Grunion

I did a fair bit of beery damage during my visit to Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits in San Diego, California. One of the beers I sampled was an APA called Grunion. Trying to be responsible, I limited my intake of the 5.5% brew to an 8oz. pour. The beer showed itself to be a cheery golden ale, with a slight haze and a white head. According to the tap list, this brew is a mosaic hop number and it won gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2014. On to the beer!

Papaya and juicy, juicy mango were the dominant aromas on display in this brew. As for flavour, tropical fruit continued from bow to stern, culminating in an unexpectedly dry, bitter finish. This was a class ale--really fruity and fun, but seriously well made. Of the beers I tried at BP, this was the one that'd give the valedictory address.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Big Eye IPA

My good pal MM turned me on to Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits and their Grapefruit and Pineapple Sculpin IPAs. So when I found myself in San Diego, their Little Italy location was a must-see spot.

I arrived mid-afternoon with a powerful thirst and a hunger to match. While I waited for my shrimp tacos, I kept myself amused with a pint of Big Eye IPA, a 7% alcohol job. Served on tap, my brew arrived sporting a copper hue, relatively clear, and topped with a thin white head. The nose suggested a well balanced India Pale Ale, as it featured a goodly amount of woodsy hops as well as a sturdy malt streak. The flavour proved quite bitter, in favour of crackling dry hops, built atop a malty base.

 

Big Eye had to compete with pretty lofty expectations, and performed reasonably well. Less fruity and memorable than the Sculpins, but well built and solid. In truth, had I ready access to both choices, I'd likely buy more of the Big Eye, in spite of the fact that the Pineapple Sculpin in particular is a more interesting and higher-rated brew.

It should also be noted that my shrimp tacos were scrumptious.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Scripps Pier Oyster Stout

Scripps Pier Oyster Stout comes from San Diego, California's South Park Brewing Co., a little outfit that I checked out with my father during a recent trip to Southern California. Nice place, too. Good vibe in a cool neighbourhood.

The beer was black and pretty, topped with a very thin off-white head. According to the South Park website, the beer had a modest 5.2% alcohol and it's brewed using "filtered salt water available to the public at Scripp's Pier". Very malty, sweet and slightly chocolatey through the nose. The flavour walked a similar line, with roasted malt playing lead, a bit of sweets, and a touch of tobacco, before it turned a bit bitter at the finish.

Pretty nice little stout--light-bodied but flavourful.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Deep Tracks

New, or at least new to me, is Deep Tracks, an American Brown Ale from the "normal is weird" crowd at Barrie, Ontario's Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery. Sold in 473mL cans featuring a guitar-wielding lad walking a dirt track, this ale contained a heady 6.2% alcohol and 45 IBUs. The beer poured with an impossibly fluffy off-white head. Beneath that, it proved to be a dark brown ale with ruby highlights.

To my nose, Deep Tracks had a very mild smell--caramel maltiness leaning on a faintly bitter foundation. The flavour had a bit more oomph. It started sweetly, with caramel goodness leading the way. Behind that came a mellow finish, turning up just slightly at the very end with a crackle of hops bitterness. In terms of mouthfeel, this ale was creamy and smooth.

While Deep Tracks wasn't as bitter and assertive as many of the American Brown Ales I've sipped in the past, it did have a lovely character that left me feeling peaceful and jolly. If Flying Monkeys keep brewing this stuff, I'm sure I'll keep buying it--it has the cache needed to worm its way into my semi-regular Ontario beer purchasing repertoire.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Hey Day

A hefeweizen from Vancouver, British Columbia, Hey Day is a representative of Granville Island Brewing Co.'s "Under the Bridge Series." Sold in 473mL cans, the hefe is a cloudy orange grog with a thick white head. It contains 5% alcohol and 15 IBUs.

To my nose, this wheat ale smells potently of bananas. The flavour has a similar bent, though supplemented by a light spice note. The mouthfeel is mellow and mild, with little bitterness and much refreshment.

I liked this beer alright, but found it to be a bit too sweet for comfort. All in all, a fine wheat that I may well repurchase, but nothing remarkable or momentous.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Black Bellows' White

In an extremely stylish 500mL bottle comes Black Bellows' White, a 5% alcohol beer brewed in Collingwood, Ontario by Black Bellows Brewing Co. Billed as a take on the Belgian wit, "with a hint of elderflower", this stuff sounded pretty good to me.

The brew initially poured clear, but after a swirl and a secondary pour, the beer took on the cloudy, yeasty look of a conventional wit. It's aroma was yeast-focused, but built around a potent fragrance of spices. Thin at first, the mouthfeel picked up steam on the back end. Flavour was spicy, yet refreshing.

Black Bellows' White was a tasty take on the popular Belgian style. Not particularly memorable, but certainly not flawed in any way, this was simply a well made beer.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Delicious IPA

Bit of a hiatus while I vacationed in San Diego, but now I'm back with a vengeance.

 

Delicious IPA is an interesting innovation from Southern California brewing giant Stone Brewing Co. on its face, delicious looks like many others--cloudy, orange brown grog, thin off-white head, 7.7% alcohol, 355mL bottle. However, according to the label, this brew was "crafted ... in a revolutionary way to make it gluten-reduced." That's pretty rad, especially since there are no unusual ingredients like sorghum. Just beer, somehow magically gluten-reduced. Witchcraft? Maybe.

The beer itself is possessed of a punishingly bitter citrus nose--lots of grapefruit notes here, as well as a bit of tangerine. The flavour, too, is aggressively bitter and decidedly inclined toward citrus elements. The mouthfeel is a bit curious, however--unusually thin and quite short. As well, the finish, which is mostly hoppy and grapefruit-focused, has a slightly odd chemical subtext to it.

Overall, Stone's Delicious IPA is certainly that. It's innovative and tasty, with, as might be expected, a few quirks. I'm all for making good beer available to more people, so this magical gluten-reducing process is to be commended. While it might result in a few questionable notes, these are truly minor, and easily masked by a beer that hits the three Bs: bold, bitter, and boozy. The finish is, it should be noted, a wee bit thin.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.