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HB best bitter.

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NYE brunch. Spyglass. Chicken tacos and their quad cask on eclairs. Can only get ugly from here on out! Sneaky easy drinking quad. I don't usually like dessert adjuncts but this is good. I really like the normal quad but this has added mouthfeel, aroma and just a tinge of extra sweetness. If you were to say it was conditioned on eclairs I'd have no clue. Sorry I missed the gingerbread cookie one

The firkin
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EDIT: talked with one of the owners on check out and not conditioned on eclairs but just added variances of malts and Belgian candy
 

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When I was in school and purchasing my first beers, there were about 15 choices available to us – mostly domestic fizzy yellow lagers. There were also a few premium beers like Michelob or Lowenbrau. Most were all the American regulars, Budweiser, Schlitz, Miller, Pabst and then larger regionals like Rainier and Olympia. You could also buy Schmidt, Hamm's, Lucky Lager and Blitz Weinhard, even Stroh’s was found in the beer case once in a while. Names like Coors were for trips into Colorado territory, they weren’t even sold in my area. Then of course there were a few of the Malt Liquors, whatever malt liquor was. Seemed related to beer, we weren’t really sure. Names like Schlitz Malt Liquor, Olde English 800 and Mickey’s. Then there were a few seasonal offerings, like Bock beer or dark beer every once in a while. That was the beer scene, love it or leave it.

Compare that to today. Talk about total market deluge of every type of beer imaginable. Plus all the hard seltzers and ciders digging in to the available beer market. Every time I head down to BevMo or Total Wine and More, I am absolutely blown away by the offerings. The types and varieties are spellbinding. The biggest one of all is the IPA market, both West Coast and NEIPA Hazy styles. Going up and down the IPA row, a single human cannot keep up with the rapid-fire release of every tweak on IPA’s you can think of, many brewers releasing 3, 4, 5 or more different IPA’s simultaneously. I’ll come right out and say it, many of these are IPA “flavors”, the base beer being similar with different hops and hopping levels constantly changing. Like going to a cookie or chocolate shop and being inundated with the thousands of variations possible. Those thousands of permutations are all available today in that thing we loosely refer to as IPA.

It really is like counting the stars in the sky there are so many IPAs out there. Then as soon as they exist, they burn out like a dying star, only to be replaced by three more by the same brewery! IPA’s have become a constant whirlpool of different beers. Some stay a few years, most are replaced quickly like a batch run by the brewer for drinking in their tasting rooms. Maybe that is what they are, the free expressions of their master brewers trying this or that hop at different flavor or aroma additions or dry hopping amounts – then sell the batch!

IPA’s traditionally were a British thing. It took quite some time for ships to make their way to the British colonies without spoilage. For the India run, brewers would stuff the wooden kegs with hops to prevent spoilage and souring (ironic how many sours there are too, but that’s another day.) By the time the kegs made it to their thirsty patrons, the beer was hoppy indeed. Today’s IPA’s have grown in every direction. During Pre-Prohibition a number of brewers released IPA’s, Ballantine being one of the more well-known early American IPA’s. Since that time things have really taken off. The West Coast, San Diego and Portland were early brewers of hoppy ales and IPA’s.

As they have grown in popularity, a feature of many of these is a huge leap in the ABV, alcohol percentage pushing constantly upward – 8 – 9 – 10% ABV and more. This really makes a huge presentation. Beers this hoppy and alcoholic are not for casual chugging. These are extra strong beers you drink to get hammered or to prove that you have the fortitude, constitution or mental desire to drink big beers. They are strong in terms of alcohol and they are strong in terms of hopping. The high hopping pushes out the maltiness of the pint, and not always in a good way. I think the human tendency is to push all things to the breaking limit and some of these IPA’s are there. In my own life, I’ve always enjoyed beers around 5% ABV. For me, I can drink a bunch of beer (I do like volumes of beer) – I’d prefer 4 pints of 5-6% ABV beer much more than 2 pints of 9-10% ABV for example. Most of these “BIG” IPA’s I think are for the “Dude it’s 10%, I’m so wasted” crowd, rather than regular drinkers. Not to say there aren’t big beer lovers out there, all I’m saying is you don’t chug 4 of those beers like you might on a 5% ABV beer. Most of the IPA’s especially those available individually in 16oz or 16.9 oz/500 ml or 22 oz cans are bigger beers.

This month I’ll be drinking a LOT of IPA’s. Most are California and West Coast breweries (not to be confused with West Coast IPA’s.) The process of collecting these samples takes a while, with trips to multiple locations that sell individual cans for the past month. I’m not into those “4-can for 20 bucks packs, I want ONE can to buy and to drink individually. There are a few from around the country, and notably a small batch from the North Carolina area sent to me by my beer-loving Daughter MD. Just what the Doctor ordered!

Many of you will be doing alcoholic gymnastic flips when I tell you that I’m going to water down this or that IPA with some Coors light after sampling and writing about the beer. Personally, I enjoy drinking beer at regular concentrations and some “10 percenters” are just too much for me to enjoy. Water it back in the glass with some flavor-neutral Coors light and you have a nice drinkable and delicious 6% IPA, score! Blasphemy! Plus you get more IPA to drink!
 
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Today’s chugs are going to hit on some of the earlier IPA’s in California history, say 1985 forward. A lot of IPA’s found in the early days (late 1980’s forward) just aren’t around any longer. Today we’ll be sampling an American classic, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Whoa, you said IPA’s! Well, we all know that Sierra Nevada is a hoppy APA, and do have several IPA’s out currently. I consider Sierra Nevada Pale Ale what I would call a “Proto-IPA” in that it is hopped up a lot higher than was typical 30 years ago, and pioneered the use of Cascade hops, an identifiable and delicious addition found in many IPA’s. So while not an actual IPA, it blazed the trail for what soon followed.

Also included in today’s indulgence is the IPA that started it all for me, Stone IPA. Based out of Escondido, it is the quintessential West Coast IPA, probably the remaining Grand-Pappy of the West Coast style. Ballast Point’s Sculpin is another. So is Firestone Walker’s Union Jack. Heck, we’re building into New Year’s Eve tonight, why not get a head start and drink all 4 of them!

Sierra Nevada – Classic Traditional hop-forward American Pale Ale, 5.6% ABV, Can/bottle conditioned, features Cascade hops. Chico, CA – believed to be the source of the “Chico” strain used by many brewers.

Stone – The IPA that started it all for me. Drinking it back-to-back with Sierra Nevada, it doesn’t seem as hoppy to me as it did with my Virgin-taste buds prior to the current beer era. Back then it was total shock value! 6.9% ABV, a classic West Coaster. Of course back then, they were all what we now call “West Coasters” - hazy beer meant you missed a protein rest or were having trouble clearing your batch. Boy have things changed!

Firestone Walker Union Jack – Great IPA, I suspect the name harkens back to the British Roots of IPAs. 7% ABV, there’s something else going on here, maybe Simcoe. Delicious.

Ballast Point Sculpin – Another 7% ABV brew, hard to tell though. Somewhat similar to Stone, maybe a bit more grapefruit/citrus ester in the presentation.

That’s it, 4 EARLY great brews. As we head into the January IPA Extravaganza, I thought I’d lay down the basics and where we’ve come from. Yes I know I’m missing a few, but frankly a lot of them are gone, Blind Pig, Temecula; Anchor, San Francisco; This is what we are drinking that is left from the originals. I’ll be enjoying these this afternoon, maybe it would be a good idea to UBER it home tonight. Cheers!

IMG_6482.jpeg
 
Beermeister32 said:
When I was in school and purchasing my first beers, there were about 15 choices available to us – mostly domestic fizzy yellow lagers. There were also a few premium beers like Michelob or Lowenbrau. Most were all the American regulars, Budweiser, Schlitz, Miller, Pabst and then larger regionals like Rainier and Olympia. You could also buy Schmidt, Hamm's, Lucky Lager and Blitz Weinhard, even Stroh’s was found in the beer case once in a while. Names like Coors were for trips into Colorado territory, they weren’t even sold in my area. Then of course there were a few of the Malt Liquors, whatever malt liquor was. Seemed related to beer, we weren’t really sure. Names like Schlitz Malt Liquor, Olde English 800 and Mickey’s. Then there were a few seasonal offerings, like Bock beer or dark beer every once in a while. That was the beer scene, love it or leave it.

Compare that to today. Talk about total market deluge of every type of beer imaginable. Plus all the hard seltzers and ciders digging in to the available beer market. Every time I head down to BevMo or Total Wine and More, I am absolutely blown away by the offerings. The types and varieties are spellbinding. The biggest one of all is the IPA market, both West Coast and NEIPA Hazy styles. Going up and down the IPA row, a single human cannot keep up with the rapid-fire release of every tweak on IPA’s you can think of, many brewers releasing 3, 4, 5 or more different IPA’s simultaneously. I’ll come right out and say it, many of these are IPA “flavors”, the base beer being similar with different hops and hopping levels constantly changing. Like going to a cookie or chocolate shop and being inundated with the thousands of variations possible. Those thousands of permutations are all available today in that thing we loosely refer to as IPA.

It really is like counting the stars in the sky there are so many IPAs out there. Then as soon as they exist, they burn out like a dying star, only to be replaced by three more by the same brewery! IPA’s have become a constant whirlpool of different beers. Some stay a few years, most are replaced quickly like a batch run by the brewer for drinking in their tasting rooms. Maybe that is what they are, the free expressions of their master brewers trying this or that hop at different flavor or aroma additions or dry hopping amounts – then sell the batch!

IPA’s traditionally were a British thing. It took quite some time for ships to make their way to the British colonies without spoilage. For the India run, brewers would stuff the wooden kegs with hops to prevent spoilage and souring (ironic how many sours there are too, but that’s another day.) By the time the kegs made it to their thirsty patrons, the beer was hoppy indeed. Today’s IPA’s have grown in every direction. During Pre-Prohibition a number of brewers released IPA’s, Ballantine being one of the more well-known early American IPA’s. Since that time things have really taken off. The West Coast, San Diego and Portland were early brewers of hoppy ales and IPA’s.

As they have grown in popularity, a feature of many of these is a huge leap in the ABV, alcohol percentage pushing constantly upward – 8 – 9 – 10% ABV and more. This really makes a huge presentation. Beers this hoppy and alcoholic are not for casual chugging. These are extra strong beers you drink to get hammered or to prove that you have the fortitude, constitution or mental desire to drink big beers. They are strong in terms of alcohol and they are strong in terms of hopping. The high hopping pushes out the maltiness of the pint, and not always in a good way. I think the human tendency is to push all things to the breaking limit and some of these IPA’s are there. In my own life, I’ve always enjoyed beers around 5% ABV. For me, I can drink a bunch of beer (I do like volumes of beer) – I’d prefer 4 pints of 5-6% ABV beer much more than 2 pints of 9-10% ABV for example. Most of these “BIG” IPA’s I think are for the “Dude it’s 10%, I’m so wasted” crowd, rather than regular drinkers. Not to say there aren’t big beer lovers out there, all I’m saying is you don’t chug 4 of those beers like you might on a 5% ABV beer. Most of the IPA’s especially those available individually in 16oz or 16.9 oz/500 ml or 22 oz cans are bigger beers.

This month I’ll be drinking a LOT of IPA’s. Most are California and West Coast breweries (not to be confused with West Coast IPA’s.) The process of collecting these samples takes a while, with trips to multiple locations that sell individual cans for the past month. I’m not into those “4-can for 20 bucks packs, I want ONE can to buy and to drink individually. There are a few from around the country, and notably a small batch from the North Carolina area sent to me by my beer-loving Daughter MD. Just what the Doctor ordered!

Many of you will be doing alcoholic gymnastic flips when I tell you that I’m going to water down this or that IPA with some Coors light after sampling and writing about the beer. Personally, I enjoy drinking beer at regular concentrations and some “10 percenters” are just too much for me to enjoy. Water it back in the glass with some flavor-neutral Coors light and you have a nice drinkable and delicious 6% IPA, score! Blasphemy! Plus you get more IPA to drink!
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They cross from IPA to double IPA and from there to barleywine.

I’m a fan of some bigger beers. But as you said correctly these are not chugging beers. They are beers to be sipped and savored in a brandy snifter or a tulip glass.

I like barleywine and RIS much more when its cold outside. I brew a batch of each every year to lay down for the following year to have through the winter. I regard these as special and I don’t drink them all the time or every day. Around holidays like Christmas or New Year or if it snows one of those is great to drink after you shovel your walk.

Some of the big commercial examples are a real treat. Samichlaus is still fantastic. It used to be touted as the strongest beer in the world, long replaced by one after another on up to Utopia at some whopping percentage like 23%. Is that really even beer? Bigfoot is one many people look forward to every year. I just received a bottle of Bigfoot 2013 at our clubs annual Christmas beer exchange.

I go for these more so than strong IPAs or double IPAs. I also can go for a good doppelbock like Ayinger Celebrator as a rich beer thats a special treat. Though that is only about 6.5% these days. I thought I remembered it being stronger than that.

I just got some Bourbon Barrel Triplenator and Impending Descent from Teoegs, 12.7 oz bottles with corks. Try $39 for a 4 pack.

As I’ve gotten older I’m not as big a fan of the super hopped IPAs. I find I get really bad heartburn the next day.
 
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Spent a good part of today in the woodshop, working on a computer desk for my wife. Building it from red oak. A late christmas present--should have it done in a few days.

Having a very low-key NYE at home. Working on a growler of Groziskie.

Everybody have a happy and safe New Years!

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