1001 Beers

Beer No:64
Page No: 905
Category: Specialty

There really isn't much to talk about with this beer.  I love their IPA, but unfortunately, their coffee porter didn't make the trip across the pond all that well.  Tasted mostly of stale coffee grounds and just all around not goodness (yes, not goodness).  It really is a shame - this could be an amazing beer if you get it fresh, but it just doesn't translate well to a trip from the UK over here to the US.

So, since there isn't much else to say, I was going to list the breweries that made it into 1001 Beers.  So here's the #'s and A's - Brewery Name (Country) [Number of Beers Rated / Number of Beers in Book]

• 3 Ravens Brewery (Australia) [0/1]
• 21st Amendment Brewery (Northern California, USA) [0/1]
• 32 Via dei Birrai (Italy) [0/1]
• A. Le Coq (Estonia) [0/1]
• AB Gubernija (Lithuania) [0/1]
• A/S Thisted Bryghus (Denmark) [0/1]
• Abita Brewing (Louisiana, USA) [1/1]
• Acorn Brewery (England) [0/1]
• Adnams (England) [0/2]
• Al Ahram Beverages Company (Egypt) [0/1]
• Alaskan Brewing (Alaska, USA) [0/3]
• Aldaris (Latvia) [0/1]
• AleSmith Brewing (Southern California, USA) [1/3]
• Allagash Brewery (Maine, USA) [2/2]
• Alley Kat Brewing (Alberta, Canada) [0/1]
• Almond'22 (Italy) [0/2]
• Alpine Beer Company (Southern California, USA) [1/1]
• Amager Bryghus (Denmark) [0/1]
• Anchor Brewing Company (Northern California, USA) [1/5]
• Anderson Valley Brewing Company (Northern California, USA) [1/1]
• Anheuser-Busch (Missouri, USA) [0/2]
• Antigua Brewery (St. John's, Antigua & Bermuda) [0/1]
• Aotearoa Breweries (New Zealand) [0/1]
• Arkell's Brewery (England) [0/1]
• Arthur Guinness & Son (Nigeria) [0/1]
• Asahi Breweries (Japan) [1/1]
• Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore) [0/2]
• Augenbrauerei Biel (Switzerland) [0/1]
• August Schell Brewing Company (Minnesota, USA) [0/2]
• Augustiner-Brau Wagner (Germany) [0/2]
• Avery Brewing Company (Colorado, USA) [4/4]

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Meantime Coffee Porter from Meantime

Aroma: 4/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 4/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 7/10

Rating: 2.2 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Hi-Time Wines. Pours dark black with good foaming head that settles down pretty quickly. Aroma is of stale coffee grounds, hints of hops and maybe some vanilla in there, but stale coffee overwhelms. Taste is the same, just can’t get past the taste of coffee grounds, it just isn’t good. Finishes dry and bitter. Most likely an older bottle that somehow didn’t make the trip from England all that well. I like the IPA, but the coffee porter is just not good.

Beer No: 35/1001
Page No: 937
Category: Specialty

Today, a couple of my friends and I went down to the Haven Gastropub for their release of Firestone Walker's Solace - a summer wheat beer.  We arrived early and they were just getting the keg ready, so we had time to kill before we could sample the Solace.  I started with a Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge (a Flemish red sour ale) while my friends each went with the Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA.  As we finished our first round, I noticed Tokyo* on the draught list and ordered a glass to share amongst the table.  Clocking in at 18.2%, it's served as a 6 oz. pour in a sifter.  We passed it around, all marveled at the heavy alcohol aroma, and then dove in.

The Tokyo* was very complex, with strong flavors of bourbon, alcohol, cherries, coffee, and chocolate.  It finishes a bit harsh, but nothing too strange for an 18%er.  Like I say in my review, it was definitely an experience, and I'm glad I at least tried this one, but at $13 for 12oz. bottle, or $11 for a 6oz. pour on tap, it's very expensive and not quite worth it in my opinion.  I always find it funny when a beer like this gets such a high "Overall" rating at Ratebeer.com - it's in the 96th percentile of all beers.  However, it's just in the 48th percentile for Imperial Stouts.  With Imperial Stouts being rated so highly at both RateBeer and BeerAdvocate, it's tough to crack the top there - and even if your beer is better than 96% of all others, over 50% of imperial stouts are better than this.

As for the Firestone Walker Solace, well, after my Rouge and Tokyo*, it was pretty much a let down.  It was easy to drink, but the standard hefe flavors all seemed to be missing.  I didn't get the banana or clove flavors in abundance and just wasn't impressed, unfortunately.  I like Firestone Walker, but it seems like they were just trying to capitalize on a burgeoning market and failed to really put too much effort into this one.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

BrewDog Tokyo* from BrewDog

Aroma: 5/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 7/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 13/20

Rating: 3.2 / 5.0

Had on tap at Haven Gastropub. 6 oz. pour, sifter. Poured a dark brown / black with very small tan head and no head retention. Aroma of cherries, oak, coffee, and alcohol - lots of alcohol. The alcohol aroma almost put off one of the other drinkers, but we powered through. The taste is similar to aroma - heavy in alcohol and sweet. Hints of oak, bourbon, chocolate, and coffee. Finishes a bit harsh with alcohol and some lingering fruits. A complex beer that just has too much alcohol that is not well hidden at all. An experience, but no need to repeat.

Beer No: 34/1001
Page No: 544
Category: Blond

It's somewhat saddening that my journey through Green Flash's offerings with this, their IPA.  They have two listings in 1001 Beers, the other being the inordinately complex Le Freak (a blend of "San Diego Style" IPA and a Belgian Tripel), but despite my Green Flash tastings being done from the book, I do hope to try the rest of them.  Both of the beers I tried from this smaller brewery down in San Diego were top-notch, and heck, who doesn't like an old-time car filled with beer every once in a while? (Flip through the pictures above).

On an unrelated note, today while flipping through my usual reading material, I stumbled across this article from Northern Brewer - Make wine for better beer.  Now, a couple of people have already asked if I have thought about making wine, mostly because they enjoy wine more than beer, but I've always said no.  I'm not the biggest wine fan, however, when paired correctly, they can be amazing.  I'll take my beer pairings any day too (like the one on my last birthday at the Crow Bar featuring Stone Brewing's beers).  Back to the article...it really just focuses on one point of wine making - preventing oxidization.  We as beer makers do that too, but, as mentioned in the article, not to the extend of winemakers.  In fact, topping off the carboy is all but impossible with the way beer ferments so rapidly.  During any aging process though, I can see how it would be beneficial to top off the carboy via CO2 or some other mechanism, but it seems in beer making you really have to go out of your way to get oxidization.  Perhaps beer is a bit more forgiving than wine, but I've never had a brew oxidize (fingers crossed), so either I'm doing something right, or I'm just getting really lucky.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Green Flash West Coast IPA from Green Flash Brewing Co.

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.8 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Total Wine. Pours a golden orange with good carbonation, small head, and adequate lacing. Very hoppy, yet fruity aroma. Flavors of pine, hops, citrus, grapefruit, and orange. Standard hoppy, bitter finish, but nothing too astringent. Very good IPA. Quality San Diego beer.

Beer No: 32/1001
Page No: 529
Category: Blond

Today, Scott and I bottled the second of our two pale ale iterations.  This "American Pale Ale" was brewed using a California Pale yeast strain and it is pretty darn tasty without any carbonation.  Unfortunately, while bottling we found out that our capping machine isn't working as it should.  We got it as a part of an introductory home brew kit a long time ago and we really didn't use it much as we preferred to use 750 ml champagne bottles.  But when we started opening our English Pale Ales and found the caps weren't giving us good seals, I though I just was making mistakes while capping.  But this time, with Scott on the capping machine, it was confirmed, the little hand held machine is broken.  I think I'll probably end up with one of these - since the larger version is used for capping and corking and we already have a floor-standing corking machine.  It'll just have to wait until our next grain order...

So while we bottled our own, I enjoyed this Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA.  All in all, it's a pretty tasty IPA.  It's quite refreshing with a good amount of hops and a nice, crisp finish.  Brewed in beautiful Central California, Firestone Walker has won their fair share of awards, including a gold medal in the World Beer Cup in San Diego, a gold medal at the European Beer Star Awards in Germany, and a gold medal in the Great American Beer Festival in Denver...all within the first year of release.  1001 Beers notes that "brewmaster Matt Brynildson and his crew spent the best part of a year developing the beer."  And it really shows.  A very refreshing and well balanced beer, the hops are definitely in the forefront, but the malts make a nice appearance in the body and it all comes together very well.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA from Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 16/20

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had from bottle from Total Wine. Pours golden orange with slight head and heavy lacing. Aromas of hops, pine, grapefruit, and citrus. Flavor of tons of hops, nicely balanced with malts. Nice crisp finish with hoppy aftertaste. A new must-have addition for my beer fridge.

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: 20/1001
Page No: 259
Category: Amber

Today I visited both BevMo and Total Wine in search of a specific vintage of scotch.  I knew Total Wine had it, but thought I might get lucky at BevMo and not have to make the trip to Total Wine (though Total Wine really isn't that far away).  Anyways, BevMo didn't have it, Total Wine did, and they also got me to buy 6 more beers in their mixed 6-pack from the list of 1001.  The Shipyard IPA was one I bought today.  I quickly chilled it, and enjoyed with a few more pages from Tasting Beer.

This is my second beer from Shipyard - a mid-size brewery in Portland, Maine.  Previously, I had sampled their XXXX IPA - a much hoppier IPA than their Fuggles IPA.  The XXXX contains Cascade, Warrior, Summit, and Glacier Hops and is dry hopped with Cascade at the end as well.  While the XXXX IPA is hop-overload, the Fuggles is the exact opposite.  A nice blend of the Fuggles hop and malts, the Fuggles IPA is more a pale in my book than an imperial, but either way, it's a tasty beer that has a nice finish and a well-balanced flavor.

1001 Beers notes that most single-hop beers (using only one variety of hops) are usually "experimental beers, so that brewers and beer lovers can enjoy how individual qualities can be realized by a specific hop variety."  For this beer, the Fuggle hop stands well on its own and is an interesting example of a commercially available single-hop beer.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Shipyard Fuggles IPA from Shipyard Brewing Company

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 6/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 12/20

Rating: 3.1 / 5.0

Had from bottle, best by May, 2010, so right on time. Pours a golden yellow with good head that sticks around nicely through the drink. Carbonation is good. Using only Fuggles (hence the name), the aroma has a nice hoppy smell with a good amount of malts and sweetness. The aroma is not overly hoppy as you expect from most IPAs. Similarly, the flavors are not overly hoppy, but well-balanced with some malts at the start and a nice bitter, piney, hoppy finish. If you’re used to an IPA that is heavily hopped and bursting with IBUs, this is not the IPA for you (try the Shipyard XXXX). However, if you like a mellow, nicely balanced IPA (that could be almost a bit more like a pale ale), the Shipyard IPA doesn’t disappoint.

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: 9/1001
Page No: 500
Category: Blond

So today was an interesting day.  I had planned out the exact beer I was going to sample with my leftover lunch from Hollingshead's Deli, but then I got the call.  My crazy cousin needed help as she is completely renovating her new home.  After I skipped out on her on Tuesday due to my slight illness, she knew I couldn't say no, plus - what else would I have done today?  Yeah, nothing.

So I head over there, paint the closet, clean up a few messes in other rooms and I'm about to leave when she says, why don't we just have a beer and then you can take off.  And what are the chances that one of the 1001 beers would be in her fridge?  I'd say 0.01%...it's usually full of water bottles and Heineken.  But there it was, a single Stone Ruination IPA hiding in the back.  Calling my name.  Drink me!  Drink me hoppy head.  So I did, and it was IBU overload and hoppiness to the extreme, but it's a wonderful beer.

It was the perfect beer after a long day of manual labor - well, maybe not the perfect beer - I'm sure some people wouldn't like the shock of hops after working a long day, but for me, awesomeness.  The Ruination IPA came from their 5th anniversary beer after the people at Stone started with an IPA for their 1st anniversary, a double IPA for their 2nd, and so on, getting hoppier for each release.  For the 6th anniversary, they went with a smoked porter, and thus, their 5th anniversary, and hoppiest beer to date, became their new Ruination IPA.

So, given the circumstances, I didn't have proper glassware, I didn't take a picture, and I had no tasting notes, however, the taste of Ruination is so unique and distinctive that rating while drinking isn't necessary.  But, truth be told, I rated this back in December of '09, so there won't be an update to this one.  So, without further ado...

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Stone Ruination IPA from Stone Brewing Co.

Aroma: 9/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavor: 9/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 17/20

Rating: 4.3 / 5.0

Easily among my favorite IPAs. This Stone Brew holds nothing back and hits you again and again with hop flavors. Pours a beautiful golden color with slight lacing and good carbonation, the first and last thing you’ll smell is the wonderfully floral aroma of hops. There really is nothing better with a good steak or on a hot day than a beer as full of flavor and hops as this masterpiece from Stone Brewing.

Please note: This was a test post / review before I started reviewing the 1001 Beers.

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Flavor: 6/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 13/20

Rating: 3.2 / 5.0

Had from 12 oz. bottle from Hi Time Wine. Pours reddish brown with head that does not linger at all. Very slight lacing and off-white bubbles that remain through drinking. Aromas of apricot (of course), citrus, hops, and a hint of malts. The apricot flavor is surprisingly mild with the hops dominating the taste. I am not a fan of fruity beers in the least and Dogfish does a very nice job to disguise the apricot, but it’s definitely in there. The finish is dry and slightly bitter, but you do get that little hit of sweetness, that little kiss of apricot on the end. Enjoyable, but seemingly lacking something, just not sure what.