Weekend Brews - Week 46 - Holidaze, Freaks and Belgians, Oh My!

Hooray for beer! Weekend Brews Week 46 in full effect yo!

I've got a few tasty beers to tell you about my good readers. Let's get right into it with a west coast holiday beer from the Marin Brewing Company. Ladies and gents let's try a 22oz. bottle of Hoppy Holidaze!

I pour it into my giant mug and it quickly creates a big foamy head that sticks around for awhile. The color is a light copper, and a tiny bit cloudy ... although that could be my glass.

This beer is brewed with pale, wheat, caramalt and Munich malts, and Sterling and Styrian Goldings hops. Wait! There's more! It's a holiday brew, so they threw in some cinnamon, nutmeg, orange peel and vanilla extract. Interesting choices indeed.

There is definitely a strong aroma from the hops ... clean, piney, and that vanilla comes through as well. I'm not detecting anything from the other spices.

The first sip, and there are those holiday flavors. This beer is abundant with vanilla and nutmeg, and finishes with a crisp start and smooth finale. There is definitely some sweetness, but I look for that in a holiday beer with those ingredients. Good stuff. This is clearly not a beer you'd have several of, but certainly a nice winter warmer for the season. Personally I'd like more bitterness from the hops, but whatcha gonna do?

Overall Score for the Marin Brewing Company Hoppy Holidaze: 3.0 out 5.0

Next up is another tasty beverage from the Golden State (Warriors come out and playeeeeyay). Let's get freaky y'all!

It's Le Freak from the Green Flash Brewing Company in San Diego County.

Mmmmm that sounds good. The label describes Le Freak as an, "extreme ale converging San Diego-style imperial pale ale and Belgian-style trippel." Say whaaaaaaat?

San Diego-style? Is this beer brewed by that damn chicken?


Damn you chicken! Sorry, let's talk about the beer ... it looks good. It pours a healthy-looking orange into the glass with a light and lacey foam it wears as a hat purchased from the finest haberdashery.

Scents of orange, lemon, lime and some fresh cut grass crawl up the nostrils (gross!), this has got to be a beer for hopheads such as myself. The first gulp (that's right we're gulping now, sips are for losers!), and a smile creeps slowly across my face.

Oh sweet bitterness. Wait, does that even make sense? It does to me, and you just read it, so there! A fine mixture of bitter with a spectacular dry finish, but don't worry, there's a kiss of sweetness from the malt to make a perfect balance. Pardon me. I just burped and it smelled like a pine forest. Awesome. Thank you Le Freak.

I have two more beer to write about, but honestly, if they can beat this one, I'll be surprised. Aww crap. I guess that's not the best teaser for another post later tonight, huh? Oh well, fuck it. This beer is damn good. It's great! Go get 'em!

Overall score of the Green Flash Brewing Company's Le Freak: 4.75 out of 5.0


Psssssssst! Check back a little later and I'll tell ya about those Belgians I mentioned in the headline.

P.S. Photos this week were from my friend and boss, Jef Loyola. We're working on some ideas for re-designing this blog and making it a whole hell of a lot better. I can't wait.

For now ... Prost!