Tucson Tastings

Here are some random tastings of beers that I consumed during my recent trip to Tucson:

1- Wild Raspberry Ale by Great Divide Brewing Co, Fruit Beer 5.6%

2- Ephemere by Unibroue, Fruit Beer 5.5%

3-Old Monkeyshine by Nimbus Brewing Co, English Strong Ale, 8.2%

4- Rillito Red Ale by Nimbus Brewing Co, Amber Ale 5%

5- Firestone Walker 13 by Firestone Walker, American Strong Ale 12%

6- Velvet Merkin Bourbon barrel aged version by Firestone Walker, Oatmeal Stout, 8%

7-Hopslam Ale by Bell's Brewing Co, Imperial IPA 10%

8- Dos Hermanos Dunkelweizen, Barrio Brewing Co, Dunkelweizen 6.6%

9-Scottish Red by Barrio Brewing Co, Scottish Red 5.8%

Wild Raspberry Ale- Served out of a bottle. It poured a clear deep pink reddish mahogany. It smelled like raspberries and sweet malts. It tasted lighter in raspberries as pronounced in the nose, light malts and a faint hoppiness seems to come out. It was very light and very session-able. It seems like it would be a great brew to enjoy on a hot summer day. 

Ephemere-Ale brewed with apple juice, coriander and curacao. Served out of a bottle. It poured a foggy golden yellow. It smelled of caramel green apples, vanilla and coriander. It tasted of a light crisp sour apple, yeast, milky with a light lingering spiciness on the tongue. The flavors seemed too fake tasting though for my own taste. It tasted a bit too much like a green apple jolly rancher. It was reminiscent of a wine cooler with a beer twist. Do they even make beer coolers? This would be a good example. Definitely not my taste and I won't be drinking this one again.

Old Monkeyshine- My sister had a bottle of this one in her fridge already and I was looking forward to drinking some local Tucson brewed beer from Nimbus Brewing Co. It poured a deep teak brown with a hint of red. It smelled like light vanilla, light roast and a bit caramel-y. It tasted light at first, then a nice roasted malt with bourbon notes come in and leave a little burn. Medium carbonation. Very drinkable. I was looking on their website and apparently they have a bourbon barrel aged version of this, at least at the brewery. I wish we had made it out to the Brewery as our visit to the Barrio Brewing Co seemed a bit wasted.

Rillito Red Ale- Had on draft. It pours a beautiful copper red with a hint of brown to it. It smelled like ripe cherries, caramel malts, cereal and some pine. It tasted a bit light, but with some molasses notes, grass, pine, cherries, and very malt driven. It seemed pretty interesting for a light beer. It had a good malt flavor with some hops to balance it out a bit. Very session-able if you are looking for something light with some flavor.

Firestone Walker 13- I made my sister and her husband go out to 1702 Pizza and Beer because the last time I was in Tucson, I heard they had Dogfish Head's 120 IPA on draft, so I was definitely not going to miss this bar this time. We weren't disappointed. We walked in and it happened to be Firestone Walker night. It was very crowded but we found a table right away and our server was totally on it and even brought us each a taste of the Firestone 13 for free. It was not the first time I have had this beer, but it was the first time I took notes on it. Had it on draft. It poured a deep eclipse black. It smelled like bourbon, light roasted vanilla malts and some toffee. It tasted light at first, then charred malts, vanilla, caramel, wood then the bourbon comes in and leaves a little burn. It seems very agable. Can't wait to try the 4 year vertical we have of this from 10-13.

Velvet Merkin Bourbon Barrel aged version- This just gets an A in my book for the fantastic name. I have had this one before as well, but any barrel aged version is always a nice surprise- especially on draft. It poured a deep black with some light oatmeal lacing. It smelled like bourbon, espresso, oats and malt. It tasted of bourbon, roasted espresso with a medium bitterness to it. The bitterness gets stronger and lingers on the tongue with some cereal and oats mixed with a bit of burn from the bourbon. The bourbon was there but wasn't very harsh, which is nice. It seemed very well balanced instead of being in your face bourbon.

Hopslam Ale- Dave and I were texting when I was at 1702 and he saw this one of their menu and told me to get it. I was not disappointed. I had it on draft and it poured a clear tangerine yellow. It smelled of grass, hops, citrus and sweet ripe grapefruit. Talk about a nose- I could smell this beer as our server was heading over to our table! It tasted sweet, some honey, citrus, grapefruit and it was definitely bitter. It reminded me of the bitterness off a grapefruit rind. This beer has the most grapefruit bitterness flavor from hops that I have ever tasted. It was quite amazing. I highly recommend this one!

Dos Hermanos Dunkelweizen- I made my sister leave 1702 because I wanted to check out Barrio Brewing Co. I checked their beers on their website and I was very excited to see a Bourbon Barrel aged beer on cask as well as a grapefruit blonde. When we got there, no such beers were on tap and the only 2 that looked decent were the Dunkelweizen and the Scottish Red. I also just realized that they say on their website: We have 10 to 12 of our own very special microbrews on tap (depending on season). We also offer Bud, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, and Ace Pair and Apple Jack Cider in bottles. All complemented by a full bar and RC Cola products. Wow, I have never seen a brewery not only offer crappy beer but advertise it on their website. Talk about not having faith in your product! Who would go to a Brewery and order a Michelob Ultra? What brewery would even offer such a thing. Oh and on top of this and not having the beer I went for in the first place, the bar tender took his sweet, sweet time in helping us, when the place was very empty and there wasn't anyone else ordering anything at the bar. Anyways, back to the Dunkel, which I had on tap. It smelled of sweet malts, vanilla and some toffee. It tasted sweet, a hint of sour, malt and very typically dunkel. It actually was pretty drinkable but I wish it was a bit more interesting.

Scottish Red- Had this one on draft. It poured a nice walnut brown with some reddish tones. It smelled like tobacco, hint of sweet malts, hint of exhaust and quite smoky. It tasted like sweet malts, a hint of cherry and definitely reminiscent of cherry cola. It was a bit more malty than I would have expected, but oddly enough I did like it. But I do have a thing for Cherry Cola.

All in all, I would definitely go to 1702 again, finally hit up Nimbus Brewing Co and skip Barrio Brewing (although it did have some cool looking brew kettles in the back). 

SF Beer Week event: Beer + Chocolate = LOVE

SF Beer week how I love you so- your insane rare beers, barrel aged goodness, barley wines, guest brewers and of course, pairings. One of which was my own! Beer + Chocolate = LOVE actually had 2 event dates, Thursday and Friday but because Friday was the start of SF Beer Week, Friday was the official event of the evening.

Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! MMMmmmmmm yet something else I love so dearly. Beer has so many vast varieties of flavors, textures and complexities that truly compliment those in different chocolates. Tannins and the high acidic wines overpower the subtle flavors that you can get out of chocolate.

We also had the great sponsorship from TCHO chocolates, which were kind enough to donate their 4 amazing flavors of dark chocolate-
1-"Citrus"- Madagascar, 67% Cacao and Organic
2-"Chocolately"- Ghana, 70% Cacao
3-"Nutty"- Ecuador, 65%, Organic and Fair Trade
4-"Fruity"-Peru,  68%, Organic and Fair Trade

These chocolates really worked well with the beers that we paired because of their high profile one flavor note (hence the name of each chocolate). A lot of the people who came had never seen or heard of this local San Francisco chocolatier before so they were very pleased to have tried it. Plus they are very excited to know about their location in Pier 17 in the Embarcadero, where you can also get a fantastic Blue Bottle Cappuccino to go with your chocolate should you so wish.  I also bought some great chocolates at their store to be part of a raffle that we did each night- their chocolate covered Cacao Nibs and their chocolate covered Mango Morsels-mmm delish! These were raffled off with a bottle of Dogfish Head's 120 IPA, Deschutte's Abyss, BrewDog's Dogma, a Saison Dupont and with this being pre-Valentine's day and all, a romance package filled with lotions, candles and creams- for $5, not a bad raffle if you ask me!

As always, I make my 'students' take notes and hand them into me afterwards. Everytime I do this, each night is always different, which I just love.

The Thursday night meetup group's top 3 beers of the evening were:
1-Dogfish Head's Burton Baton
2-Saint Somewhere's Lectino Divina tied with Avery's Hog Heaven
3-Dogfish Head's Fort

Thursday's top 3 favorite pairings were:
1- Dogfish Head's Burton Baton paired with Vosges' Naga Bar

2-Saint Somwehere's Lectino Divina paired with Tcho's "Citrus"
3-Dogfish Head's Fort paired with Tcho's "Chocolatey".

I always ask people to switch around the pairings and come up with some on their own. Mike really liked Alesmith's Speedway Stout paired with Tcho's "Chocolatey", Avery's Hog Heaven paired with Tcho's "Fruity" and Dogfish Head's Burton Baton paired with Tcho's "Citrus".

For Friday's meetup group, their top 3 favorite beers of the evening were:
1- Alesmith's Speedway Stout
2-Cascade Kriek Ale tied with Saint Somwehere's Lectino Divina
3-Dogfish Head's Theobroma

Friday's top 3 favorite pairings were:
1-Dogfish Head's Theobroma paired with Chauo's Firecracker
2-Avery's DuganA paired with Vosges' Naga Bar

3- Stone's Speedway Stout paired with Tcho's "Nutty".

Some interesting pairings you guys came up with:
1-Stone's Smoked Porter with Tcho's "Fruity" by Meredith
2-Cascade Kriek Ale with Chauo's Firecracker by Casi
3-Avery's Hog Heaven with Vosges' Naga Bar = OMG Chai! by Courtney
4-Avery's DuganA paired with Tcho's "Fruity" by Sasha
Alex said " I will murder for the curry chocolate (Vosges' Naga Bar).
Devon said "Pop rocks chocolate = awesome".

A good time was had by all. Elissa said "Thank you! You guys are a gracious, cool couple and this was an enjoyable, worthwhile event. Your professionalism and beer knowledge exceeded by expectations. Cheers!". Thanks Elissa! We look forward to the next event- Strong Ales, Barley wine and Samuel Adam's Utopias on March 19th. We hope to see you fabulous ladies there~

Some tastings from the home front.

Here are 4 completely random tastings of some beers that Dave and I have tried recently:

Brasserie d'Orval Orval Trappist Ale- 6.9% Belgian Pale Ale
Saint Somewhere's Lectino Divina- 8% Saison
21st Ammendment's Monk's Blood- 8.3%- Strong Dark Ale
Allagash's Fluxus 2009- 8.3% Saison.

In order from my favorite to my least favorite:
21st Ammendment's Monk's Blood. This dark belgian is brewed with 8 malts, Belgian candi sugar, cinnamon, vanilla bean, dried local black mission figs and aged in oak barrels. Now this wasn't the first time I have had this beer- I have been enjoying it since it has come out but I have finally been able to take some notes on it last weekend. It poured a dark mahogany. It smelled like cinnamon, prunes, dates and some cereal malts. It tasted like caramel, roasted malt, figs, stewed raisins, molasses and some cinnamon spiciness. Ironically this beer is quite light bodied for 8.3%. It goes down easily and with much enjoyment on my part. Kudos!

Saint Somewhere's Lectino Divina- Dave recently bought this from the Jug Shop.  He has seen it before but was a bit turned off by the label. But he had recently heard some buzz about this Florida brewery so he decided to bring it home for us to try. It poured a reddish chestnut brown color with a huge head. It smelled like dates, sweet bourbon, sour, Brett and some funk. It smelled incredibly interesting. I have never smelled anything quite like this before! It tasted sour, roasted nuts, dates, figs, malty and slightly sweet. It was reminiscent of a dobbelbock. I would definitely try this one again!

Brasserie d'Orval Orval Trappist Ale- I was definitely looking forward to this beer. It poured a cloudy orange gold hue. It smelled like sour, tart apples, and yeast. It tasted sweet, overripe grape, sour apple, a hint of spice but left the tongue tart and dry. I actually preferred the smell better to the taste. The taste was a bit light, but I guess it is just a pale ale. I thought it was have more umph for 6.3%- guess not. It just wasn't my favorite. I don't see myself buying anymore anytime soon.

Allagash's Fluxus 2009- This beer is made with sweet potatoes and black pepper! That definitely caught my eye in the store.  Plus I am a fan of Allagash beers, so why not? It poured a beautiful crystal clear bubbly tangerine. It smelled spicy, some wood and a hint sweet. It tasted like PEPPER! It had some light citrus and spritzy quality to it. I did not get any sweet potato at all. THIS was a HUGE disappointment to me. I didn't even finish this beer as it was just like a black pepper spritzer. I don't even know why they bottled it. PLUS it's $17! I will not be buying this one again.

All in all- 2 to buy, 2 to skip, at least for me. I know a lot of people like the Orval, but it just was a bit too disappointing for me. Maybe it's because I am a woman and I have high expectations and when they miss, then they miss with me.

1st Beer Tasting in Tucson

Tucson- how I love you so- your warm days in the Winter, your beautiful mountains, your incredible Estate sales, as well as BEER that you can not get here. (Thank you Total Wine, Plaza Liquors and Time Market!)  Stella and I flew out there to buy a new car and I drove it back from Tucson, which made it much easier to stop at some good beer stores along the way (and pack my car with some nice treasures for our beer cellar).

So I figured, with doing a beer and chocolate pairing here, I would bring them a few bottles of beer that they can't get in AZ like Russian River's Consecration, Saint Somewhere's Lectino Divina and Dogfish Head's Theobroma.

It was my first solo hosting experience minus my better half, so I was a bit nervous, but it went even smoother than I expected. It was a bit more intimate, about 12 people altogether, all sitting around this grand 1960's vintage teak table that is my sister's.  They ate, they drank, they paired- I educated.

Overall, everyone seemed to have a grand time and got to experience some new flavor sensations and combinations while trying new beers that they have never had before. My goal in these is to open people up to the incredible range of flavors and tastes that you can get in beer- while you may not like every beer being tasted, you are able to talk about why. For example,   you may not like hops or barley wines or sours. But then you do find new styles that you may never have known even existed as well as finding your new favorite beer.

Overall, their top 3 favorite beers were:
1-Dogfish Head Fort
2-Russian River Consecration
3-Stone Smoked Porter

Their top 3 favorite pairings were:
1-Dogfish Head Burton Baton + Vogue's Naga Bar
2-Dogfish Head Theobroma + Chauo Firecracker
3-Alesmith Speedway Stout + Green and Black's Organic Toffee

So I asked everyone, as I always do, to try some different pairings and come up with some new ones on their own.  Chris Kaufman said that pairing Speedway Stout with Vogue's Naga bar (which has curry and coconut in it) = LOVE! He really liked the flavor combination of curry and coffee. Melinda really liked the Theobroma paired with the Naga Dark Chocolate Bacon bar.

Everyone had a great time and ended up hanging out drinking some more beers (of course) afterwards.
I look forward to doing another tasting the next time I visit the land of the Desert!

Top choices for beer week

2/4- My Beer + Chocolate = LOVE pairing 
2/5- My Beer + Chocolate = LOVE pairing  (sold out!)
2/6 - alesmith tasting at city beer from 2:30-5:30, tickets are $20 

2/7 - Pizza Port/Lost Abbey tasting at Toronado at 6 pm 

2/8 - Lost Abbey tasting at city beer

2/9 - Russian River tasting at Pi Bar starting at 3 pm 

2/10 - Schmatlz brewing at Bender's

2/11 - Sour chocolate and beer tasting at City Beer, tickets are $40

2/12 - barrel aged Oskar Blues offerings at Pi Bar

2/12 - midnight sun debut to the bay area at City Beer 

2/12 - Russian River special bottle tasting at the Jug Shop, tickets are $25

2/13 - Toronado barley wine festival 

SF Weekly article (Thanks Brian!)

I just wanted to let you know that I was written about in SF Weekly!

I was asked by Brian Yeager to be part of a panel of 4 judges for a blind beer tasting about Pilsner beers.

You can read about it here:

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2010/02/tasting_blind_local_beer_exper.php#more

My meetup group for women (+ men) who like beer was also added to SF Beer Week

and there is still a few spaces left for this Thursday's (Feb 4th) Beer and Chocolate pairing!

Don't miss out on this beer and chocolate pairing!

We will be trying some amazing chocolates and beers! I managed to score and bring some in from California.

Some beers we will be trying:

Dogfish Head Theobroma- Brewed only once a year (currently sold out and not available in CA) -It's an Ale brewed with honey, cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, ancho chilies and ground annatto.

Dogfish Head Fort (Can't get this amazing beer in CA!)- Ale brewed with pounds of raspberries and 18%!

Saint Somewhere Lectino Divina- Amber Belgian beer with the most amazing smell and taste! It's a bit sour and a bit fruity with some bourbon and date flavors!

Not to mention some of the chocolates:

Firecracker- 60% cacao with chipotle, salt and POP ROCKS (trust me it's amazing)

Naga Bar- 45% cacao with indian curry powder& coconut flakes

Bread and Chocolate- 70% cacao, organic with french bread and sea salt

YUM! Don't miss out

Here-

http://www.meetup.com/Women-who-like-beer/calendar/12306005/

This is all very exciting and I look forward to seeing you all at one of our future events!

A mini impromptu brewery tour at Brooklyn Brewery

OK, so the only plans that we officially had with the family was to go to Brooklyn Brewery during the holidays. Growing up in NJ and living in Williamsburg for a while, I definitely drank A LOT of their Black Chocolate Stout and their East India Pale Ale. So when 2/3 of the family is huge into beer, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the brewery on the Saturday after Christmas.  Crazy as it is, I had never been there before.  I guess the memo didn't get out to all of the family members as some were not too thrilled to go. Plus it was a really crappy rainy day and even I didn't really want to drive into Brooklyn from NJ. But since we were all there and a lot of us wanted to go, I mustard up the strength to drive in.  We did have 1 underage person with us, 16 in fact, and we thought it might be an issue, but it wasn't- thank goodness.

After we finally got to the brewery, the sign said, 'No brewery tours today'. Bummer. The only information on their website was that they had tours every Saturday. At least a brewery tour would have kept the elders interested. So instead we sat around and sampled some of their fine beers on tap: Blast & Backbreaker. They also had their Winter Ale and Pennant Ale on draft, but we stuck with the other two beers.
Blast is an Imperial IPA and 8%. It poured into my beautiful plastic cup, an orange honey yellow. It smelled like citrus, pineapple, floral and a little malty. It tasted like cereal malts at first, then piney citrus hops then a bitter and dry finish. It was a bit on the thin side but definitely a good one to drink on a rainy day.

Backbreaker is an English Strong Ale and 7%. It poured a dark amber into my plastic cup. It smelled of caramelized malts, toffee, caramel with some piney hops. It tasted like sweet roasted malts, citrus hops, caramel, some dark fruits and a toffee finish. It was definitely sweeter than I was expecting but again, a good beer to try when you are trying to keep everyone happy.

So while 1/2 of us were enjoying ourselves and the other 1/2 was cranky and definitely not thrilled with the idea of us just sitting there and enjoying our beers, we realized we could order pizza from close by. At least that kept the others busy while we were drinking.

Then the pizza was done, we still wanted to hang out and drink some beers (we did just come from California and Maryland after all) but others in our group did not think this idea was too grand. Out of nowhere and to our rescue, Jeff Wells comes up to us and says he is going to give an impromptu tour of the brew room. YEAH! All of us interested rushed out of our seats and into the back room. He told us about the history of the brewery, their contribution to being a green company and using wind power and a bit about the process of making beer for those that don't know. Then afterwards I spotted just 1 barrel and asked what was aging in it- Black OPs!  That wasn't even for sale there anymore but Dave just managed to find 2 bottles a few days prior- score!

Then our lovely tour was over and we still wanted to hang out. So finally our group split and we hung out in the brewery for another hour or so before we did some shopping and eating in the 'burg. We did look at their lovely historical bottle collection- with many from before prohibition. Then we went home since it was still rainy out and went to drink some more beer and play some wii.