The Spring Beer Tourey: # 3 SA Noble Pils vs Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball

      From the Farms, Hops and Reds Region we have two of the hops. # 3 seed  Sam Adam's Noble Pils against the # 6 seed Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball.  Pils pours out a clear gold with a citrus, herb, floral hop nose with a touch of caramel.  Hairy pours out a reddish brown with prune, floral mocha and caramel.  As I thought last year Noble Pils is a perfect beer to teach people about hop flavors.  You can distinctly taste citrus, herb , floral and other hop notes.  That being said the hop notes are about it besides some background caramels.  And it's a tad bitter on the finish.  Hairy has way more IBU's than Pils, but much less hop dominance.  This has big rich flavors of dried fruit, mocha, caramel, jam and a bit of smoky tang.  I'm not sure what it is but it's good. Noble Pils is a good fresh citrus herb refreshing beer, nice.  But not as nice as The Hairy Eyeball.  Hairy is a big winner her and worth a try.  Drink it up ,Yum.

Lagunitas Gnarleywine

      Lagunitas seems to be one of the only Breweries that make massively hopped beers that are also perfectly balanced.  It's amazing how few others can pull this off.  They are turning in to one of my favorite breweries.  Gnarleywine pours out a red orange thicker than oil.  The nose has strong herb, raisin, caramel, citrus and spice. Wow, that's some strong stuff.  It has gigantic hop flavors,  really huge herbal citrus.  But wait,  there's also tons of other yummy flavors.  That classic mix of dried fruit flavors, big caramels, spice, and your herb and citrus.  Very tasty and the body on this is titanic.  Add in the nice 10.6%ABV,  and you've managed to balance out that cascade of hop,  a whopping 75 IBU's.  Full Sail managed to completely ruin Bump in the Night which much less hop.  Once again Lagunitas has made another really good beer, well worth trying and cellaring.  Well played.

Lagunitas Pils

      Lagunitas brings us a Czech style Pilsner, Pils.  I like Lagunitas, they are the only ones who seem to make staggeringly hopped beers that achieve perfect balance.  Pils has sweet caramel on the nose and pours out a clear medium gold.  Wow, Pils is nice and crisp with very nice caramels, and great mild herb and citrus hop flavor.  Also notable is the 6.2 % ABV,  which gives it a nice presence in the mouth.  This is a really nice beer that I think would drub any actual Czech Beers.  Which would be a good idea,  American VS Czech.  Maybe I'll do that after the Spring Tourney.

Lagunitas Brown Shugga

      Lagunitas brings us their Winter seasonal that's apparently made with brown sugar.  It pours a light brown with a very sweet caramel, herb and sugar nose.  The flavor is pretty unique, it has a powerful rush of sweet herb, that becomes a sugar, herb, raisin flavor.  Somehow, the brown sugar mixes very well with the giant herbal hop.  If not for this odd blending, I would find this insanely over hopped.  But it all works producing a pretty flavorful beer with great body and a generous 9.9 ABV.  I'm not sure this is for everyone, but you need to try it at least once.  I like it, I will get it again, and it's on the nice list.

Lagunitas Lucky 13

      For my 100th post I was looking for something interesting to try.  Lucky 13 seemed to fit the bill.  My first child was born on the 13th and I've always seen it as a lucky number.  It also has 8.3% ABV which I also consider lucky.  Lucky pours out a very orange clear amber and has a pleasant strong herbal hop nose.  There's some caramel and citrus under there as well.  There be some monster hop here.  There's a strong hop presence forward, getting stronger, than opening up a bit to reveal the malts, herb and citrus.  The hop on the finish builds as well, and gets really strong.  Wow, that dumps a lot of bitter in the back of the mouth.  However, the high alcohol really comes through giving it a nice mouth feel.  I like this despite it's massive hops and it does tone down a bit as you drink it.  This one is rescued by the big alcohol and nice body which offset the hops.  Leaving you with a good overall drinking experience.                                                                                      

Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale

This interestingly named ale is from the Lagunitas Brewing Company outside of San Francisco California. It pours out a clear amber and has a strong hop bitter nose with a sweet raisin scent. Boy the flavor is stronger than the scent. There's big hops, very strong in the middle, and again on the back end. Also we have raisin and caramels, and some herbal flavors. This is really strong on the hop, but there is other strong flavors as well as alcohol, 9.8% ABV. So there is some balance here. This is a nice beer. I like it despite it's massive hop, and I will get this again. Boy, five minutes after I finished this stuff and my mouth is still awash in hops. Give one a try. Just one.