As I have mentioned before, in February of 2022 I got Covid. Now a year later, I am still having difficulties from the Covid virus. One of the things that has kept me away from posting anything recently is that I have had a lot of pain in my wrists and forearms which typing seems to make worse.
I feel I have been away long enough and even though this post may take me some time to write since the pain in my wrists causes me to loose dexterity in my fingers, I wanted to return to the Beer community.
The holidays have now long past but over the holidays we have many friends and family visit. The holidays also provided a nice oppurtunity to enjoy some of liquid gold we all love. This is a list of some of my favorites from the holiday season.
Friends and Family always bring some new beer for us to enjoy. One of the beers brought over was 21st Amendments Fireside Chat. 21st Amendment brewery is located in San Leandro California which is about 20 minute drive. The brewery is a nice place to visit and has one large part of the warehouse set aside for a bar with the typical bar games (Next time I go I will have to take pictures). The Fireside Chat is a spiced winter ale. The beer is brewed with 6 different malts, Columbus hops, Goldings hops, spices, and cocoa nibs which give the beer a slight chocolate taste. The beer is easy drinking and is a great example of a winter ale. Fireside Chat has an ABV of 7.9% so it is on the higher side. Next holiday season if you get a chance definitely grab one of them for a try.
The next beer I will talk about is the Headlands Brewing Pt. Bonita Pilsner. I had never heard of Headlands Brewing before and this was brought over by some close friends. Headlands Brewing is located in Lafayette, California which is also not far from where I live. I usually don't grab for a Pilsner but this one was good. This Pilsner has a good spicy malty flavor which comes from rye in the mash and was balanced with the right amount of Tradition and Saaz hops. The ABV was 5.3% and went down easy. I will definitely be buying more the next time I see them.
The Oskar Blues Brewery brews a good pale ale called Dales Pale, but this one my wife picked up for me since she knows I love IPA and she said she has seen me drink other Oskar Blues Brewery Beers. Oskar Blues Brewery is located Longmont, Colorado. This beer simply called Double Dale's is an Imperial IPA or double IPA, with a ABV of 9%. This is a good drinking double IPA, sometimes doubles are so strong in alcohol and hops that it gives that pucker effect, not this one. This is just a good tasting IPA which has the alcohol of a double. The hop flavor is citrus and tropical fruit like.
This next beer is brewed by Red Hook Brewery which was famous for brewing the Red Hook ESB. Red Hook Brewery is located in Seattle, Washington. This was another beer that my wife brought home knowing that I have always liked the ESB. This one is called Big Ballard and is another Imperial IPA. The Big Ballard has an ABV of 8.6% and is brewed with Chinook, Cascade, Vista, Centennial, Mosaic, and Eureka hops. This beer is loaded with hop flavor but not overdone. The hop flavor is mostly piney and citrus.
My last beer is Elysian Brewing's Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale Ale. Elysian Brewing is located in Seattle, Washington. The Superfruzz is brewed with German Northern, Cascade, Citra and Amirillo hops. Blood orange is added to the fermenters to add the blood orange flavor. The taste is good and even though I am usually not a fan of fruit flavored beers, this one does not overpower. The Superfuzz comes in at 6.4% ABV.
I am happy to be back posting and very happy to be part of the beer community. I thank everyone for their posts as I have read them all even thought I wasn't posting. Cheers.
