Primo Island Lager – Hawaii (Pabst Brewing Co, Il)

Primo Island Lager – Hawaii
3/5

Hey bruddah. Primo is the official beer of the Hawaiian Islands so what more could you want on a hot sunny day than a bottle of Primo. Lite in flavor, color and carbonation, Primo has a faint grassy and citrus taste. I would consider Primo to be a large consumption beer best reserved for summer BBQ’s and picnics.

Next time you’re at the store try substituting your regular Mexican domestic for a sixer of this ono brew. Thanks Adrienne for the donation.

Aloha,

The Beer Blogga

Too hop or not too hop

Humulus lupulus or hops are the little flower clusters added during the hopping process of beer brewing. Hops were originally used to prevent or slow down spoilage of beer and are still used today to add flavor and bitterness. The idea is that a good beer should contain a harmonized balance of bitterness to maltiness.

Bitterness of beer is measured in EBU (European Bitterness Units) in Europe and in IBU (International Bitterness Units) in the US. To put things into perspective, an average IPA (India Pale Ale) which is known to be one of the more ‘hoppy’ varieties of beer would normally be around 70-100 IBU, whereas something much lighter like Heineken comes in at around 23 IBU.

For your average beer drinker, the IPA style may be a little too hoppy. I personally enjoy my beer at around 70-80 IBU with other flavors going on than plain old hoppy bitterness. You’ll often hear me raving on about how awesome the San Diego microbrew culture is. I feel blessed to be surrounded by passionate beer enthusiasts, brewers and breweries. There is, however, an exception to this. I feel that some Southern Californian breweries have gone “hop crazy.” Some of the beers available now are so hopped-up that their IBU is off the scale. I enjoy a nice hoppy beer as much as the next guy, but I really think some of these breweries are going overboard. You can pretty much guarantee that anything with ‘hop’ in the name will be one of these ghastly creations. They will almost always have some kind of bright, animated graphic on the label which is aimed to appeal to the macho, yuppie , 20- to 30-something year old mook who has nothing better to do on a Friday night than to impress his mates by downing a sixer of the hoppiest concoction he can get his Neanderthal hands on.

This all takes me back to London where it’s very common to get together once a week for a curry and a few pints. I read one day in the London Metro paper that most guys who order immensely hot curries admitted to not enjoying them at all. They are simply trying to act manly in front of their pals who in turn are also ordering the hottest curry on the menu. Personally I find some of these hopped up beers unpleasant to say the least. There is far too much emphasis on adding hops for the sole purpose of hitting a high IBU rather than adding some bitterness to balance the rest of the flavors. I recall recently waking up in the middle of the night to a horrible case of cotton mouth as a result of drinking a few overly hopped beverages the previous evening. I liken this to the next morning’s bathroom blues after a hot curry.

As with our allies across the pond and their attraction to overly hot curries, these hop-crazed fat heads are doing it for one reason that I can see: to show off. What ever happened to good old fashioned cigarettes?

Cheers,
Matt the Beer Blogga

Bear Republic - Ricardo's Red Rocket Ale - Healdsburg, CA

Bear Republic - Ricardo's Red Rocket Ale

4.5/5

If you enjoy your red ales then Red Rocket is a must. I was put onto this one by a friend at work and I rate this as my favorite red ale, hands down.

It has a really nice balance of hops to malt which is everything I personally look for in a beer.

You will get a very faint citrus hop aroma followed by a chocolate / caramel malt bringing up the rear so you could almost call this a red IPA.

This is a drink anywhere, anytime kind of beer. I dedicate this post to my boy Charlie.

David Mitchell rants about Beer Advertising

Ayinger Bruä-Weisse - Aying, Germany

Ayinger Bräu-Weisse - 3.5/5

Anyone who frequents the Beer Blogga or knows me well enough will understand that I'm not the greatest fan of hefeweizen style beers and may question my rating on this wheatie treat.

I've changed my attitude recently. For my birthday my friends Virginia and Jeff hand selected a few beers for me to drink and write about.

The Ayinger Bruä-Weisse being amongst the chosen was really pleasant. I didn't want to like it but in all honesty I found it very refreshing and quite tasty. It pours golden and cloudy as any good wheat beer should. It's fruity (banana) and spicy on the nose and goes down rather smoothly. Just this last weekend I saw Ayinger Bruä-Weisse at my local European market so I think I shall be purchasing some this summer.

As a result of my new found friendship with Ayinger I am strongly considering rekindling my relationship with Hoegaarden as you can pretty much get it anywhere now. Thanks to Virginia and Jeff for getting me back on the wheat beers.

Sugar cane

Yeah I know what you're thinking. This is a beer blog, not a cocktail blog..

When a good opportunity falls in your lap you have to roll with it, hence I feel this is blogable.

One of the software engineers at work is constantly bringing in all kinds of fresh produce from his property. Last week he brought in several seven foot sticks of sugar cane. As the office is full of immature geeks like myself we used the cane sticks for ninja fights and various other geeky props (picture Gandalf on the stone bridge..'you shall not pass'). So after much pondering, myself and some colleagues felt the best use for sugar cane would be to somehow incorporate it with alcohol.

Now I'm very much a fan of the traditional mojito with raw cane sugar. One balmy summer evening found my Sarah and I at the Elephant Bar in San Marcos for pre-movie drinks where we discovered they make a rustic style mojito with a sugar cane stick as a garnish. The idea is to sip on your cocktail and then chew on the sugar cane for some sweet, sugary goodness. Not the best mojito I have had but definitely decent and loved the idea of the sugar cane.

When cocktail hour rolled around this weekend, a lack of rum and mint in the house forced me to try something new. We recently discovered sweet tea vodka which mixes really well with lemonade. Pictured above is sweet tea vodka lemonade with a sugar cane garnish. The sweetness of the sugar cane perfectly balances the acidity of the lemonade which makes for a very tasty and refreshing cocktail. I cannot recommend this enough including the sans-sugar cane version if your local Ralph's doesn't happen to stock it.....

I'm thinking this very well could me my cocktail for the summer of 2010.

I am now stocked to make mojitos and have just enough sugar cane left over for this coming weekend. I'm really looking forward to it.

Now I figured I would be subject to criticism if I failed to mention beer in this post so here it is. My suggestion to my buddy Chris who's a keen home brewer was to throw a few stick of sugar cane into the boil during hopping stage. I'm sure some of the fresh sweetness and earthy aromas would be extracted and produce a very nice home brew. I'm really hoping he gives this a shot. I might even have to volunteer with the bottling.

So ladies and gents. If you ever find yourself in possession of some sugar cane.. think drink.

Cheers,

Matt the Beer Blogga

Trailer Oz and James Drink To Britain

Oz and James Drink to Britain is about 2 classic English gentlemen in a classic English gentlemen's car driving around the UK and Ireland with one thing on their minds... to find the drink which represents Britain. A must-watch for any beer, wine, whiskey, gin or cider enthusiast.

I just finished watching this series and I must say, I got an overwhelming desire to hop on a plane and head back to the UK, rent a van and tour the British Isles. This is something I should have done while residing on the other side of the pond. My dream is to one day hit up the UK, Ireland and Belgium with my traveling and drinking partner in crime, Sarah. One can only dream.

Some like it hoppy

This is a great little snippet talking about the brew culture in San Diego.

Stone Brewery Movie Nights

Stone movie nights are back May through September.

Grab your Mrs or your buddies and a blanket and head over to Stone for a pint and a movie.

http://www.stoneworldbistro.com/movies/

Pizza Port Perfection

Pizza Port (Port Brewing) does it again. On tap right now they have a top brew called Palapa Pale Ale.

It’s mildly hoppy with a nice florally finish. It went amazingly well with the Cajun Beer Buddies and Monterey pizza. I left “The Port” with a smile on my face and a growler of PPA for my buddy Chris. Happy 30^th mate, see you at Stone on Saturday.

Palapa Pale Ale is currently on sale for $12 per pitcher so get it while you can.

Cheers,
Matt - The Beer Blogga