This Friday’s crawl again started with Bier:Thirty…and again with a few leftovers from the previous day’s take-over. It was Firestone Walker this time, and first up was the new Luponic Distortion #5. From Firestone’s website this series is “…an ever-evolving mix of experimental hops, designed to deliver mind-blowing flavors that break the rules with each new release”. This IPA was terrific. Light soft matiness and tons of fresh citrus and tropical hop flavors. I don’t recall liking the previous 4 iterations of this series as much as this one, though FW is becoming one of my favorite regional brewers. I really need to pay them a visit. “Fortem” was the other Firestone beer there, that I had not tried before and it was not as good. A “double” or “Imperial” IPA it was, and just barely. Just lacked the fresh punch of a good IPA, double or no.
Whole Foods had a couple that were new to me, Double Mountain’s “Sweet Jane” IPA was OK but many of their others, I’ve liked better. Lagunitas Fusion 39 – Pale Wheat was good. The wheat malts smoothed it out and the decent fresh hop bite made for a nice balance. This is only the 4th of their (evidently) 39 editions of this series that I’ve had. The batches must be pretty small and distribution of them necessarily limited.
10 Barrel was my next stop, and the new Grapefruit Gose they had on tap was neither tart, nor salty nor grapefruity…but other than that it was very mediocre. It was 6.50 for a snifter though….so it had that going for it. As it turned out, it is my lowest rated beer from 10B. Ever. A distant second is “Mr Duck” a very forgettable saison from a year and a half ago. Their Honey BarleyWine had blown earlier that day apparently, but the “Aimsir Stout” was good. Very prominent dark roast, cold campfire and bitter chocolate with a light and dry feel. Nice dry “Irish” stout. The Code 24 was a pale ale that they claim to have ben making since 2006. Never heard of it, but I’m glad I tried it. Great bold grapefruit citrus aromas and flavors.
PreFunk was my last stop and I spotted a beer called “Cruel Beauty” by Heretic Brewing. A strange dark beer that had some sour notes almost like grape jelly. Interesting but bizarre. Even though there were 40+ taps here, I didn’t see anything that I didn’t recognize.
Payette Brewing was my last stop, this afternoon and I spotted a couple of new beers that needed to be tried. The Witbier was light and…well…witty… as it should be. The “Dortmunder” was pale, soft and malty like a good German Lager should be. So, predictable and good, if not exciting here at Payette. Come to think of it, kind of like most of Payette’s beers. The new experimental IPA JS-02 is a nice combination of somewhat woody toasted malts and a big in-your-face piney hop flavor. Payette is becoming the swinging stick in Boise. Big production, regional distribution, good (though not very risky) beer and a great new taproom. If they go public soon…buy!
Cheers !
