Evil Red by Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR) - Fruited Sour
Great example of sour done wrong - artificial tasting fruit punch with an heavy emphasis on sweetness with hardly any sour counter balance. The artificial red color isn’t helping also - very disappointing
New discussion for 2024
Ascend by Vermont Beer Makers (Springfield, VT) - Hefeweizen
All the typical flavors of a hefeweizen. - cloves and other spices, relatively light on the “banana esters” and some bready and grassy notes. Overall the beer tastes too thin and watered down and is missing the right balance of all components
Schmoojee Strawberry, Blueberry, White Chocolate Chip by Imprint Beer Company (Hatfield, PA) - Pastry Sour
Pastry sours are liquid dessert but even here good balance makes all the difference between forgettable and highlight. Unfortunately this pastry sour which has a flavor reminiscent of black forest cake is just sweet and lacks any strong sourness. A real black forest cake would have been the better dessert
if you are a fan of wheat beer(s) - one seldom seen in USA is a filtered Weissen - aka “Krystall Weissen”
having spent a lot of time in Germany . . . I’m ueber fond of Weissbier - but I find the normal unfiltered “Hefe Weissen” (Hefe = yeast) has a too sweet/sticky after taste.
if you can find it - this is the real deal:
Back in my student days I always had a case of Kristallweizen and a case of Budvar on my balcony 
I was partial to Franziskaner or Weihenstephaner.
Holsten knallt am dollsten
I may have never had a Holsten TBH 
It’s beer week in SF again! I had some brews from Toronado in SF tonight.
Monkish West Coast Sunset
West Coast IPA w/ Peacherine, Nelson Sauvin, and Idaho 7
Monkish Backpack Full of Cans
Triple IPA with Citra, Motueka, and Simcoe.
A hazy triple IPA. Lots of tropical fruit.
Wondrous Sleeping Chamber
Unfiltered West Coast style Rye IPA. Hopped with Nelson + Wakatu
A dry hazy IPA.
A “Berliner döner” which has a sausage instead of döner meat from Berliner Berliner next door to soak up some alcohol.
For dessert, a Bruery Black Tuesday, an imperial stout
Never been there - do they also have “real” doner ?
They don’t, only sausage döners, and hamburgers on Tuesdays. And pretzels. And the occasional Berliner.
An SF Beer Week tour of Admiral Maltings in Alameda ended with half pints from two of the brewers who use their product: Drake’s Chamba (Mexican lager) and Olfactory Brewing’s Suede Denim Secret (Roggenbock [rye bock]).
We each got drink coupons for two additional half pints of anything on the current tap list, but 2 full pints of beer is way, way too much for us. They were very nice and let us turn them in for two free drinks the next time we come by.
Greetings from Weymouth by Vitamin Sea Brewing (East Weymouth, MA) - Hazy IPA
Nice fruit bomb with lots of mango and orange, some moderate pine and resin notes before a dry, low bitterness finish which lingers for a while. With a bit more bitterness it would have been even better but still a very nice rendition of a NEIPA
Beer week in SF means Pliny the Younger on tap!
Equilibrium Star Light
Tropical fruit kind of tastes like papaya. Very drinkable for a double IPA.
HopHands by Tired Hands Brewing Company (Ardmore, PA) - American Pale Ale
Interesting American pale ale with relative little citrus or other fruity flavors but much more herbal, piney, dank and even some hard to describe “medicinal” like tastes towards the end if the sip. Dry, medium bitter finish. Overall quite unique beer which is really going for a bit different flavor profile
those are some of the larger ones I’ve seen outside of Germany!
we have a (newish) pretzel specialty store (somewhere) local - I’ve been meaning to stop by and see if they are/can produce ‘the real deal’
