Coronado Brewing Company - Barrel Aged Stupid Stout

The last time I checked, San Diego had over 80 breweries. And I'm pretty sure in the time it took me to type that last sentence, another one opened up. Reviewing beer from all of these new breweries isn't going to be an easy task, but someone's gonna have to do it. So if you have a new brewery in San Diego, don't worry- I'm coming to check out your stuff soon enough. But sometimes, lost in the excitement of new breweries, we lose sight of the breweries that helped lay the path for what the San Diego beer scene has become today. One of these breweries is a brewery that I've sort of unintentionally neglected for far too long, Coronado Brewing Company. They've been doing this brewing thing since 1996 and they're pretty good at it. I hadn't had much from them in a while, so when a barrel aged version of their Stupid Stout was released, I had to try it.


Barrel Aged Stupid Stout pours black with a tightly bubbled half-finger light brown head. Each sip leaves a nice swathe of lace down the glass. The second you get close to the beer, you feel like you're inside a bourbon barrel. I don't know that I've ever gotten so many barrel notes out of a beer's smell before. There's a good deal of bourbon, without knocking you back with heat, but the oak is really the star of the show here. It's big and intense, pushing spicy wood notes out at you. If you go beneath that (if you really want to...) the stout itself begins to emerge, with some cocoa powder, dark chocolate and some light notes of dark cherries.

If you're a fan of the barrel notes that you smell in this beer, wait till you get to the taste. Holy moly. Tons and tons of oak here, with a slightly boozy kick of straight bourbon that is sure to put some hair on your chest. The barrel notes eventually give way to the base beer, which shows up midway through the taste in the form of some dark and baking chocolate notes with a touch of anise. The finish brings some drying bourbon, just a touch of booze and some more dark chocolate. The mouthfeel is medium- just rich enough to stand up to the heaviness of the oak and bourbon. Consider me a fan of this.

On a side note, I'm also a pretty big fan of the people at Coronado Brewing Company as well. The first bottle I got of this had a naturally occurring protein buildup in it, which kind of had me grossed out. When I emailed them about it, the head brewer emailed me back, explained what it was and then had me come down to the brewery so he could give me another bottle himself. Their new tasting room down in Bay Park looks fantastic, and it's just about as central as you can be in San Diego. The distance excuse no longer works. Go check them out!

Final Grade: A

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 130

Goose Island Beer Co. - Bourbon County Brand Barleywine Ale

Goose Island's expansion has been good to us here in California. Beers that were nearly impossible to come across before (The Four Sisters series and the Bourbon County Brand series, specifically) showed up in numbers on our shelves late last year. Bourbon County Brand Stout and its ever changing offspring are in pretty high demand in places that see regular distribution of it, so factor in that California hadn't seen distribution of the stuff for three years and you pretty much have the beer world equivalent of throwing a bunch of One Direction tickets into a mob of teenage girls. Fittingly, these beers hit shelves on Black Friday, so people were already in the mood to taze anything standing in the way of what they wanted to buy. This year brought three new beers in the series (Proprietor's, Backyard Rye and Bourbon County Barleywine), so that didn't really help. Somehow, it's a few months since the fracas and I've emerged un-shanked and with a few bottles of the three versions that were semi-attainable in San Diego, Bourbon County Brand Stout, Coffee and Barleywine. Time to check out the barleywine. At #28, Bourbon County Brand Barleywine.

Bourbon County Brand Barleywine pours a rich chestnut color that pretty much becomes black once it all settles into the glass. The head is a moderate 1/2 finger khaki colored cap and leaves pretty minimal lace. The smell is where things pick up, with a nice barrel character coming through immediately. There's a bit of a mustiness in here with some nice bourbon notes, toffee, caramel, dark chocolate covered cherries, light ash, some coconut and a touch of brown sugar. Not bad, Goose Island. Not bad at all.

The first thing I noticed when I took a sip of this beer was how silky smooth it was. The mouthfeel is just incredible. Flavors of toffee, vanilla and milk chocolate slide over the palate first. The middle brings a pretty hearty oak backbone with some burnt raisin skins and a bit of smooth caramel. Things dry out a touch on the finish, and you get that slight prickle of bourbony heat on your tongue, along with some bittersweet cocoa notes. I loved this beer, but I think the hype train took it a little deeper in the Top 250 than it probably deserves to be. Is it a Top 200 beer? Definitely. Is it a Top 30 beer? Ehhhhh. It just doesn't have that harmony in the flavors that top notch barleywines like Sucaba and Mother of All Storms have. It does, however, show pretty nice aging potential, so I'll lay another one down for a while and see where it's at later.

Final Grade: A

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

Goose Island Beer Co. - Lolita

I had never tried any of Goose Island's sour beers until recently, when I tried their excellent peach saison, Halia. I loved it so much, that I made sure to pick up the other three beers in the series before they left shelves. A few weeks ago, I tried Juliet, a blackberry sour that was pretty incredible. And last night, I went for Lolita, a raspberry sour aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. Let's give this puppy a try.


Lolita pours a hazed amber color with a reddish tinge to it. Barely any head formed initially, and what did for crackeled away into nothing almost immediately. I wouldn't really call this beer a looker, but the smell more than made up for it. Tons of underripe raspberry, sweeter raspberry jam notes and cranberry tartness practically billow from the glass. As the beer warms a touch, I started to get more barrel notes out of it. A musty oak note started to emerge, bringing with it a vinous character, some vanilla and a touch of spice.

Similar to the smell, the first thing you taste in here is a big underripe raspberry tartness. In fact, every flavor in here seems pretty dialed up. After the raspberry, I got a meaty sour cherry note and some Pinot Noir flavors. (Note: I'm far from being a wine person. What I smelled reminded me of Pinot Noir, but after seeing this beer was aged in Cab barrels, it could have easily been that, too. If you are a wine person, give this a try and let me know what you think.) A lighter white wine flavor emerges right towards the end and then cascades down to a lemony tart and slightly acetic finish. This beer isn't overly sweet by any means, but I still enjoyed the light tannic dryness that the finish brought. Because this beer seems to be very dialed up (both in flavor and in alcohol), I feel like it loses a few points for not having the depth that a lot of lighter beers in this style have. However, any complaints I have on this beer are pretty minor. It's a pretty great beer and definitely worth a try.

Final Grade: A-

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

Brouwerij Rodenbach N.V. - Caractère Rouge

Flanders Reds are a fantastic style. Because they're not too sour, too hoppy, or too high in alcohol, they're a fantastic starter beer for pretty much anyone. Hand a Cuvee de Jacobins to someone who says they've never had a beer the liked and you're pretty much guaranteed to get a positive reaction.

Rodenbach is a name that's pretty much synonymous with Flanders Red. It's all they do and they do them insanely well. They may not make a wide variety of beers, but the ones they do make are world class. So when a beer from them that I had never seen called Caractère Rouge hit stores a few months back, I knew it was going to be something special. Rodenbach decided to mix things up a bit with this one, adding sour cherries (typical for a Flanders Red), raspberries (not typical for a Flanders Red) and cranberries (What?!?!?) to a beer that has been aged in oak vats for 2 years. After a 6 month aging with the fruit, the beer was ready to go. At #145, Caractère Rouge.

Caractère Rouge pours a crimson-tinted apple cider color with a nice amount of haze to it. It's capped off by a tightly bubbled cream-colored head that held up nicely through the beer. From a distance, the first smell you get is a spicy oak barrel note. But the second you get closer, that fades and you're pulled in by huge amounts of ripe, jammy fruit. Overripe raspberry and tart cranberry notes lead, with just a kiss of vinegar and some syrup soaked black cherry notes. Vanilla, lemon meringue and a touch of spicy oak round things out. This beer smells fantastic.

It's not easy to do when a beer smells this good, but somehow Rodenbach got the taste of this one to match the smell. A sweet cranberry note opens things up with just a tug of tartness to it. This slowly fades into a sweet raspberry jam note. Ripe blueberry, cherry skin tannins and some silky malt notes appear before the finish. The beer closes out a touch dry with some oak and lingering dried cranberry and black cherry skin notes. There is a ton of sweetness in this beer, but the prickly carbonation and the slightly tannic finish keep things in check perfectly. This beer is a masterpiece and probably the best Flanders Red I've come across. Well done, Rodenbach.

 Final Grade: A+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

Evil Twin Brewing - Imperial Doughnut Break

Let's say you told me that there was a beer out there brewed with doughnuts. Lots of them. My first inclination would be the word "Yes." But then, if you gave me a second to think about it, you'd notice my expression change a bit as I slowly and painfully recalled my last experience with the words "beer" and "doughnut" together- Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. That monster of a beer briefly had me contemplating quitting beer altogether. So I'd probably turn down your doughnut beer offer and possibly run the other direction. "But wait," you'd say, "This isn't any doughnut beer and it's DEFINITELY not a Rogue beer. It's from Evil Twin. You know, those crazy Danish guys who made that Imperial Biscotti Break beer you liked so much. They made another like that one. But this time, they added over 1,000 doughnuts to the beer." "Fine," I'd say. "But if this is anything like the Rogue one, I'm not talking to you for a while." And then I'd take a sip.


Imperial Doughnut Break pours a rich black color with a light brown head. At 11%, I expected it to look a tad thicker, but it looked pretty tasty, nonetheless. The smell brings together a nice blend of dark chocolate and espresso notes. There are freshly ground coffee notes here, galore, with some almond meal and just a touch of doughnut cake. There's an overlying sweet aroma that definitely smelled like doughnut glaze. I could tell right away, fortunately, that this was going to be nothing like that horrid Rogue beer.

Similar to the smell, the first things you taste here are dark chocolate and espresso. There's some nuttiness in the middle, coupled with some chocolate cake and roasted malt notes. The doughnuts are surprisingly absent here, just barely creeping into the finish alongside some day old coffee notes and a light touch of char. Overall, this was a pretty nice beer, and far less diabetes-inducing than the name makes it sound. The espresso and roast notes here shine way more than the doughnuts do. And it tastes absolutely nothing like Rogue's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. So it's got that going for it. Which is nice.

Final Grade: B+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129

Firestone Walker Brewing Company - Firestone 17-Anniversary Ale

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you probably think I'm a cat person. If you post a cat related picture, chances are I'm gonna "like" it. If you mention the word "cat" in your status, I'm all over it. If you post a cat video and it's any good, I'm watching it a minimum of 18 times. I even had a useless cat iPhone case that I kept solely because it had a cat on it. (Needless to say, that case was retired shortly after it failed to keep my phone from shattering after an 8" drop.) AND my girlfriend and I sort of have adopted a cute black nomad cat in our neighborhood and we post pictures of it more often than most people post pictures of their actual offspring. Yes, if you brought me to trial and I was forced to defend myself against charges of being a "cat person," it would be hard to prove otherwise. But here's the thing- I'm not a cat person. I freaking love dogs, too. If someone were to offer me the choice of owning a cat or a dog right now, I'd choose the dog in a heartbeat (barring certain breeds). And here's the other thing- I think it's ok to be both a cat person AND a dog person.


The same goes for beer and wine. In this matchup, I'm obviously siding with beer, but I don't think it's right to force someone to choose between the two. You'd be surprised at the amount of brewers out there who have extensive wine cellars. And the more this craft beer scene expands, the closer I see it getting to the wine scene. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in Paso Robles, California.

Firestone Walker didn't start as a brewery, they started by making wine. Eventually, they experimented with beer and liked the results so much that they decided to give it a shot. But they've never forgotten their roots, or their location (for those of you unfamiliar with the area, Paso Robles is a Central California town well known for its winemaking). So for their anniversary beers, Firestone does something a little outside the box- they bring in the wine guys. Winemakers from a variety of wineries are selected to come into the brewery, get into teams and put together a blend of Firestone's beers. The winning blend is then put into a larger scale and bottled, becoming the next in the line of Firestone's highly rated Anniversary series. This year, the winner was a team from Tablas Creek Vineyard and was a blend of 7 different Firestone beers. Let's see how it turned out. At #134, Firestone 17.

Firestone 17 pours a deep cola color with a one-finger tan head. The head fades fairly quickly, but leaves behind a swirling tan film on the surface and some spotty lace down the glass with each sip. The smell gives off a big blast of bourbon barrel off the pour, but settles down pretty quickly, wandering through notes of toasted coconut, milk chocolate, vanilla, spicy oak, toffee, some toasted brown sugar and just a touch of booze.

The taste begins with a smooth rush of bourbon over the tongue. Caramel, roasted malt and lots of spicy oak mingle with just a touch of heat. But this beer's just getting started. The middle shows some toffee, cola and vanilla before a finish of charred barrel, burnt brown sugar and the slightest trace of hop resin. The flavors remind me most of an English Barleywine, which was awesome because I love English Barleywines. The mouthfeel was just a touch lacking, but it's hardly noticed with all the other great stuff going on in here. I've had some blends (AKA the Mission St. Anniversary beers at Trader Joes, which is ironic because they're made by Firestone) in which the individual beers stood out too much for the beer to work. Everything fights for dominance and no one really wins. It's like watching a New York Knicks game. But every beer in this one works together seamlessly. It's a fantastic beer. Just further proof that there is common ground to be found between the worlds of wine and beer. After all, can't we all just agree that alcohol fermentation is awesome?

Final Grade: A

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 128

Russian River Brewing Company - Beatification

Let's talk about whales. Not the kind you get asked to save by the Greenpeace people every time you leave the grocery store. Important whales. Beer whales. (In case any of my Narwhal readers are tuning in, I'm just kidding about the "important" part. You and your weird tooth-horn thing will always hold a special place in my heart.) Anyways, I've probably mentioned this before, but let's just clear up what a beer whale is. It's not a beer with a picture with a whale on it (again, sorry to my Narwhal friends), it's a beer that is very, very hard to track down. To me, there has to be at least some chance of you obtaining the beer for you to call it a whale. For me, a beer like Duck Duck Gooze, which is pretty hard to come by but does see a release every 3-4 years in San Diego, is a whale. A 30 bottle release by Cantillon from 1987 is not. It's just straight unattainable. It's like a space whale or something.


One of the first whales I ever heard about was a beer from Russian River called Beatification. Having tried all of Russian River's "tion" sours besides this one, it quickly rocketed up my personal whale list. My best chance to find this beer, since it is a brewery release only, was to hope to find it on draft somewhere. But three years had passed and I had never even heard of it being on draft. Things weren't looking good, but that's when my friend Eddie (who you may know as the awesome guy who got me the bottle of West Ashley), told me he was going to the Beatification release and he'd be happy to grab me a few bottles. Thanks, Eddie! The Beatification whale had finally been beached. (Caught? Landed? Scored? Fandangled? I don't know the proper terminology for finally getting a whale because I never get them.) At #27, Beatification.

Beatification pours a slightly hazed golden color with a soda-like fizzing eggshell colored head. The head dissipates almost immediately, but looking down into the glass, you can see a steady stream of bubbles rising to the top, like there's some unseen hot spring under the surface. I started to smell the beer off the pour and the closer I got to it, the more I fell in love. There's a fantastic blast of citrus, lemon and barnyard funk right away that made my knees weak. There's some lemon zest in here as well, along with some pineapple, dried apricot, vanilla bean and a touch of spice mixed in with some earthy notes and good old horse blanket. Perfect.

The taste opens with a big, slightly acetic lemony twang that carries through all the way to mid-palate. Then, I started to pick up some underripe red cherry and lemon hard candy in the middle. Right before the end, the beer brings the noise with some barnyard, wet hay, a touch of leather, vanilla and some light oak. This beer sticks the finish. It's intensely tart and lemony with a great lingering dryness. Like every other Russian River sour, this beer's mouthfeel goes to 11. It's flawless. I could drink this beer forever. You absolutely have to try this beer. Beach this whale!

Final Grade: A+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 129