Tastes of Autumn

Autumn is my favorite season for many reasons, including the excellent seasonal beers offered by many breweries: Oktoberfests, autumn beers, and pumpkin ales. I’ll be reviewing many of these, I hope, in the coming weeks.

Speaking of pumpkin ales, the gold standard for my taste is Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale. However, I’ve sought a six-pack of this liquid nirvana at BevMo, Ralphs, Vons, and Cost Plus with no luck. Has anyone out there found this beer at a San Diego-area store? If so, please leave me a note in the comments.

Coastal Fog IPA

Date: April 23, 2011
Cost: $3.49/22  Oz. bottle at BevMo
Brewer:  Hermitage Brewing Company, San Jose, California
Alcohol content: 5.6%
Served: Cold in chilled glasses

I was in the mood for a West Coast beer, so after mulling over the wide selection at BevMo, I settled on Coastal Fog IPA. This beer is darker than most IPAs I’ve tasted; it was almost an amber ale. I noticed immediately that it had a yeasty taste akin to what you’d experience drinking someone’s first attempt at homebrew. (Well, maybe not that bad.) It was drinkable, but I don’t think I’ll buy it again, not with so many really good IPAs on the market. You can safely skip this one with the assurance that you’re not missing anything.