Super Beta by Pure Project Brewing (San Diego, CA) - Hazy IPA
Quite soft and mellow/well rounded hazy IPA with notes of peach, pineapple and grapes without being overly juicy. Followed by floral notes which slowly end in a dry, low bitterness finish. Perfect beer for one of the first warm days.
Freiheit! by Wayfinder Beer (Portland, OR) - Festbier
Really nice variation on a festbier which very much resembles here a helles. Strong malt backbone with some bready, roasted flavors and light sweetness. Well balanced with some spicy, floral and grassy hop notes. Clean, dry, medium bitter finish.
Jockamo Juicy IPA by Abita Brewing Company (Abita Springs, LA) - Hazy IPA
Very citrus forward IPA with lots of notes of grapefruit, lime and lemon pith which stay throughout the sip. Some piney and dank flavors towards the end with a dry, quite bitter finish. Decent but also a bit one dimensional IPA
Love the Mardi Gras Indians design on the can!
Sunset Bay by Alvarado Street Brewery (Monterey, CA) - Fruited Sour
Alvarado Streets has some well made sours inspired by cocktails - this painkiller one didn’t disappoint with a good rendition of the pineapple, orange and coconut base but well balanced with a good dose of tart sourness.
Wondrous Windy Bones, a Czech dark lager from Wondrous Brewing out of Emeryville, CA. I like it - like a sweetish dark rye in beer form.
Doom Bloom by Barebottle Brewing Company (San Francisco, CA) - Triple Hazy IPA
Blast of tropical juices (mango, peach, papaya) mixed with some floral flavors in the second half of the sip. Strong focus on the juiciness with very low levels of piney hops notes and a dry, low bitterness finish. Very easy to drink with well hidden ABV for a triple IPA
Passionfruit Mochi by Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR) - Milkshake IPA
Interesting balance between the classical hazy IPA hop profile and mix of sweetness and some tartness from the passionfruit and the lactose. Overall a bit too sour for an IPA and the hop flavors get a little bit lost in the different flavor profiles
Oggy by Great Notion Brewery (Portland, OR) - Hazy IPA
Very soft hazy IPA with mainly grapefruit and bready notes upfront and later some floral tastes before a dry, low bitterness finish. Easily drinkable but easy to forgot after a short period of time as nothing stands out in this middle-of-the-road IPA
Double Cone by Alvarado Street Brewery (Monterey, CA) - DIPA
As often Alvarado Street gets their IPAs well balanced - this WC IPA has a good hoppy taste with plenty of piney notes without both becoming too extreme. Nice dry, medium bitter finish with a nearly creamy mouthfeel.
Biggie’s Bodacious Bountiful Berry Blast by Alvarado Street Brewing (Monterey, CA) - Fruited Sour
I was looking for a liquid, not too sweet, dessert and this sour hits all the notes. Multiple layers of berry flavors with their natural balance of sweet and tartness. Vanilla flavor in the background, never really strongly noticeable but still important to smoothen everything out. And before you think you are only drinking a berry milkshake a very healthy dose of sourness reminds you that you are drinking a great beer.
Van Beer by Great Notion Brewery (Portland, OR) - Hazy IPA
Interesting strawberry, meyer lemon and melon notes on this hazy IPA before some floral, piney flavors with some hints of weed come into play. Low bitterness finish leads to a good strata-based NEIPA
Konstantin by Schilling Beer Company (Littleton, NH) - Maerzen
Unusual maerzen as it has less of a sweet undertone but focuses on the malts with notes of roasted bread, light toffee, biscuit and caramel before a very dry and surprisingly bitter finish which lingers for a long time.
Cellarmaker Extra Special Bivalve - ESB with some oyster shells (hence the bivalve?) - this was on nitro so creamy mouthfeel, light and a little bitter.
Great Notion Dune
Hazy NEIPA, bright and juicy. I like it.
Do the oyster shells add any obvious flavors ?
I didn’t detect any but supposedly it adds some minerality?
Delirium Noel, the Christmas version of Delirium Tremens from Brouwerij Huyghe. I couldn’t detect much in the way of spices, but at 10% ABV it’ll sneak up on you because it doesn’t taste particularly heavy or strong at first.
Cooperage / Wondrous collab - Dortmunder Export lager
Clear, clean, with a bit of sweetness. I like it.
The shells themselves may serve to clarify or fine the brew. If there’re still muscle attached, maybe some flavor.
A few years back, I did enjoy an “Oyster Stout”, which did include actual oysters. I recall liking it enough that I bought some bottles to give as gifts.
So, in your farflung tastings from cans, do you track when they’re bottled and hence how long they’been there when you open? How are they shipped to you, or do you pick them up at some speciality retail emporium?
I ask because I’ve recently taken to having 32oz Crowlers filled at breweries’ taprooms. Even under constant refrigeration, the beer isn’t the same a week later.
