Cho-Saiko
Pizza Port Solana Beach

 

 

 

On tap at Ocean Beach.

Beautiful big pine and candied mandarin nose, beautifully balanced with hints of mint and a touch of honey. Ripe pineapple and some dried mango is present as well. The palate opens with a big, pungent hop character, pine, citrus and an absolutely marvelous resiny feel. Juicy, fruity, pungent, pine and candied orange and an intense, concentrated fresh fruit flavor. Drying, resiny and mildly bitter on the finish with lunge fruit, this feels awesome. The light carbonation also helps enhance the feel. A superlative beer, one of the best of the year. The mouthfeel is nonpareil. There's no one outside of San Diego that brews beers that feel this way, except for maybe Cellarmaker or Russian River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Growler filled at PP Ocean Beach. Poured into my New Belgium tulip.

A- The beer is a crystal clear, deep golden color. Reminds me of the color of fresh honey you buy at a roadside stand. Two fingers of snow white foam recedes slowly, leaving very nice lacing on the glass.

S- Aromas of fesh citrus, pine and hemp waft up from my glass as I pour. A closer sniff brings a slight biscuity pale malt presence out as well. This stuff smells great!

T- Big time citrus predominates. Orange, tangerine, mango and pineapple are present in copious amounts. Pine makes an entrance mid palate with a very pleasant level of bitterness. the malt bill does a nice job of balancing things out without taking anything away from the magnificent hop profile. The finish is piney with a slight, lingering bitterness.

M- The beer is medium bodied with a slightly viscous feel to it. Really nice. The level of carbonation is high enough to keep things interesting while still allowing for a nice creamy quality. Very well done!

O- Cho Saiko is the epitomy of a great west coast DIPA. Fantastic citrus characteristics, bitter pine and a perfectly integrated malt backbone. It is one of my all time favorite DIPAs and I recommend it highly.

Golden amber appearance, great clarity. I coaxed a little bit of a frothy white head from a growler which had been opened the day before.

Piney/dank resiny aroma mixed with citrusy fruitness. Some candy floral sweetness lingers in the background of the aroma to give you a hint of the malt.

Citrusy and resiny in the flavor department. Pithy grapefruit finish. Exploring further I find a little bit of a tropical fruit note and some slight caramel sweetness. I could be confusing the two.

This beer is very dried out for an alcohol percentage this high. Lots of robust hoppy flavors and a very unified beer. Alcohol is not very noticeable at all.

1/19/2011

This is consistently one of my favorite Double IPAs in San Diego. A fresh batch of this is like heaven in a glass. Upping smell and drinkability. Outstanding stuff. Radical, indeed.

7/21/2010

On tap at Pizza Port Ocean Beach. Dark orange with perfect clarity and a frothy off white head. The aroma displays perfumey pine resin, floral notes, and prominent citrus in the form of grapefruit and orange. Alcohol is light and there's a subtle sweetness attempting to offset the hop brilliance. Outstanding. Hops are explosive in the nose.

The flavor opens with a big pine resin kick, which segues into bitter grapefruit and orange pith. There's an ephemeral malt sweetness that is reminiscent of caramel, though the high level of dry hop bitterness wins in the end. A very nice hop profile and subtle alcohol considering the high ABV. The finish is a blend of pine resin and citrus with a lingering high level of bitterness. The beer is medium bodied with a sticky mouthfeel. An outstanding Double IPA. If it were only available in some remote IPA wasteland of an east coast city it would easily be in the top 100.

Thanks, Shane.

Appearance: Perfectly clear and bright, golden with a burnished copper center. The head is fleeting but leaves some sticky lacing behind.

Smell: Dank citrusy hops, typical Pizza Port goodness. Ripe tangerine was the first thing that came to mind, but there's a definite grapefruit note here as well. Malt doesn't contribute any distinct scent, rather it contributes a little sweetness that highlights the fruitiness from the hops, giving it a nose of fresh ripe fruit.

Taste & mouthfeel: The citrusy fruit flavors carry over from the nose, but it's a drier beer than the aroma suggests. Tangerine and grapefruit are up-front on the palate, but there's a more subtle note of tropical fruit, specifically pineapple, that lends more depth to the hop profile. The mid-palate does bring out a touch of sweetness, but this is impressively dry, light and quaffable, especially considering the 9.5% ABV. The finish has a smooth, clean bitterness that makes the beer almost too easy to drink, Younger-esque in that sense.

Another stellar Pizza Port beer, which shouldn't come as any surprise.

On-tap at Pizza Port Ocean Beach

A - Poured a copper color with a white head that leaves lacing behind

S - Is of piney and citrus hops

T - This is like drinking liquid hops with pine and citrus flavors

M - This beer has a medium body with medium carbonation to it

D - If you like hop bombs you'll like this beer this is a west coast double ipa I could probably only have one of these in a sitting but its worth picking up a pint if you stop in

Chilled growler into a glass, courtesy of Sideswipe. Thanks, John!

I opened the growler the same day it arrived, so it hadn't cooled down fully. Couldn't be helped.

A: Well carbonated, with two inches of off-white foam rising to fill the tulip. It retains very well and leaves tons of sticky lace down the sides of the glass. The body is a clear, copper-amber color.

S: Mmm... Candied grapefruit, resinous pine, and a hint of moss. Delicious, clean sugar malt backbone. I had the pleasure of trying Hop Suey within a week of this one, so I'm able to reflect on the two in a nearly side-by-side manner. I prefer the candied grapefruit style of Cho-Saiko.

T: Sweet, candied grapefruit, orange, tangerine. It's not too tropical, unlike Hop Suey. No surprises in finding pine here, but it's interesting that there are hints of weed and moss. Lots of sugar cookie here; it's quite noticeable and it makes the beer overall sweet. It covers the bitterness well, though there is some in the aftertaste, along with a touch of booze.

M: Medium-bodied, with good carbonation. Nice hop oils that contribute some sticky bitterness. It's not a dry beer, but it has just enough booze bite that it comes off as drying.

D: Hop Suey gets much more attention, but I think this is the superior beer. I'd love to have it again.

Freshly obtained from PP Ocean Beach. The name plate on the beer board eluded to a sumo wrestler and perhaps Hop Sueys little brother?

Pours with a hazy copper body and a half inch of sticky white froth . Plenty of ripped lacework throughout the glass as well as a solid skim coat.

Aromatics lead off with a blast of pungent citrus and pine. Very much a San Diego style with loads of tropical fruit and citrus. Apricots, mangoes, grapefruit, and resins. Very lush and potent.

Medium bodied with a crisp, tacky mouthfeel. Gummy, sappy, and filled with powdery resins.

Tropical citrus pith with pine-rubbed grapefruit start the palate. A pressing, drying bitterness quickly steps forward along with a pithy spiceyness. Very light on the malt and heavy on the hops. Alcohol is there but not a factor.

Finishes with a lingering, almost bracing bitterness, tropical citrus, and extremely dry.

Great beer, but then again I had so many terrific hop bombs in So Cal recently.

Next up, a side by side with Hop Suey.