Pacific Brew News

What happens when a previously planned S.O.B.E.R Barley Wine Tasting event gets postponed at the 23rd hour? In this case, 6 of the available members (Mike, Jeff, Jose, Lisa , Bob and later Mike’s wife Teri) get together and taste a variety of other beers. Since the cellars of Big Mike and Bob Silva always seem to hold some very interesting beers, we ended up with a pretty good collection of beers to enjoy.

As you will see, our adventure through this list of beers had mixed results, starting with our 1st beer purported to be a growler of unfiltered Double Barrel Ale from Firestone Walker. Although nothing was wrong with this beer per se, we questioned whether the beer was in fact what it was supposed to be. It was clear and unremarkable with little of the oakiness or British hops expected.

Next up was a homebrewed Belgian Tripel from Hophead Derek. This was a good beer with notes of dark fruit that was possibly a little sweet for the category. Still a good attempt however.

Our third beer was a trip down nostalgia lane as it was a Beermann’s IPA. Probably a year old, it had maintained its’ hop character and had a noticeable bitterness in the finish. It was unanimous. We miss Beermann’s.

Next up was a canned beer, Buckbean’s Tule Duck Red. Described as a deep red, robust ale, we found it to be a little lacking in robustness. It was on the mild side with of the bite expected from a good red. Lisa even noticed a “soapiness.”

From there, we went on to Moylan’s IPA. A noticeable biscuity and floral aroma was followed by a well balanced taste of malt and spicy hops. Purveyors of one of Mike’s favorites, Hopsicle, Moylan’s did a good job with this beer as well.

Another IP followed Moylan’s, the IPA from Alesmith in San Diego. This was a 2008 version and had a grassy aroma with good bitterness up front that turns into a spicy hop finish. Pretty darn good.

Our 7th beer was the Shipyard XXX IPA from Maine. This had some good initial citrusy hop presence and was pretty easy to drink for a 9.25% beer. Used to West Coast hop bombs, we wondered if this was brewed as an English IPA. According the web page though it is an American IPA. To compete with Racer 5’s and Pliny the Elders of the world, this beer needs more prominent hops.

Speaking of hop bombs, after Shipyard came Hop 15 from Port Brewing. Everything a double IPA should be, this beer has 15 different hops added at 15 different points of the brewing process. The result is a lot of floral, grassy aromas, followed by significant complex bitterness that doesn’t linger. Very well balanced for such a big beer.

Next up came Racer 5 just because. A classic IPA and one of our all time favorites. Enough said.

We followed Racer 5 with the Grand Teton Lost Continent Double IPA. This beer had a prominent grassy aroma with an initial bitterness followed by a lingering sweetness. This beer paled in comparison to the Hop 15.

Although this report looks like we were focusing on IPAs, we weren’t. That’s just what jumped out of Mike’s cellar and Bob’s magic ice chest. So how did we finish our beer adventure off? By moving onto even bigger beers of course.

Coming into the homestretch, our next beer was a 2009 Mirror Mirror from Deschutes. Another typical favorite of many of the S.O.B.E.R members, this beer has a noticeable “raisony” sweetness that is well balanced by hops. The alcohol (11%) is pretty well hidden and the flavors are complex. This beer is like a really good movie, where every time you watch it, you notice something new. Every time I drink this beer, I notice something different it seems.

Following Mirror Mirror was a 2006 version of Hog Heaven Barley Wine from Avery in Colorado. This is another beer that we enjoyed tremendously in the past. Unfortunately, we felt this beer had mellowed too much over the years. It started well but left us wanting for taste in the finish.

Our next to last beer was an 08 version of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot. We always anticipate the New Year’s version of this beer and some day, a vertical tasting from Jose’s cellar of the last several years’ versions of Bigfoot. This beer was fruity with a noticeable bittersweet hop presence that seemed to come and go. It was very full bodied and enjoyable.

It was only fitting that we finished with one of the truly big beers, Goose Island Imperial Stout from 2008. At 13% alcohol, it’s hard to mask the alcohol in this beer but after we warmed it in Big Mike’s underarm region, this beer was came across with complex flavors of vanilla, bourbon and chocolate. One of the few beers that really can stand up to a strong cigar, this was wonderful ending to our beery adventure.

Our annual Barley wine tasting is yet to come hopefully but in the meantime, there are always other good beers to enjoy with good friends. Especially when your friends have such good beer cellars.