Yesterday afternoon, I met up with a couple friends at the Pacific Coast Brewing Company Pub on Washington St. in Oakland. I had never tasted their beers so this seemed like a fine opportunity to try a few beers that were new to me while sharing in good conversation.
To guarantee that my stomach was sufficiently coated to avoid complete incoherence as my beer tasting progressed, I got one of the overpriced hamburgers with fries (unfortunately, pub food in the US is almost always overpriced). Along with the delicious, greasy food, I tried the brewery's Pacific Coast Oak Ale. This is a very mellow reddish ale (I believe the brewery described it as "dark amber") that is brewed with French oak. I am assuming this means that it was brewed over French oak chips since the brewery description mentions nothing about cask conditioning and the oak flavoring is very subtle. This is a malty ale (though not at all heavy on the tongue) with only the slightest hint of hops. The oak mainly seems to serve the purpose of mellowing what might otherwise by excessive maltiness. Still it is a very pleasant beer. If it weren't 7.9% ABV, it would be a very good session beer. Definitely worth a try if you are drinking in downtown Oakland.
My second beer was the Blue Whale Ale (7% ABV). On their web site, they call it an "intense amber ale," but on their menu, they say that it is either an "IPA on steroids" or a "light barleywine." Fortunately (in my opinion), the web site description is the closest. While "IPA on steroids" simply sounds silly to my (especially for a 7% ale, which these days is in the standard range of IPAs), "light barleywine" is like "soft rock" or "smooth jazz", an oxymoron, something that doesn't make sense and shouldn't exist... Fortunately, what I tasted instead was a combination of the best caramelly red ale maltiness balanced with a pleasant IPA hoppiness, not too intense and appropriately emphasizing the bitter over the flowery aspects in a good balance with the sweetness of the malts.
One of my friends didn't want to finish her Leviathon Imperial Stout (10% ABV). It seems she was spoiled by a stout she had drunk at the Beer Revolution (a fine pub about 7 blocks from this one) several months ago... (Ah! the traumas of being connoisseur!) This particular imperial stout was very malty and very chocolaty with nothing else going on. It was tasty enough, but lacked complexity. And in this it was like the Oak Ale with which I started. That ale and this stout were both good enough, but not at all adventurous.
I then continued my explorations in tasteful intoxication with one of the guest beers. The Bison Brewing Company is also a local Bay Area brewer, and I have found their beers pretty consistently good, so when I say "Bison Organic Raisin Cain Dubbel" on the menu, I had to try it. It is a truly delightful Belgian-style Dubbel ale brewed with raisins. The raisins add a charming sharp sweet-tartness to the dubbel ale maltiness, giving this beer just a hint of sour beer flavor, a lovely hint that kisses the tongue, especially as it combines with the most subtle suggestion of chocolate. A fine, fine ale from the Bison brewers.
Wisdom told me that I should either stop drinking or go for something really light on alcohol content. But I have always been a fool, so how could I pass up the Stone Belgo Old Guardian Barleywine (12.1% ABV). But, even though I could have gotten a pint glass of this (California alcohol laws are so much less restrictive than those of Oregon...), I went for the small glass... This is a barleywine brewed with Belgian yeast. It has all the complexity one expects of a barleywine, slightly tart fruitiness combining with chocolates, caramels and hints of molasses and licorice with an overtone of vanilla with I am guessing is thanks to the Belgian yeast. But perhaps what truly makes this an exquisite beer is the Stone Brewery's penchant for heavy hoppiness. In this case, it makes for a thoroughly tasty balance to the complex sweetness of this fine barleywine.
As to the good conversation, that's between me and the friends I met.
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