last weekend AP and I were lucky enough to roll by naja’s place for the second weekend in a row.

• we met up with DP to enjoy a few brews on a beautiful day.
• since I had a few cans of oskar blues’ dale’s pale ale earlier in the weekend (hoppy with a sessionable maltiness – check out this interesting story about the brew), I decided to roll with oskar blues and ordered up an old chub first (on draft!).  it had a balanced malty sweetness that was not cloying, and has a substantial, satisfying mouthfeel.
• I also ordered up an east/west combo – a glass of shipyard’s XXXX IPA (maine) followed by green flash’s west coast IPA (carlsbad, CA).  what can I say, I’m partial to the home team.
• the afternoon came to a celebratory close with a bottle of russian river’s temptation.  tart, funky, and complex with great carbonation and a crisp drinkability, this is one of my favorites.  I grabbed a couple more glasses and passed around some samples to help change some people’s perceptions about how far beer can go (especially in CA!).
• in fact, I was sipping on this brew while I watched the dodgers on TV spraying each other with nothing other than budweiser tall cans after their sweep.  yikes.
• AP and DP both thoroughly enjoyed dogfish head’s punkin ale, my favorite example of the style.  it has subtle spicing that meshes well with brown ale characteristics and doesn’t overwhelm the beer.
• remember to check out naja’s for LA beer week, it should be epic!

I think it’s fair to say that oskar blues‘ gordon is one of my favorite beers.  In fact, I have been buying these little green cans more than any other beer lately.

• funny thing is, I’m not exactly sure of the beer’s style.  oskar blues describes it as “a hybrid version of strong ale, somewhere between an Imperial Red and a Double IPA” that “[w]e make… with six different malts and three types of hops, then dry-hop… with a mutha lode of Amarillo hops.”  works for me.
• this beer has an unbelieveable malt backbone with the perfect sticky hop balance.
• it’s also very smooth, and hides its alcohol well.
• the kicker is that the beer is in cans.  not only is it way easier to pack and more widely accessible as a result, it also protects the beer from light and other harmful elements.  I’m excited to see more breweries doing this.
• my only gripe?  at every festival I have been to as of late, the oskar blues booth (or was it their distributor’s booth?) has been doling out pours of their beers from cans.  don’t get me wrong, I’m still appreciative of their support of such events, but would it hurt to kick out a keg every now and then?
• a little trivia – the beer is named after Gordon Knight, and the hotlink is definitely worth a read.