1001 Beers

Beer No: 102
Page No: 918
Category: Specialty

The last of my Stone Sour Fest reviews, this is the Lost Abbey Red Poppy.  It's easily one of my favorites (though their new Russ - strawberry sour - was pretty amazing as well), but the Cuvee de Tomme still ranks as my favorite Lost Abbey brew (I'll post both reviews below).  One day, when I'm rolling in cash, I'll join the Lost Abbey Sinners & Saints program, but for now, I'll be content with my Bruery Reserve Society membership.  Enough with Lost Abbey, on to the beers.  For the final listing, here are the beers from "C" East Side of Lawn - all on draft.  A * indicates I tried it - a º indicates I skipped it because I knew I had already tasted it at a previous festival.

• "C" East Side of Lawn
  • Lagunitas Pinot Noir Barreled Sonoma Farmhouse Saison Style Ale
  • The Lost Abbey Duck Duck Gooze *
  • The Lost Abbey Framboise de Amorosa *
  • The Lost Abbey Red Poppy Ale *
  • The Lost Abbey Russ *
  • The Lost Abbey Veritas Ale 07 *
  • Moylan's Barrel Aged Kilt Lifter with Brett
  • New Belgium La Folie
  • New Belgium Lips of Faith Eric's Ale º
  • New Belgium Lips of Faith Transatlantique Kriek º
  • New Belgium Love - Felix (dry hopped) *
  • New Belgium Love - Oscar (spiced) *
  • New Belgium Tart Lychee *
  • Ommegang Zuur *
  • Russian River Consecration º
  • Russian River Supplication º (tomorrow's beer)
  • Six Rivers Raspberry Lambic *
  • Triple Rock Sour Cherry Stout aged in Bourbon Barrels *
  • Dogfish Head Festina Peche º
  • Drake's FrakenBerry Sour
  • Drake's Kuato

I think this quote from Lost Abbey's director of brewing, Tomme Arthur pretty much sums up my feelings on all the sour ales (my personal favorite style of beer):

"Perhaps the single most defining beer moment for me came when I experienced my first Rodenbach Grand Cru.  It was a seminal moment, as I only then began to understand that beer could possess a range of flavors outside of bland and watery.  The beer was ruby with brown highlights.  It was at once sweet and sour, woody and dry.  This beer was an epiphany for me."

I think any craft beer drinker can agree with Tomme.  There's that moment when you discover that there's a whole world out there outside of the Corona, Bud Lite, and Miller High Life.  There's a world full of flavor, complexity, and range.  A beer can at once be "sweet and sour, woody and dry."  It doesn't have to taste like nothing and only serve the purpose of getting you drunk.  A good beer should be imbibed to experience a full range of flavors, and once experienced, there's no going back.

Thank you to all the visionaries out there.  Those at Stone, Lost Abbey, Cascade, Russian River, AleSmith, The Bruery, Bootlegger's, and countless others whom have made my life better through drink.  Keep up the good work, maybe one day I will work beside you.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Lost Abbey Red Poppy Ale by Port Brewing / Lost Abbey

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Had on tap at Stone Sour Fest 2010. Easily one of my favorite Lost Abbey beers. The Red Poppy pours with a deep brownish-red color and slight tan head. Aroma of cherries, oak, lactic acid, vinegar, and citrus. Taste is equally complex with the cherries being the dominant flavor with the citrus and acids backing it up. Well balanced, finishes nicely, a true gem from Lost Abbey.

Pizza Port Cuvee de Tomme by Port Brewing / Lost Abbey

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 5/5
Taste: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 4.2 / 5.0

Had on draught at The 12 Hour Belgian Beer Party at Pizza Port Carlsbad on March 8, 2003  #34 on the program and #100 for me!!!

The beer has a very pleasing aroma - a slight wine smell laced with cherries. It's a bit tart, but wow, it's extremely flavorful. The beer has a beautiful appearance with no head and a clear, dark red hue. The beer is sweet, slightly acidic with a very complex, flavorful density. I had actually left the Beer Fest for dinner, but upon reviewing my program, saw I missed this highly recommended beer. I went back, bought another ticket and enjoyed this very fine beer. An absolutely wonderful beer.

Beer No: 76
Page No: 392
Category: Blond

After a failed attempt at two sours and a delicious delirium, I continued on to a duo of Chouffes.  First up was the Houblon Chouffe, aka Dobbelen IPA Tripel.  Wow, this tripel was good.  A wonderful blend of 9% alcohol, citrus hops, and malty undertones was just a perfect way to continue the night.  More on the beer later.  Now for my next endeavor...

With the World Cup starting in just a few days, I wanted to see if it would be possible to drink a beer from each of the different countries represented in the Cup.  So, let's see if this is possible.

The first game of the World Cup is South Africa v. Mexico.  South Africa actually has quite a few beers listed in the book - 6 to be exact.  However, I haven't heard of 4 of them, and I do not know if I'll be able to track down Castle Lager or Castle Milk Stout.  I will try and find them in time for the game though.  With Mexico, I'm presented with another problem...I tried to buy as many Mexican beers as I could to review around Cinco de Mayo.  So of the 7 Mexican beers, I've had Cucapa Chupacabras, Negra Modelo, and Dos Equis XX Amber.  That leaves just 4 others, including two more from Cucapa which I have not seen in stores along with Mexicali and Tijuana Morena.  Again, I will try and track them down.

Game 2 features Uruguay and France.  Uruguay does not have any beers in the book, but France sure does.  25 to be exact.  A lot of them I haven't heard of though.  And last time I was at Hi Time Wine Cellars, I looked for some French and Italian beers and didn't see many.  I will return though, search high and low, and hopefully return with some French beers to sample throughout the tournament.

The next day features three games, with South Korea v. Greece, Argentina v. Nigeria, and England v. United States.  Obviously England v. United States is the game of the day, but it's almost cheating to use that game for the day.  So while South Korea does have one beer in the book, Prime Max, I have never seen or heard of it, so I doubt I'll find it.  Greece, oddly enough, also has just one beer in the book - Mythos Red.  Apparently it's distributed to 30 countries, but I've never seen it, but will try to find it.  Argentina, like South Korea and Greece, also has just one beer listed, Antares Stout Imperial.  It sounds good, but chances of finding it are slim.  So I'm left with Nigeria, which also has just one beer listed, oddly enough, it's...Guinness Foreign Extra (Nigeria).  However, this isn't your standard Guinness.  The dark stout wort is imported from Dublin and then blended with a Nigerian-brewed pale beer made from locally grown sorghum and maize, resulting in a sweeter beer.  Chances of find this one...slim to none.  So what does that mean?  I have to take the easy way out with an English or American beer.  Blah.

Oh wait, I just remembered, Day 2 is the day of my stout party, so I'm most likely going to be having an English or American stout review that day.  And then I'll just save the rest of my stout reviews until the World Cup round robin ends.

Day 3 features the team I'm rooting for above all others, Germany, facing Australia.  But let's see if the other two matches can provide a drink.  First up is Algeria v. Slovenia.  No dice there, neither has a beer in the book.  Next up is Serbia v. Ghana.  Again, nothing.  So it will either be a German or Australian beer on Day 3.  Australia actually has 32 beers in the book, and even though I've had Barons Black Wattle Seed Ale and Coopers Sparkling Ale, I should be able to find something else from Australia.  If not, there's always Germany and its 96 beers in the book.

Day 4 has some matchups that could easily produce some good drinking.  Netherlands v. Denmark (13 v. 12 beers), Japan v. Cameroon (22 v. 0), and Italy v. Paraguay (47 v. 0).  Ok, so it seems like Netherlands v. Denmark is the most evenly matched, and maybe that will be the day to have Grolsch.  If not, we can go to Denmark and knock out a Mikkeller or two (since Elephant has already been done).  I'll save Japan and Italy for another day.

Day 5 features matchups between New Zealand v. Slovakia, Ivory Coast v. Portugal, and Brazil v. North Korea.  New Zealand leads the way with 17 beers in the book, but I have heard of none of them, so I don't think my chances are good to find any.  Slovakia actually does have two beers in the book - Brokat Dark and Zlaty Bazant 12%.  I would love to find that 12%, but again, chances are slim.  Ivory Coast features no beers and Portugal has just three - Sagres Bohemia, Sagres Preta, and Super Bock Stout.  Again, I will try to find them, but I wouldn't count on it.  North Korea has zero beers (surprise, surprise), but Brazil has 9, including one of my favorite dark session beers, Xingu Black.  So you can count on me having that on at least one of the days that Brazil plays.

Day 6 features the final four teams of the 32 in Honduras v. Chile and Spain v. Switzerland.  South Africa will mix it up and play Uruguay that day as well.  Both Honduras and Chile feature no beers in the book, while Spain has 11, including Estrella Damm (one that I will definitely review during a "Spain Day") and Switzerland features 12 beers, however, I have not heard of any of them, but would love to try them all.  Hmm...maybe I should just go to Switzerland.

So in all, there's 15 days of Round Robin play.  After that, we have 4 days of Second Round play with 2 games each day.  Those teams are all to be decided, but chances are, many of the big teams will be there - England, United States, Germany, Brazil, Spain, etc. so I should be able to keep my "Beers of the World Cup" going.  There's then a couple days off, two days of quarter-finals (2 games each day), another couple days off, 2 days of semi-finals (1 game each day) and then another couple days off, a third place game (one match) and the final on July 11 at 11:30pm Pacific time.  Hopefully I'll be able to predict which teams will win each round and have beers ready and waiting for me as the teams progress through the later rounds.  Obviously, going with the smaller countries in the earlier rounds should leave me with plenty of easier-to-find beers to imbibe in the later rounds of the tournament.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel by Brasserie d'Achouffe (Moortgat)

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Had from 750ml bottle. Pours a hazy yellow with good two-finger head, nice head retention, and good lacing. Aroma is heavy with citrus hops, pine, spices, and yeast. Taste is heavy hops, light blonde undertones with hints of malts and spices. A wonderfully balanced tripel that artfully hides the 9% ABV. Finishes slightly dry, but with good hop finish. A treat on a hot day.

Beer No: 44/1001
Page No: 447
Category: Blond

The second of two Jolly Pumpkin reviews, I started the night with La Roja and finished it up with this gem, the Oro de Calabaza.  Meaning Pumpkin's Gold, this golden ale is a wonderful example of the subtleties that oak aging can impart to a simple golden and the complexities that even the simplest golden can present when brewed in different ways.  The brew is a perfect blend of spices and oak flavors with a bubbly texture that finishes crisp and refreshing.  In short, a pretty damn good beer.

As for the beers this weekend, I plan on hitting up the Bruery in a few minutes to try their new releases - Humulus Rice and Seven Grain Saison.  Both should be an interesting experience.  The Seven Grain is brewed with barley, wheat, rice, oats, corn, rye, and spelt.  The Humulus Rice is quite obviously, a rice brew that they claim is light and crisp (which would make sense since the big brewers like InBev and Coors all use rice in their mainstream brews claiming it "enhances clarity" when it just makes it lighter).  I've also got some nice new beers from the list in the fridge thanks to my recent visits to Total Wine and Hi Time Wine.  And...I'd like to head down to Bootlegger's to try some of their new brews - including their anniversary beer which sounds amazing from what I've heard around town.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza from Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Total Wine. Pours a hazy golden color with exceptional carbonation leading to a frothy white head. Aroma is sweet, with fruits and a slight tartness with nice undertones of spices. Taste reveals the spiciness a bit more. Pepper, oak, and citrus dominate the palate. Finishes dry, bubbly, crisp, exceptional!

Beer No: 29
Page No: 193
Category: Amber

My love for IPAs is no secret and I have enjoyed this Meantime IPA on many occasions in the past.  It's easily one of my favorite IPAs, tying in fact (by rating) with the Alesmith IPA.  In fact, as of this writing, I have ranked only one IPA higher than the Alesmith and the Meantime IPA - Stone's 3rd Anniversary IPA back in 2003 (here are all my IPA ratings).  Reading back through my Stone 3rd Anniversary rating, I think what's notable is that both it and this Meantime IPA don't go out of their way to hit you over the head with hops.  Now, don't get me wrong - the hops are there - and in great amounts, but they are so perfectly balanced with all the other flavors that the whole beer is simply elevated to another level.

The interesting thing about this Meantime IPA is that it's actually meant to be aged for a few years.  I didn't know this, so I'm definitely going to go pick up a bottle and throw it in my beer storage unit.  However, I'll have to be careful on how long it ages because, as evidenced with the Port Brewing Hop 15, things can definitely go wrong if you cellar a heavily-hopped beer for too long.  Also, reading back through the recent reviews of the Stone 3rd Anniversary IPA, the overall rating of the beer has been dragged down by people who stored the beer too long and it's gone bad.  Which is a shame - back when I sampled the 3rd through 5th anniversary IPAs, they were all at their peak.  Fast forward 5, 6, or 7 years later, and what do you expect?  Beers don't last forever, so it's a shame to see an amazing beer like the Stone 3rd Anniversary be in only the 56th percentile of IPAs when it truly was a great beer back in the day.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Meantime India Pale Ale from Meantime

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Total Wine & More. I’ve had this beer multiple times in the past and it’s one of my favorite IPAs when I don’t want to get bashed over the head with hops. Pours a dark orange / copper color with a perfectly sized head. The head sticks around for a while and the beer has good lacing. Aroma of hops, grapefruit, orange, and a hint of malts. Mouthfeel is slightly oily with good carbonation and a medium body. Tastes of hops, malts, and citrus. A very, very well balanced beer that ranks up there with almost any other IPA. The hops are not as aggressive as the description states as the IPA offers more of a complex blend of flavors than you’re used to in most highly hopped IPAs.

Beer No: 17/1001
Page No: 36
Category: Amber

About 10 years ago, while attending college down in San Diego, I lived in Mira Mesa, a little sub-section of the City of San Diego right next to Miramar Marine Air Base.  Living next to the air base was great because the main road down to campus only had traffic originating from one side of the street and all of the training missions they flew were far enough away that you couldn't even hear the planes.  Only when the Blue Angels came to town and were practicing their low-flying maneuvers did you hear air traffic.  But, another great part about living in Mira Mesa is I was only blocks away from Alesmith Brewing.  So it's no surprise that I credit Alesmith with being the first formative brewery in my young beer-tasting life.

These days, Alesmith has expanded, but remains in the same non-descript office/industrial park that they started in and the continue to put out great beers year-round.  Though their "X" is probably my favorite of their line - a little extra hoppiness on top of a terrific American Pale Ale, the IPA is also a treat.  Hoppy, crisp, a strong American IPA, the folks at Alesmith really know what they're doing.  And it really has been too long since I last visited.  They are open on Thursdays and Fridays from 2 to 5pm and on Saturdays from 1 to 4 and I really do need to make a trip down there to say hi again.  Plus, right around the corner in Mira Mesa is Callahan's - still the home to the best beer cheese soup I've ever tasted (oh, and Wednesday Wing Nights were legendary).  Callahan's also usually had some really good beer on tap - so they too were pretty influential in my early beer drinking and appreciating career.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

AleSmith IPA from AleSmith Brewing Company

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Bottle (also had on tap from the brewery many times in my day, but it was a bottle last night). Pours a wonderful orange color with a very frothy head which just sticks to the glass and doesn’t want to let go. Aromas of hops, citrus, pine, and a hint of malts. Mouthfeel is fizzy and smooth. Taste is a finely blended mix of hops, malts, and sweetness. Finishes dry and hoppy with a great aftertaste. A great, well-balanced IPA.

Beer No: 10/1001
Page No: 420
Category: Blond

I'd like to say it's been another long week and I'm glad the weekend is here, but, well, it's been busy, but the week hasn't been all that strenuous.  It started out with the slightest of colds on Monday, it lingered 'til Tuesday around noon, Wednesday I watched Clash of the Titans (1981), Thursday was Clash of the Titans (2010), and then Friday was preparation for brewing, and a trip to the wonderful Bruery.  At the Bruery this weekend, they have their amazing Humulus back on tap - a heavily hopped beer, it finishes with the perfect amount of bitterness and just gives you a quick jolt when you take that first sip.  Along with Humulus on tap, they also had it dry hopped on cask three ways - Citra, Centennial, and Simcoe - and all three ways - heavenly.

But as I ran around from task to task today, I never had time to get to my beer, so I took it along with me to the Bruery, and after tasting all four variations of Humulus, I poured the Green Flash Le Freak.  I had picked it up earlier in the day at O'Shea's where Scott and I needed to pick up our four different yeast strains for brew day tomorrow.  We'll be making a pale ale and then splitting it at the end and using two different strains of yeast - California Ale and London Ale.  We'll also be brewing a stout and we'll split that one at the end too, using a Cream Ale Yeast and the Burton Ale Yeast.  It should be a fun, yet busy day tomorrow.

Back to the Le Freak.  Billed as a blend between a "San Diego Style" IPA and a Belgian Tripel, this is most definitely a flavor profile I had never tried in the past.  The aromas are of sugars and citrus as the tripel definitely comes through there, but on the first sip, the IPA smacks you across the palate at the start and then finishes sweet with hints of sugar and spices.  The aftertaste is then slightly bitter again from the IPA, yet it warms you as you would expect a 9.2% ABV tripel to do.  It's a very complex beer, and definitely was an unexpected twist in the night.

1001 Beers describes brewmaster Chuck Silva's strange beer cross-breeding as such: "Le Freak begins with the same malt base as in Green Flash Imperial IPA, rather than the Tripel, and is jammed with hops from the American Northwest...For fermentation, Silva's house yeast, an American strain, combines with a Belgian strain to bring Le Freak forward, creating the fruit-and-spice character common in Belgian tripels."

However he does it, Le Freak definitely surprises you and then lulls you into a happy place as it mixes one of my favorite beer styles with the easy-drinking Tripel.  I haven't had too many beers from Green Flash, a quasi-local San Diego brewery, other than the more common Green Flash IPA, but I will definitely track down some of their more rare and experimental beers from here on out.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Green Flash Le Freak from Green Flash Brewing Co.

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavor: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Had from 750ml bottle picked up at O’Shea’s Brewing. Pours a deep golden/orange color with a nice head which dissipates slowly and leaves behind a good amount of lacing. The aromas are mostly the tripel - sugars, sweetness, candies, with just a hint of citrus and hops. The initial taste kicks your palate into high gear however, packing over 100 IBUs of bitterness as the IPA half of the beer bowls you over. Once the hops and bitterness subside, it finishes with a sweet, candy flavor and then leaves you feeling nice and warm inside afterward. The mix of an IPA and a Tripel was completely unexpected and a very nice surprise. I wasn’t quite sure how they would pull it off, but it all works very well together, a very nice, tasty beer.

Beer No: 4/1001
Page No: 864
Category: Specialty

Yesterday was the big Belgian Beer Festival at Pizza Port, Carlsbad.  It featured two sessions - one from 10am to 4pm and another from 5pm to 11pm.  I joined 7 of my friends on the 8:08 am train from Santa Ana to Oceanside, took a cab from Oceanside to Carlsbad, and arrived at Pizza Port at 9:30 am.  It was perfect timing - we had about 4 people ahead of us, which meant we would get a table for sure.  In previous years, they had a couple of low, plastic tables set up with chairs around them, but this year, they went with all high, standing tables, which worked perfectly for us.  We quickly grabbed two high chairs for the table, and the 8 of us proceeded to rotate through them whenever we needed a rest.

Besides buying extra tasting tickets and heading straight for the beers on tap, we had to place an order first thing with Pizza Port.  We quickly ordered two beer buddies (one regular, one cajun flavor) and began perusing the massive list of beers.  This year's beer list featured 39 beers on tap - from AleSmith Grand Cru to Victory Abbey 9 with all sorts of amazing and rare beers in the middle.  The 77 bottles available ranged from Achel Extra to Het Anker Lucifer all the way to Westmalle Tripel.  It was a daunting list, but the 8 of us were determined to make our way through it.

I quickly pulled out my list of the 1001 Beers and worked my way through the full beer listing.  I unfortunately able to find only 4 beers that matched, however, I know there were more (and I hope they were among the ones I sampled and took notes on).  But the problem I have currently is that most breweries in the U.S. are identified as something like "Cantillon" - however, in the listing I have from the book, it is listed as "Brasserie Cantillon."  So even though I had a listing of 116 beers, it was taking too long to try and match up the brewers from the different lists, so I ended up with just 4 that I knew I would taste, rate, and then discuss later.  Those were: Cantillon Iris (2006), Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek (2007), De Dolle Oerbier, and De Dolle Still Nacht.

So today, we start with the Cantillon Iris (2006).  Originally brewed for the brewery museum's twentieth anniversary, this beer has all the markings of a lambic, but, is not.  1001 Beers points out that to be a true lambic, it must contain 30% unmalted wheat and the Iris is a full-malt beer, and, therefore, legally not a lambic.  Legalities aside, this beer has all the markings of a lambic.  It is spontaneously fermented, it features aged hops, and is matured for two years in wooden barrels.  But for every part of it that would qualify it for a lambic, it has a brewing technique that sets it apart.  It uses fresh hops along with the aged hops and is also dry hopped - another feature that would disqualify it from being a true lambic.

Either way, to me this was a great beer.  It was one of the first beers I had on the day as it took them a few minutes to get the bottles all set up, so my first few tastes were on tap.  But, with my recent appreciation for sour beers having reached new heights, I really enjoyed the Iris.  It wasn't too sour as the sweetness balanced the beer nicely.  The finish was a bit acidic and bitter, but that is to be expected for many spontaneously fermenting beers.  While this wasn't my favorite beer of the day, it's one of Cantillon's great line of ales, lambics, and gueuzes.  Highly recommended.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Cantillon Iris from Cantillon

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavor: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

#51 on the program, this was the 2006 vintage of Cantillon Iris. This was my first bottle of the day, and as such, one of the first ones opened. It was still cold, and uncorked for my tasting. It pours a brown/amber color with a spare, fizzy head and good lacing. The Iris is clear throughout with no particles. The nose is both sweet and sour. Aromas of flowers, hops, yeast, and fruits. A very complex, yet satisfying nose. Flavors are similarly complex, tasting slightly bitter with citrus dominating the flavors and an acidic finish. The Iris is very drinkable and finishes well. A fine start to my morning/afternoon festivities.

As I will probably find many times throughout my journey through 1001 Beers, I had previously rated this beer.  This original rating comes from 2003 - back then, the Belgian Beer Party didn't have two sessions and was known as the 12 Hour Belgian Beer Party.  It was tons of fun back then, with special beers being opened every hour on the hour, and other random ones throughout the day whenever the organizers felt like they wanted to open a magnum.  My original rating had this beer at a 3.6, which I felt was way too low after re-rating it today.  I bumped up the aroma from a 7 to an 8 and the Overall from a 13/20 to 16/20.  This is a very fine beer and I really enjoyed everything about it yesterday.  Hence the new 4.0 rating.

Anyways, here's my original Ratebeer rating from March 8, 2003:

#47 on the program. After sampling the Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus just a few beers prior, I had hoped for something a bit sweeter than what I got. Luckily I got some of the last bottle...but my taste buds were not ready. The beer hits you hard with a strong vinegar/acetic taste. The aroma is similar - a bit sour with a hint of alcohol. A very complex beer with a chalky finish and a soft carbonation. Not my favorite of the Cantillon family.