Trader Joe's Brewing Company - Trader Joe's 2011 Vintage Ale

Every year, Trader Joes releases the newest release in their Vintage Ale series. I liked the first few years I tried (2006-2007), wasn't a huge fan of the 2008 edition and absolutely hated the 2009. But the 2010 edition was much better and gave me hope that things were back on the right track. Hoping that was the case, I bought a bottle of the newest edition and tried it a few nights ago.

Trader Joe's 2011 Vintage Ale pours a nearly black color with a one-finger tan head. The aroma is full of spiciness with a good kick of Unibroue's signature sweet yeast smell. I also picked up some notes of clove, banana, burnt brown sugar and some cola nut.

The taste had a good deal of spiciness as well alongside some faint dark fruit, cola nut, prune and a bit of booze. Still, at 9%, it hides its alcohol pretty well. Overall, it was a pretty tasty beer and a good addition to the Vintage Ale lineup. My one complaint would be that it was way too similar to the 2010 edition and, up to this point, there had been a pretty noticeable difference between the vintages. Hopefully Trader Joes decides to spice things up a little more with the next edition.

Final Grade: B

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 34

Mythbusters: San Diego Beer Week Edition

As you may or may not know, November 4-13 was San Diego Beer week. I went into this week thinking that I knew a pretty good amount about beer and San Diego breweries. As it turned out, I learned more during San Diego Beer Week than I could have ever imagined. So rather than do a bunch of write ups on every beer I tried during Beer Week (there were a lot), I'm going to do this post on the beers that changed my perception about either San Diego breweries or beer in general. So here's what I learned.


Myth 1: Green Flash doesn't make a bad IPA

The Place: Churchill's Pub in San Marcos
The Beer: Green Flash Brewing Co.- Green Bullet (9th Anniversary)

I have always loved Green Flash's IPAs. I may not have tried all of the IPAs that they make, but I really like their West Coast IPA, Hop Head Red (a red IPA) and their Imperial IPA. I've also heard great things about their Palate Wrecker Double IPA. So when I heard that their 9th Anniversary beer was a Triple IPA, I knew I had to give it a try. I got the chance at Churchills on the second night of beer week, which also happened to be my birthday.

The beer looked good enough, but the smell was where it started to get weird. I picked up a bit of citrus hops at first. But then I started to smell an overwhelming amount of cantaloupe and melon.

Unfortunately, the taste didn't get much better. A small amount of citrus hop flavor was quickly run out of the picture by a ton of melon and sweet malt flavor. Green Flash makes some great IPAs and I hope they continue to try and make new ones but, sadly, this one should be chalked up as a big miss.

Final Grade: C


Myth 2: I only like "big" stouts

The Place: O'Brien's Pub
The Beer: Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

I'm an absolute sucker for a good stout and things have been that way for a while. But as I've tried more and more stouts, I've been finding that thinner stouts just don't do it for me anymore. Or so I thought. Then I met Dogfish Head's Chicory Stout.

Chicory Stout pours black with a 1/2 finger tan head and leaves some great lacing down the glass. I picked up roasted malt, a slight bit of nuttiness, wet earth and some coffee in the aroma.

At 5.2%, this is not a big stout by any means. But somehow, the flavor feels big. I picked up a slight chocolate sweetness upfront followed by some chicory, roasted malt and espresso. The mouthfeel was noticeably thin but there was a creaminess to it that really kept the flavors of the beer from feeling thin. I have a new favorite "small" stout.

Final Grade: A


Myth 3: I'm not a fan of geuzes

The Place: Ballast Point Brewery

The Beer: Ballast Point Brewing Company - Beachwood Blend (Hout Series)

A few weeks ago, I tried my first geuze: Drie Fonteinen's Oude Geuze. It wasn't a bad beer by any means, but it had an aroma of cheese that I couldn't get by. I didn't write off the style completely, but I assumed (as Drie Fonteinen's Oude Geuze is one of the best in the style) that the geuze style just wasn't for me. Then I was lucky enough to try Ballast Point's Beachwood Blend.

Beachwood Blend pours a hazy amber color with a thin white head. The aroma is big and sour with some nice blackberry and currant notes. As the beer warmed, the barrel aging began to come through more and I started to get notes of freshly cut cedar.

The taste was incredible. Lots of dark cherries, red currants and vanilla work perfectly with the perfect amount of carbonation to make this a tasty, tasty beer. I didn't think a sour beer would be my favorite beer at Ballast's Barrel Aged Day, but this was by far the best thing they had on tap that day.


Final Grade: A



Myth 4: Beer for breakfast is a bad idea

The Place: Toronados

The Beer: Alpine Beer Company - Bourbon Barrel Aged Token

We went to Toronados last Saturday for the release of a beer I've been wanting to try for a long time: Lost Abbey's Cable Car. As it turned out, the beer was only available for sale by the bottle and it was running $50 per bottle. So we decided to get some food and see what else they had on tap. As it turned out, they had an awesome lineup that was too good to pass up, even if it wasn't yet noon. The first beer I had was a bourbon barrel aged version of Alpine's Token Porter.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Token pours a very dark brown color with a thin tan head and some pretty nice lacing. Sometimes aging a beer in bourbon barrels can result in a beer that smells like nothing but bourbon. This beer didn't have that problem. The bourbon was there, but it was tucked away behind some notes of toffee, chocolate and some toffee.

The bourbon led off the flavor, but wasn't overpowering at all, allowing some lighter notes of coffee, toffee, and roasted malt to really come through. The mouthfeel was a bit too light for me, but this was one of the better barrel aged beers I've had.

Final Grade: A-


Myth 5: Beer + Rum = Gross

The Place: Pizza Port Carlsbad
The Beer: Avery Brewing Company - Rumpkin

On the last day of Beer Week, we went to Pizza Port and I spotted Avery's Rumpkin, a 15.9% pumpkin ale aged in rum barrels. I'd never seen a beer aged in rum barrels before, but something told me that there was no way this could work. Pumpkin beers are delicious but my experience with them has been that if the beer is high in alcohol, any pumpkin flavor gets wiped out. Still, I wanted to give this beer a fair shot.

Rumpkin pours a dark honey color with almost no head whatsoever. I picked up notes of rum, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin, vanilla, golden raisin and caramel. Maybe this beer wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Even though the high alcohol was evident, this beer was amazing. The sweetness of the pumpkin paired perfectly with the sweetness from the rum and there was a nice subtle spiciness to the beer as well. The heat from the alcohol almost made it feel like you were eating a warm piece of pumpkin pie. This beer was a complete surprise and the perfect way to end Beer Week.

Final Grade: A

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 33

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - World Wide Stout

Beer review time! As you probably know if you've been reading this blog for a while (I'm talking to you, Grandma!), I'm a big fan of Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewery. They have a reputation for being one of the more innovative breweries in the business and always seem to be looking to push the boundaries of beermaking. One area they seem to exceed in is making beers that are high in alcohol. To my knowledge, they make 4 beers that are 15% ABV or higher: Fort, 120 Minute IPA, Olde School Barleywine and World Wide Stout. These beers aren't easy to find around here but I was able to get a 2009 bottle of World Wide Stout a few months ago and decided to open it for a tasting this past weekend.

Clocking in at 18% ABV, World Wide Stout is the strongest beer I've ever tried. It pours a motor oil black color and doesn't produce much of a head, so you're left with what looks like a glass of tar. Just the way I like it!

I thought that after two years of aging, this beer would have mellowed out a lot, but the smell suggested otherwise. I got some big notes of jerky, soy sauce, wet earth, dark chocolate covered raisins, prunes and black licorice. Something about the smell told me that I'm glad I decided to share the bottle instead of taking it down alone.

The taste was really sweet and really syrupy. I read a few reviews that compared it to drinking cough syrup and I can't say I'd disagree. The taste started with a harsh note that tasted a bit like soy sauce and then moved on to a flavor I can only compare to the darkest rye bread ever baked. Lots of molasses, prune and raisin skins came in on the finish along with a good deal of warmness. What a beast!

Overall, I'd be lying if I said I "liked" this beer, but I'm definitely glad I got to try it. Another crazy beer from Dogfish Head.

Final Grade: B

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 34

P.S. If you are able to find this beer, do not underestimate it. It's an absolute beast. A big thanks to my friends Ryan, Luke, Grace, Renee and Jen for helping me put this bad boy down.

Pumpkin Beers!

I'm a pretty big fan of pumpkin things in general: Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, the pumpkin milk that I bought from Target last night (don't judge, it was delicious). So I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm a pretty big fan of pumpkin beers. Over the past few years, I've had some good ones (Dogfish Head's Punk'in Ale and Midnight Sun's T.R.E.A.T. come to mind immediately). But as pumpkin ale season rolled around this year, I realized that there were a ton that I had never tried before. So I went about getting and tasting as many pumpkin beers as I could possibly find. I'm sure there are a lot that I wasn't able to find, but here are the ones I did.

Kern River Brewing Company - Pumpkin Ale



I haven't had a ton of Kern River's beers as most of them don't make it down this way. From what I can tell, though, they know how to make damn good beer. I have yet to be let down by them. Beau was able to find their Pumpkin Ale and brought it to a tasting about a month ago.

Kern River's Pumpkin Ale pours a slightly hazy golden color with a very thin tan head. Usually with pumpkin beers, the first thing you smell is pumpkin, but this one was different. I picked up some pale malts and floral hops first with just a faint hint of pumpkin and nutmeg underneath. It almost smelled like a pumpkin pale ale.

The floral hops and pale malts hit first in the taste as well and made up the body of the flavor with some very subtle hints of butternut squash, pumpkin and bready malts underneath. I do wish that this beer had been a little more pumpkin forward, but it was kind of a nice change of pace to find a pumpkin beer whose taste didn't just whack you over the head with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice.

Final Grade: B



Shipyard Brewing Co. - Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin (Pugsley's Signature Series)



I'd seen this beer for the past few years, but the price always scared me away. But Beau and I were having a tasting so, in the name of science, I sucked it up and brought this beer to try.

Shipyard's Smashed Pumpkin pours a clear copper color with a half inch tan head. The smell was, well, different. I probably spent twenty minutes trying to figure out what I was smelling in this beer and the only thing I could think of was: pumpkin bubblegum. The pumpkin was there, but it smelled almost candied and artificial. I also picked up some raisin and something that smelled like Banana Laffy Taffy. Weird.

If you hadn't told me this was a pumpkin ale, I would have assumed from taste that it was either a barleywine or a grand cru. It's a big, boozy mother with notes of candi sugar, big sweet malts, a ton of raisin and booze. I didn't get any pumpkin in the taste at all. I think that all the big flavors and alcohol in this one (it clocks in at 9%) overwhelmed the pumpkin. I wasn't a huge fan of this one.

Final Grade: C


New Belgium Brewing - Lips of Faith Kick

You might recognize the name "New Belgium" as the guys that make Fat Tire, but what a lot of people don't know is that they also make one of the more interesting series of experimental beers out there: Lips of Faith. This series has been going for a few years and has featured some incredible beers. For this one, they collaborated with Elysian Brewing and made a sour beer using pumpkin and cranberry juice.

Kick poured a hazy burnt orange color with some small patches of cream colored head. The sourness was pretty evident in the smell with a big hit of brett upfront followed by apple cider vinegar, apricot, caramel, orange rind, white wine and some cranberry. No pumpkin though. Hmmm...

The cranberry flavors totally took over in the taste with some faint malt and lemon in the back. The sourness wasn't quite as big as I like, but it was pretty sufficient. Overall, I liked that it was a sour, but I really wanted to smell or taste the pumpkin. A little bit of a disappointment for a pumpkin beer, but still a good beer.

Final Grade: B


Bootlegger's Brewery - Pumpkin Ale





Bootlegger's Brewery is an up and coming brewery that I've just started to see on shelves within the last few months. Some of their beers look pretty interesting, so definitely look for more from them in the future. I didn't even know that they made a pumpkin ale until it showed up at Texas Liquor a few weeks ago.

Bootlegger's Pumpkin Ale pours a slightly hazy orange/amber color with a very thin cream colored head. The smell was full of pumpkin flesh, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and some brown sugar. This was definitely more along the lines of what I've come to expect from a good pumpkin beer.

There's a really nice blend of spices in the flavor to complement a healthy dose of pumpkin along with a hint of grain and molasses on the finish. A lot of pumpkin beers out now have a very artificial pumpkin flavor, but this one definitely did not. I wasn't expecting much from this one, but it ended up easily being the best pumpkin beer I had this year. Well done, Bootlegger's.

Final Grade: A


Uinta Brewing Company - Punk'n Ale





I've been wanting to try a beer from Uinta for a while. Something definitely seems strange about the idea of good beer coming from Utah, but I had heard good things about this brewery, so I was willing to give them a try. I was able to find a bottle of their pumpkin ale at Total Wine in Redondo Beach.

Uinta's Punk'n Ale pours a reddish orange color with a thin cream colored head. The smell had a pretty pleasant dose of pumpkin along with the familiar pumpkin pie spice aromas (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove). There was a hint a hazelnut in there as well.

The taste started off with some bready malts and baking spices and then progressed to hints of grain. I didn't get much pumpkin until the finish. Then I caught a bit of pumpkin and cinnamon, but they were pretty subtle. The smell definitely got my attention, but the taste kind of lost me.

Final Grade: B-


Stone Brewing Company - La Citrueille Celeste De Citricado





When I heard that Stone and The Bruery were doing a collaboration, I got pretty excted. When I found out that their collaboration was brewed with pumpkin...oh, man. Let me just read off the ingredient list for this puppy: pumpkins grown on stone's own farms, rye, yams, toasted fenugreek, birch bark and lemon verbena. Pretty crazy stuff.

La Citrueille Celeste De Citracado pours a dark brown color with a very thin light brown head that showed pretty good retention. The smell was full of a lot of spices that I couldn't even begin to distinguish as well as roasted yam, rye bread and something that smelled a bit like curry (which I'm pretty sure was the fenugreek).

The taste had a lot of the yam and fenugreek, but not lots of pumpkin. I also picked up some floral and lemon flavors towards the finish which I think came from the lemon verbena. Overall, this beer was a completely original take on the style. And while I'm not sure how it worked as a pumpkin beer, it may have been my favorite of the Stone collaborations to date.

Final Grade: A-



Anheuser-Busch, Inc. - Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat





I tried going into this one with an open mind. I really did. As much as I dislike Anheuser-Busch and everything they stand for, I couldn't overlook the fact that they had tried to make a pumpkin beer. After tracking down a single bottle, I decided it was worth a shot.

Shock Top Pumpkin Wheat pours a slightly hazy burnt orange color with a fairly nice looking cream colored head and some spotty lacing. I smelled some of the wheat upfront along with some overripe banana and pumpkin with some cinnamon and nutmeg.

The taste starts with a little pumpkin upfront. Then the taste becomes pretty watery and changes to sort of a wet wheat flavor. The finish brings some familiar wheat flavors of banana and bubblegum, but the carbonation and sweetness are so overdone that the beer almost tastes more like a pumpkin-wheat soda than a beer. Still, this was better than I expected.

Final Grade: C


Federal Jack's Brewpub - Kennebunkport Pumpkin Ale





I know I said I wasn't going to review any beers that I've reviewed in the past, but I just had to give this one another show. It couldn't be as bad as I remember it being, could it?

Kennebunkport Pumpkin Ale pours a clear golden color with a thin head that fades pretty quickly. The smell started off pretty well with a rich smell of pumpkin bread. But as the beer warmed, that smell quickly changed to a nasty bready yeast smell.

While the smell started off nice enough, the taste never came close. The beer is thin and watery with a hint of artificial pumpkin along with a gross buttery yeast flavor that I've come to expect from anything from Kennebunkport. The beer behind the yeast flavor tasted like Keystone Light. Gross.

Final Grade: D

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 34

Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel - Route Des Épices (Ale Rousse Au Poivre)

Originally, I wasn't going to do a review of Route Des Épices. I buy a lot of beers to try and only a few that I buy with the real intent to review, and this fell into the former category. However, it was such an unusual beer that it may have just worked its way into the latter.

Route Des Épices ("Spice Route" in French) is a rye beer brewed by Dieu Du Ciel in Montreal. You may remember that name from a review I did a few weeks back of their most famous beer, Peche Mortel. The more I try from this brewery, the more I want to try. They make a ton of different beers (only a few of which actually make it to San Diego), all of which I would call unique. Route Des Épices is no different. Not only is it a pretty hard to find style (rye beer) but it's brewed with both green and black peppercorns. Very interesting stuff.

Route Des Épices pours a dark amber color with a thin, cream colored head. The smell was full of the rye and I picked up a lot of what smelled like fresh rye bread, along with some caramel, a bit of wet blanket and a hint of the black peppercorns.

The taste opens with some nice caramel malt flavors and a slight hint of rye bread. Then come the peppercorns. While I was expecting a strange flavor from the peppercorns, what I wasn't expecting was the heat that came with it. It was like biting into a fresh peppercorn. I wouldn't say that this beer was my cup of tea, but it really showed that Dieu Du Ciel isn't afraid to take risks. I'm really excited to try more from this brewery. In fact, I have two more of their beers in the fridge as we speak. Stay tuned...

Final Grade: B

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 34

The Porterhouse Brewing Company - Oyster Stout

A few months ago, I noticed The Porterhouse Brewing Company's Oyster Stout on the shelves of Texas Liquor. And just to clear up any confusion- yes, the beer is brewed with real oysters. While my curiosity always told me yes, my stomach always said no. I've let my curiosity get the better of me in the past when it comes to beer buying decisions (see: Beer, Pizza) so I kept overlooking the beer in favor of other, albeit slightly less exciting, choices. Finally, I could ignore my curiosity no longer and I picked up a bottle to bring to a tasting with my friends Beau (his final tasting before moving to Portland) and Justin.

Oyster Stout pours a dark brown color with a one finger tan head. I was a little hesitant to give this one a smell, but it actually didn't smell that bad. The first thing I picked up was completely unexpected: peaches. The peach smell was quickly replaced by some more familiar stout smells of roasted malt and day old coffee.

Despite not smelling bad, I was expecting a lot of funkiness in the taste. After a deep breath, I took a sip and waited. But the oysters never showed. I got some brief brine flavors off the bat followed by a lot of roasted malt and stale coffee. A slight bit of saltiness showed up again on the finish, but other than that, no sign of the oysters. In fact, the beer was downright drinkable and borderline good. The saltiness was subdued and added a nice layer of flavor that went pretty well with the other more traditional Irish Dry Stout flavors. So as it turns out, curiosity isn't always the worst idea.

Final Grade: B+

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 34

De Struise Brouwers - Outblack

A few days ago, I noticed that I was approaching the 400 review mark on beeradvocate. I completely forgot to get something special for the 300 mark and went with Dogfish Head's Festina Peche. Not a terrible selection (and way better than the beer I had for the 250 mark: Kennebunkport Blueberry), but nothing out of the ordinary. For my 400th review, I decided to go with a beer I bought on a whim a few months ago: De Struise's Outblack. I've had a few of De Struise's beers before, including one of my favorite Belgian beers out there, Pannepot. This one definitely intrigued me with it's label. De Struise claims this beer is a blend of two very different styles: a Belgian Strong Dark Ale and a Black IPA. I couldn't really imagine those two styles going together, but I've tried stranger beers that have worked, so I picked up a bottle.

Outblack pours a nearly black murky dark brown color with a huge tan head that took a full 10 minutes to settle. At first, I picked up a hint of citrus hops in the smell, but these faded quickly and gave way to smells of freshly baked whole wheat bread, dark fruit, chocolate, bananas, figs and a slight touch of booze. To tell the truth, a lot of these smells reminded me more of a quadrupel than a belgian strong dark ale or a black IPA. Whatever style it actually was, it smelled good.

The taste started with a lot of dark fruit and roasted malt along with some yeast, bread and some subdued hop resin and charred grain on the finish. While I didn't get anything in the taste that would lead me to think that any part of this beer was an IPA, it was still a pretty delicious beer.

Final Grade: A-

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 34