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Stone’s Cali-Belgie(Belgique) IPA.  Sounds like an interesting yet good brew.  The Stone IPA recipie with a Belgian yeast strain.  Let’s find out if it is a good as it sounds.

Poured from a 22oz bottle into a glass.  Golden yellow hue, with a massive frothy head that starts to fizzle down to nothing in 5-10 minutes.  Man you can really smell that yeast, in the nose you get a nice sweet candied aroma along with faint hops.  Similar to the 07.07.07 and the 08.08.08 Vertical Epics.  Stone seems to be having a fetish lately with mixing West Coast IPAs and Belgian style Tripels.    First sips you don’t get very much hops, a slight dry, bite in the finish along with a slight honey, and apricot flavor that wash over.  So far it is the epitomy of how yeast imparts the final touches on a beer.  This is the same recipie as the Stone IPA but with a different yeast strain makes it a totally different beast.  I am not a big fan of Belgian beers but if they where like this, o’ man.  Medium body, slightly more than their ’standard’ IPA.  About mid-bottle the ‘fruity-ness’ fades into the background a bit and the malt and hops become a little more prevalent.  It does leave a very nice lacing on the glass I must say.  Alot of spice flavors going on in there thanks to the yeast, that stay on the palate for a cool minute.  Once you hit mid-bottle the flavor profile is pretty consistant through and through.  It does not change to much as some brews do.  It just become more balanced and nothing is to much more prominent than the other, as it was towards the start of the brew.  The dryness and bitterness of the hops balance and soon replace the fruity, spiceness of the yeast towards the end.

All in all, very well done.  This brew is flavorful, different, hoppy, fruity, an amazingly good ‘hybrid’ of the “two” worlds.  Very well balanced bitterness, and fruitfulness.  This will please a Cali Craft Brew fan and a Belgian Brew fan easily.  Two thumbs up to the guys at Stone, can’t wait to get my hands on the collaboration ale with Mikkeller and Alesmith either, but that is a whole ‘nother post that will be here soon.

Beer Valley Brewing Co.’s Leafer Madness Imperial Pale Ale.  Poured out of a 22oz bottle into a glass.  Massive frothy head, disapates within minuted leaving a nice lace on the glass.  The aroma is of sweet hops and a hint of yeast.  Orange/amber cloudy hue.  First sips have a slight astryngent bitterness balanced by the malt in the finish.  So far it has alot more hop character than other Imperial Pale Ales I have had (Avery’s Ale to the Cheif for one).  This brew almost has a “chewy” mouthfeel, but not…rather medium bodied.  Sip after sip it starts to loose it’s hop profile a bit, going from Imperial Pale Ale to just Pale Ale.  Still leaves a lovely lace sip after sip.  After about mid glass the hops come back, almost with a vengeance, but to scared to fight with the malt.  All in all it’s not bad, one thing I must say is at 9% ABV it does a great job of hiding it, but for almost $9.00 a 22oz bottle, not worth it.  I’d rather go get a Moylan’s Hopsickle or a Left Coast/Oggi’s Hop Juice for under $5.00 and get a great ‘hop fix’ and enjoy myself, in my opinion this beer is just not worth it.

Dog Fish Head’s Midas Touch, the old ancient ale so to speak.  Brewed with honey, muscat grapes, and saffron.  Poured out of a 12oz bottle into a glass.  It has a golden hue, but no head after about thirty seconds, yet very carbonated, almost soda like.  In the nose you really pick up the muscat.  Upon first sip you get a nice sweet flavor, the grapes and honey really come through, the saffron is faint in the finish, but it’s there.  The honey starts to be a little more prominent about mid-glass, dry yet sweet.  Once you get down to about a 1/4 of a glass the muscat grapes start to take hold.  It starts to take on the flavor profile of a ‘Moscato di’ Asti’, even with almost the same carbonation level, just not as sweet.  At the end it turns into a muscat and honey bomb, a great nightcap by far. My final thoughts are that it’s amazing to think that this is one of the oldest fermented beverages in history, let alone the oldest known beer recipe.  King Midas, or one of his cronies, was on to something when they came up with this.  To me the best of both the wine and beer world.  Bubbly, sweet, yet palate friendly. A one of a kind, must try, beer snob or not!

12oz bottle into glass.  Pours a deep amber, the nose has a slightly sweet aroma.  After the first few sips all I could think was “Oh my god, they actually made something decent“.  Similar to a Firestone Union Jack but not as ‘hoppy’.  It is very bright on the palate and the head lasts sip after sip.  When this hits the market (yes, thanks to my job, I get somethings before the public).  I actually see it doing very well, especially in the ‘Fat Tire‘ and ‘Sierra Nevada‘ crowd.  A nice balance of malt and hops.  Honestly I can’t believe I’m going to type this, but this is probably one of the best macro brewed beers I’ve had, period.

Out of a 22oz into a glass.  It pours a very cloudy amber/reddish hue.  Not much of a head.  Not much hop aroma, but more of.. a… almost that… dare I say… vomit aroma in the nose.  But the flavor is wonderful, a nice bitter, heavy, oily hop flavor fights to the death with the malt backbone eventually the hops prevail and linger until no tomorrow.  Some hints of dried fruit, which I can’t quite pin point yet.  After about 1/4 glass the malt falls into the distance but, the hops become more prevalent, and you really start to feel the alcohol (9.5% abv).  The buzz creeps in and with each sip it warms you ever so slightly.  A little after that, the beast that is lying underneath comes out, nice citrusy, bitter tones, intensely hoppy!  This lives up to being a ‘hop monster’ as they claim on the side of the label.  A nice example of a West Coast IPA gone over the top, great job Thom, great job!; but my only gripe is that it’s seven to eight dollars for a 22oz bottle in the South Bay.

Well this is the first post since I moved my blog to this site, so enjoy the first sip of this blog as it will be one of many to come.  Now onto the beer review.

Poured out of a 12oz can to a glass.  First impressions are pours a cloudy blonde with a massive head, the aroma is of malted wheat and faint watermelon.  First sips are of a slight grain flavor that passes over the tongue before the watermelon hits, it is a very faint watermelon, but it’s there.  At about mid glass it almost almost takes on the finish of a watermelon jolly rancher, that you finished about a half hour ago or so, but it is there, stronger than before.  I can’t get over that wierd smell, it is watermelon and wheat, not a favorite.  All in all, for a summer brew on a hot day, when the beer is chilled almost to ice cold, I see it being refreshing.  But in reality, not my cup of beer, but it might work for you.   I am very happy with this different offering of flavored beer other than the usual blueberry, raspberry, apricot flavored wheat beers as they tend to taste like fake flavorings, this does seem to have an ‘authentic’ watermelon flavor which really comes out about at a quarter to a sixth of a glass, but once again not a personal favorite, but very refreshing.

Had this out of a 22oz bottle poured into a glass. Pours a deep dark amber almost brown hue. A small head which doesn’t last more than a 1-5 minutes (depends on temperature of beer when poured). A roasted malt almost nutty character comes at the palate off the bat almost that reminiscent of roasted walnuts similar to a Brown Ale. Very nutty flavor forward but still has a slightly sweet malt backbone in the finish. To me it should be classified as a Nut Brown not an Amber. For an Amber it is more roasted than most would prefer. As a Nut Brown Ale it is pretty damn nice reminds me of Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown Nectar but with a more roasted character. At about mid-glass the roastedness starts to dissipate and it starts to take on the flavor profile of an Amber ale. So my final opinion if you like Amber ales and like Nut Brown ales, this should be the perfect middle of the road beer for you when you want an Amber but are craving the roastedness of a Nut Brown. Plus at only 5% ABV and only 3.49 a 22 you can put a few away in a night and be happy and not broke but get to drink some nice Cali craft brew.

Had this out of a growler poured into a glass. I had filled at the brewery down in Escondido, this beer was nothing like the original smoked porter. It was extremely creamy, with a lovely taste of roasted malt balanced by a subtle vanilla characteristic, not like vanilla syrup but like a vanilla plant. Huge creamy, frothy head which left a wonderful lasting lace around the glass. The main thing i can say about this beer is that after I finished my growler I was kicking myself in the ass for not have getting a 2 liter instead of a 1 liter, but one the bright side I did get to have my 3 liter filled with the 10th anniversary IPA. But back to the porter, they do not bottle it, they only have it on tap at the brewery on occasions so check there site (http://www.stonebrew.com) for growler fills.