Kings of Beer

If you’re looking for a bright IPA that smacks of stone fruit, fresh pine cuttings and earthy herbs backed by a layer of toffee-like malts — and, really, who isn’t? — pull up a bar stool. The Hop Concept IPA Mosaic and Eureka (8 percent alcohol by volume) is here.

Since early 2015, the folks at San Marcos’ The Lost Abbey/Port Brewing have experimented with hop-forward ales under The Hop Concept label. (The initials are a none-too-subtle reminder that certain hops taste and smell like the evil weed.)

Experiments sometimes backfire, but this one comes together in a lovely, coherent whole. This week’s King, this IPA from THC, is surprisingly crisp and quaffable for a beer with an elevated alcohol level.

Last week’s King, Belching Beaver’s Peanut Butter Milk Stout (5.3 percent), may be a better choice as the weather cools. But as the Santa Ana winds sear the area, I’m happy to hoist a cold pint that looks like liquid sunshine.


Magnificent 18

Eighteen ways to look at the 18 medals won by San Diego County brewers at last weekend’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver:

1. Karl Strauss is best midsize brewery? About time. The brewery nailed down this honor with four medals — impressive, but only one more than last year’s haul.

2. Of those four medals, three were for beers from the Karl Strauss production brewery in Rose Canyon. One was from the Karl Strauss brewpub in La Jolla.

3. BNS is for real. The Santee brewery and distillery won its first GABF medal last year; this year, it added two more. Once could be luck. Three times? That’s skill, not chance.


4. San Diego is known for its IPAs — except at the GABF. Locals were blanked in the American-Style IPA, English-Style IPA and Imperial IPA categories.

5. Our IPAs fared better when entered in other categories. Contender IPA with Chilis, from Duck Foot, took silver in the Chili Beers category; Alpine HFS, which the brewery considers an American IPA, won bronze in American-Style Strong Pale Ale; and Karl Strauss Mosaic Session IPA, bronze in Session IPA.

6. San Diego may be known for its sunshine, but half of our medals went to dark beers: a brown ale, barley wine, red ale, bock, robust porter, imperial stout, oatmeal stout, coffee beer and an American-style stout.

7. Outside of the 68 medals won by our home state, only two states garnered more medals than San Diego County. They are Colorado (38) …


8. … and Oregon (21).

9. The county reaped as many medals as Missouri (2), New Jersey (2), New York (4) and Texas (10) combined.

10. It’s tough to medal at GABF. Just ask Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Rhode Island. Brewers from those states pulled in a grand total of zero.

11. Another state whose brewers left the Denver competition empty-handed: Vermont, home to artisan operations (Hill Farmstead, The Alchemist) that are the beer media’s current darlings.


12. Second Chance and Pure Project each won medals in their first full year of operation.

13. Pure Project’s medal, a bronze, went to Roes Red, a Flanders-style ale I’d recently panned. Hey, even Tony Gwynn made the occasional flub.

14. Karl Strauss’ Queen of Tarts, gold medalist in the American-style sour ale category, will be poured at the brewery’s Oct. 22 Barrel Royale party.

15. Is it worth noting that three of San Diego County’s biggest breweries — Stone, Green Flash and Ballast Point — received no medals?


16. Also missing from the winners’ circle: Modern Times, one of the area’s most popular brands.

17. Saint Archer, purchased a year ago by MillerCoors, was also shut out.

18. The complete list of GABF winners is at greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/winners.

Best of the week, local

The Pour it Black festival, Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Stone’s Escondido location (1999 Citracado Parkway), features more than 100 dark beers from the U.S., Europe and Japan. Admission, $49, includes a glass and 15 three-ounce pours. Tickets are available online at stonebrewing.com.


Second best of the week, local

If “Pour It Black” sounds overwhelming, Finest Made Ale’s fall festival is a cozier option. Saturday from 2 to 10 p.m. in the brewery’s tasting room, 99662 Prospect Ave. in Santee, the a la carte event will showcase the beers, sodas and seasonal cuisine (sausages, German potato salad, sauerkraut) of brewer/chef Rey Knight.

Words to drink by

WOODY: “How would a beer feel, Mr. Peterson?”

NORM: “Pretty nervous if I was in the room.”

— From the TV series “Cheers”


Did you know …

Held every fall in Denver, the Great American Beer Festival is listed in “1,000 Places to See in United States & Canada Before You Die.”