Field Research: Coronado Brewing Night at Tonys Darts Away

My night out at Tony's Darts Away in Burbank got off to a rather good start before I even touched the door knob. Upon arrival, outside the bar was a man wearing a Coronado Brewing shirt. Given the nature of the event, I didn't find it too out of line to ask 'Hey man, you with the brewery?'. His name was Clint, and he happens to be the marketing director of Coronado.

"Oh man, if one of you guys gimme a cigarette, your first drinks on me." My girlfriend Danica gladly obliged him, and after a bit of raving about how much I love Idiot IPA, and Clints ravings of how they're debuting the new barleywine that I MUST try, we headed in and followed Clint to the bar area. He promptly ordered Danica and I snifters of the new brew. I nearly salivated with anticipation.

Here's where its worth mentioning that One of my absolute favorite styles is Barleywine. My girlfriend, however, not so much. Also worth mentioning that she still finished her glass (albeit chased somewhat by their Orange Ave Wit).

From Notes:

Coronado Brewing
Brandy Barrel Aged Barleywine Ale
11%
Ale brewed with orange blossom honey, aged in Brandy Barrels for 6 months

Appearance is generally a dark brown/ ruby hues with a thin offwhite head. The perticular snifter at tonys is a bit small to get a reall sniff of, but I managed to get some rather bright notes of fig and plum, along with a noticeable sweetness. Taste is big molasses, candied dried fruit all over the place, with subtle hints of light citrus shining through.  Rather syrupy, really coats the mouth and tongue. Alcohol is there, but not assaulting. A beautifully done beer. Well composed, was expecting something a bit hoppier from these guys, but this seems to be a balanced blend of a bit of tradition mixed with a bit of modern practice.

And bonus:

Orange Ave Wit
5.2%
ale brewed with coriander, orange peel, and orange blossom honey.

Light yellow appearance with a bit of a cloudy complexion. Nose mostly of spices, wheat, and some interesting floral characteristics. Taste is orange peel, wheat, spices (coriander predominantly, but also the other random stuff thats kinda kicked up by the belgian yeast), and a rather interesting note of jasmine tea. The jasmine claim was corroborated by both the girlfriend, as well as Coronado's president, Rick. "Orange Ave is my go-to. I drink that almost daily"
With that sentiment, I completely understand what theyre  trying to do with this one. A bright, flavorful, sessionable beer.


After we finished our respective beers, we once again joined Clint outside from a smoke, with Rick joining us as well this time. We talked a bit about cellaring, and the beer industry as a business. We also reflected on how fucking awesome Brewmasters was, and theories of what really led to the demise of the most landmark show to happen to the craft brewing world.


It was sometime around here that Rick and Clint came upon some sort of agreement that I deserved to have a bottle of their coveted, brandspankin new, not-yet-commercially-available barleywine. I damn near lost my goddamn mind. Its a beautiful label, with the Coronado mermaid amidst a special foiled label. Its kind of reminiscent of how pokemon cards had all their regular matte cards and the special ones had the foil backround. Its kinda like that, made that much better considering it was a first edition (it literally says Batch #1 on the bottle) and I can drink it. I was handed the bottle with the sentiment that it'll age rather well. I told them that I only had the intention of cellaring it for quite a while.

An amazing night, with great beer from a great brewery, at a great bar with great people. I feel like a smug bastard. Truth be told, I kinda am.

1st Edition Charizard Brandy Barrel Aged Barleywine Ale from Coronado Brewing, bitches.

Don't think this means I won't be buying a couple of these once they hit shelves though. This stuff is damn good.

Field Research: Dogfish Tasting At Library Alehouse

While looking through event listings on The Full Pint, I stumbled upon a mention of there being 120 minute IPA at Library Alehouse in Santa Monica, and thus immediately decided it would be mine. I headed into this originally thinking I'd go alone. I don't mind drinking alone, especially if its something that I'd feel I have to take notes on. At this point, my jotting of notes of what I'm drinking is rather understood amongst the circle of friends I drink with, but I still feel slightly rude when I do it.

With all the well-fucking-documented brewing problems they'd gone through with this huge and rather temperamental beer, I realized this event would be probably the only one of its kind that I'd be able to make it to this year. Thus, I enlisted the eager palates of my friends Sergio and Ben to join me on this trip, and I'm quite glad they went.

As it turns out, I was told by the host of Library that only 5 kegs of 120 had made its way to California. "Talk about bragging rights!" he gleefully smiled.

The menu for the night was a pretty extensive list of Dogfish Head taps. They set up flights of big bad beers (120, world wide stout, olde school barleywine), Ancient ales (sah'tea, theobroma, chateau jiahu), as well as a 'theres food in my beer' flight (punkin, red&white, festina peach). Take a wild bloody guess as to which flight I got.

I know I'm having a good day when the weakest beer I have is hovering around 16%.

From notes:

All of these were (unfortunately) served in 6 oz short, cylindrical glasses. Little room for head or getting much of a nose out of 'em. I did what I could. ABV is approximate.

Olde school barleywine
16%
Rich caramel color. Nose has dominance of some light dried fruit, alcohol, and a hint of sweet. Taste of big dark/ dried fruit, lots of alcoholic notes, heat, but rather nice in is assertive agression. Balanced hops, good, solid body. Large, english, beautiful. Rather malty, an interesting spin on a classic style. 

World wide stout
18 %
Black
Nose of enormous roasty coffee, dark chocolate, and bit sweetness. Taste of baking chocolate, raw cacao, huge sweetness, molasses, hints of balsamic vinegar, smoked meat. Everything about imperial stouts that I love, but bigger. This is really a wonderful take on this style. I could barely believe this was actually 18%. Very well done.

Couldn't rave enough about this one. Theres a liquor store in my area that has 2008 and 2007 vintage for $20 and $30, respectively. The buyer from the store said he got it from an auctioned off cellar on the east coast. I kinda have my eye on the '08, just cus I'd wanna age it for a while anyway. We'll see.

120 minute IPA
18%
Golden caramel color. Nose of huuuggeee hops. Very 'green' smelling, leafy, floral. super aromatic.
Ahem. I thought I knew what it waslike to taste a fresh, hoppy ipa. I feel like this defies my palate in description. Its insanely syrupy sweet, with the largest hops profile I've experienced next to Mikkeller's 1000 IBU (sorry, i know people reference these beers in the same breath pretty often, but I finally see why its an appropriate comparison). Not for the faint of heart. It tastes like there's raw fucking hops in my beer. I'll be honest, Its not really something I'd seek out all that often, but definitely a very interesting experience. 

After the initial flight, I ordered another World Wide Stout, but asked for it in a snifter cus im a picky fucking beer snob. The waitress was actually not too surprised and happily obliged me. As it turns out, This glass was by far the highlight of my evening. Sergio also got another WWS.

We stumbled down from the bar to the beach. Sergio, being the free spirit he is, promtply took off his pants and got in the water. Ben was slightly deterred by this notion, but I became intrigued with the the all-too-open "Whats it gonna take to get you to go in?"

My response was reasonable, "Either a Santa's Little Helper or a Cockeyed Cooper." Which, in out of context retrospect, sounds kindof like some obscure sex positions.

"I'll get you one of each"

And with that, Mr. moneybags had himself a deal. I piled my shirt and pants on top of my sandals, and earned myself a couple coveted brews while I lunged into the pacific ocean. Not a bad night, if you ask me.