Such a long time, and for what? For a story of breweries and beers that deserve our attention? Always worth a wait!
The truth is a lot of things have gone down in the past year. Labirratorium closed, La Virgen was closed, La Buena Pinta closed for a moment and then changed ownership (I guess) and pricing, Roll closed "for renovations" but hasn't reopened after a couple of months and doesn't appear to be undergoing much work inside.
But, Península and Oso have managed to struggle on, maybe even without a lot of struggle. Oso Brew opened a taproom with their new suburban brewery sometime last year, and Península have been in the outskirts since the beginning pretty much, I've just never made the time to go out there. But now I have! It was a beergrimage worth waiting for!
I planned on hitting up Oso Brew first, since their beers, while delicious, tend to be subtler and a little more delicate than what I've experienced from Península. The place is unassuming and a little bit of a surprise when you walk in. The general atmosphere is slightly industrial, befitting the surroundings, but it is still clearly a craft beer bar. There's cornhole out front and everything. This weekend happened to be a Meet The Brewer with Basqueland, which meant a small dilemma for me. Basqueland is a well-known and well-loved brewery, but goddammit, I was in the house of Oso! I started with Oso's Liquid Jazz, a fruit sour, of appropriate color.
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| On a quiet industrial alley... |
It turns out The Hype was offering free burgers with pints this very day, so I got a burger with my pint without even having to look at a menu! It was not a bad burger at all, excellent relish, although less warm than I would like. Anyway...
It's cherry red, typical sour aroma, maybe a little powdery. Not exceptionally strong flavor, only mild sour, but tart. It's good enough to be refreshing on a spring afternoon. It actually has a mildly prickly feel, which I appreciate, it's a beer that lets you know you're drinking it. The sourness does build a bit in the mouth over time, but the flavor stays somewhat muted. I got a free burger with my pint, and I think I made a pretty good choice; the sour didn't overwhelm or fight with the burger, but complemented the (sour!) relish and sticky bun well.
I went back for one more before moving on, and picked up Infinity NEIPA. I had my eye on Basqueland's stout, but as I said, I was in Oso's house and was a little reticent to grab somebody else's brew, even if they were being hosted. If I didn't have anywhere else to go this afternoon I would have ended up with a Santeria. As it was, I got a recent offering from Oso, and very pleasing it was.
Very cloudy and juicy looking, the bartender gave it a strong recommendation. It has a slightly bitter caraway aroma, not so strange for a modern NEIPA. It's very subtly fruity, melony with a touch of grapefruit, sprinkled with grapefruit. It's creamy in feel, quite smooth and not bitter really, although certainly not as tropical as other modern IPAs. A good balance with the cracker tapa to be honest, since they're buttery little Ritz things, and the beer is crisp enough to wash them down easily.
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| Model one vice on another? Why sure! |
Then I trekked over to Península, where nobody was sitting at the outside tables when I arrived. I was a little surprising, since at the time was quite sunny. They had a stout to satisfy my cravings, Dark Truth. It's beautiful stout in the glass, perfect coloring, not a lot of head, cold enough to frost up the glass. It's grainy and true stout smelling, with a whiff of oatmeal, and - dear lord! - that's a heavy stout! Chocolate and caramel right away, maybe a touch of vanilla. It's an impressive mix of flavors, although I will admit that the sweeter, nuttier bits were the ones I recognized. Cacao and pistachio where obvious although the advertised pepper not so much. The sparrows were full of song, to the point of competing with the sound system. If they were right above me, I would have gone back inside. But, I was lucky enough that they just flittered around and didn't leave any bits behind. It's a satisfying if weighty stout, slightly sticky, never veering from my initial impressions. A delicious finish to an afternoon out and the kind of beer I would pounce on in Taproom or Toast.
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| In fact, I'm pretty sure I had one at Taproom not too long ago |
