A Pint Half Full

Summer is well underway, along with barbecues, pool parties, beach parties, and all the "summer" edition brews that accompany these occasions.  Typically light in alcohol content, crisp, and refreshing, summer styles are made for long summer days and nights, hanging out with friends.   Seems like the first summer beers come out mid-May and circulate until around August timeframe.  Believe it or not, beyond the normal mass produced fodder you'll find from A-B, Miller, and Coors, smaller breweries like Bell's or Magic Hat release some stuff especially for the summer too.  This year, I sampled a few summer beers from some other breweries and I can say that though they are better balanced and cleaner tasting, they are not all that great either!  But I'm going to rank the ones I did try so here are the 5 beers I've tried so far:

5.  Blue Moon Honey Moon Summer Ale - Syrupy like when you mix honey with water.  That's all I could taste and could not get over in this beer.  Yuck.

4.  Samuel Adams Summer Ale - They equated summer beer with citrus.  Way too much lemon zest that made this almost sour and too tangy for me.  The tang hangs around and left this film in my mouth that's not good for the summer obviously.  Still sticking to the Boston Lager.

3.  Sierra Nevada Summerfest - Clear, clean taste but minimal flavor.  Notes of grassy, piney hops if you really look for it.  Very effervescent which helps the refreshment factor but overall a little bland!  A little yeasty in the aftertaste.  Harmless fun.

2.  Bell's Oberon - Nice light medium body and hints of orange sweetness.  Some peppery notes.  Thirst quenching.  Not bad and fits into the summer style well.

1.  Magic Hat Wacko - Best of the bunch.  Seriously, it's berry colored.  The taste had hint of cherries which I loved rather than the typical citrus hints.  Nice malt backbone and would be pleasant on any summer day.

Try picking some of these up and let me know what you think.

I went on a little IPA binge a couple weeks ago, went to my Total Wine on the hunt.  As usual I stood there in the beer aisle, debating what I wanted to try.  It's like going to Toys R Us as a kid and picking which GI Joe you wanted next.  I was in the mood for something hoppy that would blow my mind, pucker my mouth, and shrivel my tongue (sometimes you're just in one of those moods). 

IPAs, or India Pale Ales, were originally brewed to survive the long journey from England to India along that "trade-route-that-we-learned-about-in-high-school".  These beers were brewed with tons of hops to take advantage of the preservative nature of the ingredient.  That means these beers are all about that hop bitterness and aroma that opens up your sinuses.  When tasted, you'll get a whiff of spice, pine, perhaps some citrus (grapefruit, lemons, oranges) followed by a dryness or at least lingering bitterness to the back of the tongue.

I asked the beer guy at Total Wine what he recommended and he told me about two beers from breweries from the West Coast.  Seems like alot of good beers are from Cali these days. 

Yes folks, I have achieved the impossible - I've become THIRTY years old last week.  I didn't think it'd affect me too much but in fact, when I woke up that fateful morning, it struck me.  I'm no longer "twenty-something"; I now have the privilege of saying I'm THIRTY.  That's a big number.  As odd as it may sound, the distance between a 29 year old and a 31 year old shrinks alot when it becomes the difference between a 30 year old and a 32 year old.

Anyways, I'm over it, as I had time to celebrate over the weekend with friends and revisiting some old haunts from when I first moved down to the Northern Virginia area.  Clarendon (a neighborhood of Arlington) pretty much typifies the NoVa nightlife experience - young professionals, in polos and jeans, gather to listen to 80s/90s cover bands, drink cocktails, and swig Miller Lite.  Not the preferred scene for everyone but fortunately, there are gems in a neighborhood that don't conform to this style and bring unique attitude and most importantly, awesome beers.  Galaxy Hut was the first stop on my birthday night and it was awesome.  The place is small, with a few booths and tables (including a pinball and 80's arcade machine tables).  The main attraction here for me was the beer selection.  They offer a large variety of craft brews on tap as well as bottles that rotate in and out (check their website for latest offerings).  Even with its hipster vibe, you feel welcome in the laid back atmosphere.  I had 4 beers here that I had never tried before and I will try to describe what I can remember here.

In this edition: Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale, Heavy Seas Big DIPA, Russian River/Avery Collaboration Ale, Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot Brown Ale

I wanted to get this blog entry in as we are going through round 2 of the end of the world, I mean, zombieland, I mean, a snow storm.  The snow started Friday afternoon-evening and continued straight through Saturday.  I mean it snowed for about 24 hours straight.  Friday morning I went out to the grocery stores and everyone was preparing for 2012 (Mayan-style) or something, not realizing that the snow would be over by Sunday.  More importantly, the snow happened on Super Bowl Weekend, foiling any plans I may have had to go gorge myself on junk food and beer while watching football with friends.  Instead, my wife and I had to gorge and drink with each other. 

I had bought some Otter Creek Copper Ale from Trader Joe's, and we finished up the Brewmaster's Collection from Sam Adams, including the Scotch Ale, Boston Ale, and Cream Stout.  All of these were unique with one not meeting expectations.  Read on for more deets...

Was away from the coldness of the DC area this week and arrived in "sunny" San Diego.  I was hoping to get away from the snow and rain but all I got upon arrival was even MORE rain with added wind.  Asking the hotel receptionist what was up with the weather, she said that it was the first time this year it had rained in SD.  Awesome, this trip is gonna suck.

Fortunately, the rain subsided over the next few days, the sun eventually came out, and I was able to go out and try some new local beers!  I really liked that even the hotel bars and alot of the restaurants had local microbrews on tap along with the other mainstream stuff.  It allowed me to explore and try out stuff I'd never get on the east coast.

The beers I were able to try were a couple from Ballast Point brewery - Victory At Sea Imperial Porter and their Yellowtail Pale Ale.  Also tasted was the Firehouse Pale Ale and Stone IPA.  It was great to see such a thriving beer community there.  Also, had some Fat Tire Amber Ale, a staple on any trip out to the West Coast.

Impressions of beer after the jump.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday.  For dinner, I made a pork loin roast, corn bread stuffing, miso codfish, wintermelon soup, and my sister made garlic mashed pototoes.  Everything turned out well for the most part.  My pork was dry, though.  That's ok, I had enough beverages to wash it all down.

Other fun activities was going to sing karaoke, seeing Chanticleer - an all male acapella group - sing unnaturally high (falsetto or castrati?!), and spending the rest of the time giving my sister a hard time.  Just like the old days.

Back to the food and drink: on the table this weekend was the Southern Tier Harvest Ale, the Stone Double Bastard, and some Otter Creek Pale Ale that I got earlier last week.  For you wine drinkers, we also got some wine on my sister's recommendation - a 2006 Masciarelli Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a red wine from Italy.  Impressions after the jump.

I've been talking alot about craft/micro brews lately and beers that aren't typically served in your restaurants and sold at 7-11s.   That doesn't mean I hate on/don't drink any of the macrobrews that are so common.  So this edition of Quick Brew Hits will list some of the beers I typically order when you can't get the small, local craft brews.  These are mainly lighter in flavor, lighter bodied, and pretty unassuming beers that are good when you're just hanging out with your friends and munching on pub grub (except for one of them). 

In this edition: Stella Artois, Yuengling Lager, Newcastle Brown Ale, Coors Light


Stella Artois - Not sure why, but Stella is becoming one of the beers I will usually get when at a typical American restaurant.  It is becoming more and more prevalent at the bars, probably because it is easily accessible, but a tier above the typical light beers.  It's got a thin sweetness, is refreshing, somewhat fizzy, and has this very slight metallic/skunky flavor (even on tap) to it which, oddly enough, balances out the sweetness.  Pretty much, it won't get in the way of anything.

Not every beer I encounter can be reviewed.   Therefore, every so often, I figure I'll give you my quick impressions of beers I've tried along the way.  Most of these probably suck and aren't really worth reviewing but there will be some nuggets in there which might sway you from one choice to another when you are staring at the shelves in your liquor store.

In this edition: Stone Levitation Ale, Landshark Lager, Abita Restoration Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale 2009.


Stone Levitation Ale - As I said in my previous review for Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, I am a SUCKER for advertising an cool logos and Stone Brewery certainly sucked me in with their beastly gargoyle logo, promising an attitude and taste comparable to that of its logo.  Too bad this Levitation ale didn't really do much for me.  It was really light and just above average on flavor.  It was smooth going down but mostly bland.  Pretty big letdown for me.