1001 Beers

Beer No: 60
Page No: 234
Category: Amber

Yes, that's a Hangar 24 cup.  Not an Alpine Beer Co. cup.  Today, due to the extra rough night and having way too much fun yesterday, I'm calling one in.  Using a review from years ago and not actually drinking this as I go through my 1001.  Maybe I can come back to it later, but for now, a word about Hangar 24.

Hangar 24 is a relatively new entrant into the Southern California craft beer scene and is putting out some really good brews.  They have five year round brews that I sampled over the weekend and they also were serving a special cask of blueberry-infused Orange Wheat.  I was very impressed by their operation as they have quite a good thing going out in Redlands.  It's a bit of a drive for me, but I hope to make it back out there often.  The reason I was out at Hangar 24 on this particular day, however, was for the first Hangar 24 Homebrew Competition.  Expecting about 150 entries, they received over 250 and the turnout for the awards was great.

Of the three beers entered by myself and Scott, my brewing partner, our English Pale won a silver medal.  Our American Pale did not place, but it also was in the most contested category, and we believe we have a good product on our hands.  Our stout also did not place, but we didn't expect much as the bottle conditioning was not complete and we most likely entered a flat stout, but any notes on the flavors we get back will be invaluable to us.

So that's our trip to Hangar 24.  In fact, I liked the place so much, I sent in my resume today.  It'd be quite a commute, but would be an amazing job.  *Fingers Crossed*

As for the beer I'm reviewing today, I don't really remember it from back in the day when I first tasted it, but my notes say that I'd rather have a bottle than a cask of it, so I'm really going to try and update this post once I can get my hands on a bottle and re-review this beer.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Alpine Beer Company Pure Hoppiness from Alpine Beer Company (CA)

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 2/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.2 / 5.0

Had at Real Ale Festival on from cask - May 30, 2003
I heard good things about this beer, and while it's an enjoyable beer, it wasn't my favorite at the festival. The aroma is hoppy with a lot of pine. The beer pours with a amber/orange coloring and a small head that completely disappears. The flavor is extremely hoppy and has lots of pine flavoring. The texture of the beer was a bit watery/oily, but overall, a good beer - I'd like to have this one from a bottle rather than cask conditioned.