Green Flash Tasting

So, I discovered Green Flash Imperial IPA at Nail Creek on draft some months ago. It's one of my favorite DIPA's. This inspired a tasting of other bottled beers of theirs which I discovered were available nearby, unbeknownst to me . . .

1) Yesterday, we tried GF Double Stout, a big, rounded, chocolate pillow of a beer, sweet, barely balanced by Target hops, and lightened and complicated by a range of fruity esters. A gorgeous stout, of homebrew-ish proportions.

2) Just tried their Trippel. I'm less in love with this one, but it's a good beer with some tasty esters and spicy aspects. My gripe, as with a few other U.S. tripels, is with attenuation. It's hardly a big, clunky beer, but I'd love it if it were a touch drier--there's something just a little bit barley-wine-ish about the palate and so I'm missing the refinement. This is largely a matter of taste. Not all Belgian tripels are steely dry either; I just like them a little less malty, myself.

3) "Le Freak." The brewers bill this as a fusion of the San Diego pale ale style and Belgian tripel. The nose juxtaposes dramatic west-coast hops with some Belgian-style esters and higher alcohols; it's a pretty heady colllective scent. The palate is mostly hops (citrusy and resiny), barely held together by a toasty, but very dry and slender, malt profile.

Hell of a brewery, all things considered . . .