San Diego Beer News | Aug 15th, 2011

Tags

coronado brewing company tecolote canyonolote, gbbf Michael Jackson American Cask Ale award, new english brewing company sorrento valley, palate wrecker, Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA, tin can alehouse east village, tin can live music

Here are a few bits of news that I didn’t feel were worthy of full posts by themselves, but are noteworthy none the less.

Green Flash Brewing Co.’s Palate Wrecker a 9.2% ABV double IPA that uses a unique brewing process (see below) recently won the Michael Jackson American Cask Ale award at the Great British Beer Festival out of more than 100 entries. Today Green Flash announced on their Facebook page that Palate Wrecker will be their first seasonal release of 2012 which will be released on draft and in both 12 and 22oz bottles. Here’s how Green Flash describes the brew process for Palate Wrecker:

Chuck [Silva] came up with a new method to make a Double IPA by performing a double brew to make a single beer. First there is a single infusion mash and subsequent boil at 65 IBU with Columbus and Centennial hops. Then a second duplicate mash using the 65 IBU wort instead of water and a second 65 IBU boil using the same hop schedule. The result is a higher gravity beer with kettle caramelizing in place of crystal malts and an elevated hop flavor and bitterness that might not be achieved with the same amount of ingredients in a single brew. Hop Heads, this beer is for you!

New English Brewing Company recently received a brewing license for a new location in Sorrento Valley. According to New English owner Simon Lacey they will have a 3.5 barrel brewhouse at the new facility which will focus on specialty beer development and cask beer production as well as house a tasting room. New English currently brews at the Old Mission Brewery building in Middletown which is where their standard beer production will remain when the new facility opens up. No word on when the new facility located at 11545 Sorrento Valley Rd, Suites 305 & 306 will open.

Speaking of the Old Mission Brewery building, Coronado Brewing Company which has supplemented their brewing capacity at their brewpub in Coronado by contract brewing with 5 Points Brewing Co. at the Old Mission Brewery building today announced they will be opening a new facility with a 30 barrel brewhouse and 60 barrel fermenters, tasting room and retail shop at 1205 Knoxville St in the Tecolote Canyon area. Coronado expects to have the new facility open by Spring of 2012. I was talking with some folks from Coronado Brewing Company a few weeks ago and they expect that they will cease production at 5 Points Brewing Co. once their new facility comes online. According to CBC President Rick Chapman the Coronado brewpub will focus on specialty beers and one-offs once the new facility opens. In a news release sent out today Chapman noted that CBC sales were up 64% in San Diego alone last year.

Tin Can Alehouse, which while they do have an impressive amount of beer available in cans is more of a live music venue than a beer focused bar has applied for a transfer of their liquor license from their current location in Banker’s Hill to a new spot in downtown’s East Village neighborhood. An email sent to Tin Can Alehouse was not returned, but the license for the new spot at 701 16th Street is currently pending review with the ABC. One thing I noticed was that the new license lists the business as “Tin Can Live Music,” so maybe they will be dropping the “Alehouse” moniker all together. Update: Here is Tin Can’s new liquor license application. Update 2: While the status on the application still shows as “Pending”, I’ve heard that Tin Can withdrew the application and will not be moving to 701 16th St.

In other East Village news I hear that Monkey Paw, the new brewpub from Scot Blair is coming along nicely and should be opening real soon. No word on an exact date but I’ve been told the bar and restaurant portion could be open before the end of the month if things go smoothly. I’m also told the brewhouse is shaping up as well, but is a bit farther out. Expect updates on both the bar opening and brewing beginning as soon as I know more.

Last, but certainly not least, Stone Brewing Co. today released their Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA. I haven’t tried it yet, but was certainly impressed with the Stone SoCal Hop Salute Double Black IPA given to NHC attendees in June. While not the same recipe, the two beers are of the same style, it will be interesting to see how they differ.

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San Diego Beer Events April 21st – April 27th

Tags

Automatic Quartz Japan IPA, Boon Kriek, cy henley, double jack, easter beer brunch, firkin friday, Garrett Marrero, john trogner, latis imports, maui brewing co, mitch steele, pale 31, palm, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Rodenbach Vintage 08, Steenbrugge Tripel, stone Cherry Chocolate Stout, stone collaboration, troegs brewing co., Trooper's Tipple IPA, union jack, Why Not? Wheat

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.

Thursday April 21st:

Head down to Pizza Port Ocean Beach where they’ll be featuring New English Brewing Co. for their keep the glass night. They’ll have Why Not? Wheat and Troopers Tipple IPA for $5 with $3 refills (or if you have enough glasses already you can just enjoy a pint for $3).

Friday April 22nd:

Hamilton’s Tavern will host Firestone Walker for this week’s Firkin Friday. They’ll have Double Jack and Pale 31 on cask with Pale 31, Union Jack, Double Jack and an unannounced special beer on draft.

Saturday April 23rd:

Small Bar has a delicious brunch and for this month’s Beer for Breakfast they’re featuring the beers of Latis Imports. That includes Rodenbach Grand Cru and Rodenbach Vintage 08 as well as Boon Kriek, Steenbrugge Tripel, and Palm. They’ll even give you discounts on refills and send you home with a glass.

Sunday April 24th:

If you don’t have Easter plans with the family (or can convince your family that beer is a necessary component of brunch) head on up to URGE Gastropub for their Epic Beer Brunch. $45 presale ($50 day of) gets you a four course brunch with beer pairings. Tax and gratuity are included, this looks like quite the deal.

Monday April 25th:

Blind Lady Ale House is opening their doors Monday night for a special fundraiser for Japan. $35 tickets will get you food samples and beers (donated by many local breweries). They’ll also be debuting Automatic Brewing Co.’s latest beer, Automatic Quartz Japan IPA brewed with the help of Cy Henley from Alpine Beer Co. It’s 7% ABV and made with 12% rice grist and Nelson hops with ingredients donated by Alpine and Home Brew Mart. There will also be a raffle for some wonderful prizes. All money from ticket sales and the raffle go to International Relief Committee’s fund for Japan. The event is limited to 150, so make sure to get your tickets before it sells out.

Tuesday April 26th:
The monthly QUAFF homebrew club meeting takes place at All American Grill in Mission Valley at 7pm, but if you need some homebrew goals to aspire to, head up to Stone Brewing Co. from 4-6pm for their Meet the Brewers: Collaboration Day Wrap-Up. Stone’s Mitch Steele is teaming up with Kevin Sheppard and Jason Fields, homebrewers whose Cherry Chocolate Stout won Stone’s Homebrew Competition last month and will now be brewed on Stone’s brewing system for commercial release. As with most (all?) previous Stone collaborations, they’ve also invited another commercial brewer, this time it’s John Trogner of Pennsylvania’s Tröegs Brewing Co. helping out with the brew.

Wednesday April 27th:

Maui Brewing Co. might be based in Hawaii, but founder Garrett Marrero grew up here in San Diego. He’ll be at URGE Gastropub with seven Maui beers. The first two-hundred people will also take home a Maui Brewing Co. pint glass and a festive lei.

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 Week: Days Five, Six and Seven

Tags

brandy barrel-aged Angel’s Share, Chicory Stout, Citra Double IPA, Class V Stout, class x stout, Deliverance, just outstanding ipa, lost abbey Deliverance, ourbon barrel-aged Serpent’s Stout, SDBW stout, Trooper's Tipple IPA

Eric and Rebecca Giddens of Kern River Brewing Company

An alternate title for this post could be: “Stouts, Stouts, Stouts (and an IPA or two)”

Tuesday was Kern River Brewing Co. night at Toronado. Eric and Rebecca Giddens and Kyle Smith of Kern River were on hand and brought with them Just Outstanding IPA, Citra Double IPA, Class V Stout and Class X Stout.

Just Outstanding IPA is well, just outstanding and since I had already had it before both bottled and on tap, I decided to skip it that night and try the other offerings. I chatted with Eric Giddens from the brewery for a while about it’s namesake mountain bike trail. And let’s just say a road trip to Kernville is being planned. I was most looking forward to the Class X Stout, and it did not disappoint. Class X Stout is the bourbon barrel aged version of Class V Stout, a respectable beer in it’s own right, and it was really interesting to be able to drink the two beers side by side. Class X Stout starts out as Class V Stout but is 100% barrel aged for eight months which changes the beer dramatically. Both were being served on nitrogen at Toronado, so it’s hard to compare them to other stouts served on CO2, but comparing them to each other was easy.

The Class V Stout had a very strong roasted smell and taste. It wasn’t quite a coffee characteristic, but the roasted smell and flavor were very aggressive. The Class X Stout on the other hand smelled of bourbon and bourbon, vanilla and chocolate were all very apparent in the taste. It had some roasted characteristics but they were definitely more subdued than the Class V Stout. I would really like to try Class X Stout on CO2, so I could better gauge how well it stands up against other barrel aged stouts, because on nitrogen I have to say it is fantastic. Citra DIPA is another great beer from Kern River Brewing Co. My experience with Citra hops is limited, but this one is great. It has a big citrus hop smell and taste, it’s fairly fruity but seems to be more lemon or orange than the typical grapefruit flavors of a lot of IPAs.

Wednesday night started at the new URBN pizza joint in North Park. They were holding a special media preview night at I had a few slices and some beer on the house. It was New English Brewing Co. night so I started off with a Trooper’s Tipple IPA. It’s an English style IPA which uses East Kent Goldings hops, it’s low in alcohol at 4.8% ABV and is fairly malty, but according to New English it’s a fairly classic example of the English IPA style. It was fairly light and refreshing, but I had to move on to something heavier next and had a Dogfish Head Chicory Stout. This 5.2% ABV has strong roasted and maybe even burnt flavors reminiscent of dark black coffee. It was bitter but not from the usual hop bitterness found in most beers. Chicory is used by some people as a decaf coffee substitute as it has a similar flavor which I think came through well in this beer.

After URBN I headed down to Neighborhood where they were featuring The Lost Abbey and Port Brewing Company. I opted to go with the barrel aged again and ordered a Deliverance. Deliverance is a a blend of bourbon barrel-aged Serpent’s Stout and brandy barrel-aged Angel’s Share. I have never had Angel’s Share, and have only had non-bourbon barrel-aged Serpent’s Stout, so this was mostly new to me. Deliverance is good and is maybe my favorite beer I’ve had from The Lost Abbey so far (my experience with The Lost Abbey has been fairly limited, that is being rectified). It hada  strong bourbon smell and taste, I couldn’t detect much brandy, along with roasted flavors from the Serpent’s Stout. The alcohol taste and heat was much strong on this than other barrel aged stout’s I’ve had. It was definitely a sipper and not something that could be drank quickly.

That finally brings us to Thursday when I stopped into Karl Strauss in Sorrento Mesa for lunch where I had a SDBW Stout. This dry stout is around 5% ABV but is pretty flavorful. I’m a big fan of Imperial Stouts, and typically shy away from the lower ABV stouts, but I really enjoyed this. It’s brewed with Star Anise and has a slight liquorice flavor. The roasted barley flavors mostly overpowered the liquorice, but too strong of liquorice flavors could be too sweet. The body was a bit thin but I felt it had a great flavor, I would have preferred a bit more liquorice, but I’m probably in the minority on that one.

Ten Beer Related Reasons I’m Excited to Return to San Diego

Tags

BLAH, dog friendly bars, grand cru, keg n bottle, la jolla brew house, old viscosity, pizza port real ale festival, quaff, quality ale and fermentation fraternity, san diego beer week'nd, san diego beer weekend, san diego festival of beer, san diego international beer festival, speedway stout, stone anniversary and international beer festival, stone bistro and world gardens, stone late night movies, stone sourfest, tap hunter, taphunter

Durango, Colorado, where I’ve lived for the past year and half, isn’t a bad place to be a beer geek (check out my old beer blog from Durango). But it’s not San Diego. It’s also in the middle of nowhere. Durango has four breweries and but it’s also about 300 miles from Denver, which means the many beers brewed in the Front Range, and those from out of state breweries that get distributed in Colorado often don’t make it down here. I don’t mean this as a complaint about Durango but rather a way to show how excited I am about returning to San Diego. Below are ten (of the many) beer related reasons I’m glad to be back.

Hanging out on the patio at the La Jolla Brew House with my dog. The patio at La Jolla Brew House isn’t a bad place to drink a beer, and it’s made all the better because I can bring my dog. Firehouse Brewing Co.’s beer garden is also dog friendly so I’m sure we’ll be enjoying some pints there too. Before I left San Diego Hamilton’s allowed dogs, if anyone knows if they still do please leave a comment below.

Festivals and Events: Summer typically means beer festival season no matter where you are, and because of the number of breweries and beer lovin’ folks in San Diego, there are plenty of festivals. Pizza Port’s Real Ale Festival, Stone SourFest, San Diego International Beer Festival, San Diego Festival of Beer, San Diego Beer Week’nd and Stone’s Anniversary and Invitational Beer Festival. I’ve probably left a few out, but those are the first that come to mind.

QUAFF: Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity is a San Diego based home brew club. Their member’s beers have won numerous American Homebrewer Championships over the years. I’m excited to check out and join the club and hope I can learn some skills to further my home brewing.

Beer Box Tijuana. Sure Tijuana isn’t San Diego, but to me they’re inseparable. I came across Beer Box Tijuana while visiting friends and was amazed at their beer selection. In Tijuana terms (where Tecate pretty much rules to the city) they have an impressive beer selection. They have a good selection of San Diego craft beers, but of more interest to San Diegans they have plenty of Mexican craft beers that don’t get distributed in the US and many beers from Europe. In addition to all that the folks at Beer Box Tijuana are homebrewers and often host homebrew club meetings and tastings.

Beers: Regardless of everything else, beer blogging is about the beer. And there are plenty of beers I haven’t been able to easily get out here in Durango that will be much more accessible in San Diego. Here’s a short list of some I’m most looking forward to: Alesmith’s Speedway Stout and Grand Cru, Port Brewing’s Old Viscosity, and so many Lost Abbey beers I’ve never tried.

Stone Bistro and World Gardens: This is one of my favorite places to have a beer and eat dinner. And since it’s all the way up in Escondido I don’t make it up to often, which keeps is special and ensures it will never become ordinary. I’m hoping to make it up for a few movie nights this summer as well.

The beer bars that have opened in the last year or two: Blind Lady Ale House, Small Bar, The Station, Ritual Tavern, Toronado just to name a few. I’ve been to BLAH, Small Bar, and Toronado but I’m looking forward to spend far more time at each.

The Liquor Stores: South Bay Drugs, The Best Damn Beer Shop and Keg N Bottle just to name a few. The beer selection at these stores is phenomenal. I’m like a kid in a candy store every time I walk in.

The Newer Breweries: I’ve never had any beers from Airdale Brewing Co., New English Brewing Co., or Mother Earth Brew Co. There are plenty of other small breweries that have opened tasting rooms or expanded their lineups recently. I’m excited to try them all.

Tap Hunter: Tap Hunter is one of the coolest ideas and websites around. I’m sure every San Diego beer geek already knows and uses it (if you don’t click the link above to check it out) and now I’m happy that I’ll be able to also. Tap Hunter launched shortly after I left San Diego last year. What Tap Hunter does (in a nutshell) is crowd source a list of what beers are on tap at various bars and restaurants. You can check the website before you go out to see what is most likely on tap and use your smartphone to report corrections if a new beer has gone on tap or a keg is empty.

10306 San Diego Mission Road