San Diego Beer Tour Saturday and AleSmith's English Nut Brown

I'm titillated for the beer cornucopia we're about to experience just north of San Diego. David and I have been planning a San Diego trip since the first several weeks of this blog and we have been foiled twice, the second time we were on the launch pad but had to scuttle the mission at the last moment when David was offered an all expenses paid trip to Oktoberfest 3 days before the weekend. My parents wanting to visit me in California made this weekend's trip possible, and I'm very happy they've become willing and enthusiastic supporters of beer. Or maybe the truth is they're terrific lushes and make my drinking escapades look like a scene from Sister Act 2. We shall see...

Just kidding, they're lovely and responsible

And drink we did. David and I counted our tallies and we actually sampled 40 different beers. Now, we didn't drink 40 different beers, but between the different samplers we and my parents drank, we drunk and/or sipped 40 various brews.

Here's the actual beer/drunk talley for the weekend: Samplers - 4 from Ballast Point, AleSmith 6, Hess 3, Irotn Fist 4, Stone 5, Lost Abbey 5. 27 tastings each 4 oz  = 108 oz, or 9 beers. But most of the beers were between 6 and 10%, so double that roughly and we drank 18 'coors light' worth of beer after two days of sampling. Plus we had 4 beers at Pizza Port, 1 Karl Strauss and 1 at Stone and we split a growler Sunday night. Also, two shots of Fernet and several whiskeys Saturday night. Party.

I'm surprised my body hasn't revolted against me. Accordingly, if you see Nicholas Cage, let him know I need the exact same shot he injected into his heart at the end of THE ROCK and I plan to stab this into my liver, post haste.

The craft brewing scene in San Diego is a Mecca. This trip's purpose is to not just see where the magic is made, but it's also a pilgrimage to experience a beer soaked culture. People in San Diego love their craft brew and I can't wait to dive into a tank brimming with fervor for barley and hop.

Momma Davis exhibits a book that ****

Because we tasted so many beers (and took so many pics), my tasting notes are going to be brief. Our first stop was Ballast Point.

Ballast began well over a decade ago and they an air conditioned building to show for it. The other breweries around LA are much new and don't have proper tasting rooms. It was nice but kinda odd to visit a brewery that actually felt like a bar.

Because we've tasted their first five beers, David and I sampled the bottom 4 beers on the chart above.

The beer names and decor are aquatic themed. This is either a tail or a mythological serpent

Nitro Sextant Oatmeal Stout - oatmeal helps create a more subtle stout that isn't very complex but is balanced.

She seems like she'd have a nice personality

Even Keel - is about as even as a drunk sailor walking the poopdeck during a raging Nor'easter. It's simply hops with some body thrown in as an after thought. I would...keelhaul this one. Zing

Dorado Double IPA - the first DIPA I've tasted that has more malt than hops. Here, hops are simply an afterthought and the result is a malt which tastes like bubble gum or hard cider. David says it's a case of shooting for the moon on alcohol content and coming up short. It's a cautionary tale - a lot of homebrewers who want to make a dank, alcoholic beer because they're interested in getting drunk. To them I say stick to the hard alcohol or Four Loko for getting pissed. 

Sculpin IPA - I've tasted before; it's award winning and fantastic with tasty herbal hops. When I see this on tap, I get excited about it.

We walked in just after it opened at 11am and the crowd was minimal. In half an hour 4 Beer Tour vans had dumped their thirsty cargo into the tasting room and it was packed, at least 40 people in a really small space, the size of my living room. At one point, David saw the two women tending the bar go back to the brewer in the back and basically freak out. He saw the number of people and freaked out. Apparently this wasn't your normal Saturday. Right before 12pm we decided to get the hell outta Dodge and beat the groups to our next destination, AleSmith.

AleSmith was one of two breweries we absolutely had to hit. David's mom two years ago sent him 8 bottles of the stuff for Christmas. They make some incredible stuff - rich and dank beer.

They have more on tap than I knew they produced and super stoked!

It begins:

Lil Devil - made with coriander and is 5.8% alcohol. The smell and taste reflect a very light and refreshing beer. The spices are tasty but I'm under the suspicion they might overhwlem me if I were drinking a full pint.

Nautical Nut Brown - not a huge brown ale fan, but this is not overwhelming and crisp. It's decent, and that's praise coming from my keystrokes.

Wee Heavy Scotch Ale - 10% alcohol, which I believe is strong for this style. I love this malt base and I'm becoming a big advocate of the style, however, the alcohol here is prevalent and overwhelms the brew's other characteristics. I like it a lot, but would appreciate a mellower alcohol profile.

Old Numbskull - 11% barleywine and I love the name. Sweet caramel malt and hoppy bitterness, it's tasty but not delicious. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing how this is after it ages.

English Nut Brown - *Our beer of the day* We chose this out of all the other because it's a seasonal brew, and it must be pretty new because it's not on BeerAdvocate. It's smooth and the English yeast leaves a very indelible mark, especially compared to the Nautical Nut. Because I enjoyed the Nautical Nut more than this, I bestow an ARMAGEDDON rating on the English Nut Brown .

Check out the Obama Tap they have. I also had a taster of Speedway Stout but because it's one of the most phenomenal beers I've ever tasted and I got really excited about it, there is no picture. Maybe I drank it too fast. If you like Stouts and have never tried this, it's an absolute must. Plus it's 12% alcohol, so you know, party time.

Sears catalog models on their day off

David has a Horny Devil bottle from two years ago left and he bought a newer vintage so we could to a side-by-side comparison. We're also bringing home a bottle of Speedway Stout, YESSS.

Next up is a brewer I know nothing about, but why shouldn't we try something completely new? Plus it's super close by to AleSmith. Hess Brewing, welcome to Beereveryday.com.

I'm not sure how long Mike Hess has been brewing professionally, but he recently upgraded from a 20 gallon to a 50 gallon brewery equipment. He's a small brewer trying to do big things.

This is the first time I've actually seen the nut and bolts of a brewing operation. And it looks like they swept everything under the couch just before the brew tasting guests arrived.  I feel like this is just how it is when you first start a company.

3 very unique beers to try.

Grazias Vienna Cream Ale - inspired by the classic Vienna Lagers brought to Mexica from Austria in the 1800's but with a Hess Brewing twist. I'm very unfamiliar with this style. It's well made and unique but the style makes for an odd malt.  

Intrepidus IPA - not a great nose and has a very piney and mixed malt. An intermediate beer that I would drink if someone had at a party. Mom pointed out that it smells different than tastes. David responds by noting, that's the trick in brewing - you can't confuse the two. Smell and taste are too intrinsically tied. Maybe he used the wrong hop combination in the boil and dry hopping.

Ex Umbris Rye Imperial Stout -  9.8% alcohol. He said it was 15%-20% rye. There is a lot of chocolate mal t in here. This is a great beer and my favorite of the three amigos. Ex Umbris = Steve Martin.

Love, love the style of the growlers. The woman far left is giving the funniest face. 

Our last stop was Port Brewing's brew pub, Pizza Port in Solana Beach. They have a bunch of locations and are spoken well of. I'm really needing some pizza by this point.

Pizza Port - I'm stoked to dig into this Shrimp and Clam pizza. My parents get a pint of California Honey and David and I try the Shark Bite, a red ale. We do love our red ales. 

While we wait for our pizzas, David decides to spend the time telling my parents about the time earlier this week that I made three trips to the freezer to get bowls filled with three different types of ice cream. Luckily, this isn't my parents first rodeo with their fat kid son and they are amused rather than appalled. 

The Shark bite is a solid tasting Irish Red with a great caramel flavor. Great stuff. The atmosphere in the Pizza Port is pretty odd - half the customers are families and meat head drinking parties, the other half or cyclists in spandex with pitchers full of beer and pizza. Randomly funny.

For Dessert, the Booya Staz IPA- bitter with piney hops piney, a very good ipa.

We took a break for a nap (I watched History Channel, which had an awesome episode about Pirates. I practically received an honorary degree from the University of Phoenix after watching that) and then headed to La Jolla for dinner at George's Ocean Terrace. Amazing views complimented the food, as we dined on halibut ceviche and mahi mahi over pan fried gnocchi. Amazeballs.

 

This was an amazing day, if you couldn't tell from the happy pictures and plethora of beer that we drank. Tomorrow looks like it could even be better. A huge thank you for my parents for making this happen!

For glancing through the article, here's a bonus picture from a license plate found in parking lot of our hotel. How could I resist?

I'm super mature

Ballast Point Sea Monster is King Neptune's Nemesis

David and I are having a nice little day trip down down in Manhattan Beach and Jamie's joined us. Manhattan BrewCo is the place to be for beer here (if Simmzy's is packed) and so we're here for some burgers and beer. After a warm up beer we're ready for the 10% Sea Monster Imperial Stout!

The alcohol knock my two front teeth out. It's a deeply roasted barley malt with heavy coffee tones. Really heavy. Jamie says it tastes like coffee dirt, which is...interesting. This is an aquatic Andre the Giant. It's King Neptunes Nemesis. People will either love this or be overwhelmed by it. David is literally singing this "beeeeer's a delight." THE ROCK rating.

Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat relies on it's good looks alone

I'm attending my first company movie premiere tomorrow night and I brought out this gem as a reminder as I pick out my shirt and suit:

In searching for beers that are of the American Wheat style, I only found a few, and this is one of them. I plan on brewing a summertime honey wheat this weekend and wanted to brush up on the style but unfortunately, this isn't a beer I want to copy.

Smelling it, I realize it's been a while since we've tasted a wheat and it smells good. I love that sweet-doughy-orange smell. The body is light light orange color. The taste doesn't live up to the smell however, and the Wahoo is rather lackluster. With this style of beer, I'm looking for drinkability. How many would of these do I want in the hammock? The answer doesn't inspire a future purchase. TRANSFORMERS 2 rating

San Diego County Session Ale is an excellent collaboration beer after our home brew

Before tonight's beer, we tried our Belgian IPA home brew today for the first time (not inebriated by Oscar Sunday shenanigans). Everyone apparently loved it Sunday, but I wanted a perspective that didn't involve beer goggles so we cracked one open before our beer of the day:

Ain't she beautiful? Belgians have more fun

When we tasted the Belgian IPA before bottling, it didn't have the necessary malt body to balance out the hops and so it tasted overly bitter. Good news! The carbonation really shored up the body and the BIPA tastes very, very good. The hop bite has the complexity we want and the Simcoe at the beginning gives very distinctive bitterness. The beer has decent clarity, not as crystal clear as at bottling - strangely enough. I'd like a stronger hop aroma though. 

I have big plans/changes for the next batch, which I won't bother you with now, but I'll actually do the dorky thing and post my beer recipe site, where my recipes are saved. Nerd Alert. You can see the above beer receipe, the future one, and the Belgian Red Ale that's soon to be bottled which I thought up myself. http://hopville.com/brewer/recipes/milkisforbabies

Onward and upward to the beer of the day, a Collaboration between two well known San Diego breweries and the winner of the 2010 March Madness Competition, Kelsey McNair. They created a 'Golden Session Beer' that is essentialy a large production format of his award winning 'West Coast Bitter.

Stone Brewery, Ballast Point and Kelsey McNair Collaboration

This is hoptastic but isn't overwhelming. The hops are there in numbers but are mellow and spicy. It's your summer day IPA - a really enjoyable drinker. Pick this up at Whole Foods for $3.50. THE ROCK rating. I wanna make one of these now....

...One of the best perks of doing this is that every couple of weeks, I'm inspired to create something I've never done before and I soon follow through with it. How consistently does that happen in life? To use the parlance of Charlie Sheen, Beer is totally WINNING.

Ballast Point Week: Day 5 (Bonus!) Big Eye IPA w/Ginger, cask conditioned

Almost didn't make it, rode bike to a party, tried to find a liquor store, decided to charge and rode all the way to Daily Pint. It's beer week! And they're featuring Ballast Point. What a coincidence.

I wanted Victory at Sea, amazing name for a beer. They were out so I went for the IPA with a Ginger twist. Ginger and hops go together remarkably well, wow. It's sweet and bitter, and since the carbonation isn't very high they both give you their honest, unmasked character. Wow, this is seriously good. Just when I'm about to think, this is too sweet, the bitter pops in and saves it.

This beer can be Tina Fey. A custom crafted, rare bit of excellence. I don't think this would have the mass appeal of Tina, but it's just as effective of a sweet and bitter balance. The same way Tina will self-mockingly discuss her flaws, this beer would probably tell you, "yeah, I know. Ginger is kinda weird," and I love it.

Ballast Point Week: Day 4, IPA Sculpin

Oh boy, this is a pretty complex IPA. Pretty earthy hop character that doesn't... I'm drunk, whatever. This is good.

James from Texas. I don't know you, but you're cool. I was sauced during my experience with both of you.

Ballast Point Sculpin IPA is scullicious

This was a couple bucks more than the other Ballast Point brews, and it was worth it.

I like Sculpin the beer but not Sculpin the fish

Good old fashioned grassy hops, well balanced, good stuff. I will definitely have this again. James and I have a 6:30am cab to the airport but plan on closing down a bar tonight with David's help. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife...THE ROCK rating. This is the last in beer in our Ballast Point beer week, and overall I dig their brews. The collection was fairly basic but had a solid outing. When you see Ballast Point, give it a drink.

Ballast Point Week: Day 3, Calico Amber

Grabbed a real good meal with Ned, Claude, Marc and Arne. Came home, skyped LaLa, and now I'm dropping in on this Calico Amber. I don't usually like Ambers, they're usually a step above browns and a step below IPAs. This is exactly the case with this beer. A little more bitter than an ordinary amber, and it doesn't exactly serve it well. Nothing about this is really that awesome. Meh.

This beer is Kevin Kline neither good or bad, but who really cares. Everyone knows they hired you for (insert whatever role) because they couldn't afford... whoever.

Ballast Point Calico Amber

I'm not a big fan of Ambers, so it wasn't a surprise that I wasn't a huge fan. Knowing nothing about the makeup of Ambers, I always feel like it's a Grimm Brothers tale, about the little amber who got lost in the HopsWood forest and so she tasted really funky when the Black Bears ATE HER. And then they were still thirsty because it finishes dry. Point is, I'm still waiting for that one Amber who's going to change my mind.

That was the before picture. The after picture had more thumbs down.

But guess what, my boy James L from Houston is in town! And he takes really, really dorky pictures. We're heading up to a wedding in Napa this weekend. But we're not leaving LA until we hit up The Other Room, Townhouse and Nikki's Beach tomorrow night. Stay tuned. THE ISLAND rating.

Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale and Quagmire

So I was going to poke fun (tee-hee) at their fish-themed beers but then I read their website. Turns out, these guys aren't as silly as I had believed. Damn you truthiness, you're ruining my fun. Check out this nugget from the their website:

"Naming the beers was easy—Yuseff loves fishing, and he and Jack both love beer. So they brought the two together and started naming their beers after fish. After all, regular guys doing what they love—that’s what this was all about.  Today, the beer labels still have fish on them as an homage to the brewery’s origins and as a reminder to always do what you love."

Dammit, how can I make fun of that? Good people doing good things making God's nectar (i.e. beer in case you're an idiot). If it wasn't for those meddling kids, you would've heard a bad joke by now. Introducing Yellowtail Pail from Ballast Point:

Giggity

Pale, super malty and wild. I'm going to steal David's shtick for moment and name Yellowtail Charlie Sheen, because he was Wild Thing in MAJOR LEAGUE and this fellow is all over the place. Serendipitously , Charlie and Quagmire there (featured glass) actually share similar tastes...in HOOKERS. Zing.

Not my cup of tea but within the style it's not a poor tasting beer; I award you an ARMAGEDDON rating.

Ballast Point Week: Day 2, Yellowtail Pale

Happy Birthday Danimal. Just returned from a birthday celebration. Avoided driving today because it was supposed to get real rainy and the Jeep isn't covered yet. Thanks for the ride AC.
This beer is ok. There's a weird sourness, not anywhere near the Mission Blonde, but still a little bothersome. That being said, the hops are light and add a delicious finishing character. If you can avoid the slight sourness, the malt is rich and interesting.
This beer is Ross Perot. A fairly rich blonde (he was blonde when he was younger, right?) but slightly sour and only popular with people who like pie charts. I like pie charts, I guess, but I don't think of Perot as being that cool of a dude. Also, this beer has big ears. I don't know what the ears or pie charts reference is about, just go with it.

Big Eye IPA kicks off BALLAST POINT BREWERY week

So we're continuing a week of drinking a single brewery and hoping for a rebound from last week's dismal sacrifice to the gods. I picked up the 4 beers available from BALLAST POINT brewery as well the last 2 from the Ninkasi brewery to finish off what's available from them at BevMo.(we had Panzer Pilsner recently). If the beers suck, as least the labels look good.

2nd Times a Charm for brewery week?

We began the week with Ballast Point's general IPA, the BIG EYE IPA.

WHOA! You eyeballing me son?

Like someone with bug eyes, this BIG EYE came on a little strong for me. It's pretty intense and not very well rounded, but I could find why a hophead might be delighted. Still, it didn't blow my pants off. TRANSFORMERS rating. But so far, a much better start to the week and I'm excited to see how these other bitches are going to pour!

Ballast Point Brewing Co. Week: Day 1, Big Eye IPA

I needed a beer today, and since Walker grabbed beer for this week, I suggested he try looking for a new series (since Mission sucked). I'm looking forward to getting one right.

This IPA is real strong, like bull. It's not too bitter, but it is hugely hoppy. I suppose there's just enough malt too keep the bitter at bay.

Tim Allen. I dont know much about him outside of tool time, crappy movies and Buzz Lightyear, but Buzz is a good corollary to this beer's bitterness. Bold, too bold to be taken really seriously. But well-intentioned and ultimately a success when paired with a mellow, softer-spoken buddy, Woody.

Woody.