Stopping in at City Beer Store

Earlier today, I stopped at City Beer Store, my regular store and bar rolled into one, and indulged in a few of their draft selections.  Stillwater's Cellar Door, Bush/Scaldis Pêche Mel and Drake's Hopocalypse all pitched in to slake my thirst on this hellishly hot (for San Francisco) day.  A bottle of Fantôme Black Ghost made for a nice purchase (I always feel terribly fancy when I buy Fantôme).

The beers were a mixed bag.  Cellar Door was my favorite by a longshot.  It's a saison from the new American "gypsy brewer" Brian Strumke (he was featured on NPR).  He recently announced the beer's release year-round in bottles and kegs - link - so, hopefully, it will see a lot more of the country, soon.  Stillwater's Stateside Saison was also quite good.  While Stateside was made with relatively aggressive American hop aromas as its twist, Cellar Door uses white sage and lighter but still interesting hopping.  The yeast notes are similarly dry and earthy with a mild barnyard smell.  It tastes of fresh wheat and herbs.  The sage adds a nice complexity to the aroma without overpowering things.  The hops come through with a bit of that wonderful sweet citrus flavor of Citra hops.  The beer is light to medium dry and very refreshing.  I look forward to seeing more beers from Stillwater/Strumke.

On the other hand, I definitely do not look forward to seeing more Pêche Mel in the future.  It was too sweet for me with a somewhat unfortunate fruit flavor.  It's from Dubuisson, under the Bush name, aka Scaldis (their court-ordered American alias - god knows the Busch brand would be ruined if they were allowed to coexist) and is a blend of their quad, a solid enough strong Belgian and a peach lambic.  It's somewhat cloying, and the peaches taste sorta artificial and off.  There are also an earthy, spicy Belgian quality around, but the peach flavor mostly drowns it out.  That said, I didn't hate the beer, and, if you can get past the sweetness, it's probably not all that bad.

Finally, Hopocalypse was a tad disappointing but otherwise good.  I'm a fan of Drake's.  They're just across the Bay and seem like a nice bunch.  Plus, they make some excellent beers.  Their imperial stout was one of the first beers I tried of the style, 1500 is very satisfying, basically a light IPA with a full strength hop aroma, and the newly bottled Denogginizer is a great East Coast-leaning DIPA, sweeter than normal for around here with lots and lots of hops.  They also make a few keg-only (D)IPAs that have been mostly excellent so far.  So, I was primed with high expectations.  This beer really pours on the grapefruit rind hop flavor in aroma and taste.  It seemed a bit raw, almost.  I like big, bitter DIPAs quite a bit, and this beer was good.  However, some of the more delicate hop notes seemed to get lost in the wash of bitterness.  The mouthfeel was verging on harsh but didn't quite cross that line.  I enjoyed the beer, but it's not something I'd want every day.