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.

Coronado Islander IPA ends a glorious day of imbibing in Malibu

Afternoon kicked off at the Ladyface Alehouse and Brasserie in Agoura Hills with Tamara, where we sampled four beers and some Brasserie food http://www.ladyfaceale.com/. We only had their pretzel (it was bomb), but their food menu looks great.

I love the look of the Alehouse, a lot of natural wood decor and the building's tones are all the same color of beer (green for hops, caramel, blonde, etc). We sampled their Blonde Ale, the Belgian Tripel, their Chesboro IPA, and their Blue Belly 2010 Barleywine. Tamara's favorite was the Tripel and she slyly nudged the taster closer and closer to her (and away from me, HA), so I turned my attention toward the IPA and Barleywine, which the later has an astounding 103 IBU.

What's interesting about the Ladyface, Ladyface, Ladyfaaaaaace Ales are that the bodies of their beers are not very heavy for being 9% + alcohol. In order to attain that much alcohol, you half to add a ton of fermentables like malt and sugar. If you add sugar, it creates alcohol without adding body to the beer. I loved the hop blend in the Chesboro IPA, but I found myself wanting a more substantial body. The 2010 Barleywine had time to age and acquired a heavier body than the 2011 and the flavor profile a unique earthy, tobacco taste. I really enjoyed it.

From here we traveled to Malibu Wine and sampled a tasting in the fog and then onto some old Malibu haunts, Malibu Yo and Moonshadows for some bourbon old-fashioned's.

I'm feeling nostalgic after the trip to Malibu. Since I haven't included a Kangaroo Balls picture in a long time, here you go. Pleasure's all mine

I wasn't impressed with our last Coronado, the Orange Wit, but the Islander is a solid IPA with strong caramel malts and hops. It's perfect as the 'I could drink this every day' IPA. As a bonus, it's 7.5% alcohol, so, it's more like 'get your buzz on every day' IPA. TRANSFORMERS rating.