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Beer Reviews

Live Blogging on Twitter

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One of the interesting things about the Beer Bloggers’ Conference was getting us to write about beers as we taste them. But for those of you who weren’t following along on Twitter, lets take a look at how this looked to someone following the feed.

One thing I enjoy doing is comparing a beer on tap vs the bottle. Even though I had already tried the Citra Session from Green Flash, I hadn’t had it in the bottle.

I say that the flavors are balanced here because so many sours to me are a little too intensely sour.

I found it a bit hard to jump between styles as you can see from the two tweets about pilsners. The lack of consistency between beers shared made it hard to truly try everything.

The Lost Abbey Deliverance was an amazingly delicious beer. It combined two different styles of beers and had one of them aged in bourbon barrels. If you want a chance to drink those bourbon-barrel-aged beers at home this might be worth the extra high price.

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I have been asking the servers at Rough Draft for quite some time when six packs of the session IPA would come out so this was very exciting for me.

The Mexican Hot Chocolate style stout really tasted very different than all the other stouts Stone has put out so far. Stone brought this for us in their modern-looking growlers you can now get at the tasting room. This collaboration beer will be available in 22oz bottles in stores starting September 8, 2014.

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We were blessed with so many breweries showing off their bourbon barrel aged beers. I have seen this becoming popular lately but I am not sure that you can easily go back to more subtly flavored beers after something so strong.

If you enjoyed my post about live blogging, consider following me on Twitter where you can see all the photos I take on Instagram and possibly catch my next live blogging attempt.

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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Beer Reviews

Stone Brewing W00tstout 2.0 a Standout Stout

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It seems like Stone puts out a special beer every month. Though they have a lot of really tasty mainstay beers available, they put a lot of effort into crafting interesting beers to change the perception of what can be done. Imperial stouts are delicious, and stone has a really good one with their Imperial Russian Stout. However, with the w00tstout 2.0 they decided to take things a little further. 

w00tstout 2.0 pours dark black.
w00tstout 2.0 pours dark black.
The w00tstout 2.0 is the second version of this delicious beer. This stout pours thick and black and offers 13% alcohol. It mainly smells like sweet bourbon and caramel. When you taste it, it has a lot of these same flavors. The bourbon and caramel are balanced nicely so neither one overpowers the other. There is also a distinct flavor of burnt sugar that you might recognize if you are a fan of creme brulee.
w00tstout 2.0 bottle closeup.
w00tstout 2.0 bottle closeup.
I tend to not focus too much while I am tasting the beer on what the bottle says though later I checked and it claimed there were some flavors of chocolate. I didn’t notice much chocolate in this beer. I was quite satisfied with w00tstout 2.0. Despite its high alcohol content it is not particularly boozy and has delicious sweet flavors. Keep in mind that this is not a beer that presents heavy chocolate or coffee flavors so if you prefer that in your stouts you should look elsewhere.

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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Stone Unapologetic IPA – Pure IPA Goodness

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When Stone announces a new IPA I jump at the chance to try it. While it may sometimes seem as if there are enough IPAs out there, breweries always manage to find some unique way to explore the style. For this specific brew, Stone decided to explore some new varieties of hops to give this beer some flavors that you probably have not experienced before in an IPA. I know I had a difficult time describing this beer.

Unapologetic IPA

As you can see, this beer pours a nice golden color very similar to the Enjoy By line from Stone and the Green Bullet from Green Flash. The aromas do not linger very long but if you give it a nice sniff right away or after a little shake you will notice some bright tropical fruit and melon aromas. Many of these same flavors come through nicely in the beer itself, with delicious flavors that remind me of ripe fruit. To me it tastes like the sweetest cantaloupe you’ve ever tasted with some hints of ripe peach and pineapple. Though this is a lightly sweet brew, it is not too much. The sweetness is nicely balanced with a medium level of bitterness.

I had to wait until I opened my second bottle of this stuff to give it a rating because the flavors were so new and different. When I opened the first bottle I did a short video explaining my thoughts on this beer and as you can see below I was a bit at a loss for words. In the end this is a very satisfying IPA that explores flavors I hadn’t tasted before in an IPA. Pick up a bottle if you see it and see what I mean. Did you taste any different flavors than the ones I described in here? Let me know in the comments.

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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Stone Sprocketbier and Stochasticity Quadro Triticale

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Two recent beers by stone seemed to fit to be reviewed together. They are pretty different from each other though neither one of them is particularly hoppy. First up is Stone’s Sprocketbier, a dark rye Kolsch style ale.

Stone Sprocket Bier
Stone Sprocket Bier

San Diego beer drinkers may be more familiar with the Kolsch style of beer from the Ballast Point Pale Ale but this is a much darker beer. The beer has a strong smoky flavor with a slight bitter taste from the rye that puts it closer to a bitter stout. At 5.4% this is one beer you won’t mind having all to yourself. I found the flavor overall satisfying.

Stone’s Quadro Triticale is the third release in the Stochasticity series of beers. I didn’t get to try the second release and this one doesn’t make me feel overly sad.

Stone Quadro Triticale

The Quadro Triticale is a Belgian Style Quad, a beer that IPA fans don’t always like because it tends to be on the sweet side and not particularly bitter. This one has some added brown sugar and it really shows. This is a thick heavy malty beer with a sweet sugary flavor on the front end. Sometimes when the rye comes through it gives it a nice mild spicy kick but it tends to be overpowered by the sugar a bit too much.

I’m glad that I tasted this beer at a friend’s house so I didn’t have to buy a few bottles. It certainly wasn’t off-putting bad but it wasn’t particularly impressive either. If I had to choose between these two I say go with the Sprocket.

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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Beer Reviews

Green Flash White IPA 2014

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Continuing in the series of special releases for 2014, Green Flash put out the White IPA on June 3, 2014. I stopped by the brewery today to try it and will share my thoughts. While I was there, i was glad to see that the Black Lager had returned and they had a special release of a Bourbon Aged Trippel.

White IPA (right), Bourbon Barrel Trippel (left)
White IPA (right), Bourbon Barrel Trippel (left)

The White IPA has a prominent flavor of the Belgian yeast. Behind that there are some light hop flavors of citrus and pine but i wouldn’t fault any casual drinker for not noticing them. The Bourbon Aged Trippel was a solid entry with plenty of sweet bourbon flavors. Behind that you can taste the Belgian yeast a little bit but the flavor is primarily on the bourbon. I ended up with a pint of the new recipe of the West Coast IPA which now tended towards citrus and lemon flavors.

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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