It is impossible to taste and cover all the beers Port Brewing and Lost Abbey offer in their shared location in one go. Lost Abbey tends to focus on Abbey style Belgian beers while Port is more in the style of West Coast IPAs. I might eventually come back to review the offerings of Lost Abbey but this post covers exclusively Port Brewing beers. It is interesting that most of the signage in the brewery is for Lost Abbey. It is as if Port is just along for the ride. I didn’t have a ton of time when I stopped by so I asked them to give me tasters of the hoppiest beers on tap, which were all from Port Brewing.
This resulted in an interesting selection that was mostly on the heavy side. The beers I tasted were Anniversary, Wipeout IPA, Mongo IIPA, Shark Attack, and Grommett Session IPA. Though served in that order I tasted them in order from light to strong. Good thing too, because I wouldn’t have tasted the Grommett after Shark Attack.
From left to right, Anniversary, Wipeout, Mongo, Shark Attack, Grommett.
The Grommett was a great session IPA, light but bursting with hop flavors. I could see myself buying this in a six-pack if it becomes available. It had a crisp floral/pine flavor and overall quite satisfying. The Wipeout IPA was a proper West Coast style IPA with tropical fruit and dank hopy flavors. It was on the sticky side and solidly bitter as well. I enjoyed it but I found the Mongo to be more to my tastes.
The Mongo IIPA is a favorite among my friends in San Diego and it was nice to taste this at the source. Though it is 8.5% the hop flavors are nicely pronounced. The Mongo is a delicious blend of Amarillo, Columbus, and Cascade hops. It is certainly the Columbus and Cascade that I enjoy more than anything. The beer has a solid citrus and pine with an intense bitterness that is just what I love to taste.
The Shark Attack was certainly a powerful beer, knocking me out with intense malt flavors and a little bit of hop in the background barely noticeable. I am not a fan of the thick syrupy malt flavors and this one was the best example of what I don’t enjoy. I’d be surprised if in total I finished 1/3 of the taster. Finally I ended with the Anniversary, an extra strong pale ale that is closer to a Tripple IPA. This one was also thick and syrupy with strong tropical fruit and citrus. I finished it but just barely. The syrupy flavors were almost too much for me.
In the end, nothing came close to the delicious flavors of the Mongo. If you decide to drop by Port and are looking for some hops, I would suggest you go for either the Wipeout or the Mongo.
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.
I had the pleasure of enjoying the Road Warrior last year when it appeared briefly at the tasting room. I really enjoyed it then and was a bit disappointed when it went away. Though a brief rye IPA release came back later in the year it just wasn’t the same. Thankfully, Green Flash decided to release many of their special beers in bigger batches, now with bottles as well. While available on tap at the brewery, the Road Warrior is also available in 4-packs of 12 ounce bottles and 22 ounce bottles. This review is based on drinking the beer on tap at the brewery.
Green Flash Road Warrior
The beer pours a dark amber color and has some nice pine and citrus aromas to start. I really liked the combination of flavors from the Columbus, Mosaic, and Amarillo hops. They blend nicely with the flavors of the rye to create a balanced beer. As I got further into my beer, I noticed that the hops were a bit overpowered by the rye. The rye flavors give the beer a thicker mouthfeel and a slight syrupy flavor as well, similar to heavy malt beers. Overall, this was an enjoyable beer that could have been a little stronger on the hops for my tastes. However, if you like more malt in your IPAs, this one is perfect for you.
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.
Poor House had a smaller taplist and so I didn’t try as many. I stopped by here on my way home from Thorn Street Brewing so I didn’t try as much as I might have if this was my first stop. I ended up with three tasters, the Experimental #6 IPA, the Bitter Side Imperial IPA, and the Cluster Fukk IPA.
Keep in mind this brewery only accepts cash, which I haven’t seen at any other brewery in San Diego before. Also, they serve their beers in mason jars. The tasters are smaller mason jar pours.
The Experimental #6 IPA was quite impressive. It had all the flavors I come to expect from San Diego IPAs with some nice grapefruit flavors at the front. It is a nice light colored IPA and quite tasty. The Bitter Side Imperial IPA was tasty though a bit heavy on the malts for me. It mostly had a strong caramel malt flavor at the front with some tropical fruit hops at the back. It is pretty low on the bitterness so it should hopefully satisfy hop fans who don’t like bitter.
I really enjoyed the Cluster Fukk. The flavor that came through strongest was lemon, most likely from the Cluster hops. It made the beer very crisp and refreshing. This one was my favorite of the night followed by Experimental #6.
Though Poor House didn’t have any stouts of porters when I was there, they said they do tend to have some versions of one or the other at times. I was quite impressed by the IPAs they had on tap.
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.
Thorn Street Brewing has a relaxing atmosphere and many delicious beers for every taste. I decided to stop by after a failed attempt to visit Mission Beach left me frustrated and in need of a beer. With so many beers on tap, I didn’t get to try every one but the ones I tried gave me a good taste of the selection.
To start with, I tried their Session IPA, a Spicy Session IPA, and the Oatmeal Stout. The session IPA had a nice pine flavor with some nice citrus, similar to the Lagunitas Session. It is mellow enough that it should be nice to drink on the beach. The spicy session was a bit on the hot side, which surprised me. It wasn’t as hot as the Habanero Sculpin but still hotter than a lot of other similar beers. The oatmeal stout had a nice mellow flavor with some sweet caramel and hints of chocolate. This one would likely satisfy fans of the style.
Next I got tasters of the Relay IPA, Tropic Daze IPA, and Red Headed Hop Child. The Relay had a nice crisp flavor to match the light color. It was more piney than citrus though it did have a light citrus on the back. The Tropical Daze had a heavy tropical fruit flavor with a bit of pineapple flavor up front. This was one of my favorites of the night. The Red Headed Hop Child disappointed me because it was a lot heavier on the malts than the hops. I thought it could use a lot more hops so what I had didn’t satisfy me at all.
To finish it off, I had some Rye Stafari, Menace, and the Barrel Aged Imperial Porter. The Rye Stafari gave me a heavy dose of smoke with roasted malts up front. It was pretty boring and dry tasting and didn’t impress. The Menace was almost a double version of the Tropic Daze though it did have some other varieties of hops to give it a different flavor. This was an impressive double IPA that went down smooth. The Barrel Aged Imperial Porter had the right amount of bourbon flavor to match the sweet coconut and went down smooth.
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.
IPAs have become so popular that everyone wants a piece of the pie. Samuel Adams decided to make a West Coast style IPA so I had to give it a try to see if it was any good. I question the use of the name rebel to describe it because it has almost become an act of conformity to make an IPA in this style. Still, this beer has an alluring packaging and claims to use many of the hops that are popular on the west coast. Is it any good?
The rebel IPA pours a light amber color and has a strong pine scent on the nose. The first thing I tasted was a strong malt flavor with some pine hops. I checked the bottle and noticed it is one month away from the enjoy by date. This tells me that this beer might have had a bit more citrus flavor if I had tried some sooner after the release. Still, my second beer had a bit more citrus flavor and both had plenty of hop flavor. Considering my general dislike for all things Samuel Adams, the Rebel IPA is surprisingly good. It didn’t blow me away as much as my favorites but the freshness could be a big factor in that. It is as close as I have tasted from Samuel Adams to the West Coast style and for that I applaud them.
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.
