There’s no shortage of things you can do to prepare for 4/20, like, say, visiting numerous dispensaries and buying copious amounts of deeply discounted cannabis and cannabis products, and then, you know, consuming them Saturday, perhaps in a Mrs. Butterworth’s bong or Cheech & Chong joint. Hey, so long as you consume responsibly and don’t drive afterward, of course. Or you could lounge around on the couch or in the backyard and enjoy drinking beers that are “dank,” a term that means pungent, funky, and odoriferous, to both good weed and very hoppy IPAs. Dank means an extremely overpowering odor that can smell like the citrus and pine flavors everyone loves. Dank beers are ones that can easily fill a room with its odor, just like dank marijuana. After all, beer hops and weed nugs are similar in taste and smell, and the characteristics of a particularly dank, hoppy beer can often be found in a jar of particularly dank, primo weed. Hops and marijuana both contain terpenoids, compounds that give the plants similar characteristics. In fact, both fall into the taxonomic family Cannabaceae, so it follows that you could create a stinky beer with the right treatment of the right hops. Hops don’t get you high, but in smell, taste, and appearance, they often feel just about as … dank. Peaks & Pints presents a 4/20, 420, or 4:20 flight (4/20 is cannabis culture slang for marijuana and hashish consumption, especially smoking around the time 4:20 p.m. on Saturday, April 20) a day early, on Friday, April 19 so you can take a sample test run for Saturday. Stop by Peaks & Pints and Enjoy our in-house flight, Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: 4/20 Prefunc.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: 4/20 Prefunc
Casa Agria Fully Blazed
6.5% ABV
The Casa Agria Specialty Ales story begins in 2014 when homebrewers Eric Ward and Michael Weyandt were looking to create something in short supply in Ventura County, California – barrel-aged wild ales. Opening their Oxnard, California, production space in 2015, their early batches were brewed at The Lab Brewing Company, located in nearby Agoura Hills. They officially opened their taproom in early 2016. Brewed for our eight-year anniversary, Fully Blazed is a double dry hopped version of their far-out flagship West Coast IPA, Full Blaze. Same crisp, clear, and sticky trip with twice the hops. Expect a psychedelic bouquet of wafting cannabis, dark berry, and citrus perfect for all our favorite hop heads.
Sierra Nevada Dank Little Thing
7.5% ABV
Sierra Nevada Brewing rolled up a mix of sticky, floral, and tropical Amarillo, Mosaic, Chinook, and CTZ varieties for that resinous flavor and classic “dank aroma” that can be smelled from a few feet away. When we associate dank with beer, it’s a throwback term that is obviously tied to a bag of potent weed. In that case, this beer is as advertised.
Cellarmaker Captain Terp
8% ABV
Terpenes are naturally occurring hydrocarbon chains found in all organisms. These hydrocarbons are made up of building blocks of five carbon chains known as isoprenes (isoterpenes, C5H8). Terpenes are important in brewing for their role in hops, specifically, but not isolated to, its presence in hop essential oils. Throughout the brewing process many of the natural terpenes that come from the grain, hops, and spices are lost. Brewing with terpenes — typically through dry hopping — can bring back and enhance flavors and aromas in craft beer. Terpenes can emphasize dank and fruit flavors in a way that’s bright, balanced, fresh, and rounded. Cellarmaker Brewing’s Captain Terp is brewed with oats for a nice fluffy, nebulous mouthfeel that compliments the expressive yeast. Add to that an over-the-top hopping of Simcoe, Enigma, Galaxy, Citra, Centennial and Idaho 7 resulting in a robust, juicy ale, an apogee of tropical and bright terpene aromas. Trade in your phaser for a dab rig and get ready to hit warp 3.
Elysian Dank Dust
8.2% ABV
Elysian Brewing’s Dank Dust West Coast IPA oscillates with aromas of lush grapefruit, mango, and orange, backed by an extra herbal, dank and weedy kick for added freshness.
Lagunitas Waldos’ Special Ale
11.3% ABV, 100 IBU
Marijuana folklorists trace the use of “420” as a code for pot smoking to a group of 1970s high school students in San Rafael, Calif., who regularly met at 4:20 p.m. to search for a rumored nearby patch of potent plants. The “Waldos” students received their name because they would hang out around a wall. Every year, around April 20, Lagunitas Brewing honors the Waldos with their own beer: A dank, earthy, herbaceous monster of a triple IPA. There’s no way around this: It smells noticeably like weed, plus pine resin, mangoes, and apricots. The body is full, sweet, and sticky — “the stickiest of the icky,” you might say — and there’s a tidal wave of grapefruit and orangey hops before the warm, bitter finish.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
