Moksa Brewing

Moksa has some hype around it because it is headed by Derek Gallanosa, who brewed for Abnormal Brewing in San Diego, making a name for himself before moving to Sacramento. I stopped by to try some beers at the Sacramento location and he is continuing to brew beers of the same quality.

I started with the zesty time Saison, which was nice and dry with earthy notes and mild fruit character. The flavors were nice and balanced. Orchard Cooler IPA was decent, dry and resinous with very little hop aroma with prominent malt flavors. I did not care for this one and it seems hard to believe that it used to be a hazy IPA.

Pineapple Superfuz, a hazy IPA with pineapple was deliciously juicy with a nice light yellow haze and a creamy body with prominent pineapple character and an acidic hop bite at the finish I brought home a crowler of this beer. I finished with cold steeped, an Imperial Stout with Jamaican blue Mountain coffee. It was wonderfully balanced with a creamy body, notes of toffee and cherry from the coffee with some nice roast to balance it out. The beer hid the alcohol quite well, making it scary drinkable.

Moksa has a good-sized tasting room with plenty of seating and room for food trucks to set up outside. I also found the tasting room to be much quieter than Moonraker.

Top 2:
Pineapple Superfuz Hazy IPA
Zesty Time Saison

New glory

New Glory is fairly new at the time of this writing but they had quite the extensive availability of beers in cans. I tried three different IPAs as well as some other styles and at this time do not recommend you go out of your way to try them for the IPAs, although they show promise. I was quite impressed by their barrel aged Imperial Stout as well as the gose.

All three IPAs I tried tasted basically the same. They were all fairly muted in hop aroma and none of them were particularly creamy. The closest they resembled to me was beers from Aslin brewery in Virginia, where I also thought the IPAs could be better. Liquid Grove was the most flavorful of the three but still fairly mild in citrus character. New trick was slightly boozy in the finish. It is possible that these beers were not as fresh, which would explain the lack of hop aroma.

The bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout hid the alcohol quite well and had notes of strong fudge and molasses with light warming alcohol on the finish. The beer was scarily drinkable for the high alcohol content. The wine barrel aged gose was slightly puckering with mild oak character and notes of lemon finishing with a hint of salt. This beer was quite nicely balanced and enjoyable. I would have considered buying cans if they were available.

I was also a little bit surprised by the price of the tasters at this brewery. They were charging $3.50 for a taster of their hazy IPA. This might seem reasonable if they were getting closer to the level of Moonraker but it seemed a bit ridiculous to me. You are much better off trying a few splashes and then ordering pints. Overall, New Glory is a worthwhile addition to the Sacramento beer scene and a great spot for the locals to enjoy. In time they may get closer to Moonraker in hazy IPA flavor.

Top 2:
BBA Imperial Stout
Wine Barrel aged Gose