Beers In BC And So Cal

[Trent]

Next day was the sunday, and we were at the wedding. Hoover and I drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to get there, cause Lara was in the wedding party limo. Everyone went in Limo's, but I prederred to head down the coast highway to check it all out with Hoov. The wedding was about 90 mins south of us when you take into account the traffic, so 2 un-named people may have grabbed "road warriors" in the form of 725mL Miller Lite cans. As it is illegal for ANYONE in a car to have alcohol with them, let alone OPEN CONTAINERS (as they are called by the cops), I will not name the 2 people involved. I can only tell you from my experience with that beer is that it is your typical megaswill, no real hop flavour or aroma, light in body, heaps of carbonation, almost watery, and not something that I enjoyed all that much. I heard that the 2 road warrior drinkers also had to get their vehicle to stop twice along the way to go to the dunny!
Anyway, the wedding was great, in a glass chapel that overlooked the ocean, and the Santa Catalina Island. Fog obscured the island on the day though. On the way back, Hoover and I went back up the PCH, and I took a couple of pics.

Pic 1 The chapel from outside, I think this was after the wedding.

Pic 2, the view from outside the chapel (zoomed in, of course)

Pic 3, the corner with the most american flags in the world. Who says that Americans arent patriotic?!? For some random reason that I dont understand, this corner has more american flags than the average US Army base!

 

[Doc]

After our whirlwind trip to Canadialand, we jumped on the plane to LA, and were immediately reminded about the smog in the city by the large, strange shaped brown with red stripe clouds outside the city (and that was before we even got to the ground!)
Traffic was pretty bad, so it took us a while to get to me mates house in Santa Monica, but when we did, we ducked straight down to the nearest mexican hole in the wall for some cheap mexican food. How I have missed the $4 carne asada burrito's :super:
My mate has been good to me, stocked the fridge with good beer for us to get into, which we did when he got home from work. So, without firther ado, I can start on some of the Seppo beers
STONE'S 07/07/07 VERTICAL EPIC ALE - 8.4%, $5.30 / 650mL bottle (all prices from here in USD)
The blurb on the back says it has taken its inspiration from saisons, and golden tripels, plus been spiced with ginger, cardomom, and the peel of grapefruit, orange and lemons, and was bittered with Glacier and Crystal hops.
Deep orange in colour, with a low white head. Incredibly complex aroma of phenolics, esters and spices. There is no real way to pick out any single one spice, so they have done it correctly (IMO). The only one I can really pick out is what I think is cardomom, but I wouldnt have picked it if I hadnt read it on the bottle. Ginger and spritzy citrus in the mouth, low carbonation, and a malt complexity that finishes sweet, and the depth of flavour is added to the by the yeast. Moderate/low bitterness, I can see how they claim it to be inspired by 2 beers, it is neither a typical saison nor tripel, but has elements of both. As the beer warms, the ginger gets alot more dominant in the flavour, maybe even a little too much so, and there is a slight alcohol warming (to be expected in an 8.4% beer). I think that this beer will probably age exceptionally. If only I lived in North America somewhere, I would have the most amazing beer cellar! Only problem would be I wouldnt be living in Oz, but.
T.

Trent, that beer sounds awesome. Would have been a complex explosion of flavours.

*******.

Doc

 

[Trent]

Doc
That beer WAS awesome, and I plan on keeping a bottle for a year or 3 to see how it turns out down the track! I will keep you posted.
Anyway, here are a few more pics that I forgot to put up earlier to keep in line with my chronoligcal order of things.

First pic is some of the Gulf Islands between mainland Canada and Vancouver Island, as seen from the plane. Pretty nice area.

2nd pic is of some crazy kinda smog cloud as we were starting our descent into LA. Just to remind us of where we were heading to, I guess! Pretty wierd looking, huh?

Last pic is of some of the urban sprawl that is LA. It doesnt really show too much of it, but when you fly in, this is the kind of thing that stretches as far as the eye can see. Hardly anything above 3 stories, and just sprawling, monotone and dreary looking. LA isnt that bad when ya know where to go, but jeez it can look awful from the air.
T.

 

[Trent]

FATBURGER
Well, my favourite burger place in the world is called Fatburger (so named back in the 50's or so, when "fat" meant good, as in Fats domino, chubby checker and the fat boys, etc..., or so they tell ya on their little tray posters) and they usually have lovely posters on the wall saying things like "if our burgers were as bad as some, we would need a clown to cheer you up too", and "beware of psychic burger shops (the kind that make your burger before you order it)" In'n'Out give em a run for their money as the best takeaway's in the states, but I think Fatburger takes the title. Just. But I digress.
Anyway, they do really good, made to order burgers, and they have the BEST thickshakes, seriously. They cost a bit, not far off $4, but are amazing. SO, I went down there and had me a Kingburger and a chocolate shake, and dont I look happy? (pic 1)

pic 2 is of a sign advertising their triple king challenge, where if you can actually finish a triple king burger, ya get a t-shirt, and have your photo put up on the wall to say ya did it. The catch? A regular kingburger is a 1/2lb patty, so a triple king is 1.5lbs of meat (approx 700g). I couldnt even finish my kingburger, fries and shake (though I finished the shake!) Serious eating to finish a triple.

In the last pic, is a picture of one of the many MINIATURE LIONS that patrol the third street promenade. Dont finish your triple kingburger, and they may eat you. Be very careful when walking past them, they are very vicious! Dont ya love the things people will do to their dogs?
T.

 

[Trent]

Well, the wedding reception was a blast, I got to hang out with some of my best friends in the world, and the restaurant had amazing food, and an excellent beer list. Started out drinking Anchor Steam, which was very nice, but I obviously didnt take any notes (but I did take a pic), and then discovered they had Chimay red on the menu! I also had Blanche de Chambly and Hoegaarden (2 very similar beers), and god knows what else. I had at least 6 different beers, but about 6 anchor steams aswell. VERY fun night, that ended in the groom busting out some aged cigars for the final people left at the reception. Anyway, just a few quick pics of a ridiculously fun night.

anchor steam

me, the bride Dodi and her dad Cap'n Mike, enjoying some very fine cigars post reception

Me and the brides brother Mikey, Stogie Kissin'. That kid is a deadset clanger.

Me and the boss (Lara)

For some reason the end of the night is when we decided to go crazy with the camera, though pics 2 and 4 are from Hoover (professional photographer usually, though only taking pics for fun at the reception)
T.

 

[Trent]

Morning after was a recovery breakfast at some ritzy restaurant on top of the hotel where the bride and groom, and alot of the family stayed (in separate rooms from the honeymoon suite, of course!)
A bloody mary to kickstart, and the food was amazing, as was the view, so here are some pics of the view.
Actually, I should just say ONE pic. Looking north up towards malibu, but ya cant see it in the pic.
T.

 

[Trent]

After breaky, we got a lift down to San Diego (more specifically Oceanside), and it is there that I will put up my pics from my Pizza Port night, and then all my pics and reviews from my visit to Stone. If you are reading these as I put em up, I will be doing that tomorrow, cause I am knackered now and am off to bed.
For some reason I love taking pics of the traffic in SoCal, partly cause I am wierd, but mainly cause it bloody fascinates me that there can be that much traffic on the roads, especially given that San Diego is 1/3 the size of Sydney, and still seems to hit gridlock every morning and arvo at the 805/5 merge, where it a total of 13 lanes wide! I always wanna show mates the gravity of the traffic here.

Pic 1 is of traffic heading south from LA, just as we were about to come to a dead stop in a 110km/h zone. Again. Took us over 2 hours to cover what should been a 1hr 15 trip, and it was monday lunchtime! And 5 lanes each way.

Pic 2 is of the beer selection in a petrol station, right there next to the regular drinks, and near the food! Hilarious they sell beer in petrol stations, especially given ya get in all sorts of strife for having alcohol anywhere a driver can possibly reach it. And I just LOVE the fact that it is pretty much all megaswill, but they have SNPA in there.

Pic 3 is just to show you that America can be a little bit religious at times. I can think of much worse swearwords than that, but if it annoys em that much, I will just go back to saying jesus every time I drop something What they were trying to advertise with that is beyond me, and what they are carrying in there is also a mystery. Bibles?
T.

 

[Trent]

Alright, finished work for the day (jeez that stuff is tiring!), so I can go on with the Pizza Port story that led to me posting that drunken drivel a few posts back!
Got to San D, or Oceanside, to visit my good mate Blake, but he was at work, so I got a few other mates to pop round, Tim and Alex. I hadnt seen Alex for over 5 years, so it was good to catch up with him. After some mexican to eat (mmmm.... California Burrito :super: ) we headed to Pizza Port to catch up with yet ANOTHER mate, Tom, who does some lawyer work for Stone.
ANYWAY, I was so excited to try all the beers that these guys offer, and got up to the bar to check out the 37 (yes, thirty seven) different beers they had on tap, though I think only 31 taps were on. Told the bloke behind the bar I wanted to try all the beers, in sampler size glasses (about 100mL), he just goes "um, we dont really have any sampler glasses. We broke em all over the summer, and nobody has ordered any more. You are gonna have to buy pints". Excuse me?!? :blink: I actually thought he was taking hte piss, but he wasnt. Tim and Alex stepped up to the plate, despite driving, and said that I could order whatever 3 beers I wanted to try each round, and I could have one, and they would have the other 2, and we could share. Good blokes. Tom had to take off, so he couldnt be part of it, so we started ordering em in 3's.
First up we got a carlasbad cream for alex, a sharkbite red for Tim, and a Sticky Stout (imperial stout) for me. The imperial stout was actually quite easy to drink, though only 8%, planty of roast and choc notes, with good solid bitterness.
Then I tried to sharkbite red, which was actually quite sweet, but firmly bitter and really hoppy. 6%
After these 2, I tried the carlsbad cream, which is only 5% odd, and it tasted like nothing after the first 2! I got some nice hoppiness out of it, and it seems to be a really nice beer, so if you ever go, get one of them BEFORE the imperial beers!
Tim couldnt finish the red ale, cause it was too cloying, so I got half of that one aswell.
The night was well on the way to becoming a big one.

 

[Trent]

Next round, we got Avery's Little Rascal, a Port Warm Waters, and a Green Flash Summer Saison .

Little Rascal is a belgian wit style I think. I wasnt too bad a beer, in fact Tom recommended it (along with the saison, and speedway stout), but it tasted a little watery for mine, and not something I would go back for quickly. Trying it on a clean palate may be a different story though

Port Brewing's Warm Waters is a hefeweizen and was served with a lemon. One sniff, and I pulled the lemon out, and threw it into the bin, telling hte barman he should probably never serve a german style hefe with a lemon in it (or maybe ask if they want one). Big banana and clove notes in this hefe, very well balanced, low bitterness, all the good things in it that you expect out of a german style hefeweizen. Only strange thing is I think it was filtered. Definietly one of my beers of the night, along with the next beer....

Green Flash is apparently a brewery located here in San Diego, I have never heard of them before, but after tasting a few of their beers when I was over there, I had to wonder why I hadnt. Their Summer Saison I think is 6.7% and was an excellent saison. Had all the yeast flavours, maltiness, slight tartness (from memory) and a lovely orange colour. Cant remember too much about the beer apart from that, other that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you see anything by green flash, you would be well served by buying it.

Beer in pic are left to right - little rascal, warm waters, saison.
T.

 

[Trent]

Next round had Avery Piglet, which is apparently a scottish ale style, but I didnt find that. Wasnt too keen on that one. Port Brewings Carlsbad Chronic (with the use of hemp seeds) was actually pretty good. I think I might have had another stout of some description, but I cannot recall. Maybe it was old viscosity? I know it was 10%. And this is where my night started getting blurry. I think we had one more round after this, and then Blake and his girlfriend Season turned up, all fresh as daisies and ready to drink.
Next round was on Blake, as Tim and Alex had to drive back to San Diego, so our first beer together was Alesmith's Speedway Stout at a paltry 12.6% alcohol. THIS was a good beer (not that the others werent). Big, black, viscous and surprisingly easy to drink, this was probably the beer of the night. I dont really recall getting too much coffee notes out of it, even though it is reputedly "dry beaned" in secondary. Dont recall any specifics except that this was a sensational imperial stout, and when they poured them, all the light went dim, cause they were so black (little joke - look at the picture). Probably not something to drink by the pint, but try it one day - not an unpleasant experience.
T.

 

[Trent]

I think we had one more round of beers that I cannot recall, before they announced last drinks, so Blake goes up to the bar and comes back with a pitcher of 547 Haight, a 10% double red ale. Actually, I think the round I cannot recall saw me drinking the Garibaldi strong pale ale. Dunno how it was. Anyway, back to the double red ale. It was everything that the Sharkbite was and more - obviously. It was bitter, hoppy, super malty and as the pint wore on, cloying. I think I struggled through my pint, so Blake had to drink 2 pints, poor bugger.
After port closed, we went to another bar and got a pint each of Stone Pale Ale while we waited for our cab to turn up and take us home. Dont ask me what the pale tasted like cause I cannot tell ya :huh:

Took a few pics of the beer list and the bar in general at Port, wouldnt it be nice if we had some bars like this in Oz?

Pic 1 - Port beers that were on tap. The Old Viscosity is nice and black, and been aged in bourbon barrels.

Pic 2 is of the "guest beers" list that night

Pic 3 is of the bar in general. Look at all them taps! The ones with the upside down cups on em were empty (pic was taken at closing time)

 

[Trent]

BREAKFAST BURRITO
Every morning we would walk down to the mexican takeaway next to the beach, and get our favourite breaky - a breakfast burrito. Mexican food is so damn good, and so damn cheap over here, but as far as a heartstarter, not much beats a good breaky burrito. OK, I admit, huevos a la mexicana is probably the best, but that seems to be more a mainland mex thing, rather than a tex-mex thing. But I digress.

Basically, it is a massive flour tortilla, wrapped around scrambled eggs (cheesy), with "home fries" (basically potato that has been parboiled, then cut into little 1cm cubes, and fried crispy) and some bacon, that has also been fried crispy, and chopped into timy bite size pieces. Add some really good mexican hot scause, and you have a breakfast to rival a stout! Had to take a pic of the burrito, way too delicious to forget. And at $3.50, ya cant go wrong.
T.

 

[Trent]

Well, the surf really sucked while we were there, it was bloody tiny, so me and Blake had to take out his two 9'6 longboards to try and make the most of the small conditions. Here is me trying not to nosedive on a late take off. Strangely enough, I even succeeded, but I did do alot of swimming after the board this session. It was about 30C out, water was about 23C, it was great, cionsidering it was freezing back home in Oz!
Only problem was, cause it is winter for me, I stayed out for about 4 hours, and got sunstroke, but it didnt really hit me till after my visit to Stone with my mate Tom the lawyer. Wow, what an arvo, but that is next post.
Here you can have a laugh at me trying to keep myself from nosediving! Lara reckons it looked like I was trying to swat flies :lol:
T.

 

[Trent]

Stone has moved into a new place since I was last here, and what a bloody place it is. Out in the middle of nowhere, sadly, and no real public transport option (though they are building one in the town nearby), but they have made some beautiful gardens, some amazing granite benches anbd stuff, and about thirty something beers on tap, and 85 odd in the bottle. They even print the beer and food menu's on a daily basis, so I grabbed a beer menu, and will put up a pic of it when I get a chance to TAKE a pic of it!

First beer was ALESMITH's X, an Extra Pale Ale. Didnt take a pic of this one, but it was very pale in colour, with a clean citrusy aroma. It had a firm bitterness with clean citrusy hops, and a med-light body. If ya cant tell, I took concise notes when I was out there, rather than detailed ones.

BALLAST POINT'S LONGFIN LAGER - Dont think that I have had a lager the whole time I have been over here, so I figured I may aswell try one from B.P, cause the make some very high wuality ales. It had a malty aroma, with some DMS, and was extremely pale in colour. Light body, with DMS in the flavour, basically just a very good example of a premium american lager, but certanly not my cup of tea.

 

[Trent]

LAGUNITAS' SIRIUS
Gold/amber in colour, lightly malty with some citrusy hops on the nose. Medium high bitterness, and sweetish malt, citrusy hops. Kinda similar to an APA, but also different, if that makes sense? Anyway, they call is a "high altitude cream ale" and I thought it was a very nice beer, well worth drinking, and would be quite sessionable. Lots of beers over here that are worth drinking, huh?
T.

 

[Trent]

Next up was PETRUS OUD BRUIN
Now, I love a sour beer as much as the next bloke, maybe more, so these next few beers really tickled my fancy. The Petrus wsa quite a deep brown, with an aroma that could be described as leathery and acidic, maybe a light touch of bret in there. The flavour was sweet, almost cola like, with a low acidity that finished dry and clean. Excellent beer.

DUCHESS DE BOURGEIOGN (sp?) - This one had an almost cola-like aroma, with a light acidity, and it was pretty much the same colour as the Petrus. There is a medium-high acidity in the mouth with a sweeter finish. It is very complex, and this is apparently one of Tom's Top 5 beers. I can see why, its kinda an amazing beer. Wish I could brew like this...

The pic has the Petrus on the left, and half drunk. Why couldnt they have had THESE beers at port last night when I was forced to drink by the pint?
T.

 

[Trent]

There were 2 blokes sitting right next to me and Tom at the bar, having a businessmans lunch or something, and ordering some really nice beers. When they ordered a Lost Abbey 10 Commandments, Tom said to the bartender "And 4 glasses!", just joking around, but the barman bought us 4 glasses. The 2 businessmen didnt seem too stoked on the idea of sharing such nice beer with us, but humoured us a little, and asked Tom which of the 10 commandments he had broken. So, Tom replies "right now, its envy. And if you dont share some of that beer with me, I'll have to add wrath to the list!" :lol: They laughed so hard that they shared the beer with us, so we were very happy.

LOST ABBEY'S 10 COMMANDMENTS 9%
Well, somehow I have lost my notes on this beer, but I recall it being a really dark brown colour, almost black, with all the aroma's ya would expect from a belgian style dark strong ale, and also a slightly cherry flavour (though it is brewed with raisins). There is a slight acidity in the aroma that doesnt translate into the flavour. It is extremely complex, malty, and very tasty. Something that probably deserves to be cellared for a few years. Sensational beer. I felt very lucky to get to try it, cause it is gooood.

 

[Trent]

To repay the blokes genourosity in sharing their 10 commandments with us, Tom ordered something special to share with them, and at $22 a bottle, I wasnt sure what to expect, as it is a blended lambic with fruit. I have always heard that lambics are a very sour beer, but all the lambics I have ever tried taste like super sweet fruit drinks! I was not holding my breath, but what I got was probably my "beer of the trip", and it wasnt even american. Kinda like a beer epiphany for me really, and I will forever hunt out the best that this style has to offer. Enter......
CANTILLON'S ROSE DE GAMBRINUS
This is a raspberry brewed blended lambic. It poured a really vibrant pink colour, and there was a fair amount of acidity and raspberry on the nose, but when I took that first sip - wow. Every sucked on one of those lollies "sour warheads"? Well, it was like that, it turned my saliva really thin, and I pulled a sour face. It was so sour it was ridiculous, but strangely, in a very balanced way. It wasnt something that was disgusting, it just added something to the incredible complexity of the beer, the raspberries didnt add any sweetness, only flavour, and the finish (IIRC) was quite dry, and almost palate cleansing. This was a beer that deserves to be known as "world class", and unless I am mistaken, Cantillon is considered one of the permier lambic makers in the world, and I can see why. I dont recall any real bitterness, the sourness did the bittering, it is really hard to describe, but something you have to try for yourself one day. If Tom hadn't been driving, I would have requested a bottle of Cantillon Gueze, just to see what a good one tastes like. I am taking a bottle of this home for my cellar, it is like the champagne of the beer world. I dont swear on this forum, usually, but this beer was ******* amazing. Couldnt recommend it highly enough.
T.

 

[goatherder]

Can I be the first to say "you lucky *******"?

I am green all over.

 

[Trent]

Thanks goatherder, I feel pretty bloody lucky too!
Anyway, after the cantillon, I decided to take a wander around and take a few pics of the new set-up at Stone, incase ya's might be interested

Pic 1 - The main bar at stone

Pic 2 - The bottles and taps above said bar

Pic 3 - The outside bar - look at all them taps, and a solid granite bar

Pic 4 - I guess ya could call this the beer garden

T.