- Bottoms Up (RSS)Bistro’s IPA Fest a real rouser: Pizza Port Solana Beach wins gold
By William Brand
Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at 10:39 pm in Uncategorized.
Making my way back on BART from the the 11th Annual India Pale Ale fest at the the Bistro in downtown Hayward, CA. Wow: 51 IPAs from all over the West Coast, liberal tastes, great music, more than 800 people.
A bangup day. It was hard to leave. The winners in the professinally judged blind tasting:
Gold: Hop 15, from Pizza Port, Solana Beach (San Diego County). 7.5 percent ABV..
Silver: 21st Amendment IPA, 21st Amendment, San Francisco: 7.2 percent, 80 IBUs ( by comparison: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale’s about 39 IBU). Yes this is the one in cans being sold at Beverages and More.
Bronze: Gold Digger IPA, Auburn Alehouse, Auburn, CA., 68 IBU, 6.7 percent.
People’s Choice: (A vote by everyone who cared to vote.) Rockslide IPA, Fifty Fifty Brewing Co. Truckee. Rocslide was 70 IBUs, 7 percent.
I sampled a lot of IPAs and I can see why this one won. It was a brilliant light copper with a big, creamy head that lasted. Hoppy nose, but the beer had great balance. Lots of hops in the taste and follow, but well-balanced by a substantial malty taste. Can’t make a beer like this at 5 percent. You’ve got to add malt to balance the hops – ergo lots of alcohol.
Ann McNulty, who drove the Pizza Port and Port Brewing entries to the Bistro from San Diego County, said the beer was brewed by Tomme Arthur at Port Brewing. But Vic and Cynthia Kralj, the Bistro proprietors, who hammered out the festival sheet, said it was from Pizza Port Solana Beach (one of three Pizza Port brewpubs, San Clemente and Carlsbad, also in San Diego County) and the brewers were Greg Peters and Brandon Edwards.
Hops were Galena for bittering, Centennial and Cascade for aroma and dry hopping – hops added in the fermenter – were Centennial, Cascade and Amarillo.
Other brewers were speculating that the beer included hop oil, the concentrated essence of hops. I don’t know. Don’t really think so. But many of the IPAs in this festival were pushing the limits. Great beer indeed.
Sad note for me, when I dragged in around 3:30 the Fifty Fifty Rockslide IPA, the People’s Choice winner was already gone. Damn. At least a dozen people told me “be sure to try the Fifty Fifty.
The brewer, Todd Ashman, has great credentials. He grew up in Sacramento, lived in Sonoma in the 1980s as the craft beer revolution really got underway. He learned to homebrew with help from The Beverage People and Byron Birch, took the brewing course under Dr. Michael Lewis, UC Davis professor at the American Brewers Guild in Woodland, CA (now closed).
Brewing jobs included Kegs in Alamogordo, NM, then Flossmoor Station in Flossmoor, a suburb south of Chicago.
When Andy and Alicia Barr took early retirement from Hewlett Packard and decided to open a brewpub in Truckee, CA., they (wisely) hired Todd to handle brewing. The pub opened in May, 2007 and a month after it opened Tim White, a Hayward guy who loves beer, called me and said I should visit.
A dozen people have said the same thing. Gotta’ get up there and do just that soon.
PHOTOS: Top: The patio at the Bistro , 1001 B St., Hayward during the fest.
Below: 21st Amendment’s Shaun O’Sullivan, head brewer, co-founder, left, and Tiodd Ashman, Brewmaster at Fifty Fifty Brewing, Truckee, CA.
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August 10th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Sorry I missed it. Last time I had Hop 15 was at the double IPA fest, I guess they tamped it down a little.
By the way, 21A IPA from 21st Amendment is only available at the brewery, to my knowledge. What is sold in cans is Brew Free or Die IPA, brewed under contract to Cold Spring Brewing of MN. It is very tasty but is quite different than the 21A. Of course the shelf life of a good IPA is limited when stored unrefrigerated, as at Bevs and More — thus Vinnie will not sell his Russian River there. For IPA that is treated more respectfully I recommend City Beer SF Ledgers Berkeley.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:44 am
It’s the same beer as far as I know. But the beer in cans at BevMo, with the name Brew Free or Die! IPA, is made at Cold Springs Brewing, Cold Springs, MN. They’re identical, Shaun says. In fact, they worked long and hard to be sure they’re the same. I haven’t tasted them side by side. To do that, I guess I;d have to go to 21st Amendment. That sounds like a pleasant adventure, doesn’t it. heh. heh.
August 10th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
The recipes are identical at the 21A on 2nd Street and the beer brewed in Cold Spring, Minnesota. I’ve been back to Cold Spring 10 times in the last two months working closely with their brewmaster and changing processes in their brewery to closely mimic the procedures in San Francisco. I love those direct flights to MSP from SFO on Northwest. We have noticed subtle differences in the batches between the two breweries and with the next round of brewing I’ll be making those changes. Any time you ramp up the recipe size to a larger brew system there is always going to be an adjustment period during the beginning brews. Every brewery has dealt with that issue when changing systems and brewing on a newer larger system. Cold Spring Brewery offers us some great economies that we could never achieve doing it on our own The cost of a world class canning line, a laboratory to check every process, every step of the way. Is something Nico and I could never do on our own. It’s really a phenomenal experience and I get to do what I want with the beers.
It’s exciting times at the 21A. The beer has been well received and craft beer is getting it’s due and being put in a great package, the can, which protects it from the environment (light and air) better than bottles, 70% of cans are recycled and they are obviously lighter and more portable.
Thanks for the comment.
Cheers,
Shaun O’Sullivan
Brewmaster/Founder
21st Amendment Brewery
August 10th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I find the Brew Free IPA to have a floral essence suggesting Indian spice — a little clove or cinnamon — whereas the 21A IPA has a crisp dry hoppiness without the spice, with a would guess an overriding citrus rind, which is why I love West Coast-style IPA including 21A. And especially Double Trouble. I bet Cold Springs is using softer water (less gypsum salt) and the same yeast is having it’s own way.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I don’t know about spice. Don’t think anything’s added. It is the same yeast. They adjusted the water. Interesting comments. I’ll ask Shawn. b
August 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Thanks for the comment Shaun.
August 11th, 2008 at 8:47 am
That must be a much different version of the Hop 15 than they bottle. The bottled version is a DIPA at 10% ABV: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13839/31323
August 11th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Just had lunch at The Bistro. if you missed the IPA Fest, be glad to know that many of the unconsumed kegs are rotating onto the taps in the next few days.
The IPA Fest line-up was:
Mad River Jamaica Sunset, 7.0%, 65 IBU
Marin IPA, 7.0, 65
Mendocino White Hawk, ?
Moonlight Bombay by Boat, 5.7, 80
Mount St. Helenda, ?
Moylans IPA, 6.5, 72
Pacific Coast Columbus 7.0, 56
Pizza Port Wipeout, 7.5, 70
Pizza Port El Camino, 7.5
Pizza Port Hop 15, 7.5
Rubicon IPA, ?
Russian River Blind Pig, 6.1, 72
Russian River IPA, 6.5, 62
Santa Cruz Aleworks IPA, 6.5, 85
Schooners IPA, 6.5, 70
Seabright Blur, 7.3, 80
Seabright Beer 3000, 7.0, 71
Shmaltz Coney Island Sword Swallower, 5.5, 70
Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale, 5.9, 46
Sierra Nevada Torpedo, 7.5, 69
Six Rivers IPA, 7.2, 70
Speakeasy Big Daddy, 6.8, 53
Stone IPA, 6.9, 77
Triple Rock IPAX, 6.8, 65
21st Amendment 21A IPA, 7.2, 80
Anchor Liberty, ?
Anderson Valley Hop Ottin, 7.0, 80
Auburn Alehouse Gold Digger, 6.5, 68
Ballast Point Big eye, 7.0, 55
Beach Chalet Presidio, 6.5, 73
Bear Republic Racer 5, 7.2, 85
Bear Republic Rebellion, 6.2, 78
Big Sky IPA, 6.2, 65
Black Diamond IPA, ?
Blue Frog IPA, 7.0, 60
Butte Creek IPA, ?
Deschutes Inversion, 6.8, 80
Drakes IPA, 7.0, 68
Drakes #2, ?
Eel River IPA, ?
EJ Phair Hop on Board, ?
El Toro IPA, ?
Fifty Fifty Rockslide, 7.0, 70
Firehouse IPA, 7.5, 70
Firestone Walker Union Jack, 7.5, 72
Full Sail Prodigal Son, 6.2, 80
Green Flash West Coast, 7.0, 95
Humboldt Nectar IPA, 6.8, 60
Iron Springs JC Flyer, 7.6, 54
Lagunitas IPA, 6.0, 56
Lost Coast Indica, 6.5, 60
Today’s taplist had IPAs from Port (Carlsbad), Port (San Marino), Iron Springs (Fairfax), Green Flash (Vista), Moonlight (Santa Rosa), El Toro (Morgan Hill), and Russian River (as always). No Bud Light, sorry.
June 28th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Please Boycott INDICA IPA beer as they used Lord Ganesha image as label and we are protesting against