasting room that will be open Wednesday through Sunday. Upon opening Green Flash will be brewing 45,000 barrels of beer per year at their new facility with the ability to grow to 100,000 barrels as needed.

Read below for the full press release from Green Flash.

San Diego Beer Events, March 3rd – March 9th

Tags

2008 Barrel Aged Sea Monster Imperial Stout, 2009 Sea Monster Imperial Stout, Abandon Ship Smoked Lager, Abandon Ship Smoked Lager with Dried Smoked Chipotles, carnevale, Churchill's Finest Hour, churchill's renaissance, fiji yogurt, firkin friday, habanero sculpin ipa, knb bbq, miho gastrotruck, Old Tempest Ale, pliny the younger churchill's pub, saison de lente, Sea Monster Imperial Stout, sierra nevada week, Tongue Buckler

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

Thursday Mar 3rd:

Ballast Point is teaming up with MIHO Gastrotruck and Fiji Yogurt for another casual beer dinner. MIHO will be serving Drunken Wild Mexican Shrimp and Grits prepared with Abandon Ship Smoked Lager and Fiji will have a Ballast Point Tongue Buckler wort based yogurt, flavored with Peanut Butter and Honey. Ballast Point will be pouring plenty of beers including Abandon Ship Smoked Lager, Abandon Ship Smoked Lager with Dried Smoked Chipotles, Habanero Sculpin IPA, 2008 Barrel Aged Sea Monster Imperial Stout, 2009 Sea Monster Imperial Stout and this year’s version of Sea Monster Imperial Stout. They’ll have recommendations on which beers pair best with what food. This all happens from 4:30-7pm at Ballast Point/Homebrew Mart in Linda Vista.

Friday Mar 4th:

Another Friday, another Firkin Friday at Hamilton’s Tavern. This week they’ll feature Poway’s Lightning Brewery with a cask of their Old Tempest Ale, their 9.5% ABV UK style strong ale. As usual Hamilton’s should have a couple other Lightning beers on draft as well.

Saturday Mar 5th:

Churchill’s Pub and Grille in San Marcos is hosting their second annual Churchill’s Renaissance. Starting at 11am they’ll have all sorts of delicious beers that don’t see the light of day too often. Sure they’ll have Russian River Brewing Company’s much sought after Pliny the Younger, but they’ll also have a ton of other delicious and rare beers including this year’s version of Port Brewing Co.’s Churchill’s Finest Hour, an imperial stout aged in Jack Daniels whiskey barrels. Get there early for the extra rare stuff.

Sunday Mar 6th:

Sierra Nevada Beer BrunchBQ Finale is happening at KNB Wine Cellars from 11am-3pm to finish off their Sierra Nevada week. They should still have plenty of great Sierra Nevada beers and some delicious food on the BBQ.

Monday Mar 7th:

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 8th:

Ritual Tavern will be having a Fat Tuesday celebration. They’ll have The Bruery’s Saison de Lente and Lost Abbey’s Carnevale on draft. For food they’ll have fried oyster Po-boys, gumbo and beignets.

Wednesday Mar 9th:

Ballast Point and Green Flash are teaming up to take over all the taps at Rancho Bernardo’s URGE Gastropub. They’ll split URGE’s 51 taps fairly evenly and if you get there early you might even score a commemorative pint glasses to take home. No word on what each brewery will be brining but expect some great beers to be pouring.

Down at Small Bar they’ll be featuring AleSmith with some keep the glass specials and pint glasses to take home.