#87 De Ryck

This is another beer that I'll report briefly to include it in the count, but it doesn't deserve much more than that.   It's a Belgian pale ale that comes in an ugly bottle.

Appearance: Red/brown amber.  Light bit of white head.
Nose: Hardly anything.  Subtle dry fruit notes.  A bit of apricot.
Palate: Bland.  Bready.

That's it, not very good.  4 out of 10

#82 Sierra Nevada - Estate Ale

My brother and dad and I made our way out to the Bay Area Craft Beer Festival.  It was a decent, fledgling festival with lots of good beer from around the area.  They have a good deal of kinks to work out before next time, but they're on the right track.  I'd tasted most of the beers offered at the festival, but came upon a few new gems:

John, Jack & I posing for pics at the festival with a chatty, inebriated wingnut.

Sierra Nevada was not offering tastes of a pale ale in a green bottle, but they were offering their Estate Ale, a beer made exclusively of ingredients produced at Sierra Nevada's Chico estate.

Appearance: Crisp clear amber beer, a modicum of whitish head
Aroma: Subtle floral and spice hop aroma
Palate: Lovely floral flavor, Quite smooth and easy drinking, back palate bitterness, mouthwatering
Sharp bitter notes.

This is certainly a beer that harkens back to the old standby Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.  It's a bit sharper in it's hop bitterness than the original, but seemed a more refined, finished beer.  Very good! Highly recommended.
9 out of 10

Day 58, 2.27.11., Full Sail - LTD Series #04

So, according to the information on the bottle, Full Sail is now producing a line of special limited edition beers dubbed 'LTD'.  I picked up a bottle at Trader Joe's.  This one is Recipe #04 and is a single malt single hop beer featuring pale malt and Willamette hops.
It's a nice thought, but I feel like this one just a little boring.   I guess if you just wanna sit and split a six-pack, this one is a fine choice.  It's a golden yellow beer with a medium amount of white head that left a bit of lacing.
On the nose there is a little caramel and some subtle citrus notes, lemon and orange.
The palate offers some very nice dry, sharp hop bitterness.  There's a touch of some honey, but not really enough of this malty backing to really make it a great beer.  It's fine. 

45 IBU, 7% ABV, 6 out of 10

Day 49, 2.18.11, Anderson Valley Brewing - Wee Geech

Finally had a chance to visit the brewery up there in Boonville, and damn it's awesome.  They have a full-on visitor's center with a bar and maybe 15 taps.  The brewery itself looks pretty sweet.  Although I wasn't there at the right time for the tour, the huge windows in their brewhouse nicely show off their huge copper mash/lauter tuns and kettles.  Cool.  They also have disc golf, which I've never played (since I'm not a filthy, stinky hippy) but now I kinda want to because I realized it fits nicely into my favorite category of sports: Sports-that-are-best-played-while-holding-a-beer.  (see list below)
Back to the beer.

Wee Geech, I'm told, is Boontling for little sex, or a quicky.  I also found out that Poleeko is the Boontling word for Philo, the town up the road from Boonville.  So there you go.

Wee Geech is a pale ale that could cross over into IPA territory.  It's a pale yellow ale with a nice lacy head.  It's got a terrific sharp spicy hop nose and some slightly clovey spice.  Ther's some subtle orange oil.  The light/medium bodied beer has a sharp, mouth drying hop bitterness that lingers so delightfully on the back palate.  I loved this beer.
8 out of 10.





Sports-that-are-best-played-while-holding-a-beer  OR  My-favorite-sports:
-Bocce Ball
-Bowling
-Darts
-Billiards
-Frisbee
-Dominoes
-Croquet
-Horseshoes
-Kayaking
-Kite flying
-Lawn darts
-Lawn chair occupying 

Day 48, 2.17.11, North Coast Brewing - Cask Conditioned Red Seal Ale

We stopped into the pub/tasting room in Fort Bragg's North Coast Brewing Company.  I'm always excited to visit a brewery, because oftentimes they have beers on tap that aren't otherwise available.  Such was not the case with North Coast, as I'd had all twelve of their offerings previously, save one: the cask conditioned version of their flagship red/pale ale, Red Seal.
Our bartender worked her tail off hand pumping glasses and pints for the Sunday lunch rush.  She was also busy pouring 12 item samplers about once every five minutes or so.  We collectively kept her on her toes.  Well done, we appreciate it!
It was forced from it's cask into a glass of nearly solid head, which slowly cascaded into a beautiful copper red beer with a nice dense foamy white head.
There is plenty of malt on the nose, as well as some bitter orange and a touch of hops.
The hops come through much more fully on the palate, and is nicely rounded into a beer with some nice malt body and a fair amount of citric sour character.  I've always thought Red Seal was a decent basic red ale, but I really did  prefer it cask conditioned.  It was just lightly effervescent, but with a nice creamy head and not overly cold.  7 out of 10

Day 47, 2.16.11., Anderson Velley Brewing, Poleeko Gold

A trip up to the Mendocino coast for the weekend resulted in tasting several beers from the area's two micro brew stars, North Coast Brewing and Anderson Valley.  More on North Coast later.
On our way north, we stopped in Point Arena for a little lunch.  As we drove into town, Lesley and I discussed what we wanted for lunch: clam chowder in a bread bowl for her, and a beer for me.  No sooner than we voiced these desires, this is the sign we saw:

Sometimes things work out.

The food was pretty solid pub fare, and the beer selection pretty good, although the selection was nearly exclusively North Coast and Anderson Valley.  They're both good, but up here, they are the only beers you see on any taps.
I tried Poleeko Gold this time, a pale ale from Anderson Valley.  It has a nice nose with hints of grapefruit, sweet maltiness and acidic notes.  The body is on the full side of medium and has good bitterness backed up by just a hint of honey malt.  All that part is nice, but this pint had a definite skunky,  funkyness to it.  Unfortunately it was the kind of defect that comes with not cleaning your taps often enough.  Other than that, it's a nice easy drinking pale ale.  It'd be a good beer when you're planning on drinking a six-pack.  Fair beer.  6 out of 10.