Alpine Beer Company - Great

If you live in San Diego and you love beer, you've probably at least heard of Alpine Beer Company. Located about 30 minutes east of downtown, Alpine's a quaint town that definitely feels more like the towns you pass through on the way up a mountain to a ski resort than a stopping point between San Diego and El Centro that just happens to have a casino. As far as beer (especially hoppy beer) goes, I don't think you're going to find anything better in Southern California.


Alpine Beer Company is known for their IPAs and Pale Ales. And with their lineup of palate crushing beers, they should be. Nelson, Pure Hoppiness, Exponential Hoppiness, Bad Boy, Hoppy Birthday... The list of incredible hoppy beers in Alpine's lineup goes on and is mindblowing. But every once in a while, Alpine releases a beer that isn't hoppy. And, as I recently found out, that can be a very good thing. Or, should I say, a Great thing. (That was cheesy as hell. Let's just move on and forget I said that.)

As far as San Diego beers go on the Top 250 List, I've almost ticked them all. Of the ones I'm missing, I at least have hope to try them in the near future. AleSmith IPA should have been done a long time ago (I'll get to it, I promise). AleSmith barrel-aged Kopi Luwak Speedway and Stone's Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Russian Stout are both beers I hope to try over the upcoming beer week. And Lost Abbey's Duck Duck Gooze...we'll see. But the one I was really worried about was Alpine's Great- a barrel aged barleywine with barely any reviews. I joined Alpine's mailing list and kept tabs on them through social media hoping for some kind of word about it. Months passed and I had no word about Great. Then out of nowhere, Alpine released a message on Facebook saying bottles of Great were available. Luckily, I was able to land a few. At #185 (finally), Great.

Great pours a deep and dense-looking chestnut color with a thin light brown head. At 14%, I was surprised to see any head at all, and it soon disappeared, leaving only the menacing and murky barleywine behind. Any fears I had about this beer being too hot right away were tempered by the smell, which brought warm and inviting aromas of caramel, toffee, bourbon, cola, raisin skin and a bit of oak. There's a light touch of booze to it, but this beer smells absolutely amazing.

The taste opens with a rich wave of caramel, toasted brown sugar, toffee and bourbon. Booze soaked raisin and some milk chocolate show up in the middle before a finish which brings some light plum flavors and a slight woody dryness. The flavors in here meld perfectly and they're held together beautifully by a slightly oily and slick mouthfeel, which never lets the sweetness of the beer become cloying. I've had a good amount of barleywines before and I can say that this is by far the best I've ever tasted. Sucaba and Mother of All Storms put up good shows, but Great is on another level. Yet another fantastic beer out of Alpine.

Final Grade: A+

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 131

Alpine Beer Company - Toronado 25th Anniversary Ale

I'll be completely honest- this post was not supposed to be about Alpine and New Belgium's new collaboration: Super IPA. But sometimes, things come along that are just too important to wait. In this case, it's the arrival of what very well may be the best IPA I've ever had.

Alpine Beer Company is far from being new to brewing good IPAs. With beers like Nelson, Bad Boy and Pure Hoppiness, Alpine's resume is as good (if not better) as anyone in the industry. Never afraid to expand their IPA resume, Alpine brewed yet another IPA to celebrate Toronados' (the one in San Francisco) 25th anniversary. They brewed this beer as a double version of one of their most popular IPAs- Nelson. Double Nelson??? Yes, please! Luckily for me, the San Diego Toronados was able to get a keg of it and I tried it yesterday.

Toronado 25th Anniversary Ale pours a glowing apricot color with a thin tan head. The smell was absolutely incredible. A huge, fragrant mix of mango, grapefruit, marijuana, mint and hop resin practically billowed from the glass. I don't know if I've ever come across a beer that smelled this fantastic.

I didn't think it could be done, but somehow Alpine got this beer to taste as good as it smells. It's an absolute atomic bomb of citrus hops that somehow retains enough of a malt backbone to keep it in check. Hints of tropical fruit, rye and resin pop out all over the place in this one, giving it incredible depth. For a long time, I didn't think anything out there could unseat the Plinys atop the IPA throne, but this absolutely blows them out of the water. It's not even close. This beer likely won't be around for long, so do not pass it up if you're lucky enough to find it. It easily may be the best beer you've ever had. Bravo, Alpine!

Final Grade: A+

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 39

Alpine Beer Company - Gouden Vallei

On Saturday, my friend Brian and I made the trip out to Alpine to visit Alpine Beer Company. For me, this trip has been a long time coming. I've been in love with Alpine's beers for a long time and I don't think there's a brewery around that can top their All Star lineup of IPAs.

When we got there, the first thing I was struck by was how small the brewery was. A single large brew tank sits outside of the brewery while the remainder of the brew tanks sit inside the building itself. And it is NOT a large building. After seeing how small the brewery was, I came away really astonished at the amount of beers they're able to crank out. One of the other things that caught my eye as I was looking around the brewery was a bottle for sale that I had never heard of: Gouden Vallei. The description on the board listed it as a Belgian Pale Ale, which, to my knowledge, isn't a style that Alpine's ever made before. I decided to pick one up.

As it turns out, the beer is a collaboration with New Belgium that's a take on the Belgian Pale Ale style with one very significant new addition: pink peppercorns. The brewers used the peppercorns to both spice and dry hop the beer. Sounds pretty crazy. Let's see how it tastes.

Gouden Vallei ("Golden Valley" in Flemish) pours a beautiful golden color that seems to glow in the glass. There was a light touch of haze to the beer and it was capped by a thin tan head. The smell was truly unlike anything I've ever come across before. There was a huge dose of tropical fruit sweetness, mainly guava, at first, but then that gave way to smells I really didn't expect. At first, I picked up a ton of pine sap and resin that reminded me of a freshly cut Christmas tree. Then I started to get an aroma that was a touch medicinal and reminded me of gin. I don't have a lot of experience with pink peppercons, but I'm guessing that I was getting these smells from the use of them in the dry hopping process.

The taste was pretty similar to the smell and opened with a nice amount of mango sweetness. Then I picked out a touch of a flavor I can only describe as gin along with some piny hops. Before the gin flavor got too strong, a wave of caramel malts came along and overwhelmed it, leading to a smooth and sweet finish with just a touch of Belgian yeast. Overall, this was a really, really interesting beer. The pink peppercorns easily could have overwhelmed everything else in this beer, but they ended up working with the other elements of this beer remarkably well. If you're able to make it up to Alpine soon, make sure you don't leave without a bottle of this.

Final Grade: A-

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 37

Alpine Beer Company - Melonhead IPA

One of the great things about drinking a lot of craft beer is that it's pretty much impossible to run out of new things to try. Brewers are constantly experimenting with new styles, barrel aging programs, and even new hop varieties. Recently, a new hop variety was created by Select Botanicals Group called HBC (Hop Breeding Company) 342. While a more catchy name has yet to be announced, this new hop has already caught the attention of a few breweries, including one of my favorites, Alpine. Their new IPA, Melonhead (referring to the "melon-like" characteristic of HBC 342), is the newest addition to their lineup and I was able to find it on tap at O'Brien's.

Melonhead IPA pours a clear, golden color with a very thin white head. The aroma had a good amount of citrus hops along with some grapefruit, a touch of pine, hop resin, hints of watermelon, and a sort of musty smell that I can only describe as horse feed. Luckily the musty smell was masked well by the other elements.

The flavor opens with some grapefruit and a slightly chalky citrus hop bite. A touch of bready malt is present briefly before a sweet and drawn out caramel finish takes over. I was hoping to pick up some of the watermelon that I had smelled but it never really showed. At 6.75% ABV, this is significantly lighter than most of Alpine's other IPAs and the taste is significantly more mild. But it's still a refreshing and very tasty IPA and one that I hope they continue to brew. I doubt that this will ever be bottled, but keep an eye out for it on tap around San Diego.

Final Grade: B

Top 100 Beers Tasted: 34