The Surprising Happenstance in Discovering the Bear Republic Texas Brown Ale

My esteemed parental units came into town and we set off as we often do in search of the finer things in life: alcohol. We left this behind -

- to revel in a grape soaked weekend in Sonoma that looked a little like this:

Duck with mascarpone mashed potatoes (I believe)

Saturday we hit up 7 wineries and Sunday tasted 28 different wines, including 18 from DuMol. While Sonoma is well known for wine drinkers but not to me, it quickly gained my affection. The scenery differs from Napa but is as beautiful. Their Pinot Noir is quite different from the peppery Santa Barbara Pinot's and they have some fantastic Syrah and Zinfandel.

There's a famous winemaker's proverb that goes, "it takes a lot of beer to make good wine." I have yet to partake in the grueling grape harvest that occurs every fall, but after a weekend of grapes I was ready for a beer. In Healdsburg Sunday night, we headed to a wine bar for a pre-dinner glass but the bar was closed. Amidst the signs pointing tourists to local jewelry, bakeries, and nic nac stores, I saw the logo for Bear Republic Brewery. Tucked away from the main st thoroughfare was the actual Beer Republic brewery/brew pub!

For reasons I can't explain, I thought Bear Republic was located in Tahoe, but blind luck led me to their location. I think this makes 13+ breweries visited in the last 20 months.

Bear Republic brews some gems. Their IPA Racer 5 is a fantastic West Coast IPA, and I'm especially fond of their Hop Rod Rye and Red Rocket hoppy red ale. The brewpub has a number of specialty beers they only keg for that location, including several single IPA brews. I normally would order one of those, but being from Texas, a collaboration beer caught my eye.

The Texas Brown Ale was released two months ago by Stone. The recipe was collaboration between Stone, Bear Republic, and Fathead, a brewpub/brewery in Cleveland which has won several awards at GABT (Great American Beer Festival). The TBA is not only a relatively unknown beer style, but it's also a mistitled one. According to Stone's website:

This particular beer pays homage to a relatively little–known beer style called Texas Brown Ale, which, strangely enough, has its roots in California. It originated as a hopped up version of a brown ale recipe. While delicious, these beers failed to fare well in homebrew competitions, since there was no recognized category they could be entered in. They were far too hoppy and bitter to be considered a traditional brown ale. But when a competition in Houston, TX, accepted entries for what they named the “California Dark” category, the American Homebrewers Association followed suit soon after, though they perplexingly changed the name to Texas Brown Ale.

Kinda bizarre really. This article from a local liquor shop in Houston (where I grew up) goes into greater detail about the style's creation Specs article on Texas Brown Ale. Anywho, unless you're planning an extremely geeky trivia night around beer styles, it's basically a hoppy brown ale. It says so at the bottom of the label. However, the collaboration offers a unique twist, and it's why I'm a passionate fan of collabs - good brewers come together and create something out of the ordinary. Craft Breweries are technically in competition with each other, but they're more so committed to making unique and high quality beer. The result is usually delicious, if not extraordinary.

Stone in its 15 years existence never used Cascade hops, a mild but spicy and fruity hop grown in Oregon, and similar to the English Fuggles hop and a distant cousin once removed from the Czech Saaz hop used in pilseners. After the collaboration, Stone used Cascade again in their latest Barleywine. The TBA also is also brewed with molasses and brown sugar, which gives the body a very distinctive taste. 

Overall, the TBA is heavier and hoppier than your average brown ale. Molasses is an interesting ingredient to use because yeast has hard time breaking down the type of sugar used in molasses. Instead of fermenting out most of the flavors like yeast does with Candi Sugar, a greater amount of the molasses flavor is left in the brew. I also believe this results in the heaviness of the TBA, to the beer's benefit. Another fun factoid is the brown sugar tends to caramelize in the brewpot, especially when the boil is 90+ minutes. For the TBA, the result is an initially malty beer with biscuit and roast flavors (like your average brown ale) that ends with bits of sweetness, caramel and fruit. The four different hops used in combination with the unique sugars creates a complex brown ale and inspired me to savor each sip. If you like hoppy barleywines or intense stouts like Great Divide's Yeti, you will probably enjoy this collaborative delight. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Nogne O Batch #100 Barleywine but her faces me

MIFB beer year bros are back together for a tasting! I'm back in LA for the weekend and long last able to sample one of my favorite breweries, all the way from Norway, Nogne O. I bought this bottle in December and David has held onto it. After spending a year together drinking beer this is only the third time we've sampled barley, hops, yeast and water since September. We just got back from wine tasting in Santa Barbara where I was the sober driver and still managed to leave the town with food poisoning. That's what I get for not drinking - let this be a lesson to you all.

We're at Nick's apartment where he is working on creating a side business with a series of novelty t-shirts. His first creation is a beautiful pinup with a butter stick for a face, an old play on the "but her face!" Clever stuff Nicholas. Bruce Lee approves of the sketch, but what about the barleywine?

With 10% alcohol and 80 IBU, this promises to be a big, aggressive barleywine. The paramount Barleywines for me has to be the Stone Old Guardian series or the AleSmith Old Numbskull and based on my previous Nogne tastings, I'm hoping for the #100 to join the ranks. Apparently the #100 was a small batch made for the brewery, their friends and visiting brewers, but its popularity encouraged Nogne to begin large production on it.

There's a lot of sediment and the beer pours a thick head, which probably means this beer could be aged for quite a while. The booze rises up with the rest of the aroma including dark fruit and cocoa, smelling like a dank and unrefined belgian quadruple. As the aroma teased, this beer isn't ready for the world yet. The alcohol burns quite a bit and the mouthfeel is rather lackluster. I expect barleywines to really punch you in the face with flavor, but this is underwhelming despite the molasses, cocoa and roasted grain flavors emanating from the glass. This one looked oh so good....but her taste!
TRANSFORMERS rating

Survivors of the Santa Barbara Wine Tour

An education in classic styles at the legendary Anchor Brewery

After spending yesterday handcuffed to a chair for a job fair / speed dating event for professionals, I was in need of some exploration. Luckily a friend I know through school had planned a tour of local Anchor Brewing, maker of Anchor Steam. Their tours are booked weeks in advance so I felt very fortunate to join Kaitlyn and her group.

Put that in your beer bible

The brewery has an incredibly rich history. Anchor has the distinction of being the first craft brewery in the U.S. Their brewery began in the late 1800's and has survived despite a number of disastrous events; the untimely deaths of their founding brewers, German immigrants, one of whom was thrown off a trolley and then run over, I kid you not; their brewery burned down 3 times in the early 1900's; they're the only San Francisco brewery out of 30 who was able to continue operating after the Great Depression; and in the 1960's they nearly went under due to the abundance of commercial mass-produced beers and an anemic number of years where their beers became sour soon after distributing.

They were saved by Fritz Maytag, son of the industrial giant who produced Maytag dryers, etc, and he updated the antiquated the equipment and installed strict cleaning procedures to insure there was no contamination during the brewing process, something every homebrewer now knows is vital but back in the 60's, apparently wasn't. Anchor Steam beer was back in action and soon Fritz decided that he wanted more in the way of styles. This is where Anchor Brewing goes down in the history books as the first Craft Brewery. It's hard to imagine nowadays a craft brewery only making one style of beer selling the shit out of it. Every brewery now usually has several different styles, a pale ale, IPA, a stout and usually a seasonal, but back then this was out of the box thinking.

Taproom at the brewery. The Christmas Ales are above. They have a different tree label every year drawn by a local artist, who is now 93 year old. THAT is the spirit of Craft Brewing. Maytag = Pioneer

He was also one of the first people to begin bottling beers, which turned out to be a bit of marketing genius. For the first time, people could take Anchor Steam home with them and introduce their friends to their favorite local brewery. In the 70's Fritz traveled to England to study the classics and returned to make several different styles, including the Liberty Ale, an IPA that is classical in style and considerably different than the coma inducing hopiness pioneered by West Coast breweries. 

The Liberty Ale is easy to drink, like a lager, but it's only 50 IPA's, which makes it easier to drink than a hop heavy pale ale like Sierra Nevada. The first sip yields a sweet and biscuit infused malt. A citrusy bitterness follows and appears for a moment, like a whiff of a woman's perfume as you walk down the street, and then disappears. Michael Jackson, legendary beer guru not the pop singer, pronounced this brew as his Island Beer. When I'm asked what my favorite beer from the year is, I usually treat the question as 'what would I drink if I had only one beer to drink for the rest of my life?' The question is similar to 'what would you drink if stranded on a desert island?' The questions are similar, however, Michael dives into his requirements much more pragmatically. It makes me rethink my approach to the 'favorite beer' question. His requirements take into question not only quality and sustained drinkability, but the percentage of alcohol (you can't drink high alcohol all the time on an island, you'd be drunk consistently) and what beer would you be able to drink under a glaring tropical sun? It's a serious question for a serious beer drinker, and he chose out of the thousands of beers, including the acclaimed Belgians, Anchor Liberty Beer. It's an incredibly well rounded yet complex pale colored brew. The malt, smell, bitterness and finish are inspired. I'm intrigued by the beer, but I'm not sure I could withstand a hoppy beer day after day. However, one cannot deny it's inspirational qualities. It's a classic of the style, a pinup model or coup de ville. While being one of the bad boys for Michael Jackson, this is THE ROCK rating for me. It's definitely a brew that should be on every beer drinker's bucket list. My Island beer would probably be German, something a bit more malty and easy to drink that's low in alcohol; perhaps a Franziskaner Hefeweizen or a Schneider Weisse.

What I found very unique about the brewery was the building it occupied. It was a former coffee bean roasting factor that Fritz bought back in the late 70's. The imposing outer walls gives way to a brick and mortar interior. There's only three kettles, a lauter ton, sparge system, and boil kettle that makes every batch of Anchor beer. I was surprised to find that a craft brewery which distributes to all 50 states (1 of 3) only uses one set of kettles to brew. They also use open top fermentation, which really surprised me. The freshly boiled wort is pumped into large vats where yeast is added. There is no blow off tube, and they instead pump fresh air into the room to keep the beer sanitary. The picture below is of the barrel room, which again is surprisingly small. Fritz must run a tight ship, it looks like to me there's not a lot of room for mistakes with such a large production quota and seemingly smallish brewing process.

The beer I was most excited to try was the barleywine, Old Foghorn. My brother introduced me to the brew in New York last year and while I was several beers into the night, I thought it was one of the best beers I'd sampled. I had already counted my beer for the day then so this is the tasting that will go down in the MIFB log.

The Old Foghorn is around 8% and it's sweet, crisp and smooth. There's a bit of frutiness, maybe apple or grape. There's also a thin layer of caramel and chocolate. As far as barleywines, this is on the lighter side of a very aggressive style. Again, this is an example of classic English style barleywine vs. bold American style. Another throwback that I will bestow a TRANSFORMERS rating. It's quite delicious, but I remember it being more complex. 

The above two beers were originally conceived in the 70's. One of Anchor's latest beers, brewed to celebrate the sale of Anchor Brewing to a larger distribution company in 2010 (who also makes SKYY vodka, another San Francisco origination), is Brekle's Brown ale. This might just be my favorite brown ale of the year, a style I generally eschew because of the typically nutty flavors. This style isn't syrupy like an English style brown ale such as Newcastle, but sweet and crisp and most importantly, distinctly satisfying. I'm looking forward to trying this away from a tap and in a bottle to see if it's as smooth. THE ROCK rating. 

Afterward, we headed over to the City Beer Store to finish off the beer drinking day with....wait for it...more beer. I was feeling buzzed after the 10am tour yet, still found it within me to drink two glasses of Russian River beer. Today I can say that I have the heart of a Craft Brewer enthusiast but a liver who hates me. Right now he's throwing darts at my brain for deciding to do this right before I depart to New Orleans tomorrow for my brother's bachelor party. Detox begins next week, but soon after I'll be back posting with beers I purchased at the City Beer Store. Thank you Kaitlyn for inviting me to join in on the fun! This brewery was unlike any other I've visited, with a rich history and classic beers that haven't changed for decades. Every beer they make is a classic style with incredible quality. Drink one today!

Wasatch Polygamy Porter saves a busted ski day

I'm on my 3rd day of skiing at Deer Valley and my skis have been troubling me the entire time. They keep popping off for no reason on turns! Today they finally called it quits. I narrowly avoided a complete disaster when the entire binding cracked and broke off. Luckily it was on a small jump and not while I was busting it down a mountain.

Ski patrol came by and asked if I needed a toboggan ride down. Everyone in my group is giggling like a school girl at the thought of me riding down and all the pictures that could be shared on Facebook of my embarrassing situation. So I told ski patrol "No toboggan can hold me!" and then ski'd down on one leg like an unbalanced yoga pose.

Without skis I'm done for the day, so Sam and I head to the commissary for a beer. I'm hoping Wasatch's Polygamy Porter will save my day. Their label is a Mormon man surrounded by 7 wives and the slogan is right up my alley, "Why just have one?" Love me some beer humor.

The porter is a pretty basic porter. It has a bit of chocolate and a decent roastiness. There isn't much complexity but the mouthfeel is smooth and creamy. All of this is translating right now to a relatively uninteresting but still quite enjoyable brew. Plus it's way better than being in a toboggan. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Wasatch Hefeweizen is final round #3 at the brewpub

3rd beer of the night arrives with only 9 mins left in the OSU vs. Stanford game. Infamous Jamie, skiing in park city with her family and joining us in her furry animal- hating vest (just kidding, it's faux fur), is having the Hefeweizen which is rated pretty highly on beer advocate.

I ask Jaime for a description and she says it's citrus. I agree. It's a German style hefe and follows the style pretty straight. Yeasty with a bit of citrus flavor, but otherwise it's not as doughy as many hefe's are. Wasatch isn't winning any awards with these beers, but they're great pub beers. That's all you need for a post ski day right? TRANSFORMERS rating.

Wasatch Christmas Ale is the first of three at the brewpub

Sam, Jamie and I are finishing an exciting Oregon vs. Wisconsin Rose Bowl game at the Wasatch brewpub on Main St in Park City. With two big games on tonight and time to kill before dinner, it looks like this will be the first of several new beers for the blog.

The Christmas Ale is a copper colored ale that's dry hopped with Cascade and Amarillo hops, which creates a wonderful piney and earthy aroma that's warming me up already. While it finishes slightly malty, overall it's well balanced. This has a bit of spice thanks to the hops but it's also easy to drink. TRANSFORMERS rating and I'm looking forward for round two with Jamie and Sam.

Boulevard Sixth Glass Quadruple isn't as sweet as Kangaroos

I'm at my brother's house the night before the other half of the family takes off for Utah. I'm able to check out my Christmas gift to Warren, a Kangaroo skin for his new house, which I'm sure his fiance will be thrilled about. Several years ago my brother gave me a prized gift after spending a semester abroad, a Kangaroo testicle beer opener. It's a gift I treasure greatly for it's uniqueness, ball puns, awkward situations and general hilariousness. It was featured in several posts last year:

I took a trip to Sydney in September and decided it was imperative to return the favor. Days before I left Warren closed the deal on a house in Houston and a housewarming present was in order. Before any PETA followers stop reading the blog, let me say that these pelts are sold at any novelty market in Aussieland and Roos are as prevalent and detrimental to crops as deer are in the states. This pelt is plush and majestic and I'm excited to see where Warren puts it, and then which closet his fiance eventually throws it in.

Doesn't it look like a furry stingray to you?

Anywho, onto beer. I have the final entry from the anticipated Boulevard Brewing from Kansas City. It's receiving a Texan homecoming at Warren's house.

Mr. Armadillo asks what the hell you're looking at, buster.

The Quadruple pours a huge head and is way over carbonated. There's a fine brown sugar quality but otherwise it's surprisingly un-complex. I expect more from a quad but you also can't tell that it's 10.5%. Not complex but drinkable, a nice dessert to a wonderful evening with brother. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Weizenbock is a homebrewer's dream come true

Merry Christmas! I awoke from a Brandy Alexander induced 5 hour post Christmas power nap. Oops. Somebody got a little sauced at Christmas. Happens to the best of us. I even missed the Lakers losing, which makes me sad that I missed that.  But thankfully I have a holdout from the summer to get me back into the Christmas drinking spirit.

This is a holdout from the summer months that I bought and held onto. The Sierra Nevada Beer Camp is a really great idea and epitomizes the spirit of Craft Beer - collaboration, passion for beer and creating unique products. Applicants send in a video on why they should be invited to the Sierra Nevada brewery one weekend in August. The winners are formed into a small team and together they brainstorm a beer recipe and brew it that weekend. It sounds like a wonderful, dream come true experience for any home brewer and if I hadn't been behind on my application for the Miami Ad School, I would have applied. Now you'll know what I'll be doing this June!

The Weizenbock is a surprising 6.8%, a bit high for the style but on par with the Weihenstephaner Vitus.  The aroma is incredibly sweet and quite yeasty. The pour leaves the brew cloudy from the unfiltered wheat flakes. Their are flavors of apple and other citrus. This would've been a deeelightful summer beer on the porch, but it goes just as well with me Ma's roast beast (beef) on Christmas. Happy holidays everyone. TRANSFORMERS rating.

The Bruery 4 Calling Birds spices up my last night in San Francisco

I partied hard last night to celebrate the end of school at a Christmas themed party, where there was Maker's Mark and Fernet on tap, which is David's wet dream, but arrrgh. I hate it. Fernet is the worst. The hipsters up in San Fran love it with ginger ale, but I still can't handle the licorice and spiced fused concoction. Spice seems to be the theme of week though.

Today I turned in my portfolio, outlining several campaigns I helped create over the last three months during school. The lead campaign in my portfolio was actually a personal one, this blog. It was really interesting looking back on the year and why I initially began the blog. The retrospective has my wheels turning. I finished an epic year of beer every day, now what happens? How do I approach writing the blog now? My goal last year was simply to finish the year, and after beer 365, I decided to continue until the round number of 400. 3 months have passed without a post. This is the beginning of a new era, the renewal of my exploration of craft beer. What is my goal now? I have ideas but will hone in on something more specific in the new year.

Until then, I return to my favorite brewery and one of its most epic beer series, The Bruery's 12 Days of Christmas. This year it's 4 Calling Birds. A Partridge and a Pear Tree was before my time with The Bruery, 2 Turtle Doves was a tour de force, 3 French Hens was a powerful dark belgian strong ale, but how will 4 Calling Birds deliver?

An astronaut playing the banjo is my portfolio cover. It seems odd but it says what it needs to.  For instance, Space is awesome and I'm a nerd. Deep stuff.

4 Calling Birds is an 11% dark ale brewed with gingerbread like spice. You can age it for 8 years but I couldn't let a Christmas go past without at least trying it. In the Christmas spirit, I want to say I'm thankful for having a completed portfolio, to be enjoying my favorite craft brewery, not being a student any longer, and seeing my family tomorrow in Houston. I appreciate the indulgence of Christmas like spices here, but after a half a glass down, I'm not thankful for the spicy qualities, which are overwhelming.

A couple more sips gulps later and the brew still isn't integrating with the spices well. This is an example of The Bruery doing what they do well, a dark strong belgian ale, like their Cuadruple (made with agave), but the spices could definitely be more subtle. The Two Turtle Doves was orgasmic, it was so complex. This year they went more Christmasy and less belgian, and the result is a 'spirited' brew. With the robustness of this spice, this is a beer to share with others and not alone, but I'll finish it all the same. The Bruery rocks, unfortunately, this is not The Rock. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Stone Levitation arises to the occasion

Last night my brother Warren asked me to be his best man! We've come a long way since this picture, which is my favorite from our childhood. I'll be giving the best man speech in front of nearly 500 people, yikes! I'm for sure going to need some Levitation for that.

This is also the 20th Stone beer of the year and the 2nd to last consecutive beer of the year, 399. It's also my first day of unemployment. My final day in the entertainment industry was yesterday and in a couple weeks I'll be moving to San Francisco and beginning Advertising school! After soaking this in, I realize it's a pretty big day here. Good thing I have a quality Stone with me.

The Levitation is a flavorful 4.4% brown/amber style ale with with a hint of coffee. It has a malty aroma and finishes slightly bitter. I'm not fans of the style but this rises way above. Don't mess with stone and grab a sixer of this for a lazy weekend. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale can't beat The Art Of Flight

Recovering after the long wedding weekend back home, I'm synergistic my beer with the what we're watching...You love that word, don't even try to hate right now. So David works at Red Bull and is heavily involved with their biggest movie to date, the snowboarding film THE ART OF FLIGHT. The talk is that it will be known as the greatest snowboarding film possibly ever. He's flying to NYC tomorrow for the premiere. I don't snowboard and in fact strongly dislike snowboarders because I ski, but this film looks amazing. Here's the trailer here. The quality of the shots is mind blowing:

I'm also hoping to catch some air with Bear Republic's 6.8% Red Rocket Ale. I love Bear's Racer 5 IPA and I can't believe it's taken me this long to try out its ginger brother.

Who flies a helicopter like that? Crazy people I tell you

Bear is calling this a "Bastardized scottish red ale" and true to form it is more of an amber than a red. The beer is heavy and a little too sweet. There's a very rich caramel and toffee flavor that hits your hard and mixes it up with the hops. The brew contains a similar hop profile as Racer 5 but not as intense. I'm enjoying but it's really all up in my grill, like powder blowing up in the face of these insane snowboarders. This is is not for everyone (David didn't like), but for me I enjoyed. However, for a day drinking hoppy red ale, I'd consider a Drake's Denogganizer first. TRANSFORMERS rating

Iron Fist Uprising inspires peasants to rise up and...drink more Uprising

What happens when we travel down to San Diego for a wedding but there's terrible traffic and I'm late to pick up my tux? Well before anyone gets married we have to stop at a brewery, duh. 

I love it when dad's bring their kids to breweries. It inspires future Walker

Iron Fist is a favorite of David and I's and yours truly especially wants to fill up our growler with their potent Oatmeal Stout, Velvet Glove. Our college friend Gordon is with us and this is his first time to any SoCal breweries.

Iron Fist has a new blend that's cold off the fermenter, a big bad, belgian triple/ipa called UPRISING. This has motherloving 12% alcohol packed into a 10oz snifter. With the clock reading 4pm, I am only now getting over the atomic hangover I incurred last night, and this thing might send me right back to the stone age.

The Uprising has a Paul Bunyon body, big and bold. A sweet yeasty and grainy aroma is followed by a sweet caramel and sharply bittered body. Initially the alcohol doesn't seem very present, merely peeking around the corner, but as the beer warms the glass becomes the perfect storm of sweetness, bitterness and alcohol that threatens to implode my mouth. It's an impressive beer that gets a little ahead of itself.

"Please," the Groom said, "Growler me."

I'm enjoying this but it's a tenacious beer, an 'in your face supporter' of all things intense. David is driving and this put him back on his heels a bit. For me, one glass is all it takes to slay the Goliath...of my hangovers. Back to the water bottle. Still, worth the experience. TRANSFORMERS rating

Mikkeller Williamette showcases the fuggle out of that hop

This is my third single hop IPA from Mikkeller but the hop, Willamette, I know very little about. My googling machine conveys that it's similar to the English style Fuggle but is more fruity and has floral notes. So what's the real story?

It's improbable, since most of/allMikkeller's beers are limited production, that he would make six packs of his single hop varitals, but Jebus I wish he would. He has the innate ability to balance the hops and malts to create brews that are delicious and showcase the IPA. He puts together the perfect backing band for the pop star, Willamette. The hop itself is delicious and tasting some light citrus, apple, pear flavors. I wish their was a Single Hop Super Hero who doled out six packs right now. Rrreal bad. TRANSFORMERS rating.


Side story, as I went out on the patio to grab the beer, I was almost past the screen door when something huge caught my eye and gave me a jolt. It's not every day you see a white Praying Mantis!

You have to understand, we are as far away from what you'd call 'nature' as possible in this urban parking lot called Los Angeles. David and I live in Marina del Rey, surrounded by huge apartment complexes, water and boats. Pizza delivery people rarely come down here, let alone insects. So this fella was a very cool surprise for me. Apparently their sightings symbolize the coming of personal growth and inner change. Science would say that because he was 4 inches long but still white, he was seeking a protective place to molt (shed his skin) for the final time, thus becoming green. But as a passive idealist, I will go with the former.

What's even weirder, is that Lindsey and David get home late and coincidently had a captured insect with them. A bee, which they want to "put a leash on" using floss. SOOOMEBODY has been sniffing paint chips. David is a little insulted that I hadn't captured the creature - "they're really rare you know." I'm beginning to feel 7 years old again.

What's with all these insects? Symbolism or are they just getting lost? I was never a kid who collected animals and such, although there was a kid in elementary school, Will, who grew frogs in order to skin their hides. He's a big rig truck driver now, I kid you not. Redneck to the core. Another story I just remembered from an old ex-girlfriend was from her childhood, her family caught a praying mantis and a scorpion and decided to invoke Darwin's Survival of the Fittest. They placed a glass bowl over the two unwilling participants to see which creature came out victorious, gladiator style. The main event was billed "WELCOME TO THE THUNDER DOME." HA. I just wanted to tell that story so I could say that phrase. Mad Max 3 rules. Bye

Bear Republic XP Pale Ale hoppily ends the work week

I bought this during my July trip to Lake Tahoe and since I love all things Bear Republic, quite excited to see how they take on a non-IPA style of beer. Me thinks it will taste similar to a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but let's check it out.

It's made with Centennial and Cascade hops, which are typical American style hops especially for the West Coast producers. It's full bodied and hoptastic, exactly what you might expect from the producer of Racer 5. The body has some nice light caramel and fruitiness to it. Overall, a very balanced hoppy pale ale that's easy to enjoy. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Anderson Valley IPA malts me nicely

I'm pouring this just as David is finishing up with TRON and it reminds me that I missed her coming to the office last week to meet my boss (I work at a production company). A little bummed, but I was in Napa so I can't complain. What about you - incredible wine or Olivia Wilde? Does Olivia taste like blackberries, chalk and pepper all at once? Doubtful.

Anderson Valley IPA is a good malty IPA with a light caramel flavor. Their beers tend to be maltier rather than hoppy and this IPA is no exception. However, the hops do balance their naturally malty beers nicely. I wouldn't say this is Hop Ottin, as their name advertises, but it results in a balanced ipa that's enjoyable. TRANSFORMERS rating.

Shipyard Signature Smashed Blueberry helps homebrew an Oatmeal Stout

Today is the nexus of two ideas I hatched weeks ago; buying a fruit beer actually made with fruit and not syrup and brewing my first dark beer. My spidey senses are tingling

First the beer. From the same brewery that brought you the delicious seasonal Smashed Pumpkin (smashed-pumpkin), Shipyard introduces another fruit infused beer, Smashed Blueberry.

A little yeast starter goes a long way

It's a whopping 9% blueberry beer that lies somewhere between a porter and scotch ale. There's a lot going on in this, coffee and chocolate notes and a bitterness at the end that takes away from the blueberry, which is surprisingly subtle. I feel like this is a little "Midsummer Night's Dream" in a way, the dark chocolate and fruit mix together in a moody way. David isn't a fan, but I'm enjoying this latest entry. Will I buy it again? Probably not, it didn't appeal to me that much, but I'm happy that I experienced it. TRANSFORMERS rating.  I would buy this again and pair it with food, duck or lamb. That would be really interesting.


Brew day is upon us! I began a yeast starter (above) two days ago and picked up the supplies yesterday. The apartment smelled like malt when I walked into the door, which is such an appetizing aroma. I'm working on my third partial mash home brew today and I'm still learning the process. One of the tubes in the sparge cooler popped out and 180 degree water poured out all over my hand, burning it decently. I fudged up on another aspect, which made me angrier at myself than the water cooler, so that cooler is in the clear...for now.

Untitled Oatmeal Stout

Here is a link to the recipe that is reprinted below: Oatmeal Stout. This is a Walker original recipe:


Malt Extract:     Pale 3 lbs
                       

Grain Bill:         American Two-Row Pale 4 lbs

(8.5lbs)            Flaked Oats 1.5 lbs

                        Munich Malt 1 lb
                        Chocolate Malt 12 oz
                        90 L Crystal Malt 12 oz
                        Cara Pils 10 oz
                        Roasted Barley 8 oz
                        Special B Malt 4 oz

                                 

Hop Schedule: Northdown (7.5%) 1.5 oz at 60 mins
                                
Yeast:            White Labs London Ale (WLP013) 
                 
My other mistake was I misunderstood how much water to mash and sparge with, so while my original gravity was 1.065, it turned out to be 1.056, which means I will have about 5.5% alcohol and 28.2 IBU's (previously it would be 6.1%). I thought at the time this would be a huge loss, but, not really. I had to take about a gallon of wort out of the boil kettle and there was less efficiency for starch extraction during mashing. Usually you want to hit between 70% 75%. The pro's do it way better, of course. I hit 55%. Stupid math skills getting in the way of fun again.


The color is going to be 42 SRM, which is black as a moonless night. It's going to look great. What's interesting about the hop schedule with stouts, is that you don't use any flavoring or aroma hops, just bittering to balance out the malt. By excluding hops later in the boil, more of the roasted malt is exhibited. Not all breweries follow that rule of thumb, but it's pretty standard.


Failure to brew on Sunday resulted in an unavoidable late Thursday night. We didn't even start cooling the wort until after midnight. I started boiling water at 7:15pm.

We finished around 1am and cleaned up and then shot the sh*t till late.Not the smartest of moves to do on a school night, but sometimes the Chappelle show comes on, home brews are opened and you start talking about life and suddenly the clock reads 4am. Worth it. 

Anderson Valley Summer Solstice lights up my perception of Amber Ales

I can't describe the beer's taste taste better than what's described on the label. "Smooth malt and lightly sweet with a hint of spice and velvety flavor." I not only appreciate it when beers are 'as advertised,' but I love summer brews (especially Alaskan Summer) and this is no exception better than on the back. Smootj malty and lightly swee with a hint of spice and velvety flavor. This is perfect for an afternoon in the hammock.

This is technically an amber ale and using my newly posted Beer & Food Pairing table, I'm in luck. Leftover pizza goes swimmingly with this brew. The sweetness and the touch of spice pair excellently with a savory meat pizzer. I'm not a typically a fan of Ambers, but I will drink more knowing how well they accompany dough and marinara. TRANSFORMERS rating.

La Trappe Dubbel is the delicious bookend to a Deer Valley weekend

I recently purchased a mountain bike but have never actually gone mountain biking, so I sign up for a group Sunday morning, lead by Mike from South Africa. No one else shows up so it turns into a private lesson and Mike takes me out to the parking lot to learn the basics but I pick it up pretty quickly and soon we're up in the mountains, bombing down trails. 

Beautiful right? Mountain biking was a blast and I only took a spill once. It was minor, but I now understand how dangerous this sport is. These trails and the mountain are completely unforgiving. You can't take your mind off what is coming up for a second. There is no scenery gazing in mountain biking. Except of course when you're completely stopped and on your own after the tour like below:

I definitely want to find some trials in LA, but I also feel the need to get some additional padding. Afterward, I meet up with the rents to devour a BBQ Bison Bacon Burger with parmesian fries. I'm including this detail and picture not only because it's a beautiful day and I couldn't resist, but look at that presentation! Kudos Deer Valley cooks.

After demolishing 2/3 lb of a bison, we rested up and watched Travis Pastrano drive his rally car into the finals despite having broken his ankle and foot Friday doing motorcycle stunts. After doing something really stupid, he pulled it together and almost did something really awesome, but unfortunately crashed on the last lap of the finals.

We went to dinner in Park City at this amazing Mexican fusion restaurant called Chimayo, which I didn't take pictures of (Duck Enchiladas, hmmmm) and won't bore you with, but I was surprised to find something else in the alley next to the restaurant:

A Banksy in Park City? This is way out of his normal territory. Park City is certainly not metropolitan, but it does host the Sundance Film Festival every winter. Banksy is subversive as hell and I love the idea here. His art can be both subtle like the above and overt like this:

 Or:

The above is actually the Prime Minister's house. Banksy essentially created a giant penis on a house that is guarded around the clock by CCTV, police and has a 24 hours armed response team. Wow. At the bottom of the page I'll post a Simpsons Intro Banksy did and one of his Star Wars street art - because why shouldn't I?


Back home in LA, I'm exhausted and looking forward to something smooth and easy. Good thing today is the first day of the trappist brewery La Trappe. La Trappe is the only one of seven trappist breweries not in Belgium and is found in the Netherlands. This will be the second trappist dubbel drunk on a recent Sunday evening and I hope it's as delicious as the first.

The trappist dubbels are so easy to drink. The hops are subdued and there's a smooth caramel and chocolate flavor with a hint of tartness and yeasty spice. The 7% alcohol is negligible and overall, very well balanced. TRANSFORMERS rating.



Here is the Banksy Simpsons intro. It's especially subversive.

Love this:

Westmalle Tripel provides the electrolytes I need after a day on the lake

Spent the morning recovering and then the remaining daylight hours riding around gorgeous Lake Tahoe drinking beers and wake boarding. Not me, but the other guys did. I'm as dexterous on a wake/skate board as as one-footed tightrope walker. Here's a view of the Lake, which was astounding. Pardon my cursing halfway through, I was turning in circles and nearly fell on my face.

They never called me graceful...

The other fellas also did a bit of rock jumping / diving / or hopping, whatever you'd like to call it. I'm taking full advantage of my new blackberry phone and its video camera, but unfortunately I'm no Michael Bay, and the recording is a bit choppy. If I only had a director of photography:

Back home, we catered BBQ for dinner and it ain't from Texas, but it's still darn good. Love me some cornbread anytime. I'm cracking open the second Westmalle, the Tripel. The Tahoe sun must have fried my brain because this is the world's 2nd highest rated Tripel, and I don't think it's that good. I wonder if the trip up here tossing and turning in my boot screwed the pooch on this.

It has a good body but no complexity. The result is a bland flavor and a very surprised Walker. I have Patrick, a true connoisseur, try it too and he remarks the same. This was never his favorite beer. I don't taste any of the fruit or spice that other reviews tout, and maybe this is worth another tasting. The Alstrom Brothers, who run beer advocate, call this the essential tripel. Huh. Well it is well crafted and you won't be disappointed in purchasing it, but my expectations were not met. TRANSFORMERS 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.