Where did you get it ?
Someone picked it up for me from the mothership in Alameda, but I saw it the other day on the shelf at Canyon Market in San Francisco as well.
1 Like
I think I even saw some at Safeway along with some other Almanac beers. It may have been another Sournova though.
1 Like
Ah how far we have come. I recall a time when the most exotic beer you could get at Safeway was Amstel. Now you can get local barrel aged sours.
Clouds of Rakau by Barebottle Brewing Company (San Francisco, CA) - IPA
Lots of stone fruits (peach, apricot) upfront with a juicy/creamy consistency, followed by some grassy dank with quite a lot of bitterness in the finish but also some consistent light fruitiness throughout. Nice and very enjoyable NEIPA.
3 Likes
Yeah, I see also Henhouse and some other local breweries on the shelves there too.
1 Like
Did baking today and lost track of time. But I am finally sitting down and drinking Alesmith’s West Coast style IPA. Is it still (super) popular in California?
AleSmith West Coast Style IPA -
First impression is “it’s not soapy!”. I tend to get a soapy taste from this style, even more so from non American breweries.
Could be more bitter but it’s fine the way it is. Very smooth on the palate. Medium bodied. Smells sweet. Taste is grapefruit and some lovely exotic flower but not sure what. Very pleasant and delicious.
1 Like
It is popular but a general “problem” with any style for craft beer in the US is that there are so many breweries nationwide now which constantly release new beers around the year that it is much harder for any brewery to establish some “classics”.
Honkman, I did some light reading yesterday and apparently the internet says AleSmith IPA is a real “classic” and holds it in high regard. Regardless, I like it a lot, but haven’t tried that many American ones to compare with.
Today I went to look for other West Coast style IPAs in the shop but they seem to have vanished from the shelves. Found only one can and it’s European. I got it anyway.
Bought another AleSmith IPA. They only have 3 left on the shelf and not restocking this beer. Also bought the Rasputin imperial stout again, and Brazilian version of Pliny (the Elder) x2. Already drank the Brazilian the other day and liked it. I put those 4 cans on top, the rest is new to me and will be going through them soon enough.
So, about the beer today, this style is new to me… NEIPA with lactose. Because of milkshake IPA I don’t want to go near milkshake style any more but got curious when I saw this NEIPA brewed with lactose.
Deadly Combination - Columbus + Citra - Barrier Brewing - New York, USA. 7.4% (?!)
I don’t like “milkshake” (IPA) style at all. This beer is brewed with lactose and without the addition of fruit. Is it a riff on Milkshake?
Sweet and milky. Smells hoppy and sweet. The lactose presence is clear here. Medium thick and creamy mouthfeel. Fruity, smooth and soft. Mango and papaya, plus a nice hop combo. Low on the bitterness but it’s typical for this style. Dry finish with lingering sweetness. I know the word “sweet” is in every sentence that’s because it is sweet and it lingers. It’s a bit strange, in a good way, to drink sweet alcoholic hoppy milk. Well, glad I tried it. It’s really not bad. I even liked it.
They have other hop combos in the series but the shop only has this. The one with Mosaic would be my choice.
I looked up some info about lactose powder in beer. So if they added a little less of it it would then be less sweet.
Mont des Cats - Belgian Strong Ale Style - Hauts-de-France, France. 7.6%
Mont des Cats is an abbey in northern France, they don’t have a brewery so Chimay in nearby Belgium brews the beer for them. Thus it’s not qualified to receive the “Trappist beer” stamp (an official logo) of recognition and authenticity. The abbey only has this one beer.
Found the beer way behind other bottles in my stash. Hard to notice as the bottle is quite short.
Sweet and malty, lots of caramel. Light earthy/herbal in the taste. Medium bodied with a dry finish. It’s an OK Belgian style strong ale but a bit boring. There are many Belgian beers in this style that are much better.
3 Likes
Less a riff on Milkshake but more of a “recent” trend to add it to many different styles. Originally mainly/only used in (milk) stouts it is now used in virtually all types of beer. It tends to add some subtle sweetness but I think of it more importantly as adding mouthfeel to any beer - by making it more creamy. As with every trend people are starting to overdo it and it is just a matter of time until it goes back to reasonable normal levels.
One reason why you might have been problems to find US beers in the moment in Europe is a supply issue with aluminum and thereby beer cans. Many breweries have production issue that they can’t find enough cans and so they might for now prioritize to not export beer
Fair State Brewing Cooperative, MN
Tmave Pivo
Dark Czech style lager
ABV: 4.4%
Enjoyed this recently at Lupolo (Santa Cruz). Easy drinking. Creamy with a toasty cocoa profile on the nose and in the mouth. Appreciate the lighter weight beers that still bring the flavour. Worth seeking out if you like this style.
4 Likes
Calf & Half by Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR) - Imperial Stout
Quite complex tasting barrel-aged imperial stout with a lot of chocolate, coffee, toffee flavors as the backbone but made more interesting by the inclusion of upfront “fruity” blueberries taste and coconut flavors to round up the beer. Great stout and dangerously easy to drink at 12.5% ABV
3 Likes
País Tropical - Session IPA - Oedipus Brewery, Netherlands. 4,5%
Pale straw looking beer, lots of head. Fruity, lychi, pineapple and orange (contains Bavaria Mandarina hop). Fizzy, thin bodied. Easy to drink and not terrible for this style. Dry-hopping with Mosaic and Citra saves this beer for me.
Grapefruit Galaxy - IPA - Van Moll Brewery, Netherlands. 6,5%
Mildly grapefruity, low bitterness, bretty. In fact, everything is so mild it’s a bit disappointing. I drink almost everything from this micro brewery but once in a while I encounter an uninteresting beer.
Plínio O Velhaco - Double IPA - Devaneio do Velhaco Brewery - Brazil. 8% 80 IBU
A massive gusher, good thing I used the biggest glass I have (Tripel Karmeliet).
Expensive (12 euros!). Tiny texts in Portuguese, almost no info to be found on the interwebz. I bought it without knowing anything about it when I only know Brazilian beer is like playing expensive Russian roulette. The chances of losing is higher than normal.
Inspired by the classic Pliny The Elder from the American Russian River. Made with the addition of three dry hoppings of Amarillo, Mosaic and Cascade and a base composed of darker malts, Pliny O Rogue is a balanced beer with good alcoholic potency.
Creamy, full bodied, fruity. Smells interesting and “dreamy”. Resinous and floral. Not super hoppy, just perfect. Really nice, unlike most beers of this style I’ve had before, surprisingly, as I have a low opinion of Brazilian craft beers. Haven’t seen the American version of Pliny on the shelf here at all so now I’m curious.
Trovejo - American IPA - Devaneio do Velhaco Brewery, Brazil. 6,7%. 58 IBU
Brewed with Loral and Amarillo.
The can design is exactly the same as the one above. I thought it was the same beer 
A hazy orange beer. Smells hoppy. Soapy taste is there but tolerable. Dry finish, medium bodied, tastes of tangerine and pine needles. Bitterness is OK. Fizzy mouthfeel (now, this I don’t like).
After trying this brewery’s version of Pliny the Elder (Plínio o velhaco) I had expected this “American IPA” to have that kind of awesomeness. Not really the case. It’s similar to Sculpin IPA I drank the day before but Sculpin is nicer, a little less “soapy” and a lot more refined.
Now I am gonna have to get another Sculpin and drink both side by side.
Camera (from the 60’s) given to me by father-out-law many years ago. He just passed away… a lover of beer, especially Belgian. We 3 used to drink lots of beers together whenever he visited us.
Sculpin IPA - Ballast Point Brewing - San Diego, CA. 7%
After having enjoyed the lovely AleSmith IPA this one came crushing down on me. Soapy and harsh, and yet creamy, on the palate. High resinous, medium bodied, sweetish. I taste tangerine and some orange. Reasonably bitter. Opaque orange in appearance. This beer must be the “true classic” West Coast IPA, according to most. Now I know for sure I’m in the AleSmith camp, but Sculpin is still quite nice and the differences between the 2 make it interesting and fun to drink. Would drink it again. I have had far more soapy and less refined IPAs.
Regarding the soapy taste, it’s just me and me alone. The beer is fine. Due to my multiple allergies and intolerances some foods, drinks, vegetables etc can have a strange taste.
PS: Honkman, I remember reading about shortages of aluminium and hops some time ago and they said beer prices would rise because of this. Cans are getting more popular and so fast, too. I estimate nearly 2/3 of beer in the shop is in cans now. Last year it was still less than 50%.
4 Likes
Yes indeed
1 Like
I’m a fan of the Sculpin, haven’t tried the Aloha version that you had though. And I’m a beer newbie but yeah Sculpin is definitely a West Coast IPA.
I had a “Tiny Dankster” pale ale today from Cellarmaker in SF. It was pretty dank.
4 Likes
That beer was for many years really hard to get and is often considered as a prime example of a well balanced IPA - now it is at least here in SF easy to get but still an outstanding beer.
1 Like
@Presunto doses cilantro taste soapy to you? There’s a common variant in olfactory genes that is responsible for many instances.
Interestingly, only Thai coriander tastes of pure soap. But Turkish is extremely mild it’s almost not noticeable so I can eat it just fine.
Another example of weird tasting ingredient in a beer is cherries. Taste like cold/flu cough med (Nyquil).
Partly because @Presunto mentioned it I had a bottle of Pliny the Elder for lunch today.
Yeah its good.
I remember a ways back Pliny couldn’t be found at some local stores because Russian River wanted it to always be refrigerated, which is a reasonable request, and some places didn’t have the equipment/cooler space needed. So maybe that’s one reason it may be difficult (or impossible?) to find in Europe.
2 Likes
Yeah, that could be one of the reasons. I’m well aware of Pliny’s reputation.
Even the 2 craft beers shops within 10 minutes of biking now have fridges for some IPAs. We have come a long way!
Cheers, Mr Happy!
1 Like
