This thread has been slow. I've been drinking alot of beer but just have been too lazy to post about them. From what I remember:
Prairie Artisan Ales 'Merica - Single Malt/Single Hop (Nelson) Farmhouse Ale with two brett strains. First beer by them that I didn't love. Seemed a little out of balance.
Prairie Bomb - Truly a world class stout.
Prairie Birra - A sessionable, six pack saison. Awesome and a great value. I see this being a regular in the refrigerator.
Alesmith Yulesmith - not bad but nothing special
Allagash Saison - another sixpack saison. Not quite as good as Birra but still very good.
Allagash Odyssey - Very good even if I'm not sure it's really worth what they charge for it. I'd only had Allagash Black before these two. Count me impressed with their beers.
Alaskan Jalapeno IPA - Pretty enjoyable but not quite as good as Habanero Sculpin which I hear Ballast Point is going to start bottling or canning.
Stochasticity Project Grapefruit Slam IPA - Stone IPA with tons of grapefruit peel added. I liked it more than most Stone offerings but still probably not enough to seek out again.
Stillwater Folklore - they call this an "untraditional stout" Not particularly heavy but with lots of coffee roastiness, burnt sugar and some chocolate notes. Really pretty nice and perfect for the current inbetween season.
Beachwood Amalgamator IPA - 2 row malt kettle hopped with Amarillo, Warrior, Columbus, and Mosaic. Really great. Probably the most consistently good to great brewer in LA these days and LA Beer is a lot better than it used to be.
Ale Apothecary Sahati - probably the most interesting thing I've had in awhile. Their owner/brewer, Paul Arney, worked at Deschutes where he was in charge of their experimental beers before deciding to start Ale Apothecary. It smelled like sewer water but tasted really great and complex with lots of bright tart citrus flavors and an effervescence from the bottle conditioning.
More on the beer:
Quote:
SAHATI is our interpretation of traditional Finnish sahti. Starting with a 200-year old Engelmann spruce tree felled on brewery property, we created our own kuurna (an ancient Scandinavian lauter tun) to separate the wort from the grain during brewing. The bottom of the kuurna is layered with spruce branches; the needles act as a natural filter and impart resinous oils into the wort. The hollowed-out trunk of the tree also contributes spruce essence and structure from the raw wood. The beer is made of barley & rye malts along with a sparing addition of Goschie Farms Cascade hops and is brewed just a few times per year.
SAHATI is in many ways the very definition of The Ale Apothecary, where complex flavors arrive from the very methods used for production…the result is the process impacts the flavor profile at least as much as the ingredients themselves.
Just wish this had some CA distribution. I was lucky to get to try it from someone who had brought it back from Oregon.
