Lagunitas Lucky 13 Altbier really hops to it

At Steingarten LA for a work drinks and my coworker Tiffany is here as well. She's starting her new foodie blog, http://eatyourheartoutla.com/. Check it out!

I saw on Steingarten's website that they hosted the Lagunitas brewery last night and so I'm pretty stoked to take advantage of their leftovers, which should be plentiful.

I really want the malty W.T.F., but that was a beer of the day earlier this summer. Nerds! So I pick out a style I've only tasted a few times, an Altbier, Lucky 13 ALT. I'm expecting nothing but hoppiness with a Lagunitas.

This 8.9% alcohol doesn't fit the altbier style conditions in the slightest, but I'm not complaining, especially since the alcohol is well hidden. Damn Lagunitas, I expected it to be hoppy but why you gots to make it SO HOPPY? I feel like a T-Shirt Cannon launched a wad of hops at my face while I was looking the other way - SMACK. Hidden past the overwhelming bitterness is a malt, sweet with caramel and light brown sugar. As the carbonation flattens, the piney bitterness becomes less pronounced and the brew becomes rather crisp and refreshing. Like those PSA's, "It Gets Better." This has more in common with a hoppy American Strong Ale than an Altbier, but it turned out pretty nice. ARMAGEDDON rating.

Lagunitas Fusion 2 Black IPA celebrates Karl's berfday

Frequent collaborator Karl celebrates his birthday today and in case you forgot who this classy gentleman is and whether he likes cheese, below is a subtle reminder:

At The Daily Pint, I order a pint of a black IPA, a very different style that I'm considering home brewing. I've tasted a few along the way, Deschutes Hop in the Dark was the first and by far the best, but the rest have been a mixed bag. Will my 348th beer of the year be delicious and help me destroy Karl at Foosball on his berday?

Me thinks so. Poured a two finger head out of the tap and has a rich roasted aroma that's enticing. It has a medium bodied consistency, less than a Guinness. The taste is a great combination of roasted malts with a hoppy kick at the end. It's pretty malty up until the hops kick in, which I enjoy but it doesn't make the beer much of an IPA and is more along the lines of a hoppy Black Mild. Potatoe, Potatoo I suppose. The main problem in creating a black IPA, is mixing the hop bite with the bitter roasted malts, and Lagunitas solved the problem by creating a malty IPA, and I'm enjoying it.

I also enjoyed beating Karl for second time by 1 point! CLUTCH CITY. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot makes us say, WTF haven't we heard of you before?

Before I focus on barley, water, hops and yeast concoction commonly referred to as "beer" or "suds" if you still live in 1950's middle america slang, I want to share with you the most amazing jumpsuit your (insert color here) eyes will ever feast upon:

 

She was pilfering through cigar boxes, CIGAR BOXES people. Right off of 3rd street on our way to brunch. What a gem, what a diamond in the rough.

To unwind from a phenomenal brunch, filled with limitless small plates and sake sangria (Zengo), we're decompressing with some suds at Jamie and Aaron's house. We also invited Zach Galifinakas and Robert Downey Jr into our living room for a performance of DUE DATE.

David and I both agree it's a cool label. It's the military call-sign for WTF. Pretty clever. This is very interesting, very unique. It pour a dark brown color and has a very sweet and malty flavor. It finishes a bit nutty, like a brown ale and the 7.8% alcohol rips through as you finish. This is a mix between a Scottish Ale and an American Brown. At first I believe that I couldn't drink a lot of this, and then I realize how big of an idiot I tend to be. I could drink a ton of this! THE ROCK rating

Lagunitas Gnarlywine should age better than Jack Nicholson

Had Mantastic day with Nick G and Nic -shooting pistols and shotguns at the range in the morning, then In-And-Out followed by watching the bloody SUPER starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page in the afternoon, then beers at Cabo Cantina. I capped off the man-day by bottling my latest homebrew (whose title I've changed), Heisenberg's Honey Wheat.


Kinda ran into a problem though. I've made three homebrews in the last three months and I'm incredibly low on unused bottles. Either David and I needed to drink 10 bottles or it was time to dive into previous bottles we've drunk and saved and see if I can sufficiently clean them out in time to bottle. Much to David's disappointment, I was able to save enough Stone brews (which we drank in October!) to bottle the batch, although we still drank Belgian Home Brews - ya know - just in case we needed more bottles. I decided to spray paint the Stone label to avoid confusion. The result was a bottle as bloody as the film SUPER.

I dig the barleywines and I'm excited to try this. It has a VERY rich malt of caramel and toffee. It's fun to drink, but I think it's way too sweet still and needs time to age. Love the big malt though, and this characteristic reminds me of Stone's Double Bastard. I'm very tempted to buy this and age it another year in the closet. It could be a Transformers, but currently it's simply ARMAGEDDON.

A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' before the Lincoln Lawyer movie premiere

Picking up my lovely date Tamara before the Lincoln Lawyer premiere and this Lagunitas is...guilty of being awesome!...

....Dammit that was cheesy but how could I not say that? It is right there!

This is the last of the international playboys (Morrissey anyone?) as well as the American Wheat beers I picked out to sample before the weekend. Lagunitas brews several different beers under the Little Sumpin' Sumpin' brand including the delicious Little Sumpin' Wild.

This Sumpin' Sumpin is a hoppy 64 IBU American Wheat ale, perfect for those summer days. But if I hadn't known this is a wheat beer I would've missed that ingredient entirely. The Wheat flavor takes a backseat to the hops and their fruity flavor. The label notes that it has "every hop that has the letter 'c' in it." Lagunitas has successfully taken a very broad style and put a West Coast Hop Heavy spin on it. Better believe I'm saving two in my fridge for an upcoming hammock day. THE ROCK rating.

Lagunitas Brown Shugga', more like Mashugana

Tomorrow is David's Christmas office party and as his esteemed +1, I will be attending as well. My plan is to walk the delicate line between dance floor drinking and not making David regret his generosity. Unfortunately, these parties don't typically have carry quality craft beer, so we're having our Friday beer at 12:01am (Thursday night/morning) while watching the 30 Rock Christmas Special, which isn't meeting expectations.

Tina Fey is Awesome

I took a couple sips of the Brown Shugga' and turned to David, "Weird stuff huh?" he nodded tersely. Agreed. It's a brown ale that is both sweet and bitter with hints of vanilla, but neither element mix well together.On a positive note, I'm also eating the biggest damn pistachios I ever laid fingertips on. Enormously delicious, the beer, not so much. TRANSFORMERS 2 rating.

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' WILD

David picked this up and coming back from bowling -- I BOWLED A 188 with 4 strikes in a row! GANGSTA (I'm quite pleased with myself in case you couldn't tell) -- David had this poured and waiting for me as I walked in the door at 11:56 pm. It's a Belgian Strong ale (same family as Duvel) and clocks in at 8.85% alcohol and 72 IBU's. It's different than I expected for some reason. Maybe its the label which set me up with different expectations. I dunno. Whatever the case, Little Sumpin' WILD proved my theory that 'assumption is the mother of all evils' true because I really liked this beer.

Two lovely ladies from a different decade

As referenced by the 72 IBU's, it's IPA hoppy but not as sweet as a many Belgians. There are some floral scents with some malted wheat thrown in for good measure. Eureka! Light Bulb. Suddenly this beer makes sense. Little Sumpin' WILD was just released in September...It's a Harvest Moon beer; marking the end of Summer and the beginning of Fall, mixing a Summer IPA with Fall flavors via the malted wheat. Hop Stoopid was the first Lagunitas beer I had and between the title and taste I felt pretty insulted, but with this fellow Color Me Impressed. Another bottle please. THE ROCK rating.

Unfinished Beer and Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

Thought I finished beer from last night, but hadn't. David warned me it was a poor idea to kick it back. As I'm not one to take advice, I drank a sip and it was certainly bitter but not undrinkable. So I had polished the rest off (not much) and my mouth imploded from the bitterness. Remember those elementary school experiments using baking soda to recreate volcanoes? My reaction was as violent as that chemical reaction. As quickly as I shot it back, it flew out my front door and in the drain. David garnered a laugh at my expense (how unusual) but lauded my effort to finish last night's conquest. And I learned an important lesson, which I will undoubtedly soon forget.

Now rewind, this event is important for another reason. A beer was left unfinished...

After 37 or so beers, this is the first time such an event occurred and David realized this required our attention. It probably won't be the last unfinished beer, and so now we have our first opportunity to formulate additional BeerEveryDay Constitutional Law. What if one of us doesn't finish their beer? The quest for the grail is sacred, and we need a rule in place and a penalty. I've thought of a few consequences, from a back-handed ball-tap to downing nasty Campari shots. What do you think? Have any suggestions?

Upward and onward, Monday's beer was the Lagunitas Hop Stoopid:

Is that really necessary?

Has a musty, bready smell. Bitterness is prevalent but not crisp. Taste is OK, I could swear the flavor 'towel' is mixed in there with lemon.

I too would like to comment on the beer's name and I totally agree with David. I think Hop Stoopid is an obnoxious title. If you love hopst, you'll love this. We get it, with an 102 I.B.U., there's a shit ton hops. But come on, be a yeast more creative. In the world of craft brew, is a label that I can only conject as pure marketing really necessary (or even welcome)? If Anhueser-Busch made this beer for the uninformed mass market, the name might be appropriate. The blue collar crowd may not know what IBU's are (or ironically even hops).

My philosophy is that a beer should speak for itself. Consider Bear Republic and Green Flash Double IPA - the name speaks for itself. They're known for their hops, but they didn't name it Hoporific or Hops-a-ca-gillion or Hop-orama. I'm not a beer snob but have a little class Lagunitas, you're acting like the pigtail schoolgirl who hikes up her skirt and leans over desks. You're easy and all the boys all know, you don't need to advertise. Word gets around at the same rate you do.

For your lack of character flavor and tacky name, I banish you Lagunitas Hop Stoopid to THE ISLAND.

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid Ale

Yep, that's about 100 IBUs. This is a beer that was invented for people who are bored of IPAs, and that worries me, not so much from a there-are-too-many-beers standpoint, but more that it's a cheap promotion for a beer that doesn't seem to be trying very hard. It's good enough, but making a special effort to highlight IBUs on a label is like Jolt Cola putting a big "3x Caffeine!!!" label on their bottles - it's gimmicky, silly, and indicative of a certain acknowledgement that there isn't much going on with a beer. Kinda sad.

In related news, this beer is Billy Zane's "as himself" character in Zoolander. A good-looking, muscle shirt-wearing guy that would get in Zoolander's court, even when Bowie himself is calling the walk-off. You would choose to lose in front of BOWIE?! You're a cheap idiot Billy Zane! Yes, you are a manly man-man, with large, hoppy chesticles, but Derek Zoolander just wedgied his balls and Bowie has disqualified him, how silly do you look now? 100 IBUs? Not impressed.