Quick Riffs: A Post Before Traveling

I’m laying off the weekday sampling for the next little bit and bracing myself for a quick trip up to southern Oregon for the weekend. (Helping a buddy bring back a truck.) In the meantime, it seems a good time to dip into this slush pile of notes in the notebook to document some recent, noteworthy beer samples.

Boston Brewing
Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier
Sampled May 24, 2009
I’d been keeping an eye out for this one for some time and then basically lost interest when my son-in-law (“the marine”) sent me an excited text message proudly proclaiming he’d found it in a local Albertson’s supermarket. My son-in-law has a beer blog too; it’s called A Journey Through Beer. He does a respectable job but remember he doesn’t post much because he’s busy defending our country.

Repeat offenders here will recall I’m no huge fan of wits, but anything new from Sam Adams is worth a try in my book. This one has a distinctly berry smell that is faintly like a breakfast cereal. Pours cloudy gold color with a decent white head, medium beading and medium lacing. The standard witbier spices (that I often detest) are there but they are mitigated if not complimented by the faint blackberry finish. Good stuff.

Sierra Nevada
Torpedo Extra IPA
Sampled May 9, 2009
I first read about this one on another beer blog – the name of which escapes me now. I stumbled upon it at the local Total Wine outlet and bought a bottle for the recent trip to Sierra Vista, but, having sampled so much (perhaps too much) of the local Tucson beers, the bottle of Torpedo stayed in the cooler and came back to Beer Rant HQ with me for sampling a few days later.

Piney and sweet smelling, orange-amber in color. Has a distinctly sweet and piney taste, too, but not noticeably citrus. The 7.2% abv isn’t out front as you might expect it to be and this beer might be the sort of beer that sneaks up on you…like a, well, like a torpedo.

Grand Teton Brewing
Bitch Creek ESB Ale
Sampled on April 27, 2009
This is another one that my son-in-law wrangled. A marine from his unit got wind that he’s becoming a bit of a beer freak and brought a six-pack of this beer for him to try. Semper Fi!

Pours dark amber color with heavy lacing. Has a sweet taste with a slightly thick mouth feel. A second glass revealed this to be more malty than hoppy and highly carbonated. There’s a taste of roasted nuts or bread there too with a sweet finish. Hard to find hereabouts and pricey from what I hear, but worth a try for sure.

That’s it for now. I’m currently really interested in a couple of beer blogs that originate in London. Hopefully I can get around to posting something about them. In the meantime, I’m off to Oregon Friday evening with a layover in San Francisco, then a drive back from Oregon via California and Nevada. I’m hoping to cast about for some good beers while I’m gone and will check the shelves of the stores when we stop for gas coming back to see what package product I can acquire as souvenir.

Thanks for visiting.