BEER Cheat Sheet

Do you know the difference between a Weissbier and a Witbier?  Do you prefer Dubbel, Doppelbock or Single Bock? Do you know what a Kolsch or Gueze is?  Well, you do now. Who knew beer could be so diverse.

                                                                                                         Me and Yun on number...10 I think.
                                                                                               San Diego County Fair Beer festival 2011
                                                                                                      (Picture thrown in for no reason)

ABBEY - Strong, fruity, spicy, aromatic, complex.
ALTBIER - Bronze colored, snappy bitterness, full of malt flavor.
AMBER - Color signals caramelized flavors in amber ales and lagers
BARLEY WINE - Very strong, dark, bittersweet, malty, complex - a sipping beer. (Whatever!)

                                                                                                               Stone Old Gaurian Barley Wine

BIERE DE GARDE - Full-bodied, herbal, flavors of anise and earth
BITTER - Fruity and racy, subtle, low carbonation, robust hopping.
BOCK -  Dark (usually), strong, malty, toffeeish, full bodied, restrained bitterness.
BROWN ALE -  Dark, caramelized, fruity, light chocolate and coffee.
DOPPELBOCK - Very strong, dark, toffeeish, with some sweetness.
DORTMUNDER EXPORT - Golden, dry, bready, moderate bitterness.
DUBBELL - Dark, fruity, complex, raisiny, spicy.
DUNKEL/DUNKLES - Dark, malty, juicy, bready, moderate bitterness.
ESB - "Extra Special Bitter", amber, fruity, slightly strong, hoppy.
FRAMBOISE/FRAMBOZEN - Beer made with raspberries; can be sween or dry.
GUEUZE - Pale, dry, funky, wildly complex, quite tarte.
HEFEWEIZEN - Wheat beer with yeast, light bodied, spritzy, clovey, banana like.
HELLES - Golden, light bodied, malty, bready, restrained bitterness.
IMPERIAL STOUT - Very strong, dark, roasty, coffeeish, chocolaty, robust.
IPA - "India Pale Ale", amber, strong, dry, robust hop bitterness and aroma
KOLSCH - Very pale gold, bready, lightly fruity, restrained bitterness.
KRIEK-Beer made with cherries, can be sweet or dry.
LAMBIC - Fermented by wild yeasts (like your mamma!), tart base for gueuze and fruit beers, funky
MARZENBIER - Amber, bready, round, malty, caramelized, juicy, medium bodied.
MILD - Dark, lightly hopped, caramelized, raisiny, light bodied.
OKTOBERFEST - Should be the same as marzenbier, but sometimes paler.
OLD ALE - Somewhat strong, dark, caramelized, fruity, balanced bitterness.
OUD BRUIN - "Old Brown", dark, sweet and sour, fruity, juicy, raisiny, complex.
PALE ALE - Amber, snappy, dry, fruity, hoppy, with some caramel flavors.
PILSNER - If genuine, golden dry, sharply bitter, flowery, bready, snappy.
PORTER - Very dark, chcolaty, coffeeish, caramelized, hoppy.
RAUCHBIER - "Smoked beer", smoky flavors and aromatics, juicy, caramelized.
SAISON - Dry, sharp, spicy, complex, refreshing, hoppy, slightly strong.
SCHWARZBIER - "Black beer", dark, bitter chocolate, dry, caramelized, bready.
SCOTCH ALE - Dark, sometimes strong, malty, full bodied, restrained bitterness.

                                                                                Harvestoun Ola Dubh Scotch Ale - 12 year - YUM!

STOUT - Black, coffeesh, chocolaty, can bbe dry or sweet, strohng or modest.
TRAPPIST - Made by monks, stong, fruity, spicy, complex.
TRIPEL - Pale, strong, dry, fruity, complex, spicy, rummy, spirituous.
VIENNA-STYLE - Bronze, sweetish (not swedish), malty, bready, caramelized, light bitterness.
WEISSE/WEISSBIER - Wheat beer, usually with yeast (like your mamma!) See hefewizen.
WITBIER - Belgian wheat beer, hazy yellow, light bodied, citric, spritzy, slightly tangy.
BUDWIESER -  Slight taste of duck urine, watery, worthless.

*The above list was pulled directly from  "The Brewmaster's Table", Garret Oliver, Harper Colins 2005

U.S Breweries Map

One of the best things about starting this blog is all the additional information my friends are sending me on the beer industry in San Diego and across the US. My brother in law sent me a great article on the SD beer obsession a few weeks ago, which I passed on to viewers of this blog in a previous post. My friend Adrian sent me the below link to a map of the breweries across the US.

  http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0068/6272/files/PCL_BreweriesoftheUnitedStatesREVISED.png?102908

Please continue to share the knowledge, I will definitely give credit where it is due. Also, if any one wants to finance a cross country brewery tour, I'll chip in for gass. (Use the link rather than look at the below pic, there is a good zoom feature)

O’Brien’s Pub – San Diego

Don’t let the fancy website fool you. O’Brien’s is no frills and a bit blue collar.  They rotate their beer out regularly and bring in a different cask beer every Thursday.  The staff is nice…but not too nice, and I find that refreshing.  It’s located in the Clairemont Mesa area of San Diego in an Asian strip mall.  Very convenient if you want to grab some fro-yo or tofu after you are done drinking.  Also very convenient if your wife loves fro-yo but hates you drinking at O’Brien’s.  Handing over her favorite frozen treat when getting home from work 2 hours late helps.

If you live in San Diego, you have to check this place out.  Many local brew masters and beer aficionados go here regularly and it’s a great place to strike up a conversation with someone.  I’ve been going to O’Brien’s for years,  but my most recent visit was special because I went with a friend, for the sake of this blog let’s call him Tony…because that is his name.  On Friday afternoon, Tony asked me if I wanted to grab a beer. “Sure!” I said, “What kinda beer do you like?”   “Oh, the Bud Light Platinum isn’t too bad…”

This is the point in the movie when the record screeches to a halt and an all out brawl starts, but I took a deep breath and told him “First, we are going to O’Brien’s, they don’t have Bud Light. Second, I’m ordering your beers, and third, Bud Light is not beer.”

It’s not.

We arrived at O’Brien’s just after five and it was standing room only, all the booths inside filled up and all the tables outside were taken as well.  I ordered Tony a Kilkenny Irish Red to ease him into the world of flavored beers.  From the makers of Guiness, it’s a little weak in flavor for my taste but Tony loved it.  I started with a PortMongo IPA from Port Brewing, not my first time with this strong hoppy ale, and I put it at the top of my IPA list.

Next, with the bar line almost outside the door, I moved on to The Widow Belgian Strong Dark from the new Societe Brewing Co. in San Diego,  and Tony ordered a Roenbach Grand Cru (Red Ale) from Palm Breweries.  I was surprised to find that the Roenbach was actually a barley wine. Tasty but I was worried Tony would protest. He didn’t.

“This is tasty, I could down this in one gulp.”

“Glad you like it,” I said.

I could have stayed all day but we called it a night after two and went home. Before I forget, a warning, the parking lot at O’Brien’s is a nightmare, tight, and normally full.  Luckily there is plenty of street parking nearby.   O’Brien’s also has a few televisions usually showing soccer or rugby, and a dart board if athletics is your thing.

San Diego Craft Beer Obsession

In order to be completely honest, I wanted to share a few things about myself. First, I'm biased to California Craft Beers.

In Particular:

Stone Divinely Self Righteous

Russian River Pliney the Elder and Blind Pig

Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin Ale (Best, most refreshing beer after a long week)

Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine

Yun, thanks for sharing the link about SD Breweries and our shared obsession

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/travel/san-diegos-thriving-craft-beer-scene.html?emc=eta1

I'm beginning to journey outside SD and enjoy more beers.

Also, thank Ryan for letting me borrow "The Brewmaster's Table" by Garrett Oliver. Aside from Mr. Oliver's open hatred towards wine, this is an awesome read. I'm also glad your version does not have a giant picture of Mr. Oliver on the front.

I plan on writing about my favorite beer bar O'Brien's Pub in the next blog. If any one wants to mail me beer to try, let me know.

Naked City Brewery and Tap House - Seattle

Naked City, located just north of downtown Seattle, is named after a 1948 Noire pic called “The Naked City” and definitely has a classic feel to it.  Their website is pretty cool, take a look. The film and beer fans had the place filled on a Monday night.  If you are not hipster friendly, give this place a wide berth. At least there weren’t any hippies, right?  Two events were going on that night: one was the 1 year anniversary celebration of the Slippery Pig Brewery, the other was a showing of the classic vampire movie from 1922, Nosferatu.  The Slippery Pig was selling tee shirts commemorating the anniversary and the 1^st Annual Cocktoberfest they held only weeks before…I think it took place on a farm, hence the Cock in Cocktober.  All the beers on tap were brewed in Washington, and I started the night with a Naked City Duplicity, a solid Dubbel.  I took a seat at the bar and started eavesdropping on a group behind me.

Lady Hipster: “I’ve never seen Nosferatu."

Male Hipster: “You’ve NEVER seen Nosferatu?! That is like THE Movie."

Lady Hipster: “Nope, I’m not that into pedophiles."

Male Hipster: “…pedophiles?”

Lady Hipster: “Yeah, not really interested in watching a movie about pedophiles."

Male Hipster: “Nosferatu is about vampires…”

Lady Hipster: “Oh."

I did little to contain my laughter and thanks to the mirror behind the bar, I had a front row seat to the whole conversation. But I digress.  I ordered another NC beer, the Sudden Impact Coffee IPA, and ordered a plate of sausage…delicious.  I was surprised to find almost no coffee taste to the IPA and asked the waitress why it was called a coffee IPA.  She said, "It’s in the nose."  So I closed my mouth and started breathing through my nose…there it was…a light coffee flavor that was just right.

I struck up a conversation with my stool neighbor Deklin.  He lived in the neighborhood and was from a long line of Irish immigrants that moved to the US at the turn of the century, made a fortune and moved back to Ireland.  His story reminded me of my family, except for the making money part and the moving back to Ireland part. Deklin admitted that he too forwent the making money part and returning to Ireland part.

The bar area cleared out pretty quickly once the movie began.  I ordered a Port Townsend Hop Diggidy IPA, watched an old silent movie on one TV, and the Lakers get creamed by Oklahoma City Thunder with a score of 119 to 90.  The beer was excellent, 3 for 3 for the night, and the Lakers getting destroyed made each sip that much tastier.

Atmosphere: 3.5

People: 3
Beer Selection: 3
Bathroom: 3
(Out of 5)

Freakin' Frog - Las Vegas

I know what you are thinking, “You're starting a beer bar blog with a bar in Las Vegas?”  Yes, yes I am.  This is not your typical Las Vegas bar, and if you are into the Vegas club scene, then this is not the place for you.  I made my way to Freakin’Frog last week on a bright Tuesday afternoon.  So bright in fact, it took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the shear darkness inside the Frog.  No windows and just enough lights to see that there were other people in the place, but not enough light to recognize anyone.  The cook/bartender gave me a nod and I said “so I hear you have a lot of beer here.”  He didn't respond, he simply left the bar and a minute later he threw a thick binder in front of me.  Each page listed multiple beers in alphabetical order -- there were hundreds of them, and according to the beertender, there were more available that were not shown on the list.  I was overwhelmed! I ordered a Steven'sPoint Cascade, one of the beers currently on tap just to get started.  I had never heard of Steven’s Point, but it turned out to be a refreshing pale ale. 

They had one large TV which was showing the hockey playoffs, can anyone tell me why most 'dive'-type bars like to play hockey on the TV's?  As I read through the binder, trying to figure out what I wanted to drink, the answer soon became clear, Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA.  First of all I'm a fan of Dogfish Head and I’ve haven’t been disappointed from them yet.  My brother in law is a big fan too and he always has a few in the fridge.  Ask him for one if you drop by.  Second, at 21% alc., it had to be good, and it better be, because that was going to be my last beer of the day.  This is where it got a little pricey.  If you can find 120 Min IPA, and that's a big IF (NOT distributed in my home state of CA), it can run you at least $10 a bottle.  At Freakin’ Frog, it's $36 a bottle...yeesh.  You may be wondering, Greg, did you actually pay $36 for a beer…

Hells yes I did, and it was worth it.  Similar to the 60 and 90 minute IPA, but a much richer taste.  The 60 and 90 minute IPA’s from Dogfish Head, much cheaper and darn good.
“It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.
Aside from the great beer selection, they have a ‘Whiskey Attic’ with an even more incredible selection of Whiskey.  I will have to save that for my next trip.  The atmosphere is what you would want in an off the strip joint, good music playing around the clock and I noticed a small stage for live bands.  While I was there they actually played some Sarah Jarosz, and for those of you who are into "New Wave Blue Grass," your jaw just dropped.  For the other 99.9% who are not into "New Wave Blue Grass," believe me, it’s pretty cool.

The people were friendly too. I had a great talk with Mike, an IT guy from Zappos who gave me a bunch of tips on how to get VIP status, and how to order replacement shoes as fast as possible.  I expected my wife to be grateful for the info, but it turns out she already knows about all that stuff.  It figures.    I ordered the $6 chicken tenders and they were adequate.  I’m excited to go back and try the $8 chicken tenders, also available on the menu. I’m not sure what the difference is, but I can’t wait to find out.  All in all, solid bar and if you are tired of the Las Vegas Strip scene, it’s a refreshing and down to earth place.

Atmosphere: 3

People: 3
Beer Selection: 4
Bathroom: 2.5
(Out of 5)