I first ran into sours 5-6 years ago at a brew pub on the coast. I thought they were terrible. I have sampled several since then and my opinion hasn’t changed. Now my daughter loves them. To each his own.
I hear you. I’m stuck in a deep IPA hop rut that I’m finding hard to get out of. There are so many beer styles waiting for me to explore them though.
I plead guilty to the IPA hop addiction as well. I literally can’t drink anything right now that isn’t hoppy. Ah, a few stouts and porters maybe. But carmelly ales…no way. I am not really happy about that because I know I am missing out on some really good beers.
But sours…yech. Like drinking a sweet wine.
I am so much in that same boat. I have some fantastic stouts sitting on a shelf that I need to go through, but I feel like once I went all in on the hop train, my brain just now associates bitterness and hop aromas with beer, period.
I was given a sample of a great beer last night to try, Coronado Brewing’s Unhitched imperial brown ale. It was fantastic. Great caramel and malty flavors swirling around in a beautiful brown beer, finishing with some light spicy flavors. And I drank it, then promptly went back to an IPA. Like I couldn’t even bother myself to order one and enjoy it for a glass. Just, “wow that was great, I’ll take a Jade please.”
Are you in San Diego? Isn’t that where Coronado is?
One of my wife’s cousins in San Diego sent us pictures a few months ago of them at Stone Beer tasting.
Want.
I hear they have a great restaurant at the brewery.
-xtien
That is almost the new normal. Firestone has a very busy restaurant attached to their brewery and tasting room. Dust Bowl has a restaurant that does so well you can’t get in on a weekend without a reservation.
I did see Stone’s facility in an episode of Brew Dogs once. I want to go there. :)
I don’t think I’ve been to a brewery, now that I think of it. I’ve been to wineries. And I’ve been to beer festivals (the Stone 14th anniversary one, which I think I posted about in this thread because I got an awesome glass, was so freaking great).
I’ve heard that the restaurant at their place is particularly good. A friend of mine said they had these duck tacos that were just incredible.
-xtien
Wineries smell so good. Unless you are into the smell of beer mash (which to me smells good) there is no comparison.
I’m not, I’m in NC, but strangely we get distribution here for Coronado and many other San Diego beers. If you’ve never been to San Diego though, for god sakes go. Besides being an awesome place, the breweries around there are fantastic. Stone, Port, Coronado, Ballast Point, Firestone, Lost Abbey, Mission, Alpine, Green Flash, it goes on and on.
Good point.
This brings me back to my childhood, and you remind me that I have been to a brewery…many times.
When I was a kid I lived near Williamsburg, Virginia. I also went to college there. Which meant we went to the best theme park ever, Busch Gardens, a lot. Again, not the one in Florida where they have lots of animals, but rather the one in Williamsburg that was themed for different European countries. Actually, one of my first summer jobs was in their phony little Ren-Faire area called Threadneedle Faire where I did a crappy Cockney accent and worked in the dunk tank hurling insults at people so they’d buy tickets to knock me into a cold tank of water. TRUE STORY.
Anyway, Busch Gardens is attached to the Budweiser brewery, and when I was a kid you could take a monorail from the park to the brewery for a tour. My dad always looked forward to this because the “tour” was really just an excuse to get a couple of free samples. The smell of that place was not enjoyable to me as a kid.
I drive past the Budweiser Brewery here in California (the one in Van Nuys) just about every day. My kid is not a fan of the smell.
-xtien
I have been to Williamsburg and remember the Bud plant there. Also the one in LA, and there is one between SF and Sacramento.
I used to make beer and the wife and I always loved cooking the mash because of the smell. We haven’t done that in probably 25 years, we quit when the kids started needing the bathtub. It’s where we put the car boy while the fermentation was taking place.
Car boy. Ha. That’s the second time I’ve heard that in as many days. This weekend we helped friends move to their new house, and we took three of their heavily wrapped car boys in the car after loading the heavy stuff into the U-Haul.
I don’t remember hearing that term before, although I think I must have since Alton Brown did a “Good Eats” episode on home brewing many years ago.
-xtien
It sounds way more kinky when you split carboy into two words like that :)
We got no complaints.
-xtien
I’m a homebrewer and in this boat as well. Hey, fermentation blowoffs happen (more dirty words.) The bathtub is always a safe place to contain those.
I love the smell of the mash as well as boiling in the kettle. My girlfriend hates both of them. She’s not a fan of oatmeal either and describes the smell as a cross between grape nuts and cooked oatmeal. Whatever, it makes beer, right?
Also, @ChristienMurawski, I used to live in Virginia Beach (Navy) and went to concerts at William and Mary all the time while I was there. I’m old though. If it tells you anything I got to see Nirvana there in '93. Williamsburg was always fun.
You’re old. Please! I missed seeing Sting in concert there in '88 because I was in my first show (a musical called “Anything Goes”) and there was a rehearsal on the night of the concert and the director was a jerk. And I was a freshman and that’s the way it goes.
I love Williamsburg and miss it. It has my favorite sandwich shop in the world. The Cheese Shop.
Knowing you were at Oceana, I now understand your Qt3 name. :)
-xtien
A few years ago, I was tasked with helping the Budweiser Brewery in Columbus test their standpipe systems (a pipe that runs up stairwells that firefighters use to fight fires on upper floors).
http://i.imgur.com/1K2D70D.jpg
Those towers are 10 stories tall, and are where all the materials are processed and delivered to the brewhouse below. I was up and down each of those towers six to eight times, and they smelled so good inside, especially the malt crushing room.
Conversely, we have an industrial bakery downtown that smells heavenly outside, but smells like a garbage pit on the inside.
Hopefully better than the beer tastes!
That said I’ve never done a brewery tour, so have not experienced that. Been to a few local breweries, but they’re mixed restaurants with the vats separated (but visible). So never got a good smell of them. Wineries however…
I was at Dam Neck, even better because it was the only beach that allowed alcohol at the time. :) And yep, my QT3 name bridges the gap between being ex-Navy and also a weekend boat junkie at the large manmade lake we have near me.
I wish I could remember all the concerts I went to up there, that’s when you know you’re getting old. I do remember Nirvana though, some asshole threw a shoe and hit Curt Cobain who then proceeded to stop playing, yell at the crowd and leave for several minutes before coming back for a single encore.