21st Amendment

I've been drinking 21st Amendment's Brew Free or Die for awhile now, ever since 99 Bottles got it in on tap. It's a pretty solid IPA - nice citrus and floral aroma, sweet initially on the tongue, then followed up with some killer hops. It's not super dry and has a well-balanced body and overall I'd totally recommend it.



Given my seal of approval for this particular brew, I've been trying out some of the other offerings from 21st Amendment.

The second type I tried was the Back in Black from a can. It's called an "India Black Ale", which is a bit odd, but I can dig it. I was a little surprised to see it served up in a can (grabbed out of the backpack of my local bartender and handed to me as a gift within his own bar where he probably should have been trying to get me to purchase beer, but let's put that aside). Regardless of the can, the beer was alright. I say, the more flavor the better, and this baby has a powerhouse of malts with a killer hop backbone to really knock you out. It's a pretty crimson-black in hue with a short lived tan head and you could say it's like a chocolate covered grapefruit with a cup o' charred joe on the side. Hoppy citrus, malty chocolate, and bitterness all around. Yet, still with a good balance and somewhat smooth. It's, ya know, aight.



Well, turns out Trader Joe's is serving up 6-packs of Brew Free, Back in Black, and Fireside Chat now, so I grabbed me the FDR themed brewsky and went to town. It calls itself a spicy winter ale, and I guess I would agree with that. It smells sweet and spicy and upon tasting it is creamy and smooth, but with the liveliness of cinnamon and nutmeg and a bit of fruity zest. It's not the greatest spice-infused winter ale I've ha, but it's pretty damn decent. The only thing that sucks is that it's $9 for a 6-pack of can of any of these beers from TJ's. Not the best deal.

Boatswain Twin Screw Steamer Double IPA

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here. Don't worry, I've been drinking loads of beer; I just have also been overwhelmed with jobs and school. But here we return with a beer I just bought from Trader Joe's.



I bought the 22oz bomber Boatswain Twin Screw Steamer double IPA from Minhas Craft mainly because I had never tried it, nor anything from this brewery, and it was a big, potent bottle of booze for 2 bucks. Can't beat that.

I was pleased with how it poured - a nice copper color, but with a slight head that quickly dissipated. Stick your nose in that baby and you might be surprised. I swear it smells like bad whiskey. The booze really comes through, but it surprisingly smells nothing like any IPA or double I've ever whiffed. I kind of think it smells like tecate...

The taste goes right along with this. The bad liquor feel translates from sniff to sip and although it's hoppy-bitter, it's also corn syrupy sweet. There are just a lot of unpleasant flavors coming through here with little pleasantness to balance it out.

So, in the long run, this is a cheap, boozey beer at around 8%, but it really ain't tasty... But it's $2!

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery

The Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery is not in the mountains. This was a disappointment. At first. To me the greatest possible thing in the world would be a brewery in the mountains. But, hey, the westside ain't all that bad.

Anyway, this is a great bar/brewery. They allow dogs inside and out and have the bar right next to the brewery which is easily ocularly accessible. I like to come here on Mondays and Tuesdays for all day happy hour, which gets you $3.50 pints of fresh, micro-brewed beer made right next door - can't beat that. They serve food from Kelly's at exorbitant prices, so I would come with food already in your belly.

So, the beer. Honestly, I'm not too crazy about any of the beers here. The IPA is passable, the double that I recently tried was slightly better, but the People's Porter is like sour, stale coffee and the Devout Stout tastes like beef jerky. I kid you not. Their amber is lackluster, but with no real problems aside from if you require flavor with your beer and the best thing about the Wilder Wheat is the homage to a local landmark. But, I can drink the beers here and I really like the vibe, so I'll take a meh pint for three bucks and change.

Seabright Brewery, Santa Cruz

Next brewery on the list: Seabright Brewery in Santa Cruz. I've heard about this place's Neighborhood Night for ages and wanted to go for the mere cheapness of it, but never got around to it. Until now.

I went on a Sunday afternoon, which is their nothing day, like most places. No deals, but there was an "important" football game on so it was still quite packed. This forced us onto the outdoor patio area, which was spacious and nice, but cold even with the outdoor heaters. Now, I don't really know what I was expecting, but this is what I was hoping: a new divey brewery in town where I can hang out by my onesie and do homework or read or write or chat with the barflies. This is what Seabright is: a large bar/restaurant that leans towards restaurant that happens to have its own specially brewed beer. That's vibe only. I mean, it pretty much feels like a sports bar filled with bros. I went tonight for neighborhood night and this fact was confirmed. But, this blog is less about ambiance and more about beer so let's get to it.

Above you can see my first beer of the day (and my second). It's called Johnny Bravo named after the Bravo hops used for the brew. It was a golden pale ale, nice and hoppy and citrusy, with crystal and munich malts to add a nice sweetness. It is heavy with a pleasant viscosity, a texture that lingers, you know. It's not dry and light like their Blur IPA. It's satisfying with a bangin' body.

This dark devil was their oatmeal stout. I used to love this variety of stout, but the last several oatmeal stouts I've tried have been meh. I'm not into the Firestone Velvet Merlin, nor the Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout. I guess the one I used to drink was by Votive Light and who knows if I would still find it tasty. This particular brew from Seabright was aight. It had the sort of stale sourness I typically find in this type of beer, but it was palatable.

Here's a happy Blur drinker.

This lady enjoyed her secret something or other (I'm sorry, I can't remember what it was, but it was a wheat beer specially served as a guest beer).

That little cup there is a Desmond. It comes in a 12oz cup with a 10.2% alcohol content if I remember correctly. It was actually quite tasty - a nice Barley Wine beer. If you really want to know about it, go here: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/seabright-desmond/116109/. These guys seem to have more to say about than I do.

But wait! They serve food! So much food! Such good food!

Below: Alison's Shroomer burger with garlic fries.

Below: Jessie's carrot soup with bread.

Below: My Cali burger and pesto fries.

The fries are great at their basic level, but you can get them with many variations. My pesto fries were a bit over-saturated, but still enjoyable. The garlic fries didn't seem to be combined enough in terms of flavors. It was like one bite was a fry, the next was raw garlic. My burger was delicious, but I really don't know if it was worth $13. I guess it was $13.50 for burger and pesto fries together, but still.

This brewery has a lot of deals and their neighborhood night is a great time to take advantage of them at night if you're not into the 3-6pm happy hour thing. Can't beat a $7 pitcher.

Overall I'd give this brewery a 7/10 for brewery food, a 6/10 for beer, an 8/10 for deals, and 3/10 for vibe. I'll be back.

Raging Bitch (et Rayon Vert)

One of the latest additions to the 99 beers offered at my favorite watering hole is Raging Bitch from Flying Dog Brewery. Now, 99 Bottles has had some shockingly named beers before and most of the time you can just assume that they're gimmicky and not that great. Bitch Please, Freaktoberfest, you know, beers like that. This bitch's good bad, but it's not evil. The first thing to discuss about this particular bottle of beer is the bottle itself.

What's that you say? Ralph Steadman label art? Surely you must be joking. But, no, I assure you, your eyes do not deceive. Flying Dog has this shtick where Steadman does all their artwork. I'm dying to get my hands on some of their other brews so I can have a collection of these bottles lying around. Steadman writes a quote about each beer (I hear this one is not one of his best, too be honest) and illustrates the hemorrhagey bottle art. As you can see from this label, this beer is a Belgian IPA, which means that it follows certain Belgian tendencies (hops that are floral and earthy as opposed to American hops which favor citrusy, grapefruit, and pine flavors) coupled with the spicy yeasts that Belgians are famous for. It's an interesting phenomenon, where a recent American beer revolution over the past few decades has influenced one of the oldest and dearest beer brewing nations. This article is very informative on the topic: http://bhamweekly.com/birmingham/article-1750-belgian-ipa.html.

Basically, I love this beer. It's got a major punch, that's for sure, and when your palate isn't properly "cleansed" before hand it can taste a bit much, but it certainly does the trick. Sweet, bitter, spicy, fruity, tasty.

I like to start with the Green Flash Rayon Vert (another of 99's newest additions), which is a Belgian Pale Ale that I find perfect. Rayon Vert actually means green flash in French, by the way. It is subtle and soft at the open, with a lovely floral aroma and a mild citrusy taste that builds as you go into floral, hoppy bitterness, with the funk of some brettanomyces yeast. If you don't know about brettanomyces or yeasts in general, well brettanomyces is a yeast that provides a sour, almost rancidy, funky flavor. Anywho, I start with this lovely beer and finish my night (or day...) off with my favorite Bitch.

Russian River Brewing Company

My first big beer excursion since acquiring a taste for the bubbly brew was to the Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, CA. I, like many others, had heard the wonder of the elusive Pliny the Elder IPA. My bar couldn't get it in stock and I was dying to try it. Luckily, a friend of mine managed to get their hands on one bottle at Lunardi's of all places and I got to sip the dredges. Taaassttyyy. So, I jumped at the chance to day-trip it on up to Santa Rosa with some classy ladies to drink some serious beer.

Now, the brewery doesn't give tours, but my friend's brother was our server, so I did get to walk through the brewing area at the end. Nevertheless, this experience was more about the consuming of beer and a little bit of inside knowledge about ingredients and the sort of collective of micro-breweries in the area.

Okay, so I recommend getting the taster if you go there. The fact that we even had to discuss this decision, unsure if we should or not, is mind blowing to me now. You have to. First of all, you're not going to be able to find these beers easily elsewhere. Secondly, they have some gnarly beers. You don't want to find yourself paying for a pint of something you're going out on a limb to try and then realize with that first taste that you and it ain't friends. Third, they give you a fairly comprehensive list of descriptions for all the beers, a list you won't get if you don't get the taster tray. Fourth, EIGHTEEN BEERS, PEOPLE.

The IPAs were all tasty. Pliny was as good as I remembered and Blind Pig was out of this world good. The beers fermented in used wine barrels were legitimately insane. Others loved them, but for me that flavor should not exist. Not in beer at least. There was a Valentine's beer called Rejection, which was surprisingly tasty. It wasn't too powerful, but lightly sweet and malty dark belgian with those floral hops I love so much. It's funny, with coffee I hate floral notes, with beer I love them. Hm.

One thing to know about this place before you go is that they have killer food. Killer. But it's not your typical burgers, sandwiches, and salads type of food fare. This is a pizza and beer bar. Don't ask for burgers. Don't ask why they don't have burgers. They hate this. Just read their guide to pairing food with beer at the end of the menu and try the Sicilian pizza if you know what's good for you.

Yum.

One Card Down, 99 Bottles of Beer to Go

Just under a month ago I completed my first 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall Card at Santa Cruz's most prolific beer establishment, which happens to go by the same name. Go figure. I would like to point out that this feat was completed in just under two months. This makes me an official Ninety-Niner. Also, an alcoholic. I skipped out on the Coors, the Millers, the Buds, the non-alcoholic ginger ales, and the fruity ones I passed onto my friends to indulge in on my behalf, but I still tried a shit-ton of beer. This, yes, is the official terminology for the quantity consumed. Well, I tried several of them enough to have a pretty firm grasp on their flavor profiles and various tidbits about the breweries, etc., but it has become clear that a vague understanding stashed away in my noggin is insufficient. Therefore, with my second card (which has 15 stamps so far) I will attempt to document each pint, bottle, flute, can, and taster consumed.

Here's the thing about 99 Bottles: once you finish your first card, you don't have to drink all of the beers again to get the assigned number stamped. You simply drink and drink and drink and the stamps flow in. What I'm saying is, if I drank 99 Old Rasputins, pronounced rasshhh-pyewtin (if you're me), which believe me I have in my 22 years, I could fill a card based on its creamy, malty, boozey goodness alone. However, I will try to continue to branch out.

Given that I am 15 beers into this card, I will try to play a little catch-up.

First, a lesson on beer types (from a super amateur with a lot of help from wikipedia and what my barfly buddies have told me):

1. Stouts - Oh, there are so many stouts, where to begin? First of all, know that a stout is typically dark. These babies look like 16 espresso shots pulled into one big pint glass. Some heads (the foamy top of a beer) are creamy, some are bubbly. You have your imperial stout (my favorite), like an Old Rashhhpyewtin, which pretty much means it's an incredibly boozey beer (9%+). Then there are the oatmeal stouts, made from, you guessed it, oats, amongst the typical ingredients of malts and whatnot. They can be kind of bitter, but also the added fattiness of the lipids and proteins of the oats can make them quite smooth. A stout in general is a kind of porter, which is pretty much a dark beer. I generally think of porters as less creamy than stouts, but a stout is a porter, a porter is a stout - it is actually kind of confusing. Anyway, the list goes on and on and you've got chocolate stouts, coffee porters, and, something I have never tried, an oyster stout. Yuck.

2. IPAs - IPA stands for Indian Pale Ale. Basically a pale ale is a beer brewed from pale malts, which is funny because when you think IPA you think HOPS. The modifier "Indian" relates back to the shipment of beer during the time of the East India Company, when English breweries would ship heavily hopped beers to India as an export and this is how we get our modern understanding of IPAs. They are hoppy, some more than others, often times floral or citrusy, carbonated and light to deep gold, and most of the time boooooozeeyyyy. A double IPA is an even boooooziiieeerrrr IPA that my barfly buddy David tells me comes from a second fermentation process, this time adding malts. I don't know if this is necessarily the case across the board, but they seem to be full-bodied, hoppy, and boozey. That's all you need to know.

3. Amber Ales - Okay, so most of the beers to come are some variation of a pale ale, which again uses pale malts. Amber ales use crystal malts and/or other colored malts to add the distinctive color. They don't tend to be hoppy and are, in my opinion, pretty middle of the road, with flavor varying depending on the brewery. Some are fantastic, like Anderson Valley Boont, and other are, just, you know, whatever.

4. Belgians - Well if there aren't a plethora of beer varieties under this umbrella, too. When you say Belgian, you could be talking about a fruit-puree beer like a lambic, or a dark ale like an abbey ale, or a golden ale, which is what I typically think of when considering the term belgian, or wheats or saison or reds or OH MY GOD SO MANY. I pretty much consider them light, often floral, sometimes sweet and fruity. I dunno what to tell you it's just too crazy to give you a definition.

5. Pilsners - Light.

And I think that pretty much covers the basics.

Stay tuned for a recap of the Russian River Brewing Company and the latest from Green Flash and Flying Dog.