A beer blog about drinking for yourself
Yes, beer industry people love Lagers. Straight up beer drinkers love Lagers. And I think Lagers are good. Cool. Fine.
They are “easy to drink”, aren’t they? That is a good thing…except when it is not:
Lagers go away too fast!
I just drank the Bridalveil Lager above, from Tioga Sequoia Brewing, and it is gone REALLY damn quickly. Way faster than when I have an IPA. That kinda sucks, yeah?!
Maybe I just have a drinking problem.
5:21 PST. Karl Strauss Brewing’s slightly-hazy, Boat Shoes IPA.
Cheers to Saturday!
Update: Lots of floaties in this boat:
8:42: “Particle Drift” HIPA by There Does Not Exist, from San Luis Obispo, CA.:
The sad news of a Bay Area staple closing, Marin Brewing Company, brings the feelings.
These kind of places may be over. The 80s 90s era. When brewpubs and breweries were a small underrated community.
Friend and Marinite, Paul has some words about it:
It’s bad enough that Iron Springs had to go down, but the ‘Brew Co’ – as all the locals referred to it – was iconic; one of California’s original pioneering brew pubs. I blame the haze craze more than anything. I’m sure the pandemic didn’t help, not to mention the a-hole landlord that kept jacking their rent. But ultimately I think it’s the fact that people’s taste in beer has changed, and it is getting harder and harder for these old school establishments to survive. I am in the minority. I am getting old and stodgy, and I long for dark and cozy brew pubs where you can get a stout and a side of mashed potatoes all for under 10 bucks on your lunch break. Sadly, those days are long gone. Please take a moment of silence to mourn this loss with me.
Thanks, Paul. It’s the ‘dark & cozy’ that gets me. There is not a lot of cozy left. Being a beer nerd used to be that: a small cozy community.
Find a malty pale (if you can) and pour one out for all the brewpubs and coziness we have lost.
Last week I made fun of Beer Cruncher seemingly being the only one out there trying to make “Cold IPAs” happen. Then I ran across my first one in the wild.
A colab between Central California’s Alvarado Street and Figueroa Mountain Brewing called “Acapulco Cold”.
It is actually pretty good. I enjoyed it.
If I am to use this one example of the style, I do think there is a slight difference between this beer and an India Pale Lager style beer. Small, but there. The Lager side is very hidden, but still present.
Good if I don’t want the Lager feel, bad if I do.
Is it enough of a difference to give it its own style name like Cold IPA? Well, if I didn’t care about the marketing side I would say this is a sub-genre of IPL – definitely in the IPL family but enough of a difference to acknowledge it.
You can’t blame them for trying to attach it to the Ale side instead of the Lager side, but they are cheating a bit.
Hey, this particular CIPA is a nice beer. If they want to keep trying to make this style work, go for it – I definitely recommend trying one out if you see one, especially if you’re into a hoppy Lager. Honestly, I would have rather had this beer with Ale yeast though. ??