Bubba83

^ I loved their dubbel. Oh well.

Hey look, two posts in one week Ma! Joe - I'm a little concerned you like Big Hoppy Monster a little too much. Well, the only other pumpkin ale I've tried was Sea Dog's, which I thought was terrible. This beer was acceptable, but I don't think it was a very well done pumpkin ale. It's too watery, doesn't have much flavor. And to finish last night off, Buffalo Bill's, supposedly the original, Pumpkin Ale will be had! I also got this in the build your own six pack, I really wish BevMo would employ this! Yummy, apparently the hops used are Centennial and Cascade. I'd have to say I definitely recognize the Cascade flavor in there the most. New night, new hop bomb. Sierra Nevada's excellent Fresh Hop Ale. Harvest them hops Sierra Nevada! My tastebuds don't know what hit them. So my brain reminds them, tons of Tomahawk, Centennial, Cascade, and Amarillo hops. You know the brewmaster's a hophead when he claims this beer has a balanced malty flavor. Finishing off the night two nights ago, the El Toro IPA! A great beer to end the night with, and a very different followup to The Kronic. I appreciated it a lot more this time around for some reason. It's quite a new experience for me. Definitely copper and bready, but the main flavor is sweet sweet toffee. It's seriously almost like drinking a piece of liquified toffee, eating a piece of bread intermitently. Another one of my beers from the six pack I created at World Market. My 2nd time around having this beer, Lagunitas The Kronic - Rich Copper Ale. Overall it's a decent porter, but it wasn't anything special like Black Butte Porter or Anchor Porter. It was a little watery in the mouthfeel, and a bit more roasted barley taste than chocolate/coffee tones. Sierra Nevada's Porter, a beer I have yet to try. It's weird I haven't tried some commonly available beers like this, but most of it has to do with them only being available in six packs. Well I went to World Market the other day and they had the build your own six pack!

I guess now when we say BMC, it's going to be more like BM/C, hehe. Well I have still been drinking beers, and lots of them, I've just been busy with the work for my dad. So here is another super long post catching me all the way up to today. They carry three different kinds at my BevMo now, the IPA, the Poppy Jasper, and the Pale. This beer tasted exactly how it did on tap, which was out of balance on the hop side, something I'm okay with. It has a sort of spicey dankyness to it that is different than every other IPA I've had. And this is from just last night, whadda you know, El Toro bottles their beers. Actually, according to my friend in Morgan Hill, they have for a while, but they haven't distributed far. This is their IPA. Mmm, a little sour and bitterness here compliments the traces of pine and excellent malt profile nicely. Followed that bad boy up with a grapefruit hop monster, Hop Ottin IPA from Anderson Valley. This picture brought to you by a fiery bag of Mission Tortilla Rounds. This is the 11th edition of this beer, and they claim they were the first to wet hop and bottle it. This is the first wet hopped beer I've had. I thought the oily, resinous flavors to it were excellent and added a lot. The next night, also at my uncles, he found Sierra Nevada's 2007 Harvest Fresh Hop Ale. A beer I had been telling him just came out recently. The original gateway beer for me into Craft Brews, it never dissapoints with it's excellent bready profile and high cherry alcohol taste. The original bastard makes yet another appearance. I can't decide if I like it better than Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout or not, they seem almost identical. Over at my uncles this past friday, Anderson Valley's Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout. Consistently good, as always. And so so easy to quaff. I think this was my last bottle of Anchor Porter. It reminds me a lot of Inversion IPA, which is no surprise since that is also a Cascade IPA. The two are very similar, but I think I'd give a small edge to Deschutes' version. The next day I found a sixer of Sierra Nevada's 2007 Anniversary Ale. It's a Cascade hopped IPA. It's always a nice treat, very syrupy and sweet, but lacks the complexity of flavors that the Imperial Stout brings to the table. Speaking of the Oatmeal Stout, I had it the very next night. My uncle is a big fan of Samuel Smith so it's usually a staple at his house or for gift giving. Very tasty as always. I like it quite a bit more than the Oatmeal Stout. I love this picture, doesn't it just look really appealing? Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, yeah, it's on the top 100 somewhere. Even more exceptional than their double. Much more complexity in the diverse flavor profile, and incredbly smooth from using a different style yeast than is standard with the belgians. The only beer of the six I got from my uncle that I hadn't tried before. Anderson Valley's Triple. I have had their double which I liked. Yeah, it's about like that. Changed the pace up a bit with a North Coast Pranqster from a 4-pack I got a while back. This beer is serious, so I made a serious face. And by serious, I mean seriously good! Sticking with Bear Republic the next night I had the Big Bear Black Stout. Here's the night of my barbecue birthday dinner on 9/29, two days after my actual birthday. My uncle got me six bombers, I was running low so it worked out nice. I drank the always lovely Ruination that night. It's just a great all around red, well balanced with just the right amount of hops. One that I hadn't revisited in a while, and my uncle picked up, Bear Republic's Red Rocket Ale. From what I rememeber it was pretty mellow and a bit uninteresting, but it was a while back so I don't remember much. My uncle picked this one up for us to share. Weihenstephaner Hefeweiss Dark. Lotsa head! I think this is still my favorite wheat from a bottle. Gumball head was damn good too, but I'm not sure I can really rate it against this directly, since they are quite different. I love the strong banana and hints of clove I get in this beer. Franziskaner's Hefe-Weisse, with the matching wheat glass. The wheats look so much more appealing in this glass! A Stunning color range.

^ LOL at Elissa's IPA.

I feel so out of the Oktoberfest loop, I haven't bought beer in quite a long time now so I haven't been able to see what new is out. I was also looking forward to getting some wet hopped stuff as well, hopefully soon. Anyway I'm going to make a pretty big post now to try to start catching up some more with my photos today. And no birthday would be complete without saying goodnight in a big way with another Racer 5. A little different than I am used to, must be that old-english style. With that said, I loved it. Everytime I have a new porter, I think it's my favorite porter yet, so I guess that probably means I just really like porters. Back at home I wrap up my birthday with a different St. Peters brew, their Old-Style Porter. And here's my Chicken Marsala, which really wasn't done in a very traditional italian style, but was still great. My mom got the fish and chips, which looked excellent, and tasted excellent too, I stole a little piece! My birthday pictures, from a little over a week ago now, boy how time flies when you're busy! We went to Gordon Biersch and I got the sampler. Wow! So I only really have one beer to compare this guy to, and that's La Folie. Well to my surprise, this guy blew La Folie out of the water! La Folie is pure sourness which is pretty awesome, but there's not much balance. This guy however had just the right amount of sour, and excellent sweetness balance with fruity undertones. Zoetzuur Flemish Ale, from Andelot in Belgium. This baby weighs in at 7% and has an excellent appearance that wasn't captured that well on camera. So appealing in the glass, begged me to drink it really fast! The last Gonzo. I will miss you! Hands down the best dubbel I've had. Excellent head and mouthfeel, incredibly diverse flavor profile with plums and blackberries being prominent. Excellent all around. Allagash's Dubbel Reserve. Batch #56 from Portland, Maine. 7% ABV. My first beer from Allagash. Yummy. Probably the best Saison I have had yet. Nice citrus tones! I finally picked up a Hennepin, yay Hennepin! It's a Saison of course, but a pretty alcoholic one at 7.7% ABV. You devil you, why I oughtta drink you 'til the last drop. I drink too much of this stuff. Who do I think I am, Speedracer himself? It tasted like a stronger version of their American Amber. I wasn't too impressed with American Amber, and I'm not too impressed with this either, though it is better than American Amber. I'd rather have a well hopped red. Rogue's St. Rogue Red Ale. 5.1% ABV. This one is new to me! Very horsey! Also quite peppery, it'd be nice if it balanced a little better with some sweetness, but it's pretty dry/peppery, a nice changeup once in a while. North Coast's Pranqster, a Belgian Golden Ale. I honestly don't remember much about it because I drank it so long ago, but I think I was able to taste the vanilla and it was pretty good? Dark Side Vanilla Porter, from Empyrean Brewing in Nebraska. 5.7% ABV.

Happy Birthday pal. I just thought I'd post this on the day of so I don't miss it, but I don't have time to post any beer pictures, they're stacked up fat though, big posts ahead, I promise.

^ Hey, an actual beer post from Nicole herself, that's the first I've seen! Thanks for the birthday wishes, though I am perplexed as how Skylark knew it was my birthday other than looking it up in my profile one time and somehow remembering it? My mom and I went to Gordon Biersch in San Jose for my birthday dinner last night. Tonight I'm going to a comedy club to see Matt Kirschen among others with some friends of mine. Matt Kirschen was one of the comedians on Last Comic Standing, I like him. And Tomorrow we will have a family BBQ to celebrate my birthday, so I feel like I'm getting my money worth with 3 celebrations! Anyway I've been rather busy with the job search and working part time for my dad. (He's a web contractor) But I have been drinking the beer that I've had left each night and it's been like over a week since I've posted, I think, so I have some catching up to do in posting the pictures. We'll start off with some of the stuff I had about a week ago. It's really not a very hoppy porter at all, which is nice once in a while. The reason it's so much better on cask though is because the mouthfeel of the bottled one is a bit rough. Anchor Porter, yay San Francisco. I still hope to make a reservation sometime and get a tour of Anchor's Brewery. A fine IPA. Not near as good as Racer 5 or anything, but just really solid all around, yet not very memorable. I've been looking forward to this one for a while... Farmhouse's Oasthouse IPA. This six pack has had some serious yeast floating around in it compared to other bottles I've had, but it hasn't changed the great flavor one bit. Hmm, I think this beer should be familiar to you guys by now. Very nice hint of hops up front with a really nice fade into roasted coffee malts. The mouthfeel is smoother than most porters as well, and I'd have to actually give this a small edge over Anchor Porter (but the one in the bottle, not cask, because Anchor Porter on cask was damn sexy.) Odell's Cutthroat Porter. From what I remember, I was impressed with the amount and fluffiness of the head on this one.

^^ Pft, New York brewery, you wish!!! Okay, so maybe that bottle did come from their New York location, but Mendocino Brewing is the original California Craft Brew! The silly part is I can never find all the different stuff from them that you guys seem to get, I can only ever find Eye of the Hawk/Red Tail/Blue Heron Pale and their Wheat. I went to a job fair yesterday, first one I've been to... It didn't go very well, not many companies in the High Tech section that had jobs I could fill. A lot of them were biotech and looking for Mechanical Engineers and stuff. I did talk to a couple ones looking for C/C++ type Software Engineers, which I can do, though my focus is web programming, but they were looking mostly for Senior people. Oh well, it was still good experience talking to those sorts of people face to face about that kind of stuff, good interview practice I guess. Yeah, I wear two pairs of headphones when I game with my friend Ray back in Arizona... The headset just isn't comfortable on my ears! Oh, Gonzo was still great. Flying Dog's Gonzo Imperial Porter. 9.2% ABV. Woohoo, still awesome! I actually was able to taste some more vanillas and oakiness to it than the last bottle I tried. My last bottle of Oaked Arrogant Bastard. 7.2% ABV.

^ I want some Stone 11. Last couple of nights I've had... I really liked the flavors on the tip of my tongue. It's got all the typical porter flavors with a good mouth feel. However, there is an off taste in the finish, that is a little acidic. If that wasn't there, it'd be a lot better! Farmhouse Robust Porter. Also called their Stone Fence Porter. 5.5% ABV. Yummy! Awesome fruity flavors and perfect carbonation. A little bit bready in the middle and a little twang of sourness in there too. North Coast's Brother Thelonious. It's a Belgian Dubbel, at 9.0% ABV. Pretty sweet labeling.

^^^^ Glad to hear you're enjoying Deschutes stuff Heath, I really want to get up to Bend at some point as well, preferrably when the newest Abyss is released. Two days ago I visited the new Whole Foods that opened up recently with my mom. We had a small Whole Foods in Cupertino before but they moved into a huge new location. The store is 68,000 sq ft, making it the 2nd largest Whole Foods in the entire chain, only surpassed by the 80,000 sq ft Whole Foods in Austin, TX, where the company was born. I was looking forward to checking out their expanded beer section, and I wasn't dissapointed. They carried a lot of new bombers, but unfortunately most of the ones they had I've tried at BevMo... Still excellent, better than El Toro's Oatmeal Stout in my opinion. I love the thick oily features and the excellent sweet roasted barley taste. Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout makes yet another appearance in my Uncle's garage. Hobgoblin delivered once again, it has some really sweet fruit flavors with a mild bitterness in the finish. Time for a nice English Pale. I like to call this one a juicy pale! I was very dissapointed. It was as light as a Kolsch, and filtered. The flavor just wasn't there, and since I had a great wheat earlier that day at El Toro, this one really fell flat. Except for this, Anderson Valley's High Roller's Wheat. I was pretty excited about this beer because I've been happy with everything from Anderson Valley for the most part.

^^ Nice pictures Rick and Gwen. I didn't even see you guys take those pictures in Toronado, super sneaky! ^ I'm glad to hear that Deschutes' Golden Ale was good, I've been wanting to get my hands on that for a while. I am also happy to hear you liked the Kill Ugly Radio! There has certainly been a mixed bag of reviews on it over at BA. Last night I had a new porter and an old favorite, and earlier today I went to a place Derek and Heath told me I just had to visit! Favorite of the set was the Deuce, winning narrowly over the very tasty Imperial Stout. The Deuce was quite dank, reminded me most of Pliny the Elder out of all the DIPAs I've tried thus far, just not quite THAT good. And then I got a second sampler set. From left to right again: The porter, the Negro Oatmeal Stout, the Imperial Stout, and last but definitely not least, the Deuce Double IPA My mom got the Cod fish tacos, which she liked. She said they were pretty spicy but had good flavor. Then came the food, I ordered a Hawaiian Pulled Pork sandwich as seen here, with a side salad. The salad was pretty good. I liked the concept of this sandwich, but the pulled pork itself was a bit dry and tough. Wasn't impressed. My favorite of the first rack of samples was this one, The William Jones Wheat. It had a nice pop on the tongue, and was one of the most flavorful wheats I have ever had. My first sampler of 4. From left to right: William Jones Wheat, Forget the name, but it was like a golden ale that was done with Anise? Definitely tasted of licorice... The IPA, and lastly The Poppy Jasper Amber. Where do I start? Well, I'll ask the brewmaster who is also bartending! I asked him if he remembered you guys, at first he didn't, I said, two guys and one has a wife, they are from pennsylvania, they probably were snapping pictures everywhere, they bought merch, etc... But he didn't remember until I said you guys were coaster nuts! El Toro Brewing Co. In Morgan Hill, just south of San Jose... I was actually going to go here earlier, but it was so smokey from the fire that I decided to wait. My mom and I went for Linner around 4pm. However, this one left me craving some big piney hops! This oughtta do... Racer 5, woohoo. IPAs and DIPAs are still my favorite styles. Hey, whadda you know? Another porter I like... It's solid all around and I'm beginning to find out that Porters are close to the top of my list in favorite styles. Black Hook Porter, from the Red Hook company... A new porter for me!

I had some more stuff when I got home on wednesday from the Pleasanton beer excursion. And then a special treat last night to cheer me up because I was feeling a little bit depressed with the way my job search is going. And boy oh boy was it mouth puckeringly sour. So much so that I wish I had someone to share it with because the whole 750ml bottle was a bit hard to drink in the same sitting. Much more sour than Sanctification, but I still prefer Sanctification by a mile because of the other sweet flavors and great balance. Still, this beer deserves its place in the top 50, and was exactly what I needed last night to brighten things up a bit. It's listed as a Flander's Red Ale on BA, but the little tag that came with the bottle said it was New Belgium's interpretation of a Belgian Sour Brown. On to last night, I opened up something special. The bottle of La Folie I picked up at Beertopia in Omaha. This stuff cost me a pretty penny. The cork made a nice pop as I pulled it out. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood or something. It has some nice floral hop flavor, without much bitterness. My 2nd bomber of Kill Ugly Radio. It didn't seem as good this time around, and I'm not sure why. It's very hoppy up front. Dances on your tongue a bit and then right as you're swallowing you get the nice chocolate/coffee taste. I actually wish the hoppiness subsided a little earlier as I was really digging the background flavors. I kept trying to swirl it around in my mouth forever attempting to get those flavors before the swallow, but it wasn't working. A little frustrating, but a very good porter nonetheless. Troegs Dead Reckoning Porter. 5.4% ABV. I got this one from Heath I think? Maybe Derek... Nice head on this porter.

^^ Looks like a goat to me, not like a lamb at all.

^ I have a good guess... But I won't potentially spoil it for everyone else. Today my mom and I went to Pleasanton in the East Bay to meet up with my cousin Josh who is from Seattle. He was down here for work reasons, so it was quite convenient for us to meet him for a couple beers and dinner. For the next round, I asked if they could do growlers... When they said no, I knew I had to order the Pliny the Elder. I sure was hoping to take home a growler though. Josh got Rogue's Hazelnut Brown, and enjoyed it just as much as the Mad River Jamaican Red, Though he liked the small sample of the Schooner's Apricot Ale best. And here is my cousin Josh with a Mad River Jamaican Red Ale. He said he liked it quite a bit. We also got samples of Pliny the Elder, along with Green Flash EPA, and Schooner's Apricot Ale. Nope, not this one, I'll start off with a Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale since I have never had it and have heard such good things about this IPA. It was very nice, a little dank with some nice maltiness in the finish. And here is a picture of all the taps. What's that staring out at me right in the middle with the big red circular tap handle? Here's the taplist, pretty hard to read a lot of these with the color of marker they used though. For anyone who is wondering, this is the place right next door to Hoptown Brewing that serves a lot of good local craft beers on tap. Then we went and picked up my cousin Josh, and hurried over to The Hopyard for a couple of pints before my sister would meet us for dinner. I only had time for one beer here though, and I decided to try something that they brew there, since I can get the Deschutes Twilight Ale some other time. I went with the Train Wreck IPA. It was above average, fairly balanced with some pronounced bitterness. A picture of their taps, they had some decent guest beers on tap as well. Including Deschutes Twilight Ale, which I almost got... Screwed up on this picture, I thought I got a wide enough angle, but it was kind of dark in there so I wasn't sure. They had 4 beers on tap of their own, Train Wreck IPA, a Porter, a Pale, and a Wheat. My mom and I got there a bit early before my cousin was off work, so we stopped by a sewing store for her and then it was off to Main St. Brewery in downtown Pleasanton.

I think after I run out of beer this time (Still will be a little while) I'm not going to buy anymore for a week or two. It's really taking a toll on my wallet, and I'm pretty much running on empty and with no job to replenish it. I guess the time of celebrating my graduation is finally over as I must buckle down and job search for real. Once I get a job I'll definitely reward myself with some new brews. Perhaps the best balance of any IPA I've had up to this point. It's got a nice kick in the face up front with some cirtusy hops, with a little grapefruit. It's a little bittering in the middle, and ends huge on some caramel malts. They used only one hop variety in here, Centennial... In my experiences that specific type does not totally dominate the malts, so it was a nice choice. Ballast Point's Big Eye IPA. Their labels crack me up, who thinks up this stuff? I'm happy I was finally able to find this at my BevMo. Here's to hoping they'll get Dorado Double IPA in... The head was a little funky, so I waited a little bit again. I really liked this beer. It's quite possibly the best wheat I've had yet, though Franziskaner's Hefe-Weiss is up there too. I didn't taste any gumballs though, just some really nice citrus. Three Floyd's Gumballhead. My first Three Floyd's brew. It's an American Wheat. I like the label design. Thanks go to Heath for putting this brew in my hands.

Deal! Send it back immediately, put it in the footprint after they demolish Grizzly...

The beers from the last couple of nights lie ahead matey, yaargh! The head smelled and tasted a bit funky, so I let it mellow a long while before I started drinking. It's good, it kind of grows on you. At first I wasn't sure about it, there are nice spices up front... But it is really mouth puckering as it sits in your mouth, hard to quaff, but keeps you coming back for more. Jolly Pumpkin's Luciernaga, aka "The Firefly" from Dexter Michigan. It's a Belgian Pale Ale at 6.5% ABV. The head was a little ridiculous. It is pretty hoppy! It also had some great chocolate and coffee flavors. It reminded me a lot of Ol' Rasputin, except it was a lot smoother. Victory is mine!!! Thanks go to Derek for bringing me Storm King, a top rated Imperial Stout.

Ahoy! It was fun meeting up with you at the once promising and now declining Great America. The last time I rode Runaway Reptar was when it was called the Green Slime Mine Cart Coaster, and before that, when I originally rode it as my first roller coaster ever when I was like 8, it was the Smurf Coaster. Does that count as 3 credits? I was interested to see how you liked the other parks you went to and I am glad you enjoyed them for the most part. When I asked you about Giant Dipper you kinda shrugged it off, but now I see that you liked it more than you led on. Yeah, I know, being the best woodie in California isn't saying much, but still, it's good! I also agree with SCBB being the best seaside park, though I haven't been to many... It just has a great atmosphere to it that can't really be explained on paper, but you guys really should have walked down the pier and stopped in at Marini's! So you like Roar better than Ghostrider then? That makes me hopeful because when I was at KBF earlier this year I didn't like it much at all. It was quite rough and didn't have any airtime at all, we even gave it multiple chances from several different spots on the train at several different times of day. Oh well. I can't believe the golden tickets put it like #17 for best wooden coaster???

^ Russian River brews Belgians better than the Belgians themselves! Neener neener neener... My buddy Adam from Los Angeles drove up for this weekend so we just kinda hung out at my friend Michael's house. I brought a beer from Adam's favorite brewery... I think maybe the temperature got too high when they were in the trunk at Great America. Perhaps some yeasts just can't handle that? The Blackout Stout was fine. It wasn't dominant enough to where I poured it out. I drank it because after the initial sip I still got the flavors... Pretty good, from what I can taste. Why is my shirt off? I have no idea. Yep, pretty much the same deal. Took 15 minutes to pour, and the head was a weird fizzy consistency. Tasted a bit off too, much like the off flavor of the skunked Marin and Moylan's beers. Uh oh... *Nightmares of Marin Brewing flash through my head* It was a pretty good amber, but not nearly as good as Boont Amber or anything. Rogue's American Amber Ale. Actually a new credit for me, but Adam had it before.

It was a lot of fun meeting up with Derek, Heath & Kim, and Rick & Gwyndolyn at Great America and the beer places in S.F. We were trying to remember what sanctification was as far as the top 100. I guess we got it confused with Supplication since we thought it was in the top 20 on BA. It was actually tied with a bunch of other beers and sitting at #98. Of course, the only reason it was so low on the list was because despite the Average rating being very high, it doesn't have enough reviews for it to be legitimately rated that high in the top 100. So I did something about that and added another review, infact, my review jumped it up six spots to #92! I have to send a thanks out to Kim and Heath for buying that round of beers! I enjoyed my pliny the elder a lot. It made me burp a ton! Garibaldi was a good change of pace too. I found a little more info on it at ratebeer.com, where it is listed as a Strong APA. I am so jealous, a BevMo opened up in Chandler, AZ right before I left and was just getting into the craft brew scene. I never had a chance to visit and I didn't figure they'd have much compared to the BevMo here. Well my friend Ray from college is still in AZ and sounds interested to start trying different beers (he's a huge Miller fanboy) So I logged onto bevmo.com to see what they have in stock there. They basically have everything I can get, plus the stuff from Colorado I got in Nebraska, plus a lot more stuff from San Diego, like Pizza Port stuff, argh! Anyway, I'm finally catching all the way up to last night with the beers I've had lately. Still overwhelmingly piney, I love licking the roof of my mouth with my tongue after I swallow and just getting this extreme pine bitterness. Still my favorite IPA, and I really hope to find Racer X sometime. And last but definitely not least, my first Racer 5 IPA after trying Pliny the Elder. My best attempt at a Robb face? It's quite spicy and grainy. Has an off taste to it that keeps things from getting too sweet, but it's not really that sour either. Always leaves you craving more though. North Coast's Pranqster. A Belgian Style Golden Ale. Mmm, smells horsey! Yummy. It's a nice and hoppy imperial stout. A bit like rasputin, but maybe a little more mellow in both flavor and mouthfeel, very smooth and creamy. Thanks Heath! Acquired in a trade with Heath, Great Lakes Brewing's Blackout Stout. #80 on BA. Just as I remembered it. Sweet caramel/toffee front end with a nice highly bitter aftertaste. They threw in an Inversion IPA for good measure. I guess they were going to have trouble taking all the beer they bought at BevMo home. This deserved an extreme "bubba" face. The flavor reminded me a lot of their porter, but the mouthfeel is a whole lot sexier. Next up, I finally get to try Obsidian Stout thanks to Derek and Heath. From one of my favorite breweries, Deschutes! I guess it imparted a little limey character to it. Nothing too overpowering though, very nice and refreshing. New Belgium's Skinny Dip. Hi saturday! This is a blonde brewed with Kaffir-Lime leaves. This IPA was a nice surprise. I liked the sticky head and the nice balance of piney and citrus hops. Followed that up with a Goose Island IPA, also from my trip. It had a pretty nice belgian flavor but it was a little too watery. Nothing too exciting here... New Belgium's Abbey. Another one that I brought back from Nebraska.

I have never understood why Magic Mountain as a park and individual rides there are always so low on the golden ticket list. It seems to me like they need to send some more ballots out west! Not that there's much out here besides SFMM, but hey...

^ I love the "Gone to pee" signs. Are those just the bottom of the drink coasters? I also liked the bottle caps on the beer sampler so you know what's what. But if they are making bottle caps for everything, where are all the bottles, distribute Russian River, distribute!!! More stuff from a few days ago. This was from Labor Day Weekend, we made a driveway fire at my uncles on both Friday and Saturday. Almost caught all the way up! This was the best DIPA I've ever had up until labor day of course. My uncle thought it was excellent as well, go figure... Durr, time to drink da Hop Stoopid... 8.2% ABV. This time my uncle is lucky enough to have me share it with him! I think I've decided I like this porter a little better than Deschutes', but I need to try them side by side. Anchor Brewing's Porter. 5.6% ABV. So packed with flavor, it made my right eye tear up and my mouth go "WHAT?" Onto saturday night's lineup... First up, Hop Rod Rye from Bear Republic! 8.0% ABV. My 2nd bomber of this but my uncles first time trying it. It is decent in the flavor department for a witbier. Some nice orange peel flavors but not quite enough spice for me. Oops, looks like we had one more on friday, Lost Coast's Great White Beer. From Eureka, CA. Witbier! Obligatory Fire picture! Stronger grapefruit flavor than the Odell IPA. This beer still has the best grapefruit flavor from hops I've ever had by a landslide. It's pretty awesome, I just wish it had some more sticky head. Last beer we had on Friday was Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin IPA, a favorite of my uncles. Yay, first good beer of the night. It has a nice up front malt presence, and fades into some pungeant grapefruity hops. Odell IPA. 7.0% ABV. From Fort Collins, CO. That sticky head looks enticing. He swears this was a bad batch, because it was essentially flavorless. I don't know if I buy it or not, in my opinion he might just think it's flavorless now that he's drinking beer with flavor. My uncle decided to get more Mississippi Mud from back in his younger days after all this beer tasting with me to see how it compares. It's an english porter mixed with a pilsener. It was pretty standard. Actually, I liked the Shiner Kolsch a lot better. The flavor just wasn't as clean and bold as the Shiner one, which is currently my favorite bottled Kolsch. The Reissdorf Kolsch. 4.8% ABV. This is a Kolsch I've wanted to try for a long time because it's one of the only Kolsch's with a bunch of fairly solid reviews.

I really like The Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, it's 70ft tall with good airtime and nice pacing. Also, the tunnel it drops into at the beginning is pretty flippin' sweet.

Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio

Unfortunately it was Grizzly at Great America... At least it was BACT style.