This was on Monday at Toronado in SF (6oz draft).
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I was referring to the one in SoMa, I haven’t been to the Outer Mission outpost. That is exactly what we would do. Hit up Cellarmaker then City Beer.
Re: City Beer Store - just looked them up again and looks like they’ve moved again to the Mission, 853 Valencia Street https://www.citybeerstore.com/pages/pop-up-hrs-contact, so no longer in walking distance to Cellarmaker.
Sparkle Muffin by Revision Brewing Company (Sparks, NV) - NEIPA
Juicy, citrus forward NEIPA with a quite clean, not overly complex flavor profile and medium, relatively long lasting, bitterness which makes it really a nice, very easy drinkable summer beer.
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Extra Double Vanilla Milkshake IPA by Tired Hands Brewing Company (Ardmore, PA) - Milkshake IPA
Brilliant milkshake IPA which really gets the perfect balance between the sweetness of the vanilla and lactose and the hoppy bitterness. It’s impressive how the beer never gets too sweet or too hoppy, bitter coupled with a nice creamy mouthfeel.
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Goiabinha - Gose - Suricato Ales Cervejaria - Porto Alegre, Brazil. 4%, 4 IBU
Brewed with guava and hibiscus.
Super fizzy. The foam sizzles amusingly loudly but it’s all gone in no time. The beautiful pink grapefruit colour remains but without any head. Tastes very sour with a hint of salinity. After leaving the beer at room temperature for a while, only then can I taste the guava. I think the heavy sourness temporarily wrecks my taste receptors. So sour that steam seems to come out of my ears and my face is all red. And I have a very high tolerance for sour foods!
And so I need to look up the taste profile of Gose. I have tasted Gose many times, also at the source (Goslar and Leipzig) but don’t remember it being this unpleasantly sour. The only thing this beer has is excessive sourness and no taste profile and characteristics of Gose, according to this site:
Can designs are often so bad. Can’t read texts or any info.
This next beer from Sao Paulo is so, so much better.
EVERBLEND unpasteurised NEIPA - Cervejaria EverBrew - Sao Paulo, Brazil. 7,5% 70 IBU
Whoa, alcoholic. Feel the warmth in every sip. Nice and juicy, lots of sweet tropical fruits including coconut whose presence I don’t usually enjoy but it’s only in the background and enhances the creaminess. Creamy mouthfeel, and dry. “70 IBU” seems very high for this NEIPA but is it really? Pleasantly bitter yes, but not 70 IBU bitter. Nevertheless, it’s a solid and flawless NEIPA, in my opinion.
Took a chance on another Brazilian beer and I’m glad I did. There’s almost no info in English to be found anywhere about this micro brewery.
Super Papa - Baltic Porter - Uberach brewery - France. 7,3%
I did drink a brunch of Uberach beer in Alsace but that was a long time ago. Don’t even like Baltic porter and am expecting it to be sickly sweet. This one is sweet but not sickly. Creamy and a bit dry. Alcoholic. Caramel and dried fruits. There’s a woody and sour taste to it. Long lasting sweetness. I think I’d like it more in cooking.
Label says “Baltic porter” but also identifies as “brown ale”. I think it tastes more like the latter but I don’t like either style.
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Pear Gingerbread J.R.E.A.M. by Burley Oak Brewing Company (Berlin, MD) - Pastry Sour
Really nice sour with refreshing pear and ginger upfront mixed with different spices like clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and a good tart finish.
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Echo Bloom by Casa Agria Speciality Ales (Oxnard, CA) - IPA
Interesting IPA with a novel hops - lotus. It gives a rather strong juicy orange flavor upfront with some vanilla notes, followed by hints of sweetness which turns to a dry, medium bitter finish. Overall good flavor but also felt a bit muddled.
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Tractor Fuel by Cooperage Brewing Company (Santa Rosa) - IPA
Surprisingly juicy west coast IPA with prominent tangerine and some more tropical tastes in the background. Later it gets much more piney and hoppy with a dry, medium bitter finish - overall it felt a bit like a mix of a west and east coast IPA
3 Likes
The Harvester (Strawberry, Kiwi, Pear) by Abomination Brewing Company (North Haven, CT) - Fruited Sour
Very fruit-forward with strong strawberry and kiwi flavors and a mouthfeel closer to a smoothie. Towards the end the tartness of the sour ale starts to balance it out more but overall it could need more tartness and dialing down the fruits a bit.
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Seedless by Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR) - Fruited Sour
Normally I really like the beers from Great Notion but this fruited sour was rather disappointing - overly tart, sour and unbalanced and the little bit of fruit in the background was very artificial tasting not unlike some watermelon candy.
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Ocean Breeze by Highway 1 Brewing Company (Pescadero, CA) - IPA
Freshly canned today when I bought the can at the brewery - citrus and tropical flavors upfront followed by some grassiness and mild pine flavors and a very dry, medium bitter finish - overall quite refreshing, classical IPA.
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Nothing to write about this “beer”. Supposed to be a pale lager, tastes of almost nothing. Habesha brewery in Ethiopia was acquired by a Dutch brewery (big industrial kind) in 2012.
Surprising and interesting to learn Ethiopia has a handful of breweries.
IPA - West-coast IPA - Panzer Brewery - Moscow, Russia. 6,8% 70 IBU
Looks and tastes like a NEIPA. Smooth, creamy and surprisingly juicy but the “70 IBU” is not there. Maybe 40 but nowhere near the stated 70 . Lightly dry in the finish. It’s not a typical piney and strongly hopped West Coast IPA for sure. Reminds me of Sculpin and AleSmith’s style. I like it.
Panzer brewery in Moscow makes much, much better beer than Bakunin in St. Petersburg.
IPA IPO’ - IPA - Pulfer brewery - Zagreb, Croatia. 7.0%, 65 IBU
Dry-hopped with Rakau, Galaxy and Mosaic.
Dry and nicely bitter, moderately hoppy. Creamy and fruity. Not too sweet and yet resinous. Another good one from Pulfer. I notice lately quite a few IPAs have this creaminess. What’s in it if not contained oat flakes or wheat?
This Croatian brewery is now a firm favourite of mine. Their beers are consistently good, I rarely encounter a “meh” one from them. Always look forward to trying their new stuff.
John Vic -NEIPA - Anderson’s Craft - Estonia. 6,9%
Sweet and creamy with Vic secret and Citra. Typical low bitter, hazy, juicy NEIPA. Quite a bit of salinity in the dry finish. The salinity and dryness I find surprising and interesting.
I usually drink the second half after dinner or later. The same beer can have a different taste after some time left at room temperature. For this one I notice the saltiness is a lot less pronounced in the second tasting. Texture is thicker and sweetness increases, too.
I did drink some Anderson’s on tap in Tallinn. They have their beers on taps in a few beer bars in the capital.
Posted about Magic Rock beers last week. This one was best of the 3 and it’s glutonfree.
My new gueuze stash. One of the very few traditional Belgian sours I still drink.
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The same IBUs taste very different bitter depending on the alcohol content of a beer. If you google there are some interesting articles about the topic - but in general higher ABV can “cancel” out some IBU and so the perceived bitterness, like in your case, might be lower but the measurement of isohumulone by the brewery will be correct.
I have read somewhere that at least in the US that it doesn’t have to be stated in the ingredients list that they use oats (most common to get the creamy mouthfeel)
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Postmile 5.54 by Highway 1 Brewing Company (Pescadero, CA) - NEIPA
Classical, really nice hazy IPA with a lot of citrus upfront, some hints of tropical fruits, followed by some hoppy dank and a long, dry, relatively low bitterness finish. Very drinkable and refreshing.
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Luminous 11 by Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR) - Milkshake IPA
Tart Milkshake IPA very reminiscent to some fruity tiki cocktails (including some very unusual blue color/food coloring). A lot of tropical (passionfruit, pineapple) flavors with some tartness but overall too much lactose is pushing the balance towards overly sweet.
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There are decent brews in Africa. Tusker from Kenya I remember really enjoying.
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Suzanne by The Drowned Lands Brewery (Warwick, NY) - IPA
Solid but a bit restrained west coast IPA with some citrus character and some moderate pine notes in the middle. Relatively low dankness and bitterness. Resembles a mixture of an IPA and lager.
3 Likes
Manamana by Orono Brewing Company (Orono, ME) - Session IPA
Session IPA with good flavor profile of some orange and peaches upfront, followed by moderate piney taste and a dry finish with relatively low bitterness. Not surprisingly this beer isn’t pointing to the extremes of IPAs but still is a very nice summer beer.
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Troegenator by Troegs Independent Brewing (Hershey, PA) - Doppelbock
Malt-forward beer with notes toffee, chocolate and roasted coffee. The middle of the sip adds some biscuit flavors and ends with some mild sweetness and some alcohol flavors in the background. Good but taste also surprisingly light/watered down.
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