Basic City Beer - "Bask" IPA

I'm in Charlottesville, VA, this weekend attending a professional conference, so of course I will need to examine the local beer offerings. My Amtrak train out of Washington was significantly delayed on Thursday due to a Norfolk Southern freight train breaking in half (!) outside Culpeper, so by the time I actually arrived, my options were limited. Luckily I landed at the Mellow Mushroom, a celebrated local pizza joint, where I ordered some wings and grabbed a local beer - a 7.60% ABV India Pale Ale from Waynesboro, VA-based Basic City Beer. 

Beer doesn't have to be experimental or funky to be good. This IPA, called "Bask", has a lot of that classic, West Coast IPA flavor...a brassy, medium-bodied beer with a good mixture of sweetness (mostly on the finish) and bitterness (throughout the beer). What I really like about this is that it's supremely drinkable - not a lot of harsh bitterness which crops up in some West Coast IPAs. It also doesn't taste like it's 7.60% ABV, either. Definitely more on the session end of IPAs, and in fact, this would be a good choice for someone looking to get classic IPA flavor without a lot of bitterness. It also paired nicely with Thai chili wings, as the hop bitterness balances out the spiciness of the wings. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more beers by Basic City in the future!

Rare Barrel / The Bruery - tap takeover at Churchkey

Last week, Churchkey did a spotlight on beers from Berkeley, CA- based The Rare Barrel, a brewery focusing on sour beers. They've done some collaboration work with The Bruery, and with other breweries, so the tap takeover was pretty diverse. Of course I had to check it out!

They had ten beers on draft, only three of which I was able to try. Most of them were quite similar - light sours hovering around the 6.00% ABV mark. The ones I tried were:

• "Sourtooth Tiger", a sour aged in oak barrels and rested on ginger.
• "Entanglement 2018", a blond sour ale aged in oak barrels conditioned with orange and vanilla
• "One Blend Terreux Them All", a sour blond ale aged 1 - 3 years in oak. Collaboration with Beachwood, Highland Park, Modern Times, Monkish, Good Beer, and Phantom Carriage.

Each of the above beers was 6.00% ABV and 48 degrees Plato. Going down the line:

"Sourtooth Tiger" has a great aroma to it - like raw ginger, strong and sharp. And wow, super tasty. It's light, which is fine, and and has some nice oaky notes which show off that barrel aging well. Interestingly, the ginger isn't as evident on the taste as it is on the nose, although there is a spike of somewhat-acidic ginger just as you swallow the beer.

"Entanglement" has a much lighter nose, and harder to detect anything besides a bit of milky sugar. In terms of flavor, there's a strong, unmistakable Creamsicle vibe, which is cool. Not super sour, but smooth and soft. Despite the flavor, it's not creamy at all, nor is it as sweet as a Creamsicle could be. So unlike some beers by Decadent or Crooked Run, which do a good job essentially emulating certain drinks / flavors, this has Creamsicle notes rather than actually trying to be one.

"One Blend..." is very woody and very sour! Much closer to your traditional barrel-aged sour ale than all the others. Some vegetal notes, but mostly just that long, lingering, Atomic Warhead candy-style sour. The sourness lingers for a long time after swallowing. Tasty, but not particularly adventurous beyond what it is.

Sourtooth Tiger was my favorite, I think. Ginger is a great addition to beer and adds a nice zing which works well in sours. The Creamsicle was tasty but a bit too light for me, and the One Blend... was great as a traditional oak-aged sour but not really my speed, especially given the last two. I think my only gripe - and the reason I only tried three - is 4oz pours were $7 a piece. But still a fun adventure!

Chateau Lafon-Rochet - 2009 Bordeaux [France]

Had a sip of this at a wine tasting at Trader Joe's, and figured I'd write a little bit about. It's Chateau Lafon-Rochet's 2009 Bordeaux. The term "Bordeaux" is a catch-all for any wine blend from the Bordeaux region of France, as you might expect. There are many varieties: both red Bordeaux and white Bordeaux exist, although red is most common, with a variety of grape blends. Today's is red, as you can see, and is from the Saint-Estèphe AOC located in the Médoc subregion. This wine is a blend of:

• 67% Cabernet Sauvignon
• 27% Merlot
• 5% Petit Verdot
• 1% Cabernet Franc

Like much of the world's classified wine (that is, wine that is made under strict purity / technical laws), Bordeaux wines may only be made of certain grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Carménère (although that grape is much less common today.) You all know my thoughts on blends with minute quantities of mixing varietals (like Cabernet Franc in this instance, the amount of which totals a few teaspoons and thus seems pointless) so let's see how this plays out. I only had a small sample to try, but my initial reaction was that it was almost too light - there were some light floral flavors (think rose water) with a few hints of oak and some red fruit. Of course, it is ten years old, so naturally one would expect the flavors to be softer, but here they're almost too faded. Not much on the finish, either, but has a tiny tinge of alcohol ester on the aftertaste.

This bottles retails for $43.99, so quite expensive and rather steep in my opinion for what you get. Still cool to try it though - I think most of the Bordeaux I've had is your run-of-the-mill stuff you get in the store for $15.