Tag Archives: Pale Ale

32 North Brewing – Miramar area San Diego Revisited

October 15, 2015 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

32 North had a solid opening almost a year ago, with a great-looking tasting room and a good lineup of beers. Six months later, or soon after, their brewer quit, leaving them to scramble and basically start over. I visited them on October 15th, to see how things have developed, giving them a few months to get new brews ready with their new brewer and I am happy to report that they are back to the solid lineup they had going for them when they first opened. You can find my original post on them here. Some areas still need a little work but I am confident they will find a way to succeed going forward. I am writing this as if they were a completely new brewery because I expected that many of the beers I covered at the start would change drastically, and they did.

First set of tasters. Saison in the middle.

When I visited I tried the First Flight pale, Saison du Nord, Nautical Mile IPA, Pack Your Bags brown ale with cocoa nibs, Fly By Night milk stout on nitro, and Best Coast IPA. They also had a blonde, kolsch, and gose on tap and another pale ale. I went for the beers that I remembered as being the best previously as well as those that sounded the most interesting. My tasters were split into two flights and will be discussed in that order.

I started with the First Flight pale ale. It was mostly citrus with a mild spicy kick. Though it didn’t have any added peppers but it reminds me of beers with peppers. The beer has a nice golden color but I can’t help but feel the spicy kick kinda overpowers the rest, not a flavor that I expect from the hops. It was not too bitter and ends nicely with a floral hop kick. The beer was solid and drinkable but hopefully future versions will present the hops better. The Saison du Nord was a lightly fruity saison but nice and dry. It doesn’t have too much spice or pepper but enough to balance it out. A very impressive saison. It reminds me of the Collette from Great Divide.

The Nautical Mile IPA was a little bit stronger than the First Flight pale and still has that pepper kick but it is much milder and the flavor has more grapefruit up front. The beer has a beautiful orange color, and is quite smooth. No longer the tropical fruit flavor of the original. It is a solid IPA but the hop flavors are a bit different than I usually get from them. It has a medium bitterness on the back end. Like the First Flight this is solid but it feels like it could be better in future versions.

The Pack Your Bags brown ale with cocoa nibs was a very smooth brown ale with a mild bitter chocolate finish and a light body. Though I say bitter chocolate, this is not a bitter beer, but it isn’t a sweet beer either. This is closer to the Benchmark brewing style of brown than nut browns you see around town. The Fly By Night milk stout on nitro is no longer made with coffee. This is a super roasty stout with a mild sweetness from the lactose. Despite a 6.5% alcohol it is quite light body and nice caramel finish. It also has a bit of a roasted popcorn flavor on the end.

The Best Coast IPA seems to be the least hoppy of the bunch despite claiming to be the highest IBU of them all. Hops are very subdued and a bready malt seems to take over. Hops are very earthy and balance with the malts. The beer has a dark orange color. It is very different from the typical local but probably my favorite among the bunch of hoppy beers. The balance is its best positive.

The other thing they had at the opening that was quite popular was the peanut butter porter, which they will be bringing back for their one year anniversary coming up in a week (On October 22). Though it took them a while to get back to the promising start they had originally, I am now quite excited to see how they do in the coming year. I purposefully avoided the black cherry landfall because I have had enough of the gose in my previous visit but I will certainly keep an eye on the various options they have going forward.

Top 3 :
Saison,
Best Coast IPA
Fly By Night Milk Stout on Nitro

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

Magnetic Brewing Company – Kearney Mesa San DIego

September 26, 2015 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

Magnetic Brewing is currently in their soft opening phase and when I visited had only been open for two weeks and had five beers on tap. The head brewer is said to have some 8 years of home brewing experience and it certainly shows in the beers that he is pouring. The brewery has also been in development for quite some time and many have been eagerly awaiting its debut. I had heard a lot of praise from the few people who visited earlier and overall I was not disappointed. They are certainly doing a great job for such a new brewery.

In total I tasted the brown ale (8%), wit beer (8%), Amber, IPA, and pale ale. I mention the ABV of the first two because they are a bit higher than typical for the styles and it will help explain some flavors I noticed in them. To start with the brown ale is a deliciously smooth and medium sweet beer brewed with brown sugar added. The malts give it a tasty caramel flavor that blends nicely with the sugar to give it just the right amount of sweetness while remaining drinkable. Considering its strength it had only a fairly minor alcohol bite at the back end.

The wit beer really let the added spices shine through its higher alcohol that smooths everything out and gives it a much more chewy body. It almost tasted like a cake with the combination of sweetness and spices. The alcohol doesn’t hide here much and it has a medium boozy finish but I still thought it was overall very tasty. The amber has much the same caramel flavor as the brown from the malts with some mild earthy hops. I thought the hops blended well with the rest of the beer but it got out-shined by the more flavorful earlier beers.

The IPA first hit me as being a bit too piney but as it warmed up and I got through the taster I found it to have a great balance with a light malt body and flavors of resin and pine. The IPA drinks really nice and probably would have made a great pint. Comparatively, the pale was a bit strange to me. It smelled like sharp aged cheese and the flavor was overly sweet with a lot of pineapple and mango flavor. It seemed like a solid recipe behind it but it didn’t come out right. I talked to some brewers later who suggested that the strange scent I noticed has to do with old hops.

The disappointing pale aside, I thought the lineup at Magnetic was quite good and they have some serious talent in the brewer that will go on to do great things. Fans of sweeter stouts and porters will certainly enjoy the brown and it will be hard for a hop head to not enjoy the IPA. Because they only had five beers I will select a top 2 instead of the usual top 3.

Top two:
Brown Ale
IPA

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Brewery/Restaurant

3 Floyds Brewing Company Munster Indiana

September 19, 2015 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

3 Floyds has become such a cult following that most of their popular offerings that are bottled are sold out within a few days once they are made available. The coveted zombie dust and double ipa bottles disappear as quickly as cans of heady topper. Though you may be able to find some double IPA at nearby liquor stores they aren’t stored cold and the ones I found were too old to pick up. Going to the brewpub on a weekend will end up with a wait of at least 40 minutes. It is worth the wait to get a seat because fresh zombie dust from the source is delightful as are the other offerings.

Though I had heard that 3 Floyds plays death metal at the brewery it is not all death metal all the time. They cycle between metal and punk rock and other fun songs. The scream vocals mostly blend in so they aren’t much worse than the average music at a brewery or bar. While I was at 3 Floyds I didn’t get to try very many beers because they don’t offer taster flights and I didn’t want to get seriously wasted trying 10 ounces of each of the double IPAs. (It is a brew pub atmosphere because they serve food as well so I understand the lack of taster flights. I heard great things about their food but I didn’t end up ordering any while I was there). I had an 8oz of Zombie Dust, my husband had a Moloko Stout on nitro, and I had a Cimmerian Sabertooth Berzerker double IPA and finally a Chevalier blueberry sour.

After hearing tons of hype for Zombie Dust it is hard to be impressed but I knew with the first sip that this was a fantastic beer that is very much worth all the hype. It was extremely light body and bursting with hop flavors of both citrus and tropical fruit (primarily pineapple). It is deceptively sessionable considering it is 6% and feels much lighter than that. The bitterness was very mild, coming across just enough to let you know the hops are present.

Fresh zombie dust from the source. — Fresh zombie dust from the source!

The Cimmerian Sabertooth Berzerker double IPA was delicious from the first sip. It pours a delightfully hazy yellow orange with a powerful golden hop flavor and just the right amount of sweetness. Many beers in similar style become syrupy but there is none of that here. Though it has a solid bitterness I didn’t feel it wrecking my palate. The beer ended nicely with some stone fruit and peach flavors. It was overall a very impressive double IPA.

I didn’t drink much of my husband’s Maloko stout on nitro but from what I had it was a well-crafted stout with a solid chocolate flavor and very creamy. This one also hides its alcohol extremely well and I wouldn’t have known it was 8% except for the very mild booze on the back end. I ended with the Chevalier blueberry sour. This was a properly sour beer, just short of puckering. It is certainly an acidic sour but it blends with plenty of blueberry flavor at the back end. Considering everyone talks about Three Floyds for their hoppy beers and imperial stouts I was surprised by how fantastic this sour was.

Overall, I would certainly visit 3 Floyds again if I am in the area on a weekday so that I can load up on some awesome fresh from the brewery beers and have some more pints of delicious fresh from the brewery beers. If you are visiting Chicago for a few days it is worth the 45 minute drive and nearly hour wait for some of the best hoppy beers around. Hopefully next time I will be able to get my husband to drive me like he did this time because those double IPAs are fantastic.

If you come by the brewery to buy some Zombie Dust in bottles make sure you go during the week and check the web site for what to-go beers are available the day you go because they rarely last into the weekend. Also after having a fairly disappointing six pack at a nearby store I highly suggest that you not buy any if you can’t find it at the brewery. The stores nearby have very little in refrigeration so the double IPAs they stock are not likely to represent the same delicious quality. Also bring along a cooler or store the beers inside the air conditioning of your car on your drive back to your hotel room.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

Offbeat Brewing Company – Escondido CA

August 22, 2015 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

Located just a stone’s throw from Stone Brewing Company’s main location in Escondido I wondered going in how Offbeat Brewing manages to compete with the giant brewery. After tasting things it was clear that they have a very different approach to their beers, especially the hoppy ones, and they fill a completely different niche than the aggressive hoppy beers from Stone. I’ve talked to people who normally don’t like West Coast style IPAs who like the beers here.

These guys are so off beat they have this bizarre yet awesome mural on the wall.

Though Offbeat has been open for nearly three years they don’t have the same level of experimentation you see at other breweries. Instead they have a core set of five beers that they typically have on tap that all have a similar mellow English hop flavor going. I tried the Session Pale, Brown, ESB, IPA, and Sagecat IPA while I was there.

Offbeat brewing company taster flight. — Taster flight when I visited.

The Session Pale was a light golden color beer with a good fruity flavor from the hops. This is an interesting comparison to the typical bitter citrus-forward San Diego session IPAs. The brown ale was a bit more dark and roasty than the average local brown. Both color wise and flavor wise it is closer to a porter than a brown. The roast flavors are balanced nicely by some mild earthy hops.

Offbeat brewing beer list. — Beer list when I visited.

The ESB was surprisingly flavorful for a 3.4% beer with lots of earthy and fruity flavors from the English hops. The IPA is 7.7% but isn’t very bitter and tends to be more apricot flavor with a smooth malt background. The flavors balance very nicely and there is very little of the signature west coast hop bitterness. Considering the mellow flavor, it was a perfect choice to add the peppercorns for the Sagecat IPA. Peppercorns add a nice mild spice kick and a sweetness in the aftertaste.

With a limited lineup and a very different selection than its neighbors it is easy to stop by Offbeat on your way to your favorite brewery in the area for a taster or two. If you haven’t yet explored the English style of IPA this is a great place to do it.

Top 2:
Brown Ale
IPA

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Craft Beer Bar

Craft Beer in Tijuana Round 2

July 4, 2015 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

Back when I first posted about Tijuana beer I had only been able to visit a single brewery and a bar. Thankfully, over time there have been more and more places opening, making the area more accessible to visitors from San Diego. Specifically, a small plaza has started growing where you can taste beers from many different breweries all in the same enclosed space that is only about a mile south from the border.

For this specific trip I was able to visit Fauna, a brewery from Ensanada, a bar called El Tigre featuring the beers from Ludica, and Paralel 28, a local brewery that also has a few guest taps. This same area is soon to be home to a few other local Tijuana breweries including Border Psycho and Insurgente.

A few things to keep in mind about these breweries, most of them want you to pay in cash only. This is a big difference from Baja Craft Beer that was perfectly fine with people paying with a credit card. Most of them should be fine giving you some change in pesos after you pay for your beers in US dollars though you should be ready with smaller bills if you don’t want to end up with a lot of extra pesos back. Also, most of the people working there seemed to speak pretty solid English, so you should be able to order beers with no problem. If you have data roaming from T-Mobile you can get around with Uber, otherwise you will want to take a cab, which will also expect cash.

The area where these bars and tasting rooms are located is known as Plaza Fiesta though cab drivers might know it better as plaza del zapato. If you see a bunch of clothing shops you are in the right area but you need to go down the street until you see the bars. They aren’t particularly inviting from the outside but they have done a good job with making them look nice on the inside. Because most of the places I visited did not do flights like I am used to in San Diego I only ended up tasting a few beers at each location.

My first stop was Fauna. The bar is also a restaurant and they have some really good food from what I hear, though I only got to try one of the small ceviche tostadas. Beer wise I ended up trying their coffee porter because I had already tasted the IPA at Baja Craft Beer previously. The coffee porter hit the spot with plenty of roasted malt flavors and a solid strong coffee flavor.

Coffee porter with some ceviche tostalito.

Next I went across the street to El Tigre, where I got to try a few of the beers from Ludica. I tried a single taster of the Saison and was not impressed. It was overly sweet and yeast forward without any of the smooth flavors I expect in the style or much spice. I ended up with a pint of the Supermash Equinox Pale ale (single hop). I could tell that the hops were extra fresh and bright. It had a good tropical fruit flavor and a nice low malt bill. As you can see on the photo most of their beers were a bit lighter than I normally like.

Finally I visited Paralel 28, though they were out of a lot of their house beers and what was left didn’t appeal to me. So I ended up trying an IPA from Wendlant called Perro Del Mar. This IPA was quite tasty and had a lot of what I expect in a west coast style IPA. Before I went back over the border for the night I walked the short walk to my favorite taco place in Tijuana called Tacos El Frank. They are only open in the evenings and have some delicious carne asada tacos as well as other options for a very inexpensive price.

I hope to write again over the next few months when Insurgente and Border Psycho open their own places in this plaza. For now, I was glad that I got to experience what I did and see that craft beer is becoming more available. Sadly, it seemed the locals were still ordering macro crap in most of the bars because that is what they are used to. Almost everyone in El Tigre was drinking Indio. If you are thinking about visiting these bars, they aren’t known by Google yet. Probably the best thing is to look for Sótano Suizo, a bar in the same area to find out where to go.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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San Diego Hop Addict

Tag Archives: Pale Ale

32 North Brewing – Miramar area San Diego Revisited

Paul McGuire

Magnetic Brewing Company – Kearney Mesa San DIego

Paul McGuire

3 Floyds Brewing Company Munster Indiana

Paul McGuire

Offbeat Brewing Company – Escondido CA

Paul McGuire

Craft Beer in Tijuana Round 2

Paul McGuire

Exploring San Diego's Craft Breweries