You float in a sun-warmed, peanut-shaped tile pool, watching the breeze flip the palm fronds against a turquoise Southern California sky, sipping a midday India Pale Ale. Rippling reflections of the afternoon sun on the water cast themselves against the six-foot-tall prickly pear, oak-planked door and the adobe-arched wall above it. Chimes sound; doves coo. Fantastic landscape scenes full of cliffs, ocean vistas, coves, rolling hills and deep canyons comes to life from San Diego, just north of the Mexican border, cross the bay to the resort city Coronado, up the coast to Los Angeles, home to Hollywood studios, fine art in the Getty Center, Griffith Park and the high-end shops of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. That’s all fine and dandy, but Southern California is also home to 234 craft breweries with many dubbed best in the nation. We picked a beer from five of them for today’s beer flight: Craft Beer Crosscut 9.10.17: A Flight of Southern California.
Black Market 1945
3.8% ABV, 6 IBU
Black Market Brewing’s take on Berliner weisse, 1945, is the perfect name for a style of beer that shares its name with the German capital. The bottle artwork depicts bombers flying over postwar Berlin, and dropping crates of supplies with the Temecula brewery’s initials stamped on the side. Weird? Yes. But, when 1945 first hits the glass, the tart citrus on the nose eliminates any thoughts of supply drops in a war zone. The flavor profile mirrors the aroma with lots of tart lemony flavor, and a sour note from the lactic acid that lingers in your throat after you swallow.
Telegraph Obscura Vulpine
5.9% ABV
Obscura is Latin for “shadowy, indistinct” and is the term used for Telegraph Brewing’s rarest offerings and most experimental beers. These highly sought-after barrel-aged and wild-fermented beers compose the Santa Barbara brewery’s Obscura line and have received some of the highest accolades in the beer industry. Obscura Vulpine (meaning “like a fox”) is a sour red ale aged in Foxen Vineyards Pinot Noir barrels until it is ripe with black cherry and oak aromas that are rounded out by a touch of wine tannin in the finish.
Cismontane Black’s Dawn
8.5% ABV, 50 IBU
Longtime friends Evan Weinberg and Ross Stewart in the beautiful mountainside town of Rancho Santa Margarita, California, founded Cismontane Brewing Co. in 2009. Named after the famous San Diego surfing session Black’s Beach, Cismontane’s Black’s Dawn big roasted malt coffee imperial stout is made with Green Earth-roasted fair-trade beans, brown sugar and oats. Chocolate and licorice hints bolster roasted malts, toast and espresso, while hazelnut adds luscious depth. In the back, roasted malt bitterness takes over, lending a slightly ashy finish to this complex beer.
Stone Delicious IPA
7.7% ABV, 80 IBU
Stone Brewing’s Delicious IPA features Lemondrop and El Dorado hops that showcase vibrant citrus flavors, and is notable for what the Escondido brewers have removed from the brew: much of the gluten. An enzymatic process developed by White Labs (producers of myriad yeast strains used by craft brewers) breaks down the gluten proteins, and the results is a nearly gluten-free beer that avoids the pitfalls (like the off-putting mouthfeel) often seen in gluten-free brews. But the reduced gluten levels are not the defining feature of Delicious IPA. Living up to the name, the IPA demonstrates a terrific volume of complex hop flavors. With a curiously light yet still tongue-coating body, each sip explodes with flavor — lemon zest, lemongrass, Lemon Pledge — before the bitter bite cascades across the palate, where it lingers stubbornly but never becomes acrid.
Port Brewing Hop-15 Ale
11% ABV, 182 IBU
First brewed in 2002 to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Pizza Port in Solana Beach, California, Port Brewing‘s Hop 15 was imagined and designed by Tomme Arthur and Jeff Bagby. The two brewers dumped 15 different hop varieties to the beer every 15 minutes for an award-winning double IPA with a huge hop flavor of tropical and stone fruits. Bolstered by a spicy hop finish, this Hop 15 offers orange marmalade and ripe mango with pine and pepper and resin, providing a thorough tour through Hopville without allowing any element to dominate.
