Vampires Bypassed

It looks as though Rock Art Brewery has gotten the attention of the big corporate Monster that was after them. RAB and those that pestered the bad guy have prevailed. Do you think this would have happened if they hadn't taken it to the public?

Looks like the main people went around the lawyers and spoke man to man. Wouldn't this have been a better way to start this whole thing in the first place?

Have a look at the Rock Art Brewery website. They're attempting to start a crusade against the Trademark system. ("Trademark" isn't trademarked is it?)

Mission Brewery Trifecta

The Mission Brewery is here in San Diego "less than a mile from the very hill where Friar Junipero and his scurvy-ridden crew drove their stake into the ground"(from their website). Where the hell that is, I don't know. Possibly by Mission San Diego de Alcala that is near old town. It is a brewery name that has had life breathed back into it by two homebrewers on a mission. I'm not sure how long they've been on the market, but the website (humble as it may be) claims they "re-established" it in 2007. They won a couple of GABF awards in 2007. I bought three of their beers recently and they were all quite tasty.


IPA
The IPA was not bashful. Nor did it make apologies. This was a good SoCal IPA. It will register on my list as one to look for when desiring an IPA. A strong IPA. A good alternative to Stone's IPA.

NOTES: 7 out of 10 (6.8% ABV)
Sight: Clear, Amber with a little red. Good lookin' beer. Nice Curves!

Smell: A little malt, a lot of hops. A vegetal rooty smell from the hops. Some hops just have a little bit of a funk to them. It's what makes the special (awww).

Sound: Ocean breeze with a hint of background noise (is that Pee-Wee Herman's Big Adventure?)

Feel: Medium thickness. Good medium level of astringency.

Taste: Good strong hoppy IPA. There's enough malt to keep it drinking well all the way through. The hop flavors stick to your tongue. I get a slight peanut butter taste that goes well.



Blond Ale

This was a well rounded beer that was nice to drink all the way through. A beer one might consider a "session" beer. It's a little sweet at the finish, so one might trade off with a drier beer during their session. While this beer is pretty tasty, I didn't give it a super score because it's not super-duper "wow" kinda beer, nor do I think that was the intent. It's a good "drinkin" beer.



NOTES: 5 out of 10 (5% ABV)

Sight: Clear and light straw color.

Smell: A light malt smell with a lager chaser.

Feel: Larger bubbles and low viscosity. (That means on the thinner side)

Taste: There's a little green apple flavor and a light spice of hops. The kolsch yeast strain gives it (from the bottle): "a peck of fruitiness that complements the blend of noble hops. Lager-Like with delecate dryness." I think that's actually a pretty good description.


Amber Ale

Being the nimrod that I am, in my race to complete this trifecta, I forgot to take notes on the Amber. Musta been really good! I do remember it being well balanced and something I would definitely try again. Next time I'll take notes. Meanwhile here's what's on the label:

A covenant of light and dark, of refreshing and full-flavored, making for one majestic session beer. With a crisp lager-like spirity and a toasty charackter, the bitterness is bolstered yet balanced. The lingering sweet caramel taste is buttressed by the generous use of Munich, Vienna, and Pilsner malts.

I'm impressed by these efforts. I hope to find their hefeweizen somewhere soon. They've done well with the basic not-so-basic beers. I hope to see some special beers from them soon, say, a double IPA? Check their website for locations that are carrying their stuff.

Ad Hoc

I didn't see a whole lot going on this weekend. Best thing to do is check the San Diego Brewer's Guild website for events.


The brew from a week ago looks like it took a turn for the worse. It has turned very cloudy and has a pungent medicinal smell. Yep, something got into it. Polluted, punked, tainted. Still tastes pretty good, though.

I made another batch of beer this Friday. I wandered into Homebrew Mart knowing only that I wanted to do a dark beer. This is what I came out with:

Recipe:
8# Domestic Pale
1# Special B
1# Victory Malt
1/2# Chocolate Malt
1/4# Black Malt
1 oz Simcoe 60 mins BEOB (Before end of boil)
1 oz EKG 10 mins BEOB
White Labs WLP001.

It's dark. Slightly lighter than motor oil. Starting gravity of 1.070. That means a ABV of around 7-8%.

I had an interesting beer last night. It was AleSmith's Horny Devil. I've had it before, but remember it being more of a white beer. It now has a bit of a tart sour taste to it. It was really quite enjoyable. I didn't take tasting notes. Sometimes you just gotta drink for drinking's sake.

Vampires

Our legal system has developed to the point where it is most useful for vampires. It's not for people who just want to get an honest shake in this world. It's for lawyers to bleed people to death.

The Rock Art Brewery has a beer that is similar in name to a large energy drink company. I don't have anything against the existence of large corporations, but this is ridiculous. The large company will gain nothing, the small one will lose everything. Anyway, have a look at the video.

Lowe Brewery

I brewed beer this last Sunday. I was aiming somewhere in the general area of a Saison. After the boil, looked too light and smells like I got a little carried away with the cardamon seeds and Curacao orange peel. That may be bad for the particular style, but looks promising, overall.

All went well, despite letting a gallon or so of the first runnings run onto the floor. Word to the wise: always check your valves after cleaning.

Recipe:
2# Wheat Malt
1# Rye Malt
5# Briess Pilsner Malt
2# German Pilsner Malt
1 oz bitter curacao orange peel.
Several pinches of cardamon seeds
1# Amber Belgian candi sugar
1 oz Challenger Hops 60 mins BEOB
1 oz American Saaz 10 mins BEOB.
White Labs Saison Yeast (WLP565, I think)

Starting Gravity: 1.060

Too bad it won't be ready for this weekend's party. That saison yeast is like the Energizer bunny, it just keep fermenting and fermenting. Maybe I'll pull some off early and just see what happens.

Things you might want to do this weekend

Belgians anyone? O'Briens is having a Belgian weekend. 10 Belgian beers on tap from breweries like Allagash, New Belgium, and Val Dieu. Saturday is USA soccor, and Sunday there's Beer and Cheese for $40.

Hamilton's Tavern is having it's 3rd anniversary celebration.

Green Flash Brewery is having a special release of their Nut Brown Ale this weekend.

West End Pub & Cafe is having a "Beats 4 Boobs" benefit. "A breast cancer research benefit hosted by the Hooters Hotties and accompanied by Airdale beer. (Airdale is a new brewery here in San Diego. I haven't gotten a chance to try their stuff yet.)

And a heads up: San Diego Beer Week is coming up November 6-11th. Stay tuned for more on that in future posts. There's a lot going on that week. You may want to plan ahead.

09.09.09 Stone Vertical Epic

Overall: 8 out of 10
The short of it: Great and complex dark stout beer. Spicy, Chocolate, and vanilla.

This year's Stone special release in the vertical epic series takes a trip to the darker side. It's a complex stout with flavors described on the bottle that come true.

Drink this one warmer or you will rob yourself of several of the intricacies of this beer. Pour aggressively and you are rewarded with a nice thick head from fine bubbles. A more conservative poor lets you get to the meat of the matter with less foam invading your mustache. Swirl it around and it willingly sticks to the glass leaving a smooth film.

I recommend drinking some to get the flavor or until you're content, and then eating something that is slightly spicy. The spice desensitizes you to the spiciness of this beer, and you get a better sense of the vanilla bean flavor.

Smell (That's "nose" to you wine snobs): it has that Belgian smell to it. That and the pointed chocolate malt smell of a stout. Indeed, the bottle says they used a Belgian yeast and chocolate malt. There's a little smoke and rye smell to it, too.

Taste: roasted malt and bar-b-q, good smoked bar-b-q, not that sweet weird stuff you get some places. After that, you get a good chocolate malt and honey/vanilla flavor (try the spicy). There's a bit of a clean rye taste to it, or maybe it's he alcohol, at 8.6%, peaking through. Either way, it's probably good for the aging part of this campaign. That flavor will mellow a bit, but keep it from turning to syrup.

Mouthfeel: This one sticks to your tongue a bit, a little tannic, but offset by smooth feel. Fine carbonation from the bottle conditioning (although I didn't see any yeast at the bottom of this bottle. Maybe I stirred it up too much. Maybe the Belgian yeast hasn't seen fit to precipitate yet).

Overall, a great to excellent stout with a lot of complexities. The combination of Belgian yeast with a slightly hoppy stout makes a good combo. I think with age, it will develop more of the vanilla, and will smooth out a bit. It's the smoothing that I'm a little worried about. Will it make it more complex like a tawny port combined with Kahlua, or will it smooth out to a somewhat disappointingly flat stout. I hope it's the former, because I'm saving a couple for 12.12.12 and looking forward to it.

It's good and complex now. That bodes well for the future. Buy enough. Drink some, save some.

Things You Might Want To Do This Weekend

There are a few things going on this weekend (10/03/09) that are semi-beer related.

La Mesa Oktoberfest: This is a yearly thing in La Mesa. There's a street fair with tents selling all sorts of stuff. There are 3 beer gartens. The selection of beer is a little underwhelming, but there's usually something good, and what's Oktoberfest without beer? You're going to want to take the trolley. Parking is pretty much non-existant.

Downtown Johnny Brown's is having their 22 anniversary party. Free cheese and gumbo. T-shirt and iPod raffle. Looks like a great selection of beers. Check the link for their list.

Tast of North Park: North Park is having their Taste of North Park festival. One of the participants being Toronado. (See Sept 29 post)

Karl Fest: If you're going to be in the LA-Costa Mesa area, Karl Strauss is having Karl Fest.

Toronado, Toronado. There, I said it twice!

My wife told me the coven of grad students was going on about this place. If all their castings are this good, I'll have to pay closer attention.

My former and now defunct favorite beer joint was the Liar's Club in Pacific Beach. It was a true dive bar. Where we'd opt to sit on the railed in porch to avoid the odor of cleaning solution and spilled festering beer that is so unique to dive bars and mexican dance clubs. The kitchen was a screened off area of the bar. The bathroom had the tub communal urinal. All these things added to the character of the place. They had a great selection of unusual beers on tap and made a great tuna melt sandwich.

Toronado is not Liar's Club. It doesn't smell. The kitchen is a bonafide kitchen. It's clean and organized with space enough. Maybe I'm getting too old, but these are things I've become accustomed to. Toronado seems to appreciate this. A t-shirt for sale read "Too clean? Too bright? Too Loud? Too f**king bad!" It still has an edge, though. That edge is called beer. All over the walls are signs and beer paraphernalia. There are around a hundred vintage looking metal beer signs. I couldn't find one that was just oil or some such to fill space. Get a load of the two cask pump handles mounted on the bar and the two large glass door refrigerators full of all manner of beers.



It's not incredibly obvious how it works, though the bartender/server was happy to help out. On the far wall from the door are chalkboards with menu items and specials. Overhead, over the bar, is the list of beers on tap. In red are the breweries, and underneath written in black are the corresponding beers. Also, somewhere on the bar (or ask the BT) is a list of the bottled selections. Find what you want and order at the bar. (In case you forget where to order, it says so on the chalk boards)




Toronado has beer. The beer has beers. There were beers walking other beers on leashes. There are around 34 beers on tap, unique and good beers.



For example, I had the Allagash Curieux and my wife had Foret Saison. When you ask for the beer list, you will be presented with an, approximately, 8 page list of their bottled beers. From that I had a Reineart Flemish wild ale. Exhausting your options here would be akin to seeing all of the Smithsonian.

They had a short but satisfactory menu. Additionally, there were specials. When we were there they had a list of about 6 types of sausage plates to choose from. I had a cheeseburger. It was good with the proper amount of grease and cheese, cooked to my liking. Simple and quite satisfying. My wife had a grilled cheese that she said was quite good.




The one drawback to the place is the parking. It's street parking and pretty popular due to shopping and apartment complexes in the area. The directions on google basically take you to the back of the building. Just stay on 30th street, you'll see it.

There's a patio out back, but I didn't get a chance to check it out.

If you're a beero, beer aficionado, beer connoisseur, or new to the whole thing, you should go check this place out. If you're looking for someplace to play beer pong and drink as much as you pee, this isn't the place for you.

Because San Diego micro brews rock!

The Great American Beer Festival was held this weekend. San Diego county kicked-ass. Of California's 39 medals won in the competition, 14 were from SD County. Check out the article from Sign on San Diego.

Just this for now

Oy! What a day. I've found a replacment for the recently defunct Liar's Club. Liar's Club was an outstanding dive bar down in Pacific Beach. (Is that a contradiction in terms "outstanding dive bar"?) Liar's Club had a great selection of beers on tap and several in bottles. This new place, this new wonderland, is called Toronado. A long list of most excellent beers on tap and an even longer list of bottles on hand.

I've got a few beers to talk about and some pictures of Toronado. But, my apologies, that's it for now. All this beer tasting has worn me out.

Alaska Princess Cruise and Beer.

I recently went on a cruise in Alaska. Princess shows their beer menu choices online. It's not pretty. The menu listed the usual light beer swill. The best I could hope for was Dos Equis. I was distraught. I grumbled when I got up in the morning just thinking about it. A whole week surviving on light lagers. I wasn't sure I could do it. "It was only the room service menu" became my mantra.

I dug around on the internet and found one blog, just one, that mentioned they may have Alaskan Brewing Company beer. I was hopeful but dubious. I had it in my mind that these cruises were a cash cow that they milked with rough hands. Every drink you get that isn't juice, water or coffee, you pay for. Beer, wine, soda, you pay for it. About, $4 to $6 dollars per beer. So naturally, they would only have beers they could make the most money off of.

Well, the fact that you have to pay for them all is true. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few other beers on the menu that I hadn't expected. One was Franziskaner Weissbier. I usually had to point to it on the menu. Either I wasn't pronouncing it correctly (I did well enough), or it doesn't get ordered very much. The wait staff generally stared at me like I was trying to get them in trouble.

The other beer I was somewhat happy to see on the menu was Guiness. This was much easier to order. They'd heard of this. They'd seen commercials. It was real.

Not on any menu that I saw were, indeed, the Alaskan Amber and Summer ales. Pretty generic by microbrew standards, but more than sufficient to keep me from a light beer induced fit. These were generally found on the decks during certian times. There would be a staff member behind a large bucket of ice with drinks in it, among them were the Alaskan beers. I didn't think to order an Alaskan beer while I was at dinner. I'd bet it was available, but I have no proof.

All in all, the cruise was a very enjoyable trip. I don't mean to pan the waitstaff, they were outstanding on all accounts. They just weren't familiar with the beer list.

Another way to beat the light lagers was to trek to one of the several brewpubs in various places. I recommend the Skagway Brewing Company. They had a really nice IPA, stout, and porter. The fries were fantastic and came with a side of ranch dressing.

So fear not fellow beer-o-file, it can be done.

San Diego Beer News and Beer Reviews

San Diego Beer News and Beer Reviews

Welcome to the first post of the SD Beer-O-File. With an expanding and diverse beer culture here in San Diego, I would like to establish an objective online "magazine" about the various beers and places to get beer in San Diego. Also, San Diego's beer culture is not limited to beers produced here, but includes the spirit of microbrews from abroad.

I hope to bring reviews of beers, reviews of events, and postings about upcoming events.

Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned!