York: I cannot wait to hear the write ups for these beers from the other guys! I couldn't get away from the idea of including a lot of different types of beers, but I did include 2 really solid Double IPAs. The rest run a huge range of the spectrum--a sparkling ale that I bet will be something completely new for all of us, one of my favorite sours from one of my favorite brewers, a local honey brew, and an amazingly refreshing wheat to round it out. Pliny the Elder has the reputation of king of IPAs in a land completely dominated by hoppy brews, and I had to make sure it made it into an early set. It's a bit soon for repeat breweries with so many good options around, but we all liked the Almanac and Golden Road beers from the first set of beers so much that I stuck with the winners and included another from each. I like every beer on this entry a ton, and even the lower rated ones come from really exciting breweries that I can't wait to get more from.
Shane: I see you, York, with your talk of "repeat breweries." I doubt Bissell Brothers and Garrison City will be missing from many of my posts in the near future though, so repeat away! York has hyped this group of beers pretty hard, so I'm excited to dive into them. I’m eager to try Pliny the Elder in particular, since I feel like that's a glaring gap on my beer résumé. York, I feel like your love of sours is a little stronger than mine, so I’m very curious to give the Wakatu Sour a try. Your extremely high rating has me really intrigued, and I wonder if it will translate to someone a little less enthusiastic about the style itself. There's a really great blend of beer types in this group, which I also appreciate. Drinking in New England can get you bogged down in IPAs, so seeing a wide variety of styles is exciting. Pete: Pliny, pliny pliny pliny. Pliny. Pliny? Pliny. Ok, now that that's out of my system, this is a really cool collection of beers that I was really excited to try. Pliny is of course a must try, a legendary beer in its own respect. I am also happy the Brian’s batch had another Almanac beer because I have only heard really good things about them. More west coast hops and IPAs can’t be a bad thing, and it isn’t. It is also nice that we were able to try some California wine grapes in beer form and a fun sparkling ale.
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York: The first group of West Coast beers! When I moved to California just a few months ago, I was completely overwhelmed by the number of GOOD craft breweries at my disposal--many within walking distance! A lot of my favorites are not yet bottling/canning, but I still tried to choose beers that are not available to my DC and New England partners. California is definitely an IPA centric beer culture, so until I learn and try a bit more in that space, I decided to go for an approach that got as many different types of beer as possible resulting in choices that represent a huge spectrum of flavor. My entries this round span from San Diego to Corvallis and there isn’t a single one I wouldn’t recommend.
Shane: I was born in Virginia, grew up in New Hampshire, and went to school in DC. The furthest west I’ve ever been is Chicago. So it should probably come as no surprise that I haven’t had many beers from California. The one brewery on this list that I have had plenty of is 21st Amendment, which I’ve seen distributed as far as Maine. I've enjoyed enough of their beers that I’m really looking forward to tasting some of their small-batch, hard-to-get beers. Their Marooned on Hog Island and Golden Road’s Wolf Among Weeds are definitely the two beers I’m looking forward to most here. Pete: I crawled out of the cesspool known as New Jersey. Because I survived my youth in that dark land, I am certain that no man made chemical can kill me. Anyhoo. I have been to California once before, and it was to go to Los Angeles. I focused all my effort into getting the famed Pliny the Elder, so I probably missed a lot of the other stuff. I was impressed at the variety of beer in the state and would like to get a large variety of anything they can offer outside of what i know in Stone and Sierra Nevada. I am most interested in the Truthful Statement because it is a beer modeled after an Old Fashioned. I like those, I like beer, how can that be bad? |
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