Beer Tasting in Eagle Rock

Coffee Table Bistro Lounge in Eagle Rock has a great selection of beers. 16 on tap and 100 in bottles. We went last night to their tasting after Raqui saw a note about it in the LA Times Thursday Weekend guide.

We both agreed that we may have eventually gotten our $15 dollars’ worth, but barely. We had Jeff M from the Wine Warehouse break down all the properties in each of the beers we were drinking. He was what Raqui called the “beer DJ” as he made all of the selections consumed by almost sixty people. 

The pours were inconsistent (we went from sharing 1 bottle of beer to getting the last drops of other beers). They clearly weren’t ready for such a large crowd. The food was scant. We were told munchies were included but instead were haughtily told that the Times had made a mistake. Instead we got a few slices of bread and little Kobe beef hot dog (that looked like a grown up Kielbasa—hey where was the white truffle mustard?!?) The décor was, in Raqui’s words, “tragically gay.” Kinda like romper room for grownups.

Some other cool stuff Mel discovered: found out Hops are related to Cannabis! Same type of “flowering bud” that adds spice and kick to beer is related to that other flowering bud…good to know! 

 

COFFEE TABLE BISTRO LOUNGE TASTING NOTES

1. Victory Prima Pils: Pilsner style (Czech) from Downingtown, PA brewery. M: drier than lager, crisp.        R: satisfying 1^st sip

2. Xingu Black Beer: 5 Brazilian women started this brewery—that makes us want to like it more than we did. Roasted grains for a lager style dark beer; coffee, bitter chocolate flavours. M: it’s a schizophrenic beer! Heavy taste but light mouthfeel. R: classic female hysteria! PMS beer haha not my favorite…it started good but fell flat, no depth. I would buy it though for the Gender Studies program parties from now on though. 

3. New Belgium 1554: from Colorado, same brewery that makes Fat Tire. M: coffee-ish, like a Xingu with a bite. R: I liked it a lot. 

4. Purple Haze: From Abita, 30 miles north of New Orleans. Filtered wheat (chilled) with raspberries added. M: it was okay. I tasted the raspberries. R: I don’t love it. I want to because I love New Orleans so much and fell in love with its Abita Amber, but I don’t. I don’t even like it…but I’ll drink it.

5. Great White: from Eureka, CA’s Lost Coast Brewing Co. Belgian style white ale; wheat spiced with orange and coriander. M: Yummy! Easy drinking. I’d drink more. R: I loved it. Coriander isn’t just for body lotion anymore. I was always curious about it and it’s delicious. I would buy the 6-pack. 

6. Paulaner Hefeweizen: (disclosure: M and R have both come to the conclusion that Hefeweizens are for people who may not be real beer drinkers or who want to drink beer and think they’re being adventurous by drinking a Hef…) Paulaner is from Munich, Germany. All strict with their German purity laws. M: dump cup! I don’t like hefeweizens anyway, and I drank way too much of this in my ‘I don’t drink beer but I wanna be adventurous’ phase back in her early 20s. R:This is not very delish.

7. Stone Levitation Ale: From Stone Brewing in North County San Diego, CA. Amber ale, big hops, pungent flavour. This is about as light a beer as Stone offers. M: I like it. I usually like their Pale Ale, but I like this one better. R: DAYUM!! This beer is the butchest brew in the batch!

8. Mirror Pond: from Deschutes Brewery in Bend, OR. English style pale ale, well balanced. M: I like it a lot! I would totally buy a 6 pack of this stuff. R: I love it! I would gay marry this if that was ever possible (or legal).

9. Orval Trappist: A note on this tasting. We were supposed to sample the Three Philosophers Ale, but alas, they ran out. They didn’t tell us they poured us Orval Trappist instead from the Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, NY. 9.8% alcohol, made by the same people who make Duvel in US (so it’s a Belgian brewery in the US). M: no sweetness, very dry, highly carbonated R: ? (Raqui was pilin’ it up in the dump cup.)

10. Le Merle Saison: Saison means “seasonal.” From North Coast Brewery in Ft. Bragg, CA. Belgian style brewed and stored, refermented in bottle. M: spicy, like a Brother Thelonious Lite. R: OMG! This is crazy! Pretty good-ish.

11. Duvel: Belgian beer brewed in the US. 8.5% alc. Golden ale with very clean ferment, slow yeast, so not as many yeasty byproducts. M: already knew she was a fan of the Duvel, although this particular pour was not very good and flavor was lost. Duvel needs to be poured all the way into a round chalice-like glass and enjoyed with the foamy head, not as a sad lil 2-oz flat fizzy pour. R: eh. 

12. Lindeman’s Kriek Lambic: Belgian sour ale wheat beer. Kriek=cherries. Very fruity and palatable. We tasted this with a brownie. M: yes! I heart this Lambic. R: yummy dessert beer.