Indian Wells Brewing Co. -- Lobotomy Bock Lager

Indian Wells Brewing Co. right off California Highway 14

Inside Indian Wells Brewing Co.

Indian Wells Brewing Company hails from Inyokern, California in the high desert near the city of Ridgecrest.  If you head north on Highway 14 towards the Owens Valley and Mammoth Mountain you will drive right by it before you hit Highway 395.  The brewery is uniquely situated by a natural spring which allows it access to high quality water.  Geologists believe snow melt from Mount Whitney (the highest point in the lower 48 states just north of the brewery) flows through an underground river to create the spring.

I found myself introduced to Indian Wells Brewing by my hunting buddy after a weekend of deer hunting up in the Owens Valley.  Whether you're heading up to the Eastern Sierras to play, out to the desert to romp in the dirt, or are stationed out of China Lake, Indian Wells is worth a stop.  They sell beer, soda, candy, and have plenty of samples from the tap.  A six pack is reasonably priced at $7.99 and a case is $29.99.

The historic marker outside the brewery reads: "After five days travel from the Argus Range, the Manley-Jawhawker parties of 1849 found their first water at this Indian waterhole on the Joseph R. Walker Trail of 1843.  During the 1860s this was the site of a stage and freight station for traffic between Los Angeles and Coso and Cerro Gordo Mines.

Lobotomy Bock tastes like a bock meets a stout meets a lager.  It pours dark brown with a bit of creamy colored foam that quickly dissipates.  It seems fairly light bodied which is surprising since it is 10.8% ABV -- in other words, it has twice the alcohol content of most beers and is even more alcoholic than many barley wines.  It is fairly carbonated and the flavors are mostly bitter, toasty burnt, and malty.  It is brewed with five different types of malts, but the malt profile tends to be surprisingly subtle because of the bitterness.  Not much hoppiness here since the hops are added to the finish of the boil.  It has a long coffee ground aftertaste.  Bocks were originally strong dark German lagers.  Many bocks tend to be lighter brown; however, this is a dopple bock - AKA double bock - which were brewed by Friars as liquid bread during times of fasting.  Overall, Lobotomy Bock is pretty easy drinking for a strong beer so be careful.  Its not something I would drink everyday, but it is worth the adventure.  Cheers!

JosephsBrau Brewing Co. - Stockyard Oatmeal Stout

JosephsBrau Brewing Co. in San Jose, CA is Trader Joe's brewery.  In other words don't expect to find this anywhere but TJ's.  And like many products at TJ's, you'll discover something you love and then they won't keep it in stock.

Stockyard Oatmeal Stout is black like diesel and pours with little head.  It is not as heavy as you would think.  Beers are like coffee in that the roasting of coffee beans imparts different flavors, and with beer it is the roasting of malts and darker beers have malts roasted longer.  Stockyard is a medium bodied beer with 5.2% ABV.  Some stouts have more coffee flavors, and some are more chocolate flavored.  This is one definitely a sweet and creamy chocolate stout with hints of vanilla.  There is a little bit of malty bitterness at the end, but this lightly carbonated beer goes down smoothly.

If you are a stranger to dark beers this would be a good on to start with.  It's a lot different than Guinness, but easy on the palate.

Overall, this is a great beer.  Trader Joe's knocked this one out of the park!  Cheers!

Samuel Adams Small Batch Collection -- Verloren

 This is the final installation of my review of the $20 four bottle small batch collection that I picked up from Costco.  Check out my reviews of Third Voyage Double IPA, Imperial White, and Honey Queen Braggot.

The Boston Beer Co.'s Samuel Adams Small Batch Collection are their higher quality and experimental beers.  Verloren is no exception.  It is an attempt to recreate ales from ancient Saxony.  Gose has an unfiltered wheat ale as its base, which is why it has a hazy golden hefeweizen-like hue.  It pours with a foamy sparkly head which quickly dissipates. 

It is brewed with Saaz hops, salt, and coriander.  The hops are barely noticeable because this beer is malty smooth and yeast-y like most wheat beers, but to me the difference is the salt with a little bit of pepper flavor.  It is smooth, crisp, and fizzy.  Other people on the interweb talk about this beer being full of citrus and orange flavors, but I'm not tasting it out of this bottle.  It is very drinkable and interesting, but not something I necessarily need to try again; however, I do appreciate that it is a different take on wheat beer, and the saltiness makes it easier to pair.  I'm classy and pairing it with a hot dog and beans, but this is a versatile beer that will pair well with burgers, steaks, and even salads.  Cheers!

Samuel Adams Small Batch Collection -- Honey Queen

This is the third post in a series about Boston Beer Co.'s (AKA Samuel Adams) small batch collection.  Check out my previous posts on Third Voyage Double IPA and Imperial White.

Honey Queen pours golden straw like a lager, but fortunately it is no lager.  It smells like creamy honey.  It claims to be "Ale brewed with honey, chamomile, and with natural flavors added" and 7.5% ABV.  You'll notice that at the bottom of label it says "Barggot," which apparently is a blend of mead and beer that can trace its roots as far back as the 12th century.  The back of the bottle calls it a "whimsical brew that is floral with a tart sweetness and a much awaited honey finish."

Usually honey beers don't seem to keep their flavor (maybe that's why this also has "natural flavors").  I met a guy that was ridiculously into home brewing who told me that that the problem with honey beers is that they need to be pasteurized.

I have to go out on a limb and say this is probably the best honey beer I've ever had.  Its so good I almost didn't want to share with Kiki...but as a good husband I shared a few sips.  She doesn't normally like beers, but she liked this one.  This beer is light, smooth, a little bread-y, and very sweet.  I'm not a big sweet beer person, but I do like mead and this is a nice change from beers that are either really malty or really hoppy.  It packs a lot of honey flavor with a slight malty finish.  There are hints of citrus and vanilla.  After a long day of working around the house on a hot Labor Day weekend this beer hits the spot!  It's creamy smooth flavor is great for a hot summer day and is hard to put down.  Cheers!

Samuel Adams Small Batch Collection -- Imperial White

My last post began the adventure into Samuel Adams Small Batch Collection and the Third Voyage Double IPA.  As I mentioned, Costco has a four pack for a penny under $20.

Sam Adams brewed it's first bold beer in 1988 with a double bock.  It wasn't until 2009 when Sam Adams came out with the imperial series.  After trying a bunch of different recipes they came up with this unique beer. Supposedly you can make a "Samosa" with this with 2/3 orange juice and 1/3 Imperial White -- I'll have to get another bottle so I can try that.

Imperial White is 10.3% ABV and 15 IBUs -- the alcohol content for this beer is up there with barley wines.  It pours a hazy-golden with a little bit of foam.  The color comes from the extraordinary amount of malts used -- none of them are roasted, it's just a lot of malt that give it the darker color.  Like many of the white-genera on the first sip you can immediately taste citrus and spices; however, as an "imperial" white it's amped up so it is almost syrupy.  The term imperial comes from beers in the 1800s shipped from England to imperial Russia's royalty.  The term came to mean luxury, and eventually beers that are bolder and fuller.  Sam Adam's Imperial White is no exception.  It's a strong wheat beer brewed with orange and lemon peel, hibiscus, coriander, dried plum, anise, rose hips, and vanilla.  All these ingredients make it extremely complex and you can pick up different flavors on each sip.  There are lots of fruit flavors with the orange, lemon, and plum.  The spices blend with the vanilla for a mellow and sweat aftertaste.

Given the sweetness and strength it makes a good desert beer.  I'm pairing it with some Atlantic salmon.  This is great for anyone looking for a unique beer or to share with others.  Cheers!

Samuel Adams Small Batch Collection -- Third Voyage Double IPA

The Boston Beer Company is best known for its Samuel Adams brand.  They've made limited edition small batch collections of bold and unconventional beers.  While at Costco I stumbled upon this collection for $19.99, which is not bad for four quality large bottle brews.

Third Voyage Double IPA is meant to take the IPA style back to its origins.  India Pale Ales were made by the British as beers that were strong and hoppy so the beer would last on long ship voyages to far away parts of the British Empire.  In the 1700s malts were roasted pretty dark (i.e. brown ale, stouts, and porters), so making a beer that was copper color was considered pale.  Third Voyage was inspired by "Captain James Cook whose 3rd voyage made him the first to navigate a treacherous route from England to New Zealand to the Pacific Northwest."  In that spirit, Sam Adams has used Cascade hops from each of those areas.

This beer is rated at 8.0% ABV, 85 IBUs and is a nice copper color.  It pours with quite a bit of head, but that eventually dissipates to a trace.  It smells hoppy and floral, but with a deeper and richer characteristic that I find only in strong and hoppy beers.  It is lightly carbonated and full of bitterness that leaves a long aftertaste which eventually turns a little chalky from the malts that try to balance this beer.  The hops give it a touch of citrus and pine.  It's almost like a combination of Stone's IPA and Arrogant Bastard -- it's big bodied and big on the hop profile.  In my experience, Sam Adams beers usually don't stray very far from the Boston Lager mainstay, even when they're trying to brew something completely different.  This is definitely an exception and is probably the boldest beer from Sam Adams I've ever had.  It's so bold you can just enjoy it on its own.  Hops will cut through with spicy food or pair nicely with red meat.  I'm going to grill up some tri-tip to enjoy the last half of it.  Cheers!

Lagunitas Brewing Co. -- New Dogtown Pale Ale

Lagunitas Brewing Co. was founded in 1993 in Lagunitas, California (an unincorporated area of Marin County just north of San Francisco).  Now their headquarters are in Petaluma which is in Sonoma County just north of the Bay Area.  In 20 years they have become the sixth best selling craft brewery in the U.S.  In the last decade they have had exponential growth.

New Dogtown Pale Ale states on the bottle: "This is not the original Pale Ale as brewed in far away 1993 in the back of the Old House of Richards Building in the West Main hamlet of Forest Knolls right next to little Lagunitas...It is way better.  Back then the beer tasted like broccoli and kerosene and the carbonation ate right through and drained your stomach into your gut..." 

Aren't we all glad there are choices for beer that do not taste like broccoli and kerosene.  This pale ale is hazy golden color, pours with a bit of a head when you're inpatient like me, minimal but slightly hoppy aroma.  It is lightly carbonated and is immediately bitter on the nose with a continuous bitter linger with a little bit of maltiness that comes up in the linger.  The complexity of the flavor is in the hoppy bitterness -- that's where you can pick up pine-y, grassy, floral hop flavors.  It is medium body and clocks in at 6.2% ABV. 

Overall, it is more like an IPA than Sierra Nevada Pale Ale because it is more hoppy and more bitter.  In fact, it is more bitter than most pale ales.  Not that being more bitter is a bad thing; it's just an observation.  I paired it with some pizza and that was awesome!  If you don't mind some hops or consider yourself more of a "hop-head" then this is an excellent pale ale.  Cheers!

Mendocino Brewing Co. -- Bock Beer

Mendocino Brewing Company is based out of Ukiah, California which is about two hours north of San Francisco up the 101.  The name Mendocino is the name of the county, and the name of the county traces its origins to Spanish exploration.  That area of California known for redwood trees, wine, marijuana, and craft beer.  Like many craft breweries the founders started out home brewing.  They opened a brewpub in 1983 with their flagship beer Red Tail Ale (which is still around and very tasty).  They were the first brewpub in California and the second in the U.S. to put the pieces together that craft beer and food would sell well together.  They have grown to be the 30th largest craft brewer in the U.S., 6th biggest in California, and have their beers distributed in 43 states.

Bock Beer is seasonal so unfortunately it's not stocked all the time.  It pours dark amber with very little head.  It has a slightly sweet malty smell, and the taste is a smooth malty-biscuit-butter-slightly sweet flavor.  Like most bocks it is really mild so any food you pair it with needs to be mild as well otherwise the spices will overwhelm it.  The aftertaste is short, malty, and yeast-y.  It is hard to pick up on the hops in this beer, but they do add some bitterness.  It's 6.0% ABV, medium bodied, and overall a bock that is pretty true to form.  It is a good beer if you're looking for something sweet and smooth.  Cheers!

Anchor Brewing Co. -- Liberty Ale

Anchor Brewing Co. is one of the older craft breweries in the country.  Their flagship is Anchor Steam, but they also make a pretty mean Porter, which I previously reviewed.

From the bottle: "San Francisco's famous Liberty Ale was first brewed on the 18th of April, 1975, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Paul Revere's historic ride.  It is virtually handmade by the brewers of Anchor Steam Beer in one of the smallest and most traditional breweries in the world.  Liberty Ale is made with the finest barley malt; fresh, whole hops; top-fermenting yeast; pure water; and the simple natural methods that reflect our exceptional respect for the ancient art of brewing.  It is 'dry hopped,' a classic ale tradition, and slowly completes its fermentation in sealed vats in our cellars.  This unique process creates Liberty Ale's distinctive bouquet and uncommonly delicate, entirely natural carbonation."

It has 5.9% ABV and is brewed with cascade hops and two row pale malts.  As you can see it pours with a large foamy head and a hazy dark straw color like a hefeweizen.  It tastes like a pale ale, but lighter body, more subtle malts, and smoother and lighter carbonation.  The malts leave a short malty aftertaste.  Beer advocate calls it an American IPA, but I don't think that's very fitting.  It's more like a creamy pale ale, which makes it easily drinkable.  The timing of first brewing it in April was appropriate because this is a great spring-time beer.  Cheers!

Coronado Brewing Company -- Islander IPA

I found Coronado Brewing Co.'s Islander IPA at Costco for $3.49 for a 22 oz bottle.  Coronado is a resort city in San Diego County across the bay from downtown San Diego.  Coronado Brewing started in 1996 shortly before the craft beer scene started to explode. You can find Coronado Brewing Co.'s beers in: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. The mermaid logo traces its roots back to the local San Diego legend about mermaids singing beautiful songs to attract sailors away from the jagged rocks of Point Loma and into the calm waters of San Diego Bay.

As you can see, this light golden beer pours with a bit of head, but that goes down after a couple minutes and then leaves quite a bit of lacing on the glass.  It has a strong floral hoppy smell.  This beer has a medium body, quite a bit of bite, and leaves a long bitter aftertaste.  The bitterness overwhelms the Munich malts.  It is brewed with Cascade, Chinook, and Columbus hops, which give it that bitter bite with flavors of pine and citrus fruitiness. 

It registers at 7.0% ABV and 70 IBUs.  Since Islander IPA has a prominent presence on your pallet, like many IPAs it will pair well with spicy food, burgers, and steaks.  I personally go through phases where I switch between styles of beer that I prefer.  Hoppy beers aren't for everyone.  On the spectrum of IPAs from barely hoppy (and shouldn't be called an IPA) to extremely hoppy/bitter this is more on the hoppy/bitter side.  For anyone who likes hoppy beers or is looking for a good beer as spring starts to turn into summer Islander IPA is definitely worth a try. 

Deschutes Brewery -- Black Butte Porter

I've been bad about blogging lately...mostly because of working a lot.  I've got a bunch of beers stockpiled that I bought for reviewing, and I have a slew of old posts that I started and need the finishing touches.  I'm also planning on doing some entries on home brewing.  In short, there is more to come.

Deschutes Brewery out of Bend, Oregon makes a lot of great beers.  It was founded in 1988 and is now the fifth largest craft brewery and eleventh largest brewery in the U.S.  You can find their beers in 18 states, which are pretty much the western half of the U.S.

Black Butte is the best selling craft porter in the country.  It claims numerous awards, but most recently a silver medal at the 2013 International Brewing Awards.  Most breweries aren't willing to put a porter as a flagship beer, but Deschutes took that leap.  It is self described as having a "creamy mouthfeel, complex layers, hop edge and chocolate finish."  It clocks in at 5.2% ABV.  As you would expect, since its a porter it looks black when poured; however, if you hold it up to the light it has a reddish hue.  The bottle's description is pretty on the money.  It is definitely creamy and has a chocolate finish.  The hops are subtle, but give it a little bit of a bite.  The malts lend a lengthy and complex aftertaste that seems to get a little bit more bitter after a handful of sips.

A lot of breweries make porters, and many of them are worth trying, but this seems to be a hard style for many to nail down.  Deschutes has done a very good job in making a style of beer that I would only want to drink on occasion into something I would buy a 12 pack of.  It is not made with spices -- just several different types of dark malts that give it the complexity.  For anyone new to the craft beer scene this would be an excellent porter to start with and use as a comparison for judging others.