BELCHING BEAVER BREWERY ¡VIVA LA BEAVER! MEXICAN CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER STOUT - a review

by Daver, I guess

Here's something you should know about San Diego, they are fond of the Mexican chocolate. You'll find it at every coffee shop, which is something else I deeply miss about San Diego. At home, I have to buy my own supply to add to my morning java. Or would, if I remembered to look for Mexican chocolate. Belching Beaver Brewery remembered, and made a variant of their Peanut Butter Milk Stout with Mexican chocolate. Behold, ¡Viva La Beaver! Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout!

The can's label reads, "Viva La Beaver is loaded with notes of creamy peanut butter, cinnamon and coffee. The decadent milk stout is the perfect dessert beer to finish off your meal, and is our highest rated beer, receiving Gold and Silver medals. Sink your teeth into this liquid chocolate treat. Cheers, Tom."

To elaborate, the awards Viva La Beaver earned included 2nd Place at the California State Fair's beer competition in 2016, and gold medals at San Diego International Beer Competition for 2016, 2018, and 2019. They were well-earned.

As with the Peanut Butter Milk Stout, I'm using my curvy Yazoo Brewing glass for tasting. When pouring, the head is this velvety smooth film that just lives on top of a pitch black body. The foam doesn't fade, it doesn't move, it just sits there, patiently, for me to lift this glass to my lips. The bouquet is much more subdued, mild notes of cocoa and condensed milk and vanilla wafting your nose. Chocolate and cinnamon dominate the flavor, with hints of peanut butter and graham cracker all throughout. It's quite like drinking a peanut butter cup, or a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie. They're not kidding when they call this a dessert beer. There's a syrup-y vanilla note at the very end, but when you drink from a glass there's this delightful warm tingle as it goes down the throat. That warmth is the 7.5% ABV announcing it has entered the building. Strangely, it's just not there when you drink it straight from the can. But the coffee notes are much more pronounced out of the can.

It's funny how the drinking method changes the experience for certain beverages. Wine afficionados will know what I'm talking about, the flavor, the aroma, the whole package can change whether you're drinking from one glass shape or another, or just straight from the bottle. It's special when you can get a different, but no less satisfying, result from the can and the pint glass. This is a beer I would happily keep stocked in my beer fridge, even though the ABV would be a powerful reason not to drink this so casually. Drink this brew responsibly, or it'll knock you on your ass. It's a little harder to find than a Bud Light, but if I see it I grab a four pack. Try it, you'll understand as well.

BELCHING BEAVER BREWERY PEANUT BUTTER MILK STOUT - a review

by Daver?!

I love the Arizona craft beer scene, but by no means am I limiting reviews to Arizona beers. California's got some terrific breweries their own selves. Belching Beaver Brewery, out of San Diego, has some terrific beers on tap at their locations in California. Fortunately for me, they also have four-packs and six-packs for sale all over the West Coast and parts of the Midwest. Happily, Arizona is in their range, so I can get to try them without making the long drive to San Diego. There's plenty of reasons to go to San Diego already, the beaches are gorgeous and the water so blue and calming, plus if it's convention season there's the comic convention, and there's this one place for street tacos called Tacos El Gordo... where was I. Right, sorry, Belching Beaver's Peanut Butter Milk Stout.

Every can has this little disclaimer on the side. "America's favorite peanut butter milk stout: Troy came up with the idea of combining peanut butter with our Beavers Milk Stout and he nailed it. Don't let the dark color fool you, this beer is delightfully easy to drink, with cascading aromas of roasted peanuts, dark chocolate and coffee. Good times to you my friend, and welcome to the Beaver family! Cheers - Tom."

Tom's right, Troy did a solid for the beer drinking population of America. This is a

delicious brew, be it in cans or on draft. Once again, using my curvy Yazoo Brewery pint glass for the tasting because, hell yeah I can. On first pour, the bouquet is a rich blend of, well, exactly what it says on the can. Notes of cocoa, milk, sugar, and peanuts entice the nose to lean closer to the contents of the pint glass. The thing to note, I smelled the individual ingredients of dark chocolate and peanut butter rather than the dark chocolate and peanut butter. Those flavors were reserved for a meet and greet to the tongue. The body was a thick, rich deep dark brown, and the head was a luxuriant latte colored foam like a fresh cheesecake. It's creamy on the tongue, but also a little grainy. The taste of peanut butter is spread over your tongue, with dark chocolate popping up all throughout like sparks. It finishes smooth and creamy.

I'll tell you, if one were inclined to drink beer for breakfast, a pint of this Milk Stout would greet me at the kitchen table. Disclaimer - do not drink beer for breakfast. This stout is a lot like grabbing a cold bottled cappuccino, only not as sweet and twice as rich. At 5.3% ABV it's easily a beer that could be casually imbibed, provided you drink responsibly of course. The flavors will not turn off most beer drinkers, and the IBU may as well be in negative numbers. Personally, while I definitely enjoyed it, it's a little too rich for casual drinking. Fact is that I'd keep this on hand for occasions more special than watching the Netflix. Give it a shot, I think you'll be glad you did.

DARK SKY BREWING CO. S.E.T.I. #1 EXPERIMENTAL HAZY IPA - a review

by Daver?

What happens when you take my favorite local craft brewary, discover they have a new hazy IPA, and that it was canned and shipped to a store a mile away? Damn right that I'll put a four pack in my beer fridge!

I'm not the most well-educated on the various strains of hops, so when the label exclaims that S.E.T.I. #1 is dryhopped with El Dorado and HBC431 hops, I have to judge whether those are good ingredients the old fashioned way. Once again, I'm tasting this with my Yazoo Brewing pint glass. It's really good as an all-purpose pint glass for getting the most out of the drink experience.

To the nose, there is a rich zesty grapefruit aroma that masks a bitter hoppiness. The body is an opaque, dark yellow. It's not a appetizing color, but you can't get freaked out by the way it looks. Don't judge a book by its cover, it's got so much you should see by the light of day, but by night it's one beer you can savor...  forgive the ersatz cult movie appropriation, some things can't be helped without stronger meds, but I digress. If poured slowly, the head is quick to dissipate, but the foam clings in a ring along the edges of the glass and leaves lacy patterns as it slides down. In fact, as you drink and the level lowers, the foam looks almost like Sanskrit, but that might be the ABV talking. At 7% ABV, a pint of S.E.T.I. #1 must be drank responsibly. But anyway, if you pour it quickly, the head is a little thicker, and it holds together much longer like a paper seal to pull off of the brew, and the foam clinging to the glass is like a shower curtain instead of lace. To the tongue, there's a highly refreshing surge of citrus essence, like pink grapefruit and blood orange notes, with a biting sweetness lying low. Unlike most other IPAs, with its 30 IBU, there's little hops bitterness at the end. No, S.E.T.I. #1 has a shockingly clean finish with a slightly sweet aftertaste.

I'll be upfront here, I think Dark Sky's experiment was a resounding success. I hope this hazy stays in their regular rotation, because it's a relaxing, refreshing summertime brew that I could drink all year round. For now, I hope it's still in production for a little longer because I've already finished my four pack for this review.

DARK SKY BREWING CO. MERCURY RETROGRADE SOUR - a review

by Daver?

One of my favorite local breweries, if not THE favorite, is this Flagstaff brewery,

Dark Sky Brewing Co. It's a couple hours' drive from me so it's an uncommon treat to enjoy one of their brews. That's a tragedy. Dark Sky's only been open since 2014, but they have an impressive array of brews on tap, regularly rotating and always interesting. 

Thankfully, they've been offering a select few of their brews in four-packs with limited distribution outside of Flagstaff. I can get a four-pack or two to enjoy while we're all sheltering inside, if I'm fast enough on the draw. Dark Sky beers tend to sell out pretty quickly south of their brewery.

But, luck and Untappd alerts were on my side, I was able to get a couple of their new brews to try. Today we have Dark Sky's Mercury Retrograde Sour, for serving I am pouring into my Yazoo Brewing pint glass. That glass is good for what ales me!

Anyway. The bouquet is cool and tangy, berry bountiful with the essence of raspberries and a tingly zestiness. Pouring slowly, you get hardly any foam at the top, at most the ring along the glass edges. Pouring too fast, and you get... also hardly any foam. Any way you pour, you get just a thin amount of pinkish red bubbles, forming a ring along the glass that sticks around longer than the foam on top of the beer. The body is a deep magenta, thick and opaque. If it sits still, you could mistake it for gelatine instead of a drink, it's so deep. The strawberry flavor is sneaky, you get notes of it as well as subtle bursts of sweetness at the beginning of your drink, especially if you let it linger on your tongue for a bit.  The strawberry really announces itself as it reaches the back of the mouth. The raspberries, on the other hand, are prevalent from start to finish, though not overwhelming. They're more the flavor vehicle, carrying the other essences along from the lips to the throat. The raspberry gives it a tingly mouthfeel, and overall you get this mildly bitter aftertaste like an orange zest, with an oddly warm sensation after swallowing. It's weird, I know, but it's quite interesting to get that much sensory stimulation.

I wouldn't say it's refreshing, it's certainly not clean or crisp like most warm weather brews. In fact, it's a little messy, but like a Jackson Pollock painting.  As sours go, it's easy to drink. At 4% ABV it's easier to drink responsibly with a pint of this, and an IBU of 3 means it won't bite back.  This brew has lots of flavor to attract a casual drinker. It would be well received cold, sitting around a campfire at night. Quite satisfying, I'm glad I picked it up, and you would be too.

HUSS BREWING CO. HOPALOOSA HAZY IPA - a review

by Daver?

I like IPAs. Not many of my friends like IPAs, but I do. First time I tried one, it was just so different than anything else I'd drank. The novelty, and the higher ABV, was endearing. When the most interesting beer you've tried before was a Michelob Amber Bach, the hoppy kick of an IPA was like a wake-up call. But after a while, it seems like every brewery producing IPAs tries to one-up each other with more and more hops. It gets to the point where every IPA tastes like I'm chewing Christmas tree bark soaked in Pine-Sol, and that's no fun regardless how strong the alcohol.

And then came the hazy IPAs, and all was well again. Cloudy as a heifeweisen, fruity as sours but minus their bitterness, and with the hoppiness muted into an easy drinking, satisfying brew. I think they're fun to drink, much more fun than regular IPAs. When one of my favorite local breweries starts producing hazies then I have to give it a go. Huss Brewing Company has its Hopaloosa Hazy IPA, on tap and in cans for home consumption during quarantine.

The can description reads, "our version of the hazy style IPA is double dry hopped with Falconer's Flight, Amarillo, and Citra hops. These hops bring aromatics of orange, tangerine, and pineapple accompanied by flavors of tangerine, grapefruit, guava, and pineapple! This delicious Hazy IPA is named for the strength, pride and majesty of the Native American Appaloosa horse." There's certainly a lot of citrus to this beer, both to the nose and tongue. For optimal tasting, I'll serve this in my Yazoo Brewery pint glass.

If poured right, you'll see a fast-fading thin foam head, resting on a cloudy yellow body. Pour it too fast, the head is much thicker and longer-lasting. The foam doesn't so much cling to the glass as it oozes with purpose down the side. The bouquet, yes, there is certainly orange notes as well as a zesty tingle reaching the nose, and also that deep woods pine aroma that can only come from a generous infusion of hops.  The thing to remember about hazies, is that the hoppy bitterness isn't so predominant on the tongue. In fact, with an IBU of 30, the bite is muzzled by a blend of, to me, tangelo and grapefruit notes. It has a crisp finish, though it's not so clean, and a little heavy at the back with an overall mouthfeel like a lager.

Hazy IPAs are just so much easier to drink than the standard India Pale Ale, and the broader flavor palette is inviting and refreshing. The ABV of 6.6% means it's not as strong as most IPAs, but has a little more kick than other summertime beers so it's essential to drink the Hopaloosa responsibly. You don't have to like IPAs to enjoy a hazy, and Huss Brewing made a highly enjoyable hazy just in time for summer. The Hopaloosa would easily be one of my go-to beers in the beverage aisle or on tap, that is if it's ever safe to go back out and have a beer on tap anyway. Give this a try if you're ever curious about the hazies.