When I haven't been drinking homebrewed IPA from a keg, I've had the opportunity to taste a few new beers over the last week and I thought I'd post a brief summary on what I've been tasting:
Friday, July 19 - Buffalo Bills Brewery, Hayward, CA
I made a Friday night trip to Buffalo Bills for the first time. My friends Justin and Kendra joined me to taste a few different beers including Buffalo Beer, Tasmanian Devil, and Orange Blossom Cream Ale. The resounding favorite was the Buffalo Beer. Light ales and lagers are usually not for me, but I found this one to be enjoyable. Just as the description says it was very crisp and a great hoppiness thanks to the Cascade hops. The Buffalo Beer had great mouthfeel (aka mouthiness)!
We thought the Orange Blossom Cream Ale was under-carbonated. Perhaps it was just an issue with this batch, but I would've expected this style to have carbonation similar to the Buffalo Beer.
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| Buffalo Bills Beer List - 7/19/2013 |
The Giants hosted a small beerfest before their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night (the Giants actually won...shocker!). We sampled beer from several different breweries including Pizza Orgasmica, Mendocino Brewing Company, Peter B's Brewpub, Anchor Brewing, Lagunitas, Red Hook, San Francisco Brewing Company, Goose Island (from Chicago?), and Batch 19.
There were some very good beers served at the event from Pizza Orgasmica, Peter B's and Mendocino Brewing Company. Pizza Orgasmica and Peter B's both had great IPA's. Peter B's also had a raspberry wheat beer and a blonde ale that were tasty.
Overall this event needed some work. I was disappointed there weren't more local brewery's such as Speakeasy, 21st Amendment, Thirsty Bear, and Magnolia just to name a few from San Francisco. I'm not sure what Goose Island was doing at this event seeing as they're from Chicago. Also, I found out after the beerfest the Batch 19 is a Coors off-shoot....kinda depressing.
Lastly, they limited you to eight 2-ounce tastes, which is about a pint of beer total. Thats not enough beer to drink at a beerfest.
Wednesday, July 24 - 21st Amendment, San Francisco, CA
Finally, I spent some time at 21st Amendment last night before the Giants game and had a couple Big Cat pale ales. I can't recall drinking this beer at 21st Amendment before. Overall, I thought this was a solid beer, although I did feel it was slightly under-carbonated and left my mouth feeling dry. I always enjoy this place. They seem to have a good mix of beers available from their flagship varieties to seasonal recipes.
UPDATE: Referring to my Brew Chem 101 from Lee Janson, dry mouth can be caused by astringency. Astringency is the result of few different things such as boiling grain husks, boiling fruit skins, or overhopping. I think we can eliminate the first two as causes of the Big Cat dry mouth. I doubt 21st Amendment would have grain husks in their boil and given that the beer is a pale ale, I don't think there were fruit skins in the recipe. That leaves overhopping, which makes sense since Big Cat is considered a pale ale and the hopping could have easily been a little aggressive.
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