Riverlands (2020)

BA Kamoho is worthy! It was good enough to make me pull the trigger on Burrito. And I am not big into the adjuncts.

 

best BA beer I’ve had all year

 

Might have been my favorite too. After drinking my first one and seeing how much they were trading for, I agonized over whether I should drink the second one for quite a while. I ended up drinking it, because I figured whatever I traded it for would probably not be as good.

 

Well, I caved, running over to get them later today.

Bastards

 

Fyi, to my palate, the BA version of this beer is less pepper forward. We upped the chocolate and cinnamon from the regular version. There's a tingly heat on the back end, but it's in the background for sure.

 

I concur. The pepper and cinnamon mingle flawlessly. The cocoa nibs bring the chocolate and the vanilla rounds it all out. One of the best beers I’ve had this year.

Any chance you’ll tell us how you came up with the name?

 

The name comes from the lamest lie a husband (me in this instance) could tell his wife. We worked together for years prior to me getting into brewing. After I had proposed, we combined checking accounts and were saving for the wedding. Now at this point, I must confess that I am basically addicted to al pastor burritos from this small chain, Burrito Parilla Mexicana. We would go maybe once every week or two for lunch, but it wasn't enough.

I still had a credit card from my old account I had forgotten to close, so in my need to buy burritos while not being scolded for blowing our money on dumb things while we were saving, I charged my couple times a week burritos to my credit card. These burritos were of course in addition to the ones we got together.

Now, over the course of a couple months I had racked up a decent little card balance. We had moved a good chunk of our checking account to a savings account for the wedding, so before paying the card off I wanted to make sure I didn't overdraft. I walked over to my wife's (fiance at the time) cubicle and asked how our balance looked. She rightly got suspicious as I generally leave the finances to her and had really never asked. I went back to my desk and as I'm paying my card balance off, she sneaks around the corner and catches me red handed. She sees my account summary riddled with secret burritos. I explain that while yes, it was dishonest, there are people who cheat on their spouses and lie about it for years, all I did was love burritos. Needless to say, that was the end of my credit card. My own personal battle with the wonder that is al pastor remains.

 

That’s hilarious and glad you went this route instead of a shaky shaky - al pastor. Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

I could never be mad at you al pastor. For me, it started in high school on late night trips to El Famous. We'd get al pastor nachos to eat along with our burrito.

 

Al pastor with no pineapple?

 

Oh man, you're right I don't think they put it in the burrito there. I'm pretty sure they have a pineapple on the spit with the meat, but I don't think they shave any off. I do dig some bits of pineapple in there too

 

double fruit cup is phenomenal. if you like fruited sours grab this, id even say if you are on the fence about them make the purchase. not over the top, all flavors are present. loving the fact they left the lactose out. its awesome.

 

tempted to grab this. Without the lactose, does it still have a creamy vanilla-like taste or is it just purely tart fruit?

 

it definitely has a creamy component to it, mostly in the mouthfeel maybe? no real vanilla like character and it doesnt punch you in the face with tartness, very juice like quality. i honestly got peach, pineapple and cherry throughout the entire beer it was very well balanced.

 

I agree that each fruit is well represented. I think it has more of a “sour” quality compared to the Double Nectar series. I definitely enjoyed this one on draft today

 

So it turns out BA Secret Burrito is also great, and just continues their run of barrel aged stuff.

Hey, @RBCBrams17, you got any more BA Kamoho that you could hook up a big fan with?

 

I wish! We usually hold a case or two back, but we only had two bourbon barrels of ready at the time, so after a keg we only got 240ish bottles. Our barrel program is growing, but it's still pretty small. We have it so that we should get around 500 or so for the next several though

 

I will echo the sentiment that @PhilBallins is out here, evangelizing poetically about the promised Riverlands. You should make him an honorary brand ambassador!

PS - I think for the first 2 years I knew him, I thought his name was actually Phil
PPS - if you invite him to a bottle share, remember to add 4-6 additional columns on the “what you’re bringing” list... the man effectively sets up a traveling pop-up emporium of treasures from far away lands.

 

You beautiful man

And yes, I'll bring every beer I own

 

I visited Riverlands for the first time yesterday, and The Corner of Dean St. & Borden St. is one of the best stouts I've had this year. Took plenty of other things home with me to report on later, but I'm also really loving a crowler of Piano Bridge right now.