Wine Bar: This Week (Through 2/28)

by Tobin Sharp

Once again we have another excellent lineup of events and tastings at our wine bar.

Tuesday, Feb. 23rd: Ten Dollar Tuesday!
6-8 p.m. and only ten bucks-- this week we have Epic Wines with Mona so there should be some good sippers in this mix.

Wednesday, Feb. 24th: Peter Neptune Wine Class - Burgundy - SOLD OUT!
This class is sold out but we have more scheduled through July of this year!
*** Peter Neptune is one of only 147 individuals in North America to hold the wine industry's most prestigious title: Master Sommelier.  He is a 31-year veteran of the wine business, beginning as a sommelier in New York City, where he trained and worked for 10 years. Upon returning to his native California (he was born on 10 July 1956 at Newport Beach, CA), Peter entered into Wine Education full time, and has established a nationwide reputation as one of the premier wine educators in the USA. In addition to his MS Diploma, Peter holds the title of Certified Wine Educator with the Society of Wine Educators (for which he was recognized with the Banfi Award for Excellence in 2003), holds a Diploma in Wine and Spirits from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust in London, and is an Associate of the Institute of Wines and Spirits. He also holds the credential French Wine Scholar, with Highest Honors. Peter is one of the teaching Masters at the Court of Master Sommelier Intro and Advanced Courses, and is an examiner at the Certified, Advanced, and Master Sommelier Examinations.

Class Schedule -  Classes run from 6:30-8:00 and cost $30.00 - Reservations Required
2/24 Burgundy
3/30 Rhône Valley
4/27 Bordeaux

5/25 Loire Valley
6/22 Sud
7/27 Champagne/Alsace

Thursday, Feb. 25th - Australia: New Arrivals
Taste wines from a land down under-- where women glow and men plunder! $25, 4:30-8:30pm.

Friday, Feb. 26th
Kiss Kiss Bangs Bangs Trivia Night
With wines from around the world. STAR WARS NIGHT! $25, 4:30-8:30pm

Saturday, Feb. 27th
California Cabs & Blends
This time around we’ll focus on regions outside of Napa Valley, like Sonoma and Paso. We’ll pour the likes of Mount Eden, Denner, St. Jean Cinq Cepages and Halter Ranch Ancestor! $30. 2-8:30pm.



Sunday, Feb. 28th - German BEER Tasting
It's out monthly beer tasting and we're looking to old world Germany to get into some tasty lagers and who knows what else?!? 1-5 p.m., $25.

January 31st: 1st Beer Tasting of the Year!

Sunday, Jan. 31st, 1-5 p.m. $20

It's almost that time again! The first @mrhitime beer tasting of 2016 is almost here. As always, the last Sunday of every month we host a beer tasting at the store and transform the wine bar into a beer bar for the day. This month we'll be doing "staff picks."

We'll be there from 1 to 5 p.m. on the 31st pouring beer and for $20 you can come join us. We've been hoarding beer for this all month so there is sure to be some epic picks. If you love beer like we do this is a tasting you're not going to want to miss. #beer

Upright Brewing

Upright Brewing
by Don Fox

My trip to visit Alex Ganum, owner and Brewmaster of Upright, took me to the basement of the historical Hazelwood/Leftbank Building. It’s a recently renovated, giant old-fashioned warehouse in downtown Portland. When I arrived around 10AM, Alex asked me, “Are you against drinking this early?”

This was the best joke I heard on my trip.

During our visit we tried such beers as Upright Oyster Stout, which has all the great usual tastes of a stout with a nice, creamy, minerality twist... taste the oysters. Upright Fourplay a take on the saison Four, is aged in La Bete Pinot Noir barrels with Oregon cherries. Pink in color, light in body, and tart, with the flavor characteristic of earthiness, cherries and funk.

Upright specializes in a niche hybrid Belgian-American farmhouse style. In addition to the brewing facility, Upright has a small-sized tasting room with a very mellow atmosphere; they somehow make it feel like you're spinning records and drinking beers in a friend’s basement. Alex was very generous, and opened up the brewery on a day that they were closed to the public. He invited us to hang out for a few hours to discuss his brewing method and try his beers, and we obliged. 

The brew room’s design is pretty straightforward, intended to make the most of its capacity while still doing everything by hand and staying small-batch. The entire staff at the brewery can be counted on one hand and it’s very easy to see that lots of hard work and time goes into their process. They intend to keep their current situation without expanding past their 1200 barrel-a-year capacity so they can stay focused on both creativity and quality. The fact that Upright purposely brews small batch, artisanal-style beer lets them embrace variations and inconsistencies as they experiment with every batch they brew. Due to the brewing method and their bottle conditioning process, sometimes their beer will taste better after one month in the bottle, and at other times it will hit a sweet spot after three months or more in the bottle. The reality is, no matter how or when you enjoy their beer, it will be amazing.

 

Below is a list of Upright saisons that can be found at Hi-Time with year-round availability. 

 

Upright Four  $9.97 [471968] 750ml

Truly a light yet flavorful beer. The recipe uses a good portion of wheat and incorporates a sour mash into the process to make it slightly tart and extra refreshing. It has delicate aromas and flavors that span a range of floral, grassy and herbal notes. The finish is extra dry and makes the beer a great beverage to pair with food, especially various cheeses and shellfish.

Malts: organic pale, organic wheat, organic munich
Unmalted: rolled wheat
Hops: Hallertauer Mittelfrüh
4.5% abv

Upright Five $9.97 [471966] 750ml

 A farmhouse pale ale that was born after enjoying a few small production European brews that use a heavy hand of hops. This one blends several Mt. Angel grown varieties to create a deep and complex flavor with an underlying earthiness. Pale fruit aromas created during the fermentation brighten the profile and bring the beer balance. 

Malts: organic pale,organic caramel
Unmalted: rolled barley
Hops: Willamette, Liberty, Perle
5.5% abv 

 

Upright Six $9.97 [471967] 750ml

This is a dark rye beer with layered flavors including chocolate, caramel, pepper, wood, cherry and tropical fruit. It starts semi-dry and smooth and finishes fully dry and tart with a small bite from the hops. The overall balance of the Six makes it easy to pair with richly prepared meats along with many harder cheeses.

Malts: organic pale, caramel, rye, black

Unmalted: rolled rye
Hops: Magnum, Tettnanger
6.7% abv 

Hi-Time Beerventures: Cicerone!

 

By Don Fox

Last year I began my official studying for the Cicerone program, mostly to further understand what it is that I’m selling and how to do so correctly (Beer in a dirty glass = bad). Beginning in February, we thought it would be cool to take a group of awesome, beer-loving Hi-Time employees and start the first level of the Cicerone program with the intent on testing for the second level at the end of this year.

The Cicerone Certification Program certifies and educates beer professionals in order to elevate the beer experience for consumers (Think Wine Sommelier, but for beer...We get badges too!). It has three levels: Certified Beer Server, Certified Cicerone and Master Cicerone.  

Curious about the program?  Check out http://cicerone.org/ for more information.  We'll let you know how we do... cheers!

 

Bell's Brewery is here!

by Cathan Cokely

Bell's Brews on hitimewine.net 

As of today, the Southern California beer world will never be the same. What has been anticipated for years is finally happening, Bell's Brewery is hitting the shelves and on tap across Orange County.  Our shipment arrived today, February 23, and is here waiting for you! 

Started in 1983 by Larry Bell in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he took his humble beginning with his 15-gallon soup pot and with time, hard work and thoughtful planning, grew into a countrywide powerhouse, brewing over 310,000 barrels in 2014.

Seizing the craft beer revolution wave, Bell's Brewery never took a break from their expansion aspirations, growing their homebrew store and small brewing operation into a statewide brewing power, increasing their production up to 500 barrels in 1989. Moving forward to 1993, Larry Bell opened up the Eccentric Café which was the first brewery pub located on site of the brew house in Michigan. It was the early stages of the craft beer revolution and Bell's Brewery initially struggled in the beer industry due to them brewing more full-bodied, intensely-flavored brews while competing against the domestic beer companies, who made lighter beers in general, and in greater quantity.

As the craft beer revolution wave rolled across the U.S., Bell's saw an opportunity to seize these new growing markets and currently are distributed in 20 states including Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. through around 80 different distributors. After the initial struggle then steady continued growth in the 90s, Mr. Bell looked towards an even larger expansion in nearby Comstock with a 130,000 square foot facility on 32 acres in 2003. This was the first major stepping stone in establishing Bell's Brewery as a widely sought after brew by beer geeks across the nation. After even more demand from the growing craft beer world, Bell's Brewery added on a 200-barrel brew house in 2012 including fourteen 400-barrel fermentation tanks, new grain handling facilities and an employee care area.

The most recent expansion focused in on adding a new canning line in 2014 along with two 800-barrel fermentation tanks. A main focus for Larry Bell in the midst of all of this growth over the last 30 years was to keep the environment and community of Michigan in mind during every step. The focus of sustainability and support of the natural environment is something that Bell's Brewery believes is one of the main factors in being able to brew delicious beers as well as keep their expanding business profitable and environmentally friendly.

Starting before and with the farm they expanded to in 2008, Bell's Brewery made it a goal for their company to be “...aware of how we impact our surroundings, [so] we can act in ways that provide for economic, environmental, and social benefits to ourselves (and our children) in the future.” With environmental awareness accompanying their taste for continuous expansion, Bell's took every opportunity to lessen their company footprint on the environment at every step along the way. Beginning with the 80-acre farm in Shepherd, Michigan, they committed themselves to producing 100% non-GMO crops and using no-till farming to prevent soil erosion while also using non-water contaminating fertilizers that help improve soil quality along the way.

Once those grains are harvested, they are brought to the new facilities that have been recently constructed under the same theme of keeping an eye on nature and the future. These different facilities have numerous eco-friendly additions such as the sedum green roof in combination with a light-colored exterior membrane on the barrel house that work together to provide insulation, lower heat radiation and reduce the need for heating or air conditioning. They also use Geo-thermal heating where tons of piping are laid down underneath the earth to contribute to heating and cooling of the air being pumped into these facilities. It's not only the construction that is green-aware; they also care about the goods coming in and out by recycling almost everything they can. Whether it be the 50,000 pounds of spent grain they give to local farmers to feed their cows or their support of local farms with the Avalon farms partnership they have that supports local crops, Bell's Brewery is making it a company wide point to keep the environment and local community in mind.

While their process and quality standards are something to admire; it is true that the end product is the real gem of Bell's Brewery: the delicious brews that arrived at our store today. Below is a list of all the beers currently available for us with brewery descriptions. We should be seeing more seasonal brews as time passes but this massive load of different beers and styles should help keep you busy till then.   

Oarsman Ale

Designed as a flavorful session beer, Oarsman Ale uses a classic German brewing technique to impart a light, refreshing tartness. Oarsman Ale grew out of a desire to explore the tradition of session beers, trading intensity for finesse while still creating a worthwhile experience for the taster. The grain bill includes a healthy portion of wheat, while citrusy hops lend bright notes to the aroma. Fermented with Bell’s house ale yeast, Oarsman comes in at 4.0% alcohol by volume. Rather than being the dominant flavor note, the tartness in Oarsman takes on more of a palate-cleansing role, making it perfect for pairing with food.

Bell's Amber Ale  

Amber Ale deftly balances a mixture of toasted grain & light caramel notes with a range of floral, citrus and herbal hop notes, capped by a clean bitterness. This balance of flavors makes Amber Ale quite versatile as a food pairing option, not to mention being rather tasty in its own right. Whether serving as a jumping point to other styles or as a familiar standby, Amber Ale is central to the Bell’s portfolio.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale

Bell's Two Hearted Ale is defined by its intense hop aroma and malt balance. Hopped exclusively with the Centennial hop varietal from the Pacific Northwest, massive additions in the kettle and again in the fermenter lend their characteristic grapefruit and pine resin aromas. A significant malt body balances this hop presence; together with the signature fruity aromas of Bell's house yeast, this leads to a remarkably drinkable American-style India Pale Ale.

Bell's Porter 

One of our many award-winning beers, Porter emphasizes the darker, roasted aspects of malt. Hints of dark chocolate and freshly roasted coffee provide the focus, while hops remain in the background. Not as full-bodied as a stout, Porter bridges the gap between malty brown ales and our more heavily roasted stouts.

Kalamazoo Stout

Kalamazoo Stout represents stouts in the Bell's year-round roster, offering a blend of dark chocolate and coffee flavors with just a hint of brewer's licorice. One of our oldest recipes, it balances a significant hop presence against the roast malt body. 

Commonly asked trivia 

The brewer's licorice we use is gelatin-free, making it acceptable for vegetarians; the label comes from a series of portraits by a local artist.

Third Coast Beer

Assertively hopped, Third Coast Beer offers a crisp, dry bitterness with a mixture of floral & herbal aromas.

Trivia: A series of 24 different front labels map all 3,288 miles of the Michigan coastline, touching four of the five Great Lakes.

Bell's Oberon Ale

Bell's Oberon is a wheat ale fermented with Bell's signature house ale yeast, mixing a spicy hop character with mildly fruity aromas. The addition of wheat malt lends a smooth mouthfeel, making it a classic summer beer.

Midwestern Pale Ale

Brewed with barley from our farm in central Michigan, Midwestern Pale Ale stands apart from the model of completely hop-dominated pale ales, offering a noticeable degree of malt body to counter the hop bitterness. A blend of floral & herbal hop notes provide the aromatic & flavor highlights, alongside the distinctive contribution of our house ale yeast. A crisp bitterness finishes the experience without being harsh.

Cherry Stout

Tinted ruby-black, Cherry Stout gains its signature tartness from 100% Montmorency cherries grown in Michigan's Traverse City region. Rather than doubling up on sweetness, this tart cherry varietal serves as a counterpoint to the warm, dark chocolate notes from the malt bill. Lightly hopped for balance, this stout is one of the cornerstones of the Bell's stout portfolio.

Double Cream Stout

Special Double Cream Stout derives its name from its smooth, creamy texture, not the ingredients. Completely dairy-free, this stout blends ten different specialty malts to yield a remarkable depth of flavor. With only a touch of burnt notes, Special Double Cream Stout focuses on the softer, cocoa & espresso-like aspects of roasted malt.

Java Stout

Java Stout uses a custom blend of coffee beans, roasted locally for us by Water Street Coffee Joint, to generate its intense flavor. Possessing an unmistakable aromatic punch, Java Stout has long been one of our most popular stouts.

Third Coast Ale

Third Coast Old Ale focuses on malt, offering notes of burnt caramel & other earthy malt flavors. Designed with vintage aging in mind, the malt aspect is matched to a heavy complement of hops. Sharply bitter at first, this will fold into the malt character over time and bala nce out the maltiness.

Expedition Stout

One of the earliest examples of the Russian Imperial Stout in the United States, Expedition Stout offers immensely complex flavors crafted specifically with vintage aging in mind, as its profile will continue to mature and develop over the years. A huge malt body is matched to a heady blend of chocolate, dark fruits, and other aromas. Intensely bitter in its early months, the flavors will slowly meld and grow in depth as the beer ages.

Read more about the Bell's Brewery story at bellsbeer.com.

Cismontane Tasting Room Santa Ana: Visit & Interview

Interview/photos by Don Fox

My name is Don Fox. I’m one of the beer guys at Hi-Time Wine Cellars. For people who don’t know me, my biggest passions are travel and beer. It just made sense to take a piece of my already occurring weekly beer journeys and publish them on this new blog.

For my first installment, I planned a trip to the new Cismontane tasting room in Santa Ana. Besides the location being only 7.6 miles from Hi-Time, the beer department has always had a great relationship with the brewery. The following is a Q &A with Cismontane Owner and Brewmaster Evan Weinberg, Sales Rep Jordan Smith and myself.

Don: Let’s start out by giving a brief history of the brewery and explaining the different phases of expansion the company is undertaking.

Jordan: The beginning starts with Saddleback Brewing which was owned by a group of firefighters. Evan and Ross bought the location in ‘09, we made our first batch on Valentine’s Day 2010 and we have been upgrading the system as much as we can. We just recently opened the tap room in Santa Ana. We don't have a sign up yet so the crowds are slowly learning that we are here.

Don: Yeah, a lot of internet reviews say that they love the spot, love drinking here, but can never find it.

Jordan: Unfortunately with Google, they gave us the street address here in Santa Ana but the city and zip of Rancho Santa Margarita, so do not consult Google for now. Don’t have a telephone line in Santa Ana yet either so if you can, call the RSM location and they can give you the lowdown.

Don: You’re off the grid...

Jordan: Pretty off the grid... Yeah, we have dial up here as well, most internet providers are not willing to put in infrastructure due to the industrial space around here.

Don: You can also fax Cismontane.

Jordan: I think you can fax us! I don’t know the number but you can definitely fax us. So we’ve been ripping at the Rancho location ever since; we opened here in Santa Ana last November. The first phase is complete. You guys should come down and check it out. We have a 15-tap tasting room. The next phase will include a distillery in the back corner. You can see everything back there is in pieces right now that, hopefully, will be up and running by the end of the year. After that we’ll be evaluating production to see where we want to go. I think the overall plan is to brew in this space, but that’s still a ways off. We have a lease in RSM that runs well through 2016. We love it in RSM so I don’t see us leaving but eventually- we’re almost at capacity as is. There’s not much room for growth in RSM in terms of square footage, for adding fermenters, or anything like that. So when that time comes this will be the home-base or the production site. When that happens there’ll be a lot of walls to break down. So when you guys come by and check out the tasting room, you will see that all the offices are standing on the site of the brew house.

A side note on the Santa Ana location- we are getting the space next door renovated so we can have our distribution hub from this location. So all our distributors would pick up from here which is much more centrally located in Orange County. Not sure what would happen if we move production to Santa Ana - but any RSM locals, don’t fear, we will be accommodating you guys!

Don: I’ve noticed that this area of Orange County has become a hotspot for breweries and beer bars. Did this contribute to you guys picking out your location?

Evan: Access to roads and people! We have been secluded on the mountain side long enough. We needed more space and to be in a more convenient location. With Santa Ana’s exploding food and beverage scene, what could be better?

Don: One of the things I had read was that you guys are planning to do more one-off projects here?

Jordan: I think in this location we will have a better venue for it. In RSM we’re under 2500 square feet, in Santa Ana we are over 7000. Right now we are using less than half of it, we joke that it's our storage space. We have a sailboat, a small apartment’s worth of furniture, a piano…..

Don: It’s a work in progress. Going back to your distilling here, are you going to start out with clear alcohol with the intent on future barrel aging?

Jordan: I think that’s the projection that most budding distilleries go for, unless you have a lot of money. It’s difficult to open and not sell any for 5 years. I believe Evan is really interested in doing a gin that uses all local botanicals. We’re also looking into doing a brandy. I know the laws about retail at production sites are different with brandy than with the rest of the liquors. We are taking a look at unique ways to make brandy by possibly aging the brandy in wine barrels.

Don: I’ve noticed that you guys have experimented with beer/wine blends and wine barrel aging. Does Cismontane have a connection to the wine industry?

Evan: Wine for me started in college in Santa Barbara. The California central coast is a happening spot for wine. I made a lot of friends that worked in the industry; wine makers, farmers, salespeople, and cooperages. Some of my friends got into the wine industry around that time and have since been making names for themselves. We draw on these relationships and the knowledge that I have gained about wine in a unique way from the way we use barrels, to the collaboration products we make. The Mesa, for instance, is a perfect example. Charlie Wagner, of the Wagner family of wines, and I tasted every beer we could find that was brewed with grapes. It was a hell of a night! Most of the examples we tried were of the extreme variety. We decided that we wanted to do something that highlighted the flavors of both beverages in a way that made something that was unique and drinkable. We also wanted to make sure that none of the off flavors from the wine or beer world would be evident. Off flavors can be quite different for beer and wine. We call it The Mesa because it is a small part of Santa Barbara that we were both living when we met.

Don: Jordan, the beer I’m drinking at this very moment is your creation. Do you mind telling us about it?

Jordan: Hop Dumpster. We originally brewed the beer for Mohawk Bend’s IPA Festival in December. I proposed that we do something different than we had previously done. The concept was to brew a double IPA with no specialty malt. So it’s a blend of Pilsner, Maris Otter, and Pale Two Row from Washington. This beer’s hop schedule runs contrary to some of our core beers, where we have a scheduled hop addition to the boil.  In Hop Dumpster, we add just enough hops at the beginning of our bittering process to give it the right amount of IBUs. We save the vast majority of the hops for very late in the boil to get a more intense aroma and flavor characteristic from the hops, mostly characterized by Citra and Amarillo.

Don: Is there anything new we should be keeping our eyes out for?

Evan: Hop Dumpster will be available all year long, Cerveza SNA (Veinna Lager), more barrel aged beers!!!! We are going to try to get all the specialties that we like the most out this year, and there are a lot!

Cismontane Brewing Company - Santa Ana Tasting Room

1409 E Warner Suit C

Santa Ana CA, 92688

twitter: @cisbrewco

Instagram @cisbrewco

The Birthday Boys' Brews

The New Year is here and we have a few birthdays to celebrate: Juice and El Guapo, AKA Cathan and Fernando, are another year older which means another year wiser. In their old age, their palates have developed to a new level, requiring us to show off their new favorites. Since they are as dedicated to beer drinking as anyone, being stalwart members of the Hi-Time Beer Department, we decided to divide their picks into their breakfast, lunch and dinner beers that they plan on enjoying on their birthdays. 

-Cathan Cokas ("Juice"); Cathan runs the Hi-Time Beer Twitter Feed (here).

-Fernando Ruvalcaba ("El Guapo")

El Guapo’s Birthday Picks

Morning Beer

Stiegl Radler 12oz 6-pack $11.47 [472611] Link

They say that grapefruits are the breakfast of champions, well grapefruit radler is mine! With only 2.7 ABV, this is perfect way to keep going on the drinking marathon I'm having going on my birthday.

 “The Stiegl-Radler Grapefruit is a mix of Stiegl-Goldbräu and fruit juice that is invariably natural and has no artificial sweeteners added to it. The grapefruit juice lends this a naturally cloudy appearance and a tangy fruit flavor, creating a succulent and fruity taste sensation with a refreshing finish.”  -Stiegl Brewery Description

Lunch Beer

Ska Brewing Rudie Session IPA 12oz 6-pack $10.47 [474644]

Some say drinking a radler is too sissy. So keeping with the marathon, I wanted a beer with a little more attitude, “Lip Up Fatty!”  If “The Specials” like Rudie, then I must drink like Rudie! This session IPA had me skanking out! Ah-Ah-ah...

“Rudie begins with a big fruity hop aroma of pears and watermelon candy, but is relatively low in actual bitterness. Pairs great with breakfast, summer, sunny days, rainy days, winter, on the river, on the trail. Drink it any day, any time.” - Ska Brewery Description

Dinner Beer

Anderson Valley Highway 128 Series Blood Orange Gose 
12oz 6-pack $9.97 [474240]

Since I don’t have my funnel and tubing, I wanted a beer with a bit more of a complex taste. I want my blood to be orange-- blood orange, that is. With the right amount of salt, this Gose is just what I needed to soak up all the water that the alcohol didn’t replace yet.

“Our Blood Orange Gose is a tart, refreshing wheat ale that is kettle-soured with lactobacillus and brewed with sea salt and coriander. However, unlike traditional versions of the style, ours features liberal additions of blood oranges during fermentation. This imparts tangy citrus notes that complement the champagne-like flavors, creating a complex and sessionable ale perfect for any occasion.” -Anderson Valley Brewing Description

Juice’s Birthday Picks

Breakfast Beer

Lagunitas Day Time Session IPA 12oz 6-pack $10.47 [471488]

For breakfast, I wanted to start off with a light beer but being the picky guy I am, I couldn’t live with myself if I was to drink one of those mainstream beers every store will have. I am a big IPA guy but to start off the morning with the high alcohol and bitterness might be too much... even to jumpstart my birthday. I decided on a cousin of one my favorite IPAs , the Session IPA, and Day Time by Lagunitas is one of the best.

“Sometimes you want a beer, then you realize how much crap you need to do before you call it a day. This is it. Nicely dosed with Big, Round Hop Flavors and a Toasty Malt Foundation to satisfy your every need. But it still lets you stay in the game to do what needs to be done. Yup.” -Lagunitas Brewery Description

Lunch Beer

El Segundo Two 5 Left Double IPA 22oz $8.47 [473647]

Since the Session IPA I started my day on, I decided to put my big boy pants on and skip over the regular IPAs and jump up to the Double IPA coming from El Segundo Brewery. Filled with Simcoe, Citra, Cascade and Chinook hops, this beer is one of the premier craft brand IPAs out there.  

“A brazenly hop-forward beast of a beer, with a huge passionfruit nose. A subtle caramel character provides a malt backbone to shoulder the massive amount of dry-hopping that gives this beer its unique aroma and hop flavor. Two 5 Left is the runway that sends planes screaming right over El Segundo. We always knew we would name a beer after this local landmark, and when it came to naming our first Double IPA.. it fit the bill perfectly.” -El Segundo Brewing Description

Dinner Beer 

Boulder Brewery Shake Chocolate Porter 12oz 6-pack $9.97 [486598] Link

After my mid-day siesta from delicious IPA drinking, my sweet tooth arrived in full force and I was craving something silky smooth and full of chocolately goodness. I glanced around and realized Shake Chocolate Porter from Boulder was calling my name loud and clear. I sat down, popped open this delectable 12oz, and took down about half my birthday cake along with the other lonely beers in this 6-pack and reminisced over the last year. I’ve tasted so many great beers over this year, so many more to go.

“Our twist on the traditional robust American Porter, Shake Chocolate Porter is dark black in color with rich, sweet aromatics and flavors of dark chocolate, coffee and caramel. This unique brew blends five different grains, including Chocolate Wheat, that along with cacao nibs create a devilishly delicious chocolate finish with a velvety mouthfeel.” -Boulder Brewing Description