Fieldwork (2019)

Oh man! Of course it's on a weekend when I'm out of town. I really hope this goes well!

 

I was at HPB in Chinatown LA and tried a few Cellarmaker beers for the first time. I was really let down. They all had a very strange, chalkiness to the flavor, reminiscent of HPB's own hazy stuff. I wonder if this has something to do with their tap system, but I don't seem to get the same with their WC stuff, and Cellarmaker's offerings were mostly WC...

Strange indeed. I wish I could remember the names. There were four beers on tap. Wasn't impressed with a single of them. I was also coming down with a cold though...

 

So happy they are doing pre sales, awesome news, I ordered 12 cans of Galaxy juice and 12 pulp and 4 orchard street just for the hell of it . The fact that I can pre order from 6 different locations is soo convienant based on my particular weekend plans.

 

Seriously, I can't access their website... Am I the only one?

 

Still? They were all jacked up around 7pm when they were still getting the cans setup on the pre-order and running some kind of test mode, but I finally was able to process my order and got a confirmation at 7:26pm. I did it on a mobile phone by clicking thru the pre-order link on their Instagram account.

 

Yeah I had to do it on my phone via Instagram app. Chrome still not allowing me to access the site. Showing a 404 error. But at least I was able to get my order in!

 

That's a lot of beer, dude. Out of curiosity, are you drinking all of that? If so, how quickly do you intend to go through it? No judgment. I'm genuinely curious about how quickly folks drink through their stashes since I typically see people walk out with a full case or two of beer at releases. These days, I buy a 6 pack and it takes me a couple weeks to finish them since I'm trying to cut down.

 

I did end up buying too much , you are correct. I just got a lil excited for the first pre sale. I got 2 guys who will want some but not sure how much. I won’t need to buy anything for 2-3 weeks hopefully.

 

That's really weird that you got that impression. While I don't think Cellarmaker's flavor profile is for everyone, they're not into making juice/NEIPA beers, and instead do hop-forward unfiltered beers that have a lot of fruity and dank aromatics and flavor. Yeast flavor doesn't play much of a role, and their mouthfeel is much thinner than NEIPAs because they don't stick oats and other things to smoothen it. So I'm quite surprised you get a chalky impression

 

Pulp and Orchard St are now sold out for SAC. GJ will be gone shortly.

The future is here. No lines at 11am Saturday.... that is a win.

 

Does CM ever post their grain bills? If you look at beers like Double Mt Nelson and Cantaloupe Island, they exhibit a turbidity that suggests they used flaked grains.

 

Wish we could have picked up cans today, but happy that I can simply drop in at my leisure this weekend. Hopefully more breweries follow this format.

 

Hey if you want to trade some cans let me know. I had a lot cans already so I didn't want to buy any but I have some swish and some River roost cans to trade if you're near SF. Pm if you're interested.

 

Sometimes! There have been beers where they say they added oats for feel, but it's not super common.

Today's beer that say this:

Two breweries have now become internet entrepreneurs with the launch of NelsonNugz.com. Cellarmaker and Cloudburst Brewing have teamed up to create this digipale ale that features three characterful cyber hops: Nelson, HBC 630 and Nugget and was coded with Washington grown malted barley from Mainstem Malt.

 

Right, but I don't think I've ever read a description that includes the specifics of the grain bill. For instance, "Washington grown malted barley from Mainstem Malt" only describes the source. It doesn't state what those grains actually are. If you look at Deschutes' production description page for Chasing Freshies, you'll see they list Pilsner Malt and Flaked Oats as the grains used for the beer. Alvarado St does this too.

 

Oh, well they do drop that sometimes at least on IG. But yeah, they don't list out all their ingredients on the regular.

3/14:
“Hip Hip, Beret” is what we are calling a French-Style Country Ale. Inspired by the beer produced by our friends at Brasserie Thiriez in northern France, this ale is a beautiful rustic ale. Mashed with oats, wheat, pilsner and Munich malts, hopped singularly with English Bramling Cross and fermented with a spicy European ale yeast, Hip Hip, Beret is spicy and pithy with earthy and bready undertones.

12/18/18:
Brewed with 2-row, oats, rye and a good dash of crystal malt (we tried to add more but just couldn’t!) and hopped intensely with Cascade, New Zealand Cascade and Simcoe, Resilience has really interesting aromas of jammy berries, wild flowers, tamarind and bergamot orange.

 

Yeah, that's what I'm looking for. I'm pretty sure they use oats or flaked wheat fairly regularly, at least in beers that have high turbidity.

To Dansac's point about chalkiness, it can happen to beers that aren't NEIPAs. I've had chalkiness in West Coast IPAs, porters, and stouts.

 

Actually, the chalkiness I speak of in HPB is probably coming from the hop, if I had to guess.

These CM were not oaty, they were fairly light bodied and dry, as you say, though unfiltered. They were very nice texturally and balanced. But I didn't get a very bright aromatics or fruitiness. My palate was not doing well though, so it could have been just that.

I definitely want to give them another shot when I get the chance.

 

God Damn, Pulp and Galaxy Juice are quite amazing to drink side by side. Hope they keep pumping out Pulp every month... Or maybe not since I can't afford it lol