San Diego Brewed: Islander IPA from Coronado Brewing Company

Tags

idiot ipa, islander ipa

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.

It’s been a while since I’ve had Islander IPA from Coronado Brewing Company. For some reason I’ve been drawn to their Idiot IPA lately, passing it by. In my head Islander IPA became the “little brother” to the bigger, higher ABV Idiot IPA. And while it’s true that at 8.5% ABV Idiot IPA is bigger, Islander IPA is no slouch itself at 7% ABV. It’s not all about the alcohol content, but for some strange reason I just kept passing Islander IPA up. Well thankfully I’m revisiting it here and won’t be passing it up any longer.

Islander IPA is big and hoppy with plenty of fruitiness to it. There’s plenty of hop flavor but a lot more hop bitterness than I expected. The first sip is pine-like hops before the grainy, somewhat sweet malts appear. It’s not too sweet, but what little there is helps keep the bitterness in balance, but the graininess here gets in the way. Some tropical fruit flavors follow, with quite a bit of hop bitterness in the finish. It finishes a bit on the sweet side, but overly sweet.

At $4 for a 22oz bottle and available in 6-packs of 12oz bottles as well, Islander IPA is quite a deal. As with all IPA’s make sure to get it fresh, Coronado stamps the bottled date on their labels, it’s a little hard to read, but it looks like this one was bottled exactly 2 months ago on June 29th.

Look for Idiot IPA to show up here on San Diego Brewed sometime in the future. Just not too soon, I’ll be enjoying Islander for a while.

And even though Coronado isn’t technically an island, I’ll forgive Coronado Brewing Company for the name. Islander IPA sounds a heck of a lot better than Peninsular IPA.

San Diego Celebrates American Craft Beer Week, May 17-23

Tags

90 minute ipa, american craft beer week, anchor steam brewing co., big barrel stout, declaration of beer independence, double barrel ale, firestone walker parabola, fritz and ken's ale, idiot ipa, old scallywag, palate wrecker, pale 31, small bar san diego, union jack ipa

This week, May 17-May 23rd is American Craft Beer Week, and just as the name suggests it’s a week long celebration of craft beer across the entire country. Various breweries and bars are holding special events to celebrate and of course San Diego is no exception. Below are some highlights of events happening around San Diego County this week. Check out the American Craft Beer Week website for more events. And don’t confuse American Craft Beer Week with San Diego Beer Week happening November 5-14th (and don’t miss San Diego Beer Week’s sneak preview weekend June 10th-13th).

Week long events:

• Stone Brewing Co. will hold Stone Southern California Storm, with all 32 of their taps featuring beer from Southern California Breweries all week long. Like many breweries around the country, they’ll also have a Declaration of Beer Independence hanging in the lobby for folks to sign.
• Karl Strauss Brewing Co. brewed up a Belgian IPA for American Craft Beer Week that will be on tap all week at various bars and on cask at their restaurants. They’ll also have guest casks on throughout the week.
• Coronado Brewing Co. will have their Big Barrel Stout, an Imperial Stout aged for six months in bourbon barrels as well as their Old Scallywag Barley Wine on tap.

Monday, May 17th:

• In addition to Stone Southern California Storm, Stone Brewing Co. will also be hosting a Beer U class, Beer 101: The History of Beer from 7-9pm. Tickets are $20.

Tuesday, May 18th:

• Small Bar will have $2.50 half pints of nine classic American IPAs both Tuesday and Wednesday. The IPAs include Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Coronado Brewing Co. Idiot IPA and more.

• Blind Lady Ale House will tap the 2010 release of Firestone Walker Parabola, a barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout. They’ll also have other Firestone Walker brews on tap including Double Barrel Ale, Pale 31, Union Jack IPA and more.

Wednesday, May 19th:

• If you missed Parabola Tuesday at Blind Lady Ale House, Pizza Port Carlsbad has you covered. They’ll be tapping the 2010 release of Firestone Walker Parabola as well as having plenty of other Firestone Walker beers on tap.

Thursday, May 20th:

• San Diego Brewing Co. will toast 30 years of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. with the Sierra Nevada/Anchor Steam collaboration Fritz and Ken’s Ale, a big dark, Imperial Stout.

Friday, May 21st:

• Hamilton’s Tavern will host a cask of Green Flash Brewing Co.‘s Palate Wrecker and 9-10% ABV Double IPA.

As for Saturday and Sunday check out some of the week long events.