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The Six-Pack Project Southern California

September 23, 2014 Paul McGuire 3 Comments

Bryan Roth, of the blog “This is Why I’m Drunk” started a massive collaboration project to explore beer styles in different states. Max at The Beginner’s Brew did a profile of California beers in 2013 focusing mostly on Northern California. To explore a different side of California beers, I volunteered to provide a look at Southern California beers, which will mostly focus on San Diego because it is the biggest.

I tried to make this list explore what makes San Diego different in the beer scene.

1. Alesmith Brewing, Speedway Stout
San Diego, CA
Speedway Stout represents the big bold flavors San Diego is known for and created a style that has become popular with breweries throughout San Diego, the coffee imperial stout. Though there are now many coffee stouts in San Diego, Alesmith has always had one of the best and most popular. Despite its premium price, in part due to the costs of using that much coffee in a beer, it always draws in people because the flavors are so rich. If you happen to visit the brewery in person, they often have special varieties of Speedway made with different types of coffee. The brewery also did a limited bottle-release made with Jamaican coffee.
Sold in 750ml bottles and available year-round.

2. Ballast Point Brewing, Sculpin IPA
San Diego, CA
Though there are many beers that represent the west coast style Sculpin always manages to stick out from the pack. It has many imitators but the blend of hops used gives this beer a unique flavor. Other San Diego IPAs are closer to what I consider the true west-coast style but Sculpin is one of the more balanced ones. Thankfully, Sculpin has largely stayed consistent over the years. Make sure you get a fresh bottle of Sculpin by looking for the coded numbers on the front. If it says 14265 that means that it was brewed on the 265th day of 2014.
Available year-round in 22oz bottles and six-packs. Occasionally available in different varieties, including Grapefruit Sculpin and Habanero Sculpin.

3. Modern Times Brewing, Fortunate Islands Hoppy Wheat
San Diego, CA
Released just about the time when the “Session IPA” was gaining popularity, Fortunate Islands uses two hops, citra and amarillo, that provide a big citrus punch that San Diego brewers love to explore. The varieties of malts used provide a subtle background that gives the hops plenty of room to shine. Since this was first released, it seems that most local breweries have some form of session IPA on tap. What sets this apart from other session IPAs is the fuller body. While other session IPAs tend to taste like hop water, this one feels more like a proper beer.
Available year-round in 4-packs of 16oz cans. Watch for enjoy by dates on a sticker.

4. Stone Brewing Enjoy By IPA
San Diego, CA
Enjoy By IPA is a seasonal beer in a way but it gets released so frequently throughout the year that it is essentially a year-round beer. Stone is one of the biggest San Diego breweries and they decided to send a message of how important it is for IPAs to be served fresh by making a beer where the enjoy by date is so large it is actually part of the name. This beer also represents the style of double IPA that has become quite popular throughout San Diego from a number of breweries. Though the hops change frequently, this is usually a light-colored beer and yet quite strong at 9.4%. The date on the bottle is usually set about a month after bottling so you can get an idea when it was released.
Available in 22oz bottles released fairly regularly.

5. Green Flash 30th Street Pale Ale
San Diego, CA
As it says right on the bottle, a 6% pale ale is only considered a pale ale in San Diego, where beers seem to constantly push the flavor and alcohol content thresholds. Green Flash has been one of the breweries always in this game, with their recent change of the recipes of two mainstay beers, West Coast IPA and Hop Head Red to a delightful yet pretty insane 8.4%. The 30th Street pale has a very floral flavor due to the variety of hops used.
Available in 24 packs and smaller.

6. Alpine Brewing Nelson IPA
San Diego, CA
Though one of the smaller breweries in San Diego, Alpine has a bit of a legendary status among locals. Like Russian River, they go for exclusivity over broad availability in an attempt to make sure that their beers are always fantastic. There may be something to this idea that going big causes a loss in quality and if so, you will always find good beer from Alpine. The Nelson IPA was the first of its kind to focus locals on the flavors of the Nelson hop. Since then, many other breweries have tried their hand at making something similar. Council brewing is a smaller brewery that doesn’t bottle but found success by early on with their own Nelson-hopped IPA. The Nelson IPA may not be the easiest to find but there is a certain allure to scarcity that Alpine is counting on.
Available in 22oz bottles.

If you are interested in reading some of the other posts in the Six-Pack Project, you can find them at the link above. There is even a post about craft beer in Italy!

Narrowing down San Diego to six beers is difficult but not as hard as you think. I didn’t want to make it just a list of IPAs that are all very similar. And because it has to be both year-round and in bottles that makes things a little easier. Still, if you think I am crazy and left out your favorite beer then please let me know in the comments! After all, people reading this can always appreciate more selections of what locals consider the best.

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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Arcana Brewing, Carlsbad California

September 13, 2014 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

In my previous post, I mentioned how close together Arcana and On the Tracks are to each other. Arcana has a much bigger selection of beers to choose from and a bigger tasting room as well. I was surprised by the beers I enjoyed here because some of them were not what I normally like.

Arcana had so many beers on tap that I didn’t get to try them all. It was early when I stopped by and I had things to do later. I ordered a flight of six beers and then was brought some small tastes of two others. I got to try the Honey Pale, the Headbasher Wheat IPA, the Voyager English ale, the coffee Anabelle, the coffee Marley, the Infinity Milk Stout, a special mix of two beers, and the Mead.

The first beer I tasted was the Honey Pale. I don’t normally like honey beers but this one is made with honey malts, not actual honey, so the flavor is not as intense as it is in other beers. It had the perfect amount of sweetness and went down really nice. My husband really liked this one as well. For those curious, honey malts are not simply malts flavored with honey, but a variety of malt that has a sweet flavor that is similar to honey.

Part of the tap list when I visited. Specialty beers were on a smaller board.

The Headbasher Wheat IPA was also quite nice. It had a lot of tropical fruit and citrus hop flavors with a good light sweetness from the malts. The Voyager was a bit plain for me. It was mostly a heavy malt flavor with a little bit of bitterness. The coffee Anabelle was a special version of the Anabelle made for Bacon Fest the day before. By the time I got to try it though, the coffee had mostly gone. I would have liked to have tasted it the day before.

The coffee Marley was also a bit light on the coffee flavor but it had some really great caramel and vanilla flavors. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this one was barrel aged because it had an oak taste similar to many barrel aged beers. My husband finished most of this taster before I got to try more because he loved it. The Infinity Milk Stout was also quite nice. Flavors were mostly roasted malts with a light sweetness.

Before I left, my server brought over a special mix of two beers. She combined the apple ale and a cherry beer, resulting in a nice combination of tart apple and sweet cinnamon. This would be a nice drink to have for dessert. The mead was also quite interesting. It reminded me of a sparkling white wine and would be fun to share a bottle with friends.

Considering that Arcana has only been open for a little over a year and a half, I was quite impressed by their lineup. They are working on a rye IPA for the future, which should be a nice balance to the wheat IPA. I could certainly see the honey pale becoming very popular. Have you gotten to try any of the beers from Arcana? Do you disagree with me about some of these beers? 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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Beer Roundup Round 2 – Beer Bloggers’ Conference 2014

August 26, 2014 Paul McGuire 3 Comments

I’ve written elsewhere about the general experience of visiting the Beer Bloggers’ Conference (BBC) and may go into more detail later about certain aspects of the conference. But I know one thing that many of my readers want to know is, did I try any interesting beers while I was there? The answer is a resounding yes, thanks to many breweries bringing a solid lineup of beers. Though this is not anywhere near all the beers I got to try at the conference, after a certain point your palate becomes shot to the point that you are not going to be able to pick out individual flavors.

Belching Beaver – Rabid Beaver Rye IPA
Rabid Beaver is so light in color that you might wonder where the rye is. The beer has a strong citrus hop flavor at the front with some spicy rye in the background. This one reminded me of the Helm’s Brewing Company Wicked as Sin Rye IPA. Though Wicked as Sin is a bit darker, they both have a nice blend of hop and rye.

Goose Island Licorice Stout
I really enjoyed this beer for the same reason that many licorice fans will probably hate it. You can’t really taste the licorice. As a stout, the beer was very smooth and I found the licorice mostly in the background behind more prominent plum malt flavors.

New English Brewing – Humbly Legit IPA
I’ve written about this one before but it helps to revisit a beer occasionally. Compared to the Rabid Beaver, this one was certainly much more dry and bitter. A very enjoyable IPA.

Hess Solis Occasus IPA
I don’t remember being a fan of this the last time but it always helps to give a beer another try. Served in a can, the Hess IPA poured a nice light color and had plenty of pine hop flavor and a strong bitterness. The interesting thing about the Solis Occasus IPA is that the brewery is very open about changing the recipe for each batch as a way of experimenting with different varieties of hops. This is all the more reason that you should keep trying the Solis Occasus even if you don’t like it the first time.

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack Black Rye IPA
A black IPA is another way of saying you added hops to a stout. In this case, the Wookey Jack is solidly smoky and has some caramel malt flavors that balance well with some spicy rye. Everything is balanced out nicely by the addition of the hops, which I couldn’t really taste, but gave it a solid level of bitterness.

Firestone Walker Double DBA
More recently, Firestone Walker has been releasing a number of special barrel-aged beers. I reviewed an earlier beer in this lineup called Stickee Monkee. The Double DBA starts with a double version of the double barrel ale and includes aging in oak barrels and later a year in a bourbon barrel. I really loved the caramel malt flavors and the boozy bourbon I tasted. The sweet flavors combined and reminded me of roasted coconut. This one was even more impressive than Stickee Monkee.

Have you tried any of these beers listed here? If so, what do you think? 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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Beer Roundup – Round One

August 8, 2014 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

In this first in a new series of posts I like to call beer roundups, I will explore some of the interesting beers that I have tasted over the past week or two. The beers featured here will primarily be ones that you can purchase in the store in 22oz bottles or six-packs. My hope is to provide you with some helpful advice about whether you should pick up that interesting beer in front of you enticing you with its unique (or boring) design. After all, it is better to drink from the comfort of your home so you don’t get a DUI.

This beer roundup series is part of my effort to explore different ways of writing for the audience here. Some people like the format of quick short posts about what I am drinking. If this is you, please follow me on Facebook. Others prefer to read a more lengthy explanation of what was good. Most of these beers showed up on my Facebook page at some point. By gathering multiple reviews into a single post I can make sure everyone has access to the same content even if they don’t want to use Facebook.

This beer roundup will examine the following beers: Pizza Port Brewing* Sessionable IPA, Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi IPA, Modern Times Brewing Phalanx IPA, and Ballast Point’s Bavarian Hopped Double IPA (on tap only).

*Pizza Port Brewing should not be confused with Port Brewing/Lost Abbey. The two are distinct breweries both making fresh beer throughout San Diego. It is understandably a little confusing because the logos do look very similar.

Pizza Port Brewing Sessionable IPA
I was not very excited by the look of this beer so I might have avoided picking it up if I hadn’t been recommended it by someone working at BevMo. Session IPAs are all the rage now and this one fits in nicely with others in the same style. At a mild 4.5% it is perfect for your first beer on a Sunday and yet it has plenty of fantastic hop flavors like I have come to expect. This one is heavy on the citrus side and has a medium bitterness. I especially like that it was released in six-packs of pint cans because I am really starting to like these pint cans. This has many similar hops to the Fortunate Islands Hoppy Wheat from Modern Times and satisfies me just as much. This is a great one to turn to if you can’t find any Fortunate Islands.

Pizza Port SIPA (left), Modus Hoperandi (right)

Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi IPA
I wasn’t familiar with this brewery at all before I saw this beer in the store but who can resist the design of this can? Gangsters, FBI lingo, and bountiful green hop buds call out to me like none other I have seen. This IPA has plenty of strong citrus and pine flavors with a smooth caramel malt backing. I really liked how well the caramel malts worked with the hops featured here. Though I typically don’t like darker maltier IPAs, the malt flavors are subtle enough that they don’t overpower the rest of it. Modus Hoperandi is sold in six-packs of 12-ounce cans. I might have a new favorite here.

Modern Times Brewing Phalanx IPA
The Phalanx IPA is originally only available at the brewery and most likely you will have to go there to get a bottle. I stopped by so that I could give it a taste before I bought some and ended up leaving without any bottles to take home. That isn’t to say that the beer is bad, it just didn’t hit the flavors I crave so much. This is an IPA that grows on you because it doesn’t immediately attack you with potent hops. It shares some dank characteristics with the Modern Times Blazing World (one of my favorites) but focuses the hop flavors more heavily on flavors described by the brewery as juicy. This juicy flavor comes through as a sort of extra sweet ripe melon. The hops in here taste like they are related to the ones Stone used in the recent Unapologetic IPA.

Ballast Point’s Bavarian Hopped Double IPA
The Bavarian Hopped Double IPA is only available at the Little Italy Ballast Point location in San Diego and probably won’t stay on tap for long with the unique flavors it displays. When I stopped by the brewery for a taste I was immediately struck by how sweet and flavorful this beer was without any significant bitter flavors. I would place the IBUs of this beer somewhere around 40 if not lower (which puts it about as bitter as the Fortunate Islands by Modern Times). Most of the flavors I noticed reminded me of ripe tropical fruit. This might be the double IPA to get your friends to try if they are scared of the bitter hop-bombs that have become regular around San Diego.

Tasters at Ballast Point. Bavarian Hopped Double IPA is on the left.

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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Portland Beer Adventures Part 8 – Hopworks Urban Brewery

June 15, 2014 Paul McGuire Leave a comment

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) is another one of those big breweries that I tried outside of Portland and had to stop by. They wanted me to try a large number of tasters in order to get a flight so I elected to do a few small tastes since I was on my way to the waterfall. I ended up trying most of their beers I was interested in. In all I tried the Hopworks IPA, Survival Stout, Cascadian Dark Ale, UK Style IPA, White IPA, Kentucky Christmas, and Army of Darkness.

The Hopworks IPA had a nice bright pine flavor but it was also joined by some unpleasant soapy flavor possibly from using too much mosaic. The soapy taste kept me from enjoying this one very much. The Survival Stout was quite drinkable with a nice mix of coffee and roasted malts. It was not as full bodied as I prefer in my stouts and didn’t really stand out in any way.

The Cascadian Dark Ale was an interesting style I hadn’t heard of before but it seems in the Pacific Northwest area breweries like to hop up dark ales and since they use Cascade hops frequently it makes sense to give it a whole new name. It was good and balanced but to me felt like the hops could have been made a bit more prominent. The UK style IPA was far too mellow for my tastes and didn’t have much unique flavor to it.

The White IPA was quite dry and bitter but didn’t seem to have much of a particular hop flavor to recommend it. I didn’t much care for this one. The Kentucky Christmas was a delightful treat, a bourbon barrel aged Winter beer. The underlying beer let the bourbon flavors shine. I didn’t have much of this because it was on the stronger side and I was on the way to a hike. Finally, the Army of Darkness was a unique chocolate raspberry Russian Imperial Stout. If you have ever had raspberry filled chocolates before, this does a fantastic job of presenting that in a beer. The two flavors went really well together but like the previous one I wasn’t ready to order a full pour of something so strong at the time.

In all, I was mostly pretty let down by the mainstay beers offered by HUB but they did have some fantastic specialty beers. If you enjoy the more mellow Northwest IPAs then you might like the IPA. I did not eat any food while I was visiting HUB.

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

Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Six-Pack Project Southern California

Paul McGuire

Arcana Brewing, Carlsbad California

Paul McGuire

Beer Roundup Round 2 – Beer Bloggers’ Conference 2014

Paul McGuire

Beer Roundup – Round One

Paul McGuire

Portland Beer Adventures Part 8 – Hopworks Urban Brewery

Paul McGuire

Exploring San Diego's Craft Breweries