Beer Monday: San Diego Edition

To celebrate my beloved San Diego Padres choking away the playoffs, beer Monday is all about San Diego. I guess a lot of my posts thus far have been, but San Diego has some amazing breweries that need to be heard.

I am recently realized I am an ale man. Any and every type of ale I love. Seems like San Diego is an ale town. A match made in heaven.

We start with my all time favorite brewery ever times 10: Stone. We go there whenever we go to San Diego. It is amazing (PS, we went 2 weekends ago and have yet to post about it. Stay tuned!). The brew for today is the Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA.



I sort of botched the pour, but this is a pretty amazing beer! I guess the best way to describe an Imperial IPA is an extra hoppy and extra alcoholic IPA. This beer has a pretty robust 8.9% Alcohol Content by Volume, which is pretty awesome. It is made in limited batched. You actually can't find it anymore. I bought a bottle right after it was released, about a month ago. Stone makes amazing IPAs. I am drinking this one as a write. I hope it makes sense. Should you be interested in more, check out Stone's site.

Additional, Amanda and I and a bunch of friends and family went to Disneyland over the weekend to celebrate Amanda's Birthday. More on that later. But at California Adventure they have a beer garden of sorts that sells Karl Strauss, another San Diego favorite. I went with the Red Trolley Ale.



As you can see, it was good.

Happy, beer drinking, birthday celebrating folks.



Until next time. More on Stone and Disneyland soon.

A slightly sick Beer Monday

So I am feeling a bit under the weather and it was a hectic weekend, but I have a wonderful beer to share. It is a San Diego beer that is pretty amazing.







This is the Pizza Port Good Grief Brown Ale. I drank a bit before I took the picture, clearly a rookie mistake. I don't like a lot of darker beers, but this is pretty fantastic. A little bit sweet and a little bit nutty, but really good. And any reference to Charlie Brown is amazing. I did a bit of research and this beer recently was awarded a Silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival a few weeks back. Pizza Port is one of a long line of amazing San Diego breweries so if you can find it, drink it! Or any of Pizza Port's brews. They also have, from what I understand, an amazing Brewpub in San Diego that Amanda and I will hit up ASAP...maybe sooner.



I should probably also say thanks to everyone who has voted(and hopefully continue to vote!) for us on Project Food Blog. We love you all. The meal Amanda made last night was amazingly good and something we had never made before. Have I ever mentioned how good of a cook Amanda is? She is currently busy making another amazing dinner. I'm lucky.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

Here is the next installment of Beer Monday. I get to wax about stuff I don't know about, while pretending I do.

Amanda and I have sort of fell in love with this beer from Dogfish Head:

Dogfish Head Festina Peche! I don't know how to pronounce it, but is is amazing. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it. It is sort of champagne light and bubbly but tastes like peaches and is a malt beverage. It is a great, light, and refreshing summer time beer. We love it, and it is probably going away (or already gone!...wait until next year.) We found it at Whole Foods.

I am double dipping today. Here is another beer we tried this week:

From the makers of Blue Moon, Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale. It is not nearly as intense and delicious as the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. It is a great beer to enjoy with a fall-ish meal. We had with with some spaghetti squash, which I thought was great. You can tell it is mass produced and doesn't have the same love or quality of the DFH ale, but it isn't as full bodied either, which could appeal to people. I don't love it or hate it, just sort of indifferent, but I have no problem drinking it in large amounts. It is a brown ale with a bit of pumpkin spices.

So, best fall beer? I know last week people gave a ton of amazing suggestions, so Amanda and I will see if we can find some of them soon. Also, Oktoberfest starts soon, so I think we might need some amazing Oktoberfest beers. I have some favorites for sure, what about you?

I Have a Dream

Sometimes I sit up late at night and I think about things I should do. One evening the following conversation took place between Amanda and I.

Me: I have a great idea! I should blog, once a week, about new beer to try!

Amanda: ok.

You can see the indifference.

So, this is what I plan to do. Spurred by the start of the National Football League (Go Chargers!), I think every Monday will be Beer Monday. Here is the real brain child. I didn't like beer at all until about 2 years ago. To that point, I didn't drink alcohol at all until I was 22 or 23. Why? I don't know. I didn't really care for most of my friends growing up who act like degenerates while intoxicated. Then I went to a "party school" in San Diego State, and saw way too many people of questionable morals. So I didn't drink, until one day I decided that I should. So I do, and I think I do so responsibly.

Fast forward to now, and my quest is to find good beer. Which essentially boils down to good American craft beers. So here I am today.

Last week I bought a bottle of this

Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA. As stated in the past, I love IPAs. I heard good things about this one, and it is a native of California...Sonoma County. What is not to love? It was ridiculously good. One of my favorite IPAs.

I really have nothing else to say. I don't want to be a snob, I have no idea how to describe beer as far as color, taste, body, or anything else goes. I know IPAs are really hoppy. I know I love that. Do I need to know more? Maybe I do. I think often we get too bogged down with details when all that really matters is: did I enjoy it?

The real quest here is I want to know more and taste more. Try different, new, beers. If you have anything good, I want to try it.

So, tell me your favorite.

I should also share my new favorite website for all things beer, http://www.beeradvocate.com/. Check it out!