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.
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.
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 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.
Alesmith released a special Pale Ale in collaboration with San Diego Padres baseball legend Tony Gwynn called San Diego Pale 394 in honor of his best batting average. The beer was officially released on Saturday June 14, 2014, just a few days before Gwynn’s untimely passing. When news spread widely on Monday June 16 of his passing I immediately wondered how Alesmith would respond. Through a post on their Facebook page, Alesmith announced that all proceeds from the beer would be donated to The Tony & Alicia Gwynn Foundation.
I previously wasn’t going to rush out to try the San Diego Pale but once Tony Gwynn passed, I had to support his memory and get as many friends as I could to join. When I stopped by yesterday Alesmith also had two other special beers I wanted to try, the Baltic Porter and the Ethiopian Coffee Speedway Stout. The San Diego Pale 394 is a 6% pale ale so it is almost an IPA.
Specialty beers available as of June 17, 2014.
I started with tasters of the San Diego Pale, Baltic Porter, Old Ale, and Ethiopian Speedway. The San Diego Pale immediately impressed me with its smooth low bitterness and delicious bright hop profile. The beer is very crisp sporting primarily pine and floral flavors. It is a nice light-colored pale that should satisfy fans of Alesmith’s X extra pale and IPA.
Tasters from left to right, SD Pale, Baltic Porter, Old Ale, Ethiopian Speedway.
The Baltic Porter was a bit disappointing to me compared to the previous small batch porter Alesmith had earlier in the year. The flavors of plum and ripe fruit dominate and leave any chocolate flavors hiding in the background. I didn’t review the Old Ale because I’ve already realized that I don’t particularly care for Alesmith’s heavy malt beers (besides the stout). The Ethiopian Speedway was a fantastic combination of nutty and chocolate flavors that came from the coffee itself. This is one of the more interesting varieties of Speedway that I have gotten to try up there with the Vietnamese Coffee version.
To go along with the beer, Alesmith had a number of images of Tony Gwynn around the tasting room. I especially liked the full size shot of Gwynn in his earlier days on the wall. Though I am not a big baseball fan, I do have many fond memories of Tony Gwynn from the few games I attended with my dad as a child. He was the one player that I always noticed and admired.
After finishing the tasters I ordered a pint of the SD Pale. I was surprised to notice that the Summer Yulesmith was already sold out on tap so only bottles remained. This made the SD Pale my favorite brew currently available at the tasting room. The extra freshness really makes the flavors pop. Come by the tasting room soon to taste this delicious pale and help support The Tony & Alicia Gwynn Foundation by having a few pints. If you can’t make it by the tasting room, the pale should eventually be released in 12 ounce bottles for you to enjoy at home.
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.
Among the San Diego beers, there is one thing that I look forward to twice every year. That is the Yulesmith from Alesmith, a specialty brew that is released each Summer and Winter. Each year it is fantastic and this year’s is no exception. Unlike most specialty Summer ales, which tend to be on the lighter side, the Summer Yulesmith is a hopped up Double IPA at a nice solid 8.5%. This would go well with the new recipe of Hop Head Red and West Coast IPA from Green Flash.
Alesmith Summer Yulesmith 2014.
This beer pours a nice middle color on the IPA scale, similar to a light amber. It has plenty of light citrus flavor and pine balanced out by enough malts that it doesn’t get too in-your-face. I might have liked more hops in this beer but I also appreciate attempts to balance out a beer. From the bitterness I tasted this is probably somewhere around 85 IBU, so it is a good middle ground for those hooked on the bitter brews.
Summer Yulesmith is available in 22oz bottles at most of the stores where you see Alesmith beers and at the tasting room. This is the perfect beer to use to bring your hop head friends along to the Alesmith tasting room if they haven’t been there yet.
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.
Stone has been making IPAs for so long that inevitably they would feel an urge to push the envelope when it comes to flavor. Earlier this year they put out an intense grapefruit IPA and this latest experiment brings in two rockers to add in the fun. Collective Distortion is brewed with a base of an undisclosed hop variety and adds on top of that the flavors of elderberry and coriander.
I was a bit curious what exactly an elderberry is so I did a little reading online. According to Wikipedia it is similar to the huckleberry and the blueberry. Some areas commonly use elderberry to make wines and cordials as well as sweet syrups from the blossoms. Most of these flavors are more commonly enjoyed around Europe so it adds an interesting twist to a San Diego beer.
Stone Collective Distortion IPA. (Beer on the left is Stone IPA not Collective Distortion)
Poured into a glass, Collective Distortion is an amber color right in the middle of the color scale for IPAs. The beer in the glass pictured is not collective distortion. When I first had some at a friend’s house I could barely taste the berries under the flavor of the hops. In contrast, the bottle I had at home was much more tart from the berries with some nice mellow coriander flavors complimenting the flavors nicely. It is certainly a bitter brew although it didn’t have the overwhelming bright citrus flavor you might expect from a Stone IPA.
I was quite satisfied with what I tasted in this brew although I am not sure that I would rush out to buy a case. I still tend towards the citrus focus on my IPAs. This is certainly a beer that every IPA fan should grab and try at least once.
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.
Council Brewing is currently in a soft opening phase but you wouldn’t know it from visiting. They are already offering a good variety of brews that will satisfy the majority of beer fans who show up and have a professional look inside.
With the gavels for tap heads you’d be excused for assuming it has something to do with the law. When I asked, I was told that the brewers wanted to set up a place for having debate and discussion. It just happened that the name made sense to include some gavels. They also have free Wi-Fi that is properly secured.
Beer wise, I was quite impressed with the lineup at Council. Small breweries come in all shapes and sizes but I think Council is going to become big very quickly. Not only do they have a fantastic stout and IPA but some of the other beers are very solid as well.
I decided to get a flight of six tasters so that I could try every beer currently offered. This meant that I had a taste of the Farmer’s Gold Saison, Lively Banter Hoppy Wheat, America’s Finest Pale Ale, Gavel Drop IPA, Imperial Oatmeal Stout, and Belgian Triple. Even though some of the lighter offerings didn’t blow me away, I was still quite impressed with the lineup on the whole.
Saison farmers gold
I’m not normally a fan of this style of beer but this is a tasty one. The beer has a little sweet flavor and not too sour. I think the higher alcohol content helps to mellow it out a bit compared to the typical Saison.
Lively banter (hoppy wheat)
Hop flavors come primarily from Centennial. This beer isn’t as insanely hopped as the modern times beer in a similar style. It won’t satisfy those looking for a session ipa style but it has some solid flavor. Flavors of the wheat still hang around, giving it a balanced flavor.
America’s finest pale ale
Delicious crisp flavor and not as heavy as the green flash pale. Great citrus flavor and not too heavy on the malt. The brewers said that this was supposed to be closer to 5.5% but ended up 6.1 by the time it was brewed so future versions should be a little lighter on the alcohol.
Gavel drop ipa
This beer has the quintessential San Diego IPA flavors from the Nelson hops. This beer was so popular that the brewery almost ran out of the first batch before the second batch was done. Hard to say if it is going to last much longer. If you aren’t familiar with Nelson hops this is likely to make you a convert. The grapefruit flavors it offers have become popular among hop addicts like myself. San Diego beer fans who can’t seem to find the Nelson IPA from Alpine Brewing should come by and check this out.
Gavel Drop, Imperial Stout, and Tripel.
Imperial oatmeal stout
Thick and sweet this should satisfy fans of stouts and porters. Flavors of milk chocolate are clear and a little caramel. Little alcohol sweetness finishes it out. Very impressive. I left here with a 32oz growler full of the stout because it really impressed me. I think my husband would really like this one.
Belgian triple
Bright citrus flavors and a bit sweet. Not too heavy. Great flavor. Though it is a little sweet like you would expect from a Belgian beer, it isn’t overly so. This beer was also a bit different than the typical beer of the style you might see around San Diego.
In the end, I was quite impressed by Council Brewing and I think they will have great success once they officially open sometime in June. For now you should make your way over to try the stout or the IPA. Both are excellent and likely to draw large followings.
UPDATE New Beers on May 30, 2014
I returned to Council brewing a few weeks after my first visit to introduce some friends to the beers and I noticed they added three beers that weren’t available when I was last there. Here is what I thought of each.
Chazzam! IPA is a lighter colored IPA that uses a number of piney and citrusy hops in a deliciously crisp brew. It is also a little cheaper per glass than the Gavel Drop because it doesn’t use those elusive Nelson hops. The new Imperial Red is not what you would expect. This is not some overly sweet brew but instead a smoky beer with a light hop kick. I really enjoyed it. Finally the Belgian Dubbel was a solid representation of the style with plenty of plum malts and the spice flavors that come from the Belgian yeast. Some time soon they should be debuting their ESB so stay tuned and come back to Council.
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.
