1001 Beers

Beer No: 109
Page No: 933
Category: Specialty

I'm finally back from my second big beer-related road trip of the year.  Though not quite as long as an epic pilgrammage to Decatur, Georgia, this weekend's trip up through wine country brought with it some amazing breweries.  First up was Firestone Walker on Friday night.  I had the sampler there and already knew that I'd enjoy their DBA and IPA but I didn't realize just how good their Firestone Walkers Reserve is.  It was an almost perfect blend of roasted malts, citrus hops, and a creamy body that all just worked together amazingly.  The next day I had a wedding to attend, but before the reception, I made sure to pick up a six pack of Anchor Liberty Ale, one of my new go-to beers when I'm in a pinch at a liquor store with limited selection.  The wedding and reception were amazing, though the beer selection was lacking (so I just stuck with vodka tonics).

Day 3 of the short road trip took us to Russian River, where, as you can see by the picture accompanying this article, we enjoyed their sampler tray with every beer they had on tap including...Little White Lie, Aud Blonde, Gaffer's Bitter, O.V.L. Stout, Perdition, Damnation, Sanctification, Supplication, Consecration, Temptation, Russian River IPA, Blind Pig, Pliny the Elder, and Hopfather.  The standouts were, of course, the Supplication and Consecration.  But what both my friend and I were impressed by most was the Hopfather.  The highest IBU beer they had on tap, it had over 100 IBUs, more than even Pliny the Elder, and it was surprisingly drinkable.  The hops were balanced perfectly.  You got that strong pine hop flavor, but the finish was what sealed the deal.  It didn't linger all that long, and that fresh pine flavor was just tantalizing.

After Russian River, we made the long trek out to Chico to visit Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.  There we enjoyed some good food and a couple good beers - both the Sierra Nevada Old Chico Brand Crystal Wheat (a filtered wheat beer) and 30th Anniversary Jack & Ken's Ale were very good.  However, the night was ruined by the Brewer's Blackbird IPA.  They really should be sued for calling it an IPA.  There's no hops!  Maybe the faintest hop flavor, but the whole thing was just sweetness and ass.  A horrible beer that maybe we just got a bad pour of, but straight from the tap room itself, I would expect lines to be clean and kegs to be properly stored, so there's no excuse.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Russian River Temptation by Russian River Brewing

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 17/20

Rating: 4.1 / 5.0

Had on draught at Russian River. Pours golden blonde with a small white head and very nice lacing. Aroma is strongly vinous with hints of oak, yeast, and acid. Taste is amazingly complex with strong flavors of oak, chardonnay, malts, acetic acid, and the perfect amount of sourness. An easier drinking sour than the Consecration and Supplication, but no less complex or enjoyable. Worth $25/bottle? Perhaps. Worth it on tap straight from the source, any day.

Beer No: 108
Page No: 91
Category: Amber

It's always sad to read a story like this:

A small crack in a fermentation vat at the Okanagan Springs Brewery in Vernon, B.C., may be to blame for a creamy beer bomb that blew more than 32-thousand litres of fermented foam across a downtown street.

Similarly, to hear about such floods at other breweries, like the one we were told when I last visited the Stone Brewery, just make my heart sad.  All that good beer, flowing down a street, down a drain, not into my belly, just upsets me.  But alas, not every drop can flow into my belly where it belongs, but on my upcoming trip this weekend, I hope to have enough beer to make up for the beer that is spilled for no good reason.

I'll be visiting the fine folks at Firestone Walker later today and then heading out to Russian River and Sierra Nevada on Sunday.  So until I return, there shall be no new beer posts.  And I apologize for the missed days earlier this week.  I'm still trying to get back on track, but it just gets tough some days when you've got other more pressing priorities.  But hopefully when I return from the trip, I'll be rejuvenated and ready to drink more amazing beers.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Coopers Vintage Ale by Coopers Brewery

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 3/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 12/20

Rating: 3.4 / 5.0

Had from bottle - 2008 vintage. Pours dark red/brown with slight tan head. Aroma is full on malts, caramel, slight fruity aroma with just a bit of alcohol. Flavors are surprisingly good. Well balanced malts and spices with a hint of some fruit and the slightest bit of acid. It was good and a pleasant surprise given previous Coopers tastings. A well done vintage ale.

Beer No: 103
Page No: 930
Category: Specialty

Yum, yum, yum.  This is the reason I'm heading up to Russian River in August.  Their beers are legendary here in California, and most likely across the United States.  Amongst those that know a good sour, they know Russian River.  You really have no idea how excited I am to be able to visit Russian River in early August.  I'll be there for a nice lunch at their restaurant, hope to take a quick tour of the brewery, and then hit the road to have dinner and a tour up at Sierra Nevada a bit further north.  I had planned to continue my trip by heading up to Portland, but with finances still being tight, I just can't justify the cost of added hotel nights, more gas, more beer bought (well, that's justifiable), and other expenses.  But checking Kayak, round trip flights up there are just $221, so I'll probably go at some point, find a nice downtown hotel, and not even worry about having a car.

As for this amazing Russian River brew, I rated it almost exactly the same as the awesome Consecration.  I think it really says something about this beer when it's the #2 sour ale on all of RateBeer.com.  Lost Abbey's Yellow Bus is #1 and I almost got some of it last Saturday, but instead went to the home brew competition results luncheon at the Orange County Fair to accept our award for our first place Sweet Stout ("our" being Arkh Brewing).  Hopefully I'll have the chance to try Yellow Bus soon as I can't live without knowing what the #1 sour beer tastes like.  Oh, by the way, Supplication is #3 on the site.  Lost Abbey / Pizza Port holds spots 4 through 7 and Russian River holds spot #8 with Temptation (one of the 1001 and coming in mid-August).  Pretty insane that the top 8 sour beers come from just two producers.  If only I could figure out a way to master this type of brew.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Russian River Supplication by Russian River Brewing

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

Rating: 4.4 / 5.0

Batch 005X3 from Hi Time Wine Cellars. An amazing way to follow up last week’s Stone Sour Fest and an absolutely wonderful beer that I’ve had many times, but never rated. Pours with a reddish brown hue, fine carbonation, and slight tan head which dissipates quickly. Nose is mostly cherries, pinot, brett, lactic acid, and sour vinegar. Taste is perfectly balanced sourness with lots of cherries, plums, oak, wine, vinegar and citrus. Finishes perfectly with lingering fruits and oak. I just love this stuff.

Beer No: 67
Page No: 870
Category: Specialty

This beer most certainly belongs in the "specialty" category.  It's just an epically special beer.  Sour flavors abound in this ale brewed with currants as each sip reveals more complexities and flavors.  The beer runs the gamut from oaky to citric to sweet to sour.  It truly is a wonderful beer to taste and I'm hoping to visit Russian River this summer to try their fantastic brews on tap at the source.

An almost perfect way to enter into the Summer and continue my Memorial Day festivities going strong.  Easily a top 5 beer in my books.  With the Supplication review coming soon...we might have another top 5.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Russian River Consecration from Russian River Brewing

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

Rating: 4.4 / 5.0

Had from 750ml bottle. Pours dark red/brown with tan head that dissipates very quickly and some slight blubbles on the edges. Aroma is very tart, sour, citric, hints of cherries, yeast, and alcohol. Taste is amazingly tart, refreshing, citric, and complex. Flavors range from oak to cherries to currants to lemons. Really a treat to have and a wonderfully complicated beer that might require some time to get used to if you’re not a fan of the sours. This sour goes above and beyond the slightly acidic and citric tastes of other "weaker" sours and really punches your tastebuds with flavor. More sour than I remember it on tap, but still an amazingly good beer.

Beer No: 63
Page No: 89
Category: Amber

Well, this finally finishes off my Avery beers.  Truly a sad day.  Luckily, I have many more Maharaja's in the fridge and storage, so Avery will not be forgotten.

Today, I made my way out to my temperature-controlled storage to see what I had sitting there waiting for me to drink.  And while I'm happy all my Vertical Epics are sitting there, aging perfectly, I found some other, lesser beers that most likely did not age well at all.  It's these beers that I brought home with me to sample over the next few days.  Plus, I took one of the AleSmith Speedway Stouts from the early 2000's (I think it's either 2003 or 2004) (I have 3), and brought it home for the Stout Party on June 12th.

Back to this beer, it's got a really cool story behind it.  Both Avery and Russian River had beers named Salvation in their line-ups.  But instead of suing each other for the name, they got together, blended the two Salvations, and came up with Collaboration Not Litigation.  The resulting beer is a fruity marvel with a wonderful complexity and 9% ABV that really hits you (not in taste, just in warmth).

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Avery Collaboration Not Litigation

Aroma: 7/10
Appearance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 15/20

Rating: 3.8 / 5.0

Had from bottle from BevMo - Batch #4. Pours hazy orange / brown with slight white head. Aroma is very fruity - oranges, sugar, and malts. Flavor is more fruits - slightly alcoholic, strangely able to feel the ABV after a single bottle of beer. Had no idea why it was called Collaboration Not Litigation, but love to read the cool story. Very tasty, drinkable beer.

Photo courtesy The Gordons

Beer No: 58
Page No: 101
Category: Amber

Today was my first visit to the Blind Lady Ale House down in San Diego.  As American Craft Beer Week concludes, I felt it would be a shame to not visit at least one new "landmark" on the craft beer scene.  So down to Normal Heights I traveled, struggled to find parking (the lot behind Blind Lady is not for customers), and then waited to find a seat in the packed house.  Luckily, while waiting to find a seat, there are MANY amazing beers to try on tap.  I started with a Russian River Supplication which was more sour than I remembered it, but still pretty much sour beer perfection from the masters of sours.  And after finally finding a seat and ordering a pizza that was downright extraordinary, I went back to try the cask - a keg conditioned Firestone Walker DBA.  It was very good.  Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from Firestone Walker.  I am a huge fan of theirs (excepting their Solace wheat beer) and this keg conditioned DBA did not disappoint.

As for Blind Lady Ale House (or BLAH as they call it), I did not take pictures, so I am using a nice picture from Flickr in today's post.  I promise to be better about my beer picture takings, but I had gone to BLAH to just enjoy the beer and pizza and not really to get through another beer in my 1001.  But, as it turns out, both Supplication and DBA are in the book, but I'm going to save the Russian River offerings for another time and see if I can do all their sours back to back to back (I already reviewed Pliny the Elder).  Oh yeah, back to BLAH.  I absolutely loved this place.  The atmosphere is fun and inviting, the other customers all seemed to be having a great time, and the beers on tap were awesome.  The only problem I had with the place was the loud music they were playing.  With a full house, you almost have to yell over the crowd anyways, and the music just added more noise pollution and was completely unnecessary.  Due to the loudness of the room, we couldn't even make out what was playing and it just forced everyone to talk louder, and then everyone else around them needs to talk louder, and it was just a loud scene.  But other than that, I found it to be perfection.  It's pretty much exactly what I would want for my own place.  Awesome, pseudo-gourmet thin crust (maybe wood fired?) pizzas with ingredients that really stand out and a tap list that cannot be rivaled.  I most definitely will be going back to BLAH and wished I had something close to me that was nearly as cool.  But...maybe that's for me to open.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale from Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

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

Rating: 3.9 / 5.0

Had on tap at Blind Lady Ale House - on cask - keg conditioned. Poured a deep brown / amber color with good head, got to love the Blind Lady perfect pours. Aroma is both hops and malts, with the hops dominating a little bit. Flavor is the same, a perfect balance of malty sweetness and hoppy citrus flavors. The keg conditioning seemed to bring out the hops a bit more and provided an extra layer of complexity and the perfect carbonation. Thank you American Craft Beer Week.

Beer No: 5/1001
Page No: 915
Category: Specialty

Ok, ok, so don't go crazy on me because of the off-topic photo.  But when I was updating the listing of all the reviews by date, I saw that there were 20 dates, however, I skipped one due to Easter, but the last review I just posted was my 20th, so something was off.  Somehow, I skipped #5.  So it's review #5 that'll come right between review #20 and #21.  For this review, we head back to a review from 2002 at the Strong Ale Festival at Pizza Port, Carlsbad.  This was my first time ever sampling Russian River and since then, they have quickly become one of my favorite brewers with the amazing Supplication, Temptation, and Consecration all being featured in 1001 Beers and also some of my favorite brews.

The picture that accompanies this review is from last August when I held Arkh Brewing's annual Beers Around the World party.  Everyone picks a country and we go from there.  As you can probably see on the far right, someone picked the U.S. even though we usually don't allow it.  But we had to give in when he said he'd be bringing a Vertical Epic from 2002 through 2009.  An amazing series of beer, I can't wait for 2012 to break out the one 2002 bottle I have in storage and enjoy the series from start to finish with some good friends.  The picture atop was taken about 2/3rds of the way through the party.  The one below is what we ended up with at the end...

As for Pliny the Elder, it's a great beer as evidenced by my 4.1 rating from 2002.  Extremely hoppy, 1001 Beers notes that Vinnie Cilurzo brewed this back in 1994 for Blind Pig Brewing and started the "Double IPA" revolution.  I wouldn't doubt if his Pliny the Younger was the first triple IPA to break on to the scene.  The "younger" of the two is hopped three times more than the standard IPA and is dry hopped four different times.  Oddly enough, 8 years later, I rated Pliny the Younger a 4.1 as well.  I'll put both reviews below.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Russian River Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing

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

Rating: 4.1 / 5.0

12/06/02: Had on tap at Pizza Port Strong Ale Festival
The first thing you notice about this beer is its strong hoppy aroma. The golden yellow appearance nicely hides the bite the beer has on the first sip. An amazing blend of hops and citrus flavor linger afterwards. My first Russian River brew - hopefully not my last.

Russian River Pliny the Younger from Russian River Brewing

Aroma: 8/10
Apperance: 4/5
Taste: 8/10
Palate: 4/5
Overall: 17/20

Rating: 4.1 / 5.0

Had on tap at Hollingshead’s Deli - first keg of the day. Pours golden yellow with slight head which persists for a long time. Slight lacing. Aroma of hops and some more hops and little more hops. For a triple IPA though, this beer is amazingly smooth. A bit oily, but very drinkable and a very pleasant beer. Finishes very bitter with a hint of sweetness - not too harsh - just about right for this type of beer. The ratings most likely are boosted by the difficulty in finding the beer and the mystique around it, but it truly is an amazing beer - able to pack all those wonderful hop flavors into a drink that is able to contain the bitterness in a smooth, drinkable beer.