ahh, lagunitas.

• for my birthday, AP and I managed to score some tickets to the inaugural brewer’s tapas dinner at lagunitas brewing.
• I had been to the beer sanctuary and taproom a little while back, but it was AP’s maiden voyage.  after a lunch full of cask ales and british fare at magnolia, we headed out to petaluma for some more debauchery.
• as anyone who knows me is well aware, I am definitely biased towards lagunitas.  I love their beers, packaging, and overall mentality, and I got a healthy dose of all three at their dinner.
• their five-course tapas/small plate style dinner was tasty and well-prepared, and was accompanied by lagunitas’ deep lineup, including their IPA, imperial stout, hop stoopid, pils, and hairy eyeball.
• during the dinner, brewmaster Jeremy Marshal fielded questions from the crowd, while the rest of the brew staff worked the tables and topped off everyone’s glasses.
• after dinner, everyone headed over to their skybox-style bar overlooking the brewery for some aged brews and beer talk.
• the highlight of the night for me was talking to one of the owners and the brewers while they doled out generous pours of ’06 gnarlywine, ’06 hairy eyeball, ’08 brown shugga, and many others.
• topics of conversation ranged from yeast strains to hop extract to the story behind a little sumpin’ sumpin’, and everyone at the brewery was friendly, well-spoken, and informative.
• I was definitely bummed out when I realized it was time for us to take off, but I was grateful to be a part of this awesome event and was already anticipating my next trip over to the beer sanctuary.  thanks for the great time guys!

after trying a lagunitas’ a little sumpin’ extra! over at rogue a while back, I knew I had to pick up a couple bombers for a rainy day.

• a little sumpin’ extra! is a more intense version of a little sumpin’ sumpin’, which is  classified on beeradvocate as an american pale wheat ale (I would say it’s more like a wheat IPA).
• I guess that makes ALSE a “wheat double IPA.”  whatever you want to call it, it works.
• the beer has a great citrusy hop aroma, a great fluffy head, and finishes smoother than something like, say, hop stoopid (what a surprise!)
• I wouldn’t hesitate to bring a couple of these to enjoy at a BBQ when I knew someone else was driving.
• see a PDF of the flyer for this beer here.

I recently pulled out a bottle of lagunitas’ hop stoopid, a double IPA, while cooking up some BBQ.

• this was originally called “sonoma farmhouse” hop stoopid, which confused me when I first saw it a year or two ago.
• I kept passing this bottle by until I got into a discussion with an employee at a bevmo in LA who swore to me that hop stoopid and avery’s maharaja (one of my all-time favorites) were one and the same and that I should switch to hop stoopid for financial reasons (it is a couple bucks cheaper).
• although the brews are somewhat different, hop stoopid is amazing in its own right.  it has an intense hop aroma that puts a smile on your face and enough malt (@8% abv) to keep the hop bitterness in check.
• I wish I would have started picking this up earlier, since it’s price point beats out many inferior double IPAs (it’s less than $5 for a bomber, and surprisingly, many local liquor stores around here carry it).
• I also just read that lagunitas uses hop extracts in this batch??  interesting, that’s probably how they get it up to 102 IBU on a reasonable budget, but I’m not sure how excited I am about hop extract use.  hell, it tastes great, they must be doing something right.