Seven Stills

All you milkshake lovers out there.

 

And #006, apparently some kind of Coffee Porter

 

At their luau, so there's some whole roasted pig goodness.

This milkshake IPA doesn't have that milky, creamy roundness I associate with the few I've tried (Temescal Push Pop, Temescal Stone Swirl, Cellarmaker cask IPAs on lactose).

But what this one is, is probably the best IPA I've had from them. Smells like a melange of tropical fruit, likely due to adjuncts. But taste is mix of fruity, floral hop bursts and a bitter finish. The pineapple, mango and lactose don't really have much of a role.

Not a top tier brewer yet but for a place that primarily does spirits, they have made remarkable progress where I'd recommend their beers to anyone.

 

Fluxuate Beer (Coffee Porter) + Fluxuate Whiskey

Whiskey:
May have made a mistake starting with this but wow! Of course it tastes like whiskey, but on the mid-back palate, the flavor fills in with a fudgey, coffee richness. I really like it!

Beer:
Now that my tongue is messed up... This 7%er is much more mild. But, as I drink this over time (ie as it warms up), I think this beer is better made than the Kahuna. It isn't as coffee forward as I'd like, but it has a roasted Porter base that's quite nice. Wasn't even planning on ordering this but I'm now won over.

 

Yeah, I do think it's weird how it really doesn't taste like a Milk Stout at all. (Similar with the Milkshake IPA I had today - a number of strangers at my table tried it, and those who hate milkshake IPAs liked it because it didn't taste like one... and those who wanted a creamy, vanilla-y milkshake IPA were disappointed).

 

Tomahawp - Citra + Mosaic DIPA collab with Alvarado clocking in at 8.5%.

It's pretty good! Their IG said it was the dankest beer they brewed, but I feel like it's very fruity with the citrus and tropical notes you'd expect from these two hops. Its hazy, but doesn't have that ASB bite. It does finish with bitterness, like other 7S IPAs, but it's the fruitiest they've made.

 

Bayview Haze - Take Tomahawp and add a crapload of pomegranate, and that's what this is. Collab with ASB, Barebottle, Laughing Monk and Ferment, Drink, Repeat.



I must be drunk cuz I have to really try to tell the difference. This may or may not be my 2nd beer today (4th, darn SFBW).

It's a little sweeter but I can easily taste all the base beer elements as before. I guess that's a plus because nothing is lost in the adjuncts. For that reason, I prefer this of the two, but they are close.

 

And for all you Sunset district peeps... the Outer Sunset Taproom has a tap takeover tonight with...

Sante Adairius Collective We
Sante Adairius Tomorrow, Today
Sante Adairius Saison Bernice
Alvarado Street Tomahawp (ASB's version, not 7S)

I know what I'm doing tonight.

 

Continuing on. 007: Octojuicy, a 7.2% ABV Galaxy (and a touch of Simcoe) hopped NEIPA.

I think this may be their most successful "juice" attempt yet, as they nailed the hazy look and soft feel, as well as the aroma/flavor profile which isn't too far from Galaxy Juice. Because it does have Simcoe with the intention of giving it a little more citrus vibe, it has some dankness that complements the Galaxy basil. The Simcoe also provides a touch of bitterness on the finish as well. I think a lot of people would like this one.

 

008: Object Permanence - 4.5% ABV American Wheat for The World Beer Cup

Our third release for this month, Object Permanence, is not only our first dip in to the pool that is American Wheat beers (in cans at least), but it is also the most absurd number of hops I've personally ever seen used on a wheat beer… to the extent that when our brewer was listing them off to me I thought he was messing with me and had to double check the recipe after he left the room. As with all beer however, you can do all the crazy add-ons that you want, as long as its balanced. Fortunately, Object Permanence is exactly that. Merkur on the bittering gives it a light peppery background, with Comet, Enigma, and Azacca adding an almost berry/melon-like component to the nose. The Denali, Tahoma, and El Dorado give a complimentary "dankness" to the brew, and seems to connect that middle ground between the light, sweeter body and the over-arching aromatics jumping from the glass.

Hoppy wheat indeed. The hops taste like a blend of new school tropical fruit with a classic WC bitter punch at the end. It is supported by the wheat backbone which works quite well - it has a bigger mouthfeel which coats the tongue, and even has some banana/clove esters, which I wasn't expecting. It's a good beer, and definitely has a lot of flavor - particularly for a 4.5% beer. Tastes more like 6+%.

 

009: Planned Obsolescence, a 7.5% ABV IPA w/Chinook and Cascade hops. Dry Hop: Simcoe, Galaxy & Comet.

What?! When I first heard about this beer, I thought it was pure WC IPA. And when I poured it out, I almost thought they accidentally filled this can with Octojuicy instead. But when I looked it up, it's meant to be WC/NE fusion - that is a bitter, grapefruity beer, but with some tropical fruit notes layered on top. And that's sorta what it tastes like. It does work, but I think because they went with Simcoe & Galaxy, it's somewhat similar to Octojuicy and I'd wish that they chose a different bill instead. This feels more like its more bitter brother, which I don't have an issue with. I just wish it had a more divergent profile.

 

Their next canned release is 4/20 btw. 2 beers.

Eight Pounds per BBL (Batch 2) (DIPA) We're starting it off with a throw back! Thats right, our December Hazy IPA release, 8 Pounds per BBL, was such a hit that we had to bring it back for the people. Now, granted, we're not big fans of repeating ourselves, so we still had to retool it a little bit. Nothing drastic, just a completely different hop bill with more of an emphasis towards "dank" pine and grapefruit peel than to the straight pineapple juice that the last release had. In fact, with the addition of Simcoe, Denali and El Dorado, that "dankness" is probably gonna be the first thing that pops up and the last thing that hangs around on the back. Still a complete haze-bomb, this round of 8#'s is a testament to our continued goal of finding that perfect balance of dry-hopping and bitterness to satiate even the most scrutinous of hop-heads. One thing is certain, when the ABA finally moved Juicy/Hazy IPA's in to the official category listing a few weeks ago, they pretty much described 8#'s to a T.


Peach Blunt (DIPA) That's right, this year for 4/20 we teamed up with two of our favorite comrades in disruptive behavior and brewed an homage to one of our favorite accompaniments to the holiday, a Peach Blunt. Brewed to behave like a dank, tropical fruit forward hazy IPA, the base flavors of the beer are heavy in mango and pineapple however the addition of the peach puree really softens the astringency that the pineapple notes can lend and sort of meets everything right in the middle. The addition of the Terpenes is when things can start going off the rails, and fortunately we were able to pick the brains of a few local brewers who have worked with it to varying success and were able to reside on the solution of less is more. Barely a milliliter of terpenes per barrel on the brew means your just getting the essence of the herb, enough to know its there, but not enough to overpower the rest of the batch and cancel out all those nice fruit notes we've built with the hops and puree.