Beer review: Coronado Idiot

"It's a Double, it's pretty intense"

That was the waitress's warning at the sports bar built into the San Diego Hyatt.  I was in town for work, and using the opportunity to sample a local craft I'd found on the menu.  

My beer was not served by a topless woman with flowing red hair.

Here's the thing: Coronado Idiot is a double IPA - and as any of my partners in brewing-crimes would warn you, I'm not a hoppy beer drinker.  

Or, at least, I wasn't.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not any hop-madder now that I was two weeks ago, but my eyes have been opened to the possibility that "hopped to pieces" and "tasty" might not be mutually exclusive.  For years, I've shunned hoppy brews, and - since I've started homebrewing - have always felt like I was missing out on something.  Other people seemed to love the ugly little green bastards, but I never had it in me.

Coronado Brewing is a family operation out on Coronado in San Diego Bay.  Two brothers started the brewery in 1996, and have made it work for over ten years.  With a product like this, I can see why.

Idiot is intensely bitter to my tastes (90 IBU - International Bitterness Units.  A typical American lager is 10-15 IBU, and most American IPA's are 40-70 IBU) but delicious despite.  It's a rich beer, with a wonderful mouthfeel - an almost malty feel - and a hard whack of earthy and citrusy hop flavor and aroma.  By the end of the pint, the hops were beginning to overpower me a little bit, but I enjoyed every drop and would love to go back for more.

Rating: Don't buy a plane ticket for it, but if you're in SD, or see one in your bottle shop of choice, grab it and give it a try.

Homebrew preview: No. 1 Squadron English Brown Ale

First all-grain batch!

The first homebrew on the new Unlicensed Bulldog page will be my first all-grain batch, "No. 1 Squadron."

My buddy Nick and I put it together a few weeks ago - it's just taking me a while to get to writing about it!  At the moment, it's in secondary for another couple of weeks to settle.  I've also got about 2 liters siphoned off into a separate flask along with a handful of leftover Northern Brewer hops I had on hand.

At racking, it was a little... bland, so we'll see what the dry-hopping does for it, and hope for the best.  I think my efficiency was way off, too, but I got sidetracked and never got a good record of OG.  Definitely need to pay better attention next time.

If it does make it out of secondary alive, it'll wear this label:

The little bulldog is wondering if the RAF would mind

if he hot-wired this beast and just took a short hop.  Just

over to Bristol for a couple of hours...

That's a reference to both the first all-grain batch - "No. 1" - and to No. 1 Squadron RAF, one of the first combat aviation squadrons in the world - and one that (coincidentally) flew brown-painted SAE5a fighter biplanes in WWI.  A good heritage for a good English Brown.

A writeup of the brew day will come soon, as will tasting notes once the beast is finalized.

Adventure of the Empty Twisted Lip with a Case of a Creeping Carbuncle with a Reigate Interpreter

Yes, you read that right

Whilst on vacation  a business trip last weekend, I found myself with some time to kill and free Wi-fi.  So, being the anglophile I am, and finding myself with unexpected quiet time, I endured the interminable Admiral Cruise Lines ads and watched the first episode of the third season of Sherlock: "The Empty Hearse."

I was pleasantly surprised; after last season left me a little undersatisfied (and a wee bit disturbed), "The Empty Hearse" just worked:

• The interplay between Sherlock and Molly was very well done - after last year's awkardness.
• Very happy with the casting for Mary Morstan; Amanda Abbingdon shone in the role, and her real-life relationship with Martin Freeman gives the couple a playfulness that rather humanizes John a bit...
• ...but incredibly glad to see the damned mustache go.  It was funny for an in-joke, but there were plenty of those already.

"From your mustache, I can deduce that you are single."

"Why, what, er, from the shape or, er, something?"

"What?  No, because it's ugly."

• Loved the overload of Doyle references throughout; I summarize the ones I picked up in the title; I'm sure there are more.
• The "Blue Carbuncle" reference was the best of that lot; "A Case of Identity" was the most subtly wonderful.
• It would've killed 'em to drop a blue Police Box into the background somewhere?  No lingering shot, no offhand remarks, just a drive-by on Fleet St. or somewhere.  Truly overload ever Beeb-addict in the world's head in one shot.

So what'd I really think?

Glad to see the franchise back and at fighting weight.  Exclusive of Episode 1, last season just did not work for me.  I thought they totally missed the feel of "Baskervilles," (although they get mad props for even trying to update that one), and the ending was too abrupt, too cold - directed by Moriarty, not Watson.  It was the suicide sequence, of course - those always get me - but nonetheless, I walked away gladly and haven't rewatched them since.

Oh, shut up.  Everybody has an off year.

For context, I rewatched Series 1 four times in the first two weeks I had the DVD's.

The team got it back with this episode.  Sherlock should be almost uproariously funny at times - Doyle's detective had a rapier wit and classic Victorian timing - and Freeman's furious response to Cumberbatch's reincarnated Holmes is what Doyle would be writing if he were still at it today (and weren't well over 100 years old, that is.)

Rating: Go watch it.  Now.