It’s Friday night and time for another beer tasting! This week, my wife and I sit down and taste two beers each from Pizza Port Brewing Company in Solana Beach, California and Liquid Gravity Brewing Company in San Luis Obispo, California!
So, please, go get your favorite beverage, sit down, kick back and enjoy as we do our tasting!
Our first two beers are from Pizza Port Brewing and we’re starting with…
BEER: Ponto (Session IPA)
ABV: 4.5%
MATT: 3.5/5
DANIELLE: 3/5
LOOK: Light gold and slightly hazy
SCENT: Wheat, citrus, pine
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Slightly thick mouthfeel with not a whole lot of flavor. Crisp and refreshing but bitter and dry going down.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This was a surprising start to the tasting. Usually, in our experience, when we taste a beer with a 4.5% ABV, we end up with something accessible and crushable. This is not the case with Ponto. It lacks flavor, turns up the bitterness to 6% ABV levels, and goes down extremely dry. That isn’t to say it isn’t crisp and refreshing but it doesn’t really have much to offer past the bitterness.
BEER: Swami’s IPA
ABV: 6.8%
MATT: 3/5 (changed from recording)
DANIELLE: 3/5
LOOK: Gold and slightly hazy
SCENT: Citrus, some tropical fruit
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Slightly thick mouthfeel but about the same as the last beer. There’s no real way to differentiate this one from the last. Both are bitter and dry going down.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: Another slightly disappointing flavor in that the bitterness and emphasis on hops sort of overrules anything else the beer has to offer. It promises sweeter flavor for the drinker but cannot seem to deliver.
And, now, onto Liquid Gravity…
BEER: IPA (West Coast IPA)
ABV: 7%
MATT: 3.75/5 (changed from recording)
DANIELLE: 3.5/5
LOOK: Gold and slightly hazy
SCENT: Citrus, pine, tropical fruit
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Slightly thick mouthfeel and a nice mosaic flavor with only a hint of bitter.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This is less aggressive than the last two beers we tasted. The problem is that the Mosaic Hops they use in this beer don’t produce a large amount of up front flavor and is relegated to the back end. There’s more citrus than tropical notes. Still, this is an improvement on the last couple beers we tasted and goes down pretty easy.
BEER: Miami Heist (Double IPA)
ABV: 8%
MATT: 4.25/5 (changed from recording)
DANIELLE: 4.25/5
LOOK: Gold and so hazy, you can’t see through it
SCENT: Citrus, pineapple, sweet cream
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Thick mouthfeel. Very sweet like a tropical drink topped with whipped cream.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: Lots of character and lots of flavor. This is like having a Pina Colada in beer form. The whipped cream flavor is on the back end with the fruit up front. This beer is the best of the bunch and makes Liquid Gravity the clear winner in this “contest”.
FINAL THOUGHTS: A tasting which was mostly ordinary to begin ends on a high note with two very balanced IPA’s from San Luis Obispo. “Miami Heist” turns out to be the best of the bunch, with a beautiful, complex tropical pallete.
HEAR OUR FINAL THOUGHTS!:
NEXT WEEK: We review Firestone’s latest variety pack! See you next week!