Kern River Brewing Co - Pumpkin Ale

Kern says: "This fall seasonal ale is brewed with real pumpkin and a hint of allspice. It pours slightly orange in color with a light sweetness and spicy finish. This beer is no trick and all treat."

Kern's pumpkin ale has very limited distribution to southern California during the fall (October, this year), and I happened to be in the right place at the right time at one of my regular stores in order to grab this bottle. It's 6% ABV.

Appearance: Clear orange, with a modest head that recedes to nothing and leaves only the faintest lacing at the very top of the glass.

Smell: The pumpkin spice elements jump out -- allspice, nutmeg, and clove. There is a faint hint of grain, but not a lot of malt-based sweetness or hop character.

Taste: Interestingly, the grain character is much more predominant on the palate, and the pumpkin spices almost take a backseat. There is also a strong vegetal character, which one could easily contribute to the pumpkin; however, the interesting thing about pumpkin itself is that it doesn't really have that distinctive (or even that tasty) of a flavor. People tend to associate all of the other spices with what they think the flavor of pumpkin actually is. What seems to have happened in this beer is that the pumpkin/squash character, as well as the flavor of the grain, overshadow the spice.

Mouthfeel: It's mildly carbonated and medium bodied, somewhat oily on the palate, and it sticks around a bit on the finish.

Overall: This is probably my least favorite beer I've had from Kern, which is a brewery that I otherwise love and respect. It's pretty bland, with an unremarkable mouthfeel. The smell is inviting and creates expectations which the taste doesn't live up to. It's pretty disappointing, and I'm hoping to try some better pumpkin beers this season after this rough start!

2.5/5

Hollywood On Tap 10/20/12

I had a great time last weekend at Hollywood on Tap, which I mentioned in an earlier post was a beer festival benefiting the Blank Theater in Hollywood. Focusing mostly on local breweries and filled with LA's ubiquitous (and delicious!) food trucks, I got to relax on the "streets of New York" (courtesy Paramount backlot) and drink some new beers I'd never tried before.

Drinking LA beer on the streets of New York!

This lady DJ was feeling her beats and I was feeling her enthusiasm!

Among lots of other beers, I got to enjoy Monkish Brewing's Red Table, Monkish Brewing's Feminist, and Beachwood Brewing's Knucklehead Red. I guess it was a red ale kind of a day!

I also am way into food (because food and beer together are heaven, obviously) and was particularly tickled by the theme of the "Trailer Park Truck."

I ended up getting the Mackin' Cheeseburger (macaroni and cheese, bacon, onion rings) but I un-rednecked it a bit by getting it on a bed of lettuce:

So, overall, between the great beer, seemingly seamless organization, and tantalizing food (seriously, that went so well with my beer) Hollywood On Tap was a great little event that I hope was able to raise some money for the Blank.

Bootlegger's - Knuckle Sandwich

Knuckle Sandwich is a 10% ABV, 88 IBUs, and it's released periodically by Bootlegger's, a small brewery out of Fullerton, California. They say about their beer: "Knuckle Sandwich DIPA is an American Style Double IPA. This is a beer that truly lives up to its name! Brewed with copious amounts of North American hops, this Double IPA has a colossal hop profile and an aggressive aroma. Helping round out the floral and citrus notes is a huge malt backbone that provides a great mouth feel to this heavyweight hitter."
 
This one can be found only for a short window of time after its release in the CA market, as it tends to sell out really quickly. I grabbed this bottle at one of my favorite shops in East LA.

Appearance: This is probably the darkest DIPA I've ever seen. It's the color of a dark amber or brown beer, like roasted chestnut, and it's got a robust head that never fully recedes and leaves lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell: It's very floral and dank, with strong notes of pine and a slight sweet caramel note as well.

Taste: This DIPA leans toward the floral and piney side, and the malt backbone is definitely perceptible here. There are slight mango flavors, but it's mostly resinous, floral, and sweet.

Mouthfeel: It's creamy and thick, with moderate carbonation. As the beer warms, the alcohol becomes more noticeable as well and brings in a bit of heat on the back of the palate.

Overall: This is a solid DIPA, but amongst all of the "hyped" D/IPA seasonal releases, this is actually not one of my favorites. I'm just not a huge fan of maltier IPAs. I understand that a strong malt base needs to be there to support strong hop character, but I'd rather not taste it so much, and this has a definite sweetness that brings it down a notch in drinkability to me.

3/5

Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel - Péché Mortel (Imperial Stout Au Cafe)

The brewery says: "Péché Mortel (French for "Mortal Sin") is an intensely black and dense beer with very pronounced roasted flavours. Fair trade coffee is infused during the brewing process, intensifying the bitterness of the beer and giving it a powerful coffee taste. Péché mortel is brewed to be savored; we invite you to drink it in moderation.

This stout style, high in alcohol and bitterness in order to favour preservation, was historically brewed to support the long and arduous voyage necessary to export the beer from England to Russia. The word Imperial comes from the fact that the beer was specially brewed for the Russian tsar’s court."

Dieu Du Ciel is a microbrewery in Quebec, Canada. I honestly don't know what the range of their distribution is like here in the States, but I can say they are distributed by the Shelton Brothers, which means it's probably pretty limited  to the east coast. The beer itself has been classified as an imperial stout, and it's 9.5% ABV.

Appearance: This is a great looking stout. It's pitch black, with a thick tan head that sticks around for awhile and then leaves some dense webbed lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell: The coffee note is huge here, and along with the espresso flavor is a bit of leather, and char, all coming from the roasted malt.

Taste: The depth of scents in the beer are also present in the taste, even if the exact notes aren't replicated. Coffee is huge and at the forefromt, but less forward than that are also hints of what seem to me like nuttiness, coconut, and a bitterness that is so roasty that it almost approaches sourness.

Mouthfeel: It's actually lighter than I expect, but there is sufficient body here. It's creamy and smooth, with light carbonation and a dry finish.

Overall: This was really delicious. Even though I'm not a regular coffee drinker, I'm really liking coffee stouts, especially if they are balanced and also manage to present a range of other flavors. Péché Mortel has this going for it; the coffee is certainly dominant but not overpowering. I'll be happy if I get to continue drinking stouts of this caliber into the winter months!

4.5/5

Beer every weekend

You may have noticed I never got around writing up the LA Beer Week closing festival at Union Station. There is a good reason for that -- my memories of that day are fuzzy at best. Drinking high octane beers in 100 degree weather can do that to a person! Regardless, the festival itself appeared well-planned and well-executed, with tons of breweries each providing a pretty decent selection of brews. I was impressed to see breweries bringing 4+ beers, plus some that were opening "special selections" at times throughout the day! One particular highlight was Hangar 24's opening of their Barrel Roll #3 - Pugachev's Cobra. While everyone was clamoring for a pour, the crowd chanted "Pugachev! Pugachev!" and clinked glasses uproariously when it came time to taste. Notably missing was Craftsman; it's hard enough to find kegs from the LA area's most mercurial brewery, so it was disappointing to not see them represented at Union Station. Maybe next year!

Moving forward, though -- since Oktober is not over yet (see what I did there?) This Saturday I'll be hanging out at Hollywood On Tap, a charitable beer festival with 100% of the proceeds benefiting The Blank Theater. The festival is boasting unlimited 4oz tasting pours from around 50 local or California breweries. Tickets must be purchased beforehand if you're interested in going; hopefully I'll see you there!

See what I mean when I say "Beer every weekend?" The fun never stops when you're a craft beer fan...

New Belgium Lips of Faith - Cocoa Mole

NB's website says: "Say Hola to a spiced up ale full of cocoa and ancho, guajillo, chipotle peppers. But don’t fear the heat, because plenty of caramel and chocolate malts bring a smooth, complex flavor to our Cocoa Molé. Scents of cinnamon when poured will have you saying, “¡Olé for molé!”"

Cocoa Mole is an "ale brewed with spices" that comes in at 9% ABV. It was brewed back in January 2012, and I'm just getting around to it now, with the weather finally cooling down here in LA -- there was even a bit of rain today! -- and getting me more into the holiday beer spirit. This one should have a bit of pepper kick to it, too. Part of the Lips of Faith line of more "experimental" beers, this still would have been distributed wherever New Belgium is distributed, which is pretty extensively in the US.



Appearance: Rich dark chestnut brown, with a modest head that pours to about 1 finger and then disappears completely, leaving no foam layer or lacing on the glass.

Smell: Definitely get a whiff of the chile, as well as a massive cinnamon note, nutmeg, and a bit of what seems like cumin. The cocoa is there too; rather than the richness of chocolate it seems more sharp and bitter, and it blends nicely with the overall spice profile.

Taste: Again, the cinnamon and cocoa flavor is predominant, and the heat from the chiles comes in toward the back of the palate and in the throat. I get a little bit of the nutmeg, and even a hint of what seems like coconut.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium-bodied, and lightly carbonated. It's nice that it's not too heavy, while still retaining a velvety character. It's very nice, overall.

Overall: Not a bad way to start off my personal spiced beer season! I like chile beers, and this one combines that element with some of the great spice aromatics and flavors in a rich mole (hence the name.) It's a creative concept for a beer that works surprisingly well, and overall I wasn't swooning over it, per se, but I definitely enjoyed it.

4/5

Goose Island - King Henry

Good evening, all! Assuming I counted correctly, this marks my 100th review! Yay! To celebrate, I wanted to open something special. I'd been trying to get my hands on this beer for awhile. Shortly after it was released last year, it wasn't too difficult to get. But once people started drinking it, they realized it was delicious and snatched up every last bottle. Since this only hit the midwest and northeast markets, trading was my only option, and at long last, a stellar east coast friend was able to send me a bottle last month.

King Henry is a 13.4% ABV barleywine that Goose Island says was "Aged in bourbon barrels, [and] is a burgundy hued English-style barleywine with aromas of vanilla, oak, and dark fruit. Caramel and toffee flavors blend together with bold notes of bourbon delivered in a smooth body followed by a malty finish. No matter the occasion, King Henry promises a regal drinking experience." I'd also like to add that this beer wasn't just thrown in any bourbon barrels; rather, it aged in Pappy Van Winkle 23 year barrels that Goose Island had previously used to age their Rare Bourbon County stout.

Appearance: From the side of the glass it appears dark, opaque brown, but from the top you can see that's actually clear, just extremely dark. There is very little head on the pour, and it receded to nothing in seconds. Swirling the beer in the glass leaves large legs running back down the sides. This even looks big in every way.

Smell: The nose on this is just insane. Toffee, caramel, spicy bourbon, vanilla, cherry, oak, cocoa, fig, and molasses. I can't even believe the complexity of the smell of this beer.

Taste: There is prominent spicy vanilla from the bourbon, as well as a big note of dark chocolate, sweet molasses, brown sugar, salt toffee, and dark fruit. There is a small hint of soy sauce, which some will say is a negative, but I've never really minded it.

Mouthfeel: Thick and sparingly carbonated, this has all the weight of a melted chocolate milkshake, but packs surprisingly little heat, considering the alcohol percentage.

Overall: This is a massive barleywine that is, without question, the best barelywine I've tasted to date. The barrel treatment definitely imparted some flavor from the Rare Bourbon County Stout, which lent some fantastically unique (to the style) bitter/dark chocolate flavor, which actually helped balance some of the typical barleywine sweetness. This beer has a lot of hype and huge fans, so I don't really need to go on and on about how great it is -- but it is great.

5/5

More Beer Week Recaps: Beer Wednesday!

As you may recall, I had written that I was excited to check out the FiftyFifty tap takeover at Verdugo Bar last Wednesday. It was great, but that wasn't the only beer encounter of my day!

I actually first had the opportunity to try a flight of the beers brewed over at Haven Gastropub in Pasadena, along with some lunch. My main course was a plate of pulled pork tacos, which you can never go wrong with in my opinion, but my true love of the hour was the macaroni and cheese with black truffles. As I learned at Blue Palms awhile back, truffled food and drinking beer is a sublime experience. I previously was unaware that Haven actually brewed beer onsite, so I was stoked to try their lineup. Of the eight beers I got to sip on, my two favorites were "Hello World," their pale ale, and "Brewmaster's Breakfast," their light breakfast stout. Both had great flavor, and for lunch on a hot day, neither felt too overpowering. They struck a nice balance of being bold but not heavy, which was exactly what I was looking for given the weather and the fact that it was mid-day lunch.

Photo credit: Friends of Local Beer

And look who it is! The back of my head is a celebrity! This event was really cool: I got to try two FiftyFifty beers I'd never had before -- "Rockslide IPA" and "4 Wheat" -- as well as the latest version of BART (Barrel Aged Really Tasty), a beer that changes with every batch basically based on what the brewer wants to throw in. I'm not entirely certain what was blended into this version, but it had the rich sweetness of a barleywine and some dark fruit flavors. Very decadent and delicious. I'm really looking forward to the Eclipse release at the end of the year. California and the west coast tend to be known more for their IPAs and hoppy beers than for their imperial stouts and barrel-aged beers, but the Eclipse series beers collectively rank in my top 3 for west coast barrel aged stouts (due to both the barrel treatment and the strength of the base stout, Totality) and prove that we go toe-to-toe with some of the more stout-heavy regions. Look out for reviews and tasting notes for those later this winter!

I'll write up the closing festival at Union Station in my next post, but be warned -- my precise recollection may be... unreliable?

Eagle Rock Brewery - Unity 2012

On the side of the bottle: "On August 20, 2012, a team of cohorts from the LA Beer Industry joined forces for the brewing of Unity to commemorate the 4th anniversary of Los Angeles Beer Week. The name "Unity" represents the collective idea of promoting ongoing growth of the beer culture in our city. The camaraderie and support we lend to each other in this industry inspires and enables Angelenos to realize the common goal of unity through better beer!"

This year's Unity is a Berliner "Rye" (as opposed to Berliner Weisse) brewed with prickly pear and is a very manageable 3.25% ABV. It was available from Eagle Rock throughout Beer Week, and as this is a one-off beer, when the bottles run out, it's done for good!

Appearance: The picture makes this look quite orange, but it's actually a very light, cloudy yellow. I poured off minimal head that recedes to approximately nothing.

Smell: There is definitely a funky foot smell from the sour character, and the prickly pear also hits the nose in a big way. There is a bit of grain/breadyness, and a slightly sweet note from the rye.

Taste: Overall light and fruity, with a tart kick. This isn't an overly complex beer, but it's certainly refreshing; the prickly pear and rye flavors work well together with the tartness to create a flavor balance that has an impact without feeling heavy or overwhelming.

Mouthfeel: Very light and dry, with a perfect amount of carbonation.

Overall: It has been so damn hot in LA over the past few weeks, and this is a very welcome beverage to beat the heat. The brewers and collaborators definitely knew what they were doing when they decided on this style for a late-summer beer. Berliners aren't necessarily a "wow" style in that they don't really specialize in huge flavors, but Unity 2012 is exactly on point for what I would expect a "Berliner rye" to taste like. Sessionable beers can be very tough, in that their more delicate flavors don't mask "off" qualities as well as a bolder flavors do. This didn't appear to be a problem for Unity, as I can't pick up on any off flavors and am thoroughly enjoying the delicate palate and mouthfeel on this 100-degree day.

4/5