Guava Grove
Cigar City Brewing Company
Tampa, FL.
8.00% ABV
Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale

C. Cloudy
H. Golden Yellow Almost Orange
N. Funky Sour, Banana, Sweet Fruit

Cerveza Chica; Well I was really excited about this beer, and after a long day of dealing with all kinds of condo issues I was excited to break into the bottle. Sadly it poured with little head, and showed very little carbonation. I was one of the lucky few to try the Jolly Guava last year, and loved it, although I never had the base beer. This beer on the other hand is odd. I am not a big fan of Farmhouse/Saison Beers. This isn’t horrible like some of the other beers I have had in this style, like Guarde Dog from Flying Dog. I do enjoy the funky bitterness coming from the beer, but don’t really enjoy the banana flavor from the yeast. Overall this was partially a let down. I also hate clove and there was definitely too much of that taste in the beer. I expected way more guava flavoring out of this beer so was letdown on that because to me banana isn’t “tropical” enough. I am SO glad Phil didn’t buy a case of this beer because I wouldn’t help him drink it. Trade bait…..yes!
Score: 2.77

The Ferm; OHH YAH! I am super excited about this beer. I thought I was going to have to buy the beer at the brewery this Saturday, but Fresh Beer Inc. being the “Beer Pimps” they are, got this into my local store before the trip. My history with this beer is limited, in fact I had a sip of The Cerveza Chica’s Jolly Guava last year and never had the chance to get my hands on a bottle of this normal Guava Grove.
So the bottle reads that it is a great beer for Guavaween Festivities…I like that, being from Tampa and all. Guavaween was always a fun time and never short of some good memories!
As for the beer. Well there was little carbonation in the beer, as it showed no head or head retention. The beer though was carbonated but not really balanced. The flavor is really good in my opinon. The attack starts with a nice bret-ty bitterness, then follows with sweeter yeast notes and fruit-y flavors, then right back to the sour funk. Don’t get me wrong the funk doesn’t over power the flavor but adds a nice layer to the base beer. Overall Pretty Damn Tasty….snag it while you can, and at 8% it should sit well for a year.
Score: 4.02

Overall: 3.495

**Side Note; Sorry for no video Blog this week, I will work on one for the upcoming week. I have had some pretty bad Condo Issues that have taken a lot of my free time away from the blog**

110K+OT Batch 3 (“The Other West Coast IPA”)
Cigar City Brewing Company
Tampa, FL.
10.00% ABV

C. Cloudy
H. Golden Yellow Almost Orange
N. Strong Malt Sweetness, Citrus and Fruity Hints

EvilTwin; I have to thank my good friend and fellow rocker JT for getting me a bottle of this while he was in Tampa last week and Joey for putting aside 2 bottles for me. I’ve been greatly anticipating this beer since I first heard of it’s inception many months back and it’s definitely lived up to it’s hype thus far. The aroma has notes of citrus, floral hops, light dried fruits, and malts. To quote TheFerm from the Commodore Perry IPA rating “Malt made this IPA it’s bitch” I couldn’t have said it better myself. What else really impressed me was how it was much more on the citrus side.The hops were a big part as well, but to me the citrus really came through much more. The color is a dark brown with a light orange hue to it, when held up to the light. The foam, or lack there of, quickly dissolved after pouring it into my glass. The texture is very smooth and light, the after taste doesn’t stick on my mouth like most IPA’s I’ve tried in the past, but rather leaves a sweet citrus bittery bite. One of my favorite Cigar City beers that I’ve tried thus far.
Score 4.3

The Ferm; 110k is a one off series that the gentlemen at Cigar City release about once a year. This year instead of going the Stout route which was where Batch 1 and 2 went, they decided to go the Imperial IPA direction. Now we all know that Cigar City makes some lovely IPA’s, and I am not shy in saying that the Jai Alai IPA is my favorite single IPA available year round….hands down.
This said I was really excited about the 110k Batch #3. Did it fall short….na not really, but did it live up to my expectations…nope! It isn’t a bad beer, but it is not my “pint of IPA”, there is an amazing amount of sweetness to this beer. The malt backing is insane, and I am not a huge fan of a big malty IPA. The flavors blending well together and there was a subtle hop bitterness to the taste, which was nice. It sort-a fell flat in my opinion. It reminded me of a “baby version” of Hop Slam, just a bit thicker. Maybe I was expecting a bigger hoppy-er beer than I should have been expecting. Regardless I still recommend picking up a bottle and trying it out for yourself, it is still very easy to drink.
Score 3.895

Overall: 4.0975

Sorry for the late posting today, I blame Mike from www.MikeLovesBeer.com and Chung from the Coffee District for a night of great craft beer. Before I get into who will be guest blogging with me this week, I personally would like to congratulate Mike from MikeLovesBeer.com on his 2nd Anniversary of his Beer Blog. Good times buddy!

Ok, so this week I had the honor to sample some VERY fine beers with a “legend” of sorts from RateBeer.com, HopScotch. It was a pleasure to sit and learn more about beer than I knew existed with him. HopScotch is another prime example of why the Craft Beer Community is so good, it consists of amazing people.

Here is some background info on HopScotch.

HopScotch; “Eric”
Location: Vero Beach, Florida
Hometown: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

Got into craft beer in his last semester of college at West Virginia University (1992) when a brewpub known as The One Onion (subsequently the West Virginia Brewing Company; currently the Morgantown Brewing Company) opened two blocks from his apartment offering $1.00 pints every weekday between 3 PM and 7 PM. His go-to beer in college was Rolling Rock as it was cheap in that part of the country. After graduation and a substantial increase in income while working on Capitol Hill, Samuel Adams Boston Ale hit the supermarket shelves and he was a quick convert to the Boston Beer Company. As beer stores started popping up all over the D.C./Baltimore area, he set out to try every new craft brew and import he could get his hands on. Started taking notes in 2002 and joined ratebeer.com that very same year. Since then, he has rated 5,899 beers… oops, make that 5,904 now… and travels and trades extensively in order to try as many American, Danish, Canadian, Dutch, Italian and Swedish craft beers as humany possible. His three favorite beers are Alesmith Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, Three Floyds Dark Lord Bourbon Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean Imperial Stout and Cigar City Hunahpu’s Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.

Stay tuned for some crazy good beers this week!

Cheers!

Tryst
4 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
561-921-0201
trystdelray.com

Well, Friday night after my day trip to Orlando, I’ll cover the details of that next weekend. The Cerveza Chica and I ended up hitting up what we were told was a local favorite for food and craft beer. Tryst, in downtown Delray Beach.
Tryst is a nice little restaurant that has a very good craft beer selection. We were told to go and check it out during happy hour as their drinks are all 2-4-1, and they have 50% off select menu items. Due to work I typcally can not make it out to a place for Happy Hour, so Friday, since I was off work, was a prime chance for us to check out the place.
The establishment is defiantly “trendy”, seemed like a young professional crowd. It was cozy inside though, very welcoming. We ordered the following food; Cheese Platter, Mussels, Some Kind of Sweet & Sour Shrimp, and Chicken Pad-Thai. The food was good but the portions were relatively small, but for 50% off I won’t complain. The best thing out of everything was the cheese plate, it was divine.
As for the beer….Tryst has a limited rotating tap selection that is very good considering most places only carry Non-craft on tap. They carry Dogfish Seasonals, Stone, Victory, and more on tap. Pretty diverse selection of beer. Their bottle list was VERY impressive. They even had the insanely hard to find Hunahpu’s from Cigar City in bottle. This is surprising since there were such a limited amount of bottles brought south, and since it was a limited released beer.
The service was good, and not rushed. The waiter did want to make sure that we were educated about the drinks we were purchasing, and offered free samples of other beers/wines that were up-sales.  Which was really nice even though we both knew exactly what we wanted.
Overall it was a very good experience, although I don’t think I would go back off Happy Hour and eat. The food was very good but not worth the non-happy hour price.  Parking was also a bit of a challenge as it is with any where on Atlantic Ave.
Worth checking out!

Yep this upcoming week is American Craft Beer Week!

What is that? Well here is some history from American Craft Beer Week.
“Look for American Craft Beer Week promotions featuring craft brewers in breweries, restaurants, and better beer stores (There were more than 500 events in 2009.), become a fan of American Craft Beer Week on Facebook for more information on events around the country and toast the week with a delicious beer brewed by one of the over 1400 craft brewers in the US.

Small brewers are small businesses; they provide so much to their local communities and have reshaped American beer culture. On April 22, 2010, U.S. Congress began discussing House Resolution 1297 (PDF file) supporting the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week.
For the Homebrewers

Homebrewers, American Craft Beer Week has not forgotten about your role in helping us get 10,000 fans of American Craft Beer Week 2009. This year we have a homebrew recipe from the American Homebrewers Association’s Big Brew celebration. American Craft Beer Wheat can be brewed in early May, and then you can tap it May 17-23!.”

So what are you doing for Craft Beer Week? Well there is no reason why you should not celebrate this week, and no reading my blog (while appreciated) is not celebrating actively.

Here are some of the events in the local area this upcoming week!

Monday 05-17-2010
The Coffee District: Delray Beach; Weekly craft beer meetup. Bring a bottle of something rare to the area to share and enjoy good beer company.
Vine and Barley: Ft. Pierce; Terrapin Keg Tapping Party, 6pm, Come to the tapping of a few special Terrapin kegs; Oak-aged Wake-N-Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout and Terrapin ‘Side Project ‘Monk’s Revenge Double IPA/Belgian Tripel

Tuesday 05-18-2010
Boca Beer Lovers: TBA; This is a monthly meetup group that shares good beer (Google Boca Beer Lovers for more info)
BX Depot: Lake Worth; Avery Brewing – We will feature Maharaja and offer a tasting of some of their other beers.
The Coffee District: Delray Beach; Come meet the Founder & CEO of Harpoon, Rich Doyle. Specials and win some SWAG!

Wednesday 05-19-2010
Abraxus: Miami Beach; from 10-12 for their American Craft Beer Week edition of their Beers of Abraxas tasting. 12 – 3 oz. pours of their finest American Craft Beers for $15.
BX Depot: Lake Worth; Dogfish Head- Until we run out, we will compare “08 and ’09 Worldwide Stout and feature Aprihop on tap
Drinking Made Easy w/ Zane Lamprey; Ft. Lauderdale: Come witness the EPIC miracle himself Zane Lamprey from Three Sheets live on stage at the Culture Room

Thursday 05-20-2010
BX Depot: Lake Worth; Southern Tier- We will feature Oak Aged Unearthly and who knows what else will be poured
Whole Foods: Boca Raton; Join Matt “Can a brother get some samples?” Villei from Shipyard for a tasting at Whole Foods in Boca from 3-5pm. FREE!

Friday 05-21-2010
BX Depot: Lake Worth; Cigar City- We had to include this brewery in the mix as it is a Florida brewery- Can anyone Say Hunahpu Imperial Stout, we will have some pours of this delicious brew and maybe some glassware, and we are not done.
Total Wine: Boca Raton; If you missed him at Whole Foods you can catch Matt from Shipyard at Total Wine in Boca for a tasting of Shipyard and Sea Dog from 5-7pm

Saturday 05-22-2010
Abraxus: Miami Beach: HUGE Beer Tasting for only $20.00 which includes Food, Water and a sampling on beers. Also bring what you have and share with everyone!
BX Depot: Lake Worth; Amazing Beer Dinner; showcasing some great food and brews.

Remember that there are tons of bars carrying a great selection of Craft Beer. So check out The Lodge, The Funky Buddha, Charm City Burgers, Brother Tuckers, Trist, Bar Louie, Grease, Havana Hideout, and more!

So there you have it, if you can’t find something to do this upcoming week….well then I’m sorry…I tried! Have a Craft Beer and enjoy a week long celebration!

Slainte!