Undercover Investigation Shut-down Ale

Beer Name: Undercover Investigation Shut-down Ale
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
ABV: 9.8%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a tumbler
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Obviously there is a story behind the name of this beer, but you can go look it up for yourself. It's not overly interesting, but it's yet another example of having a bit too much government in our everyday lives.

Undercover Investigation Shut-down Ale is a slightly orangey amber beer. It poured with a bit of head, but it faded away immediately, and despite its attempts to leave some lacing behind, it was unsuccessful. The aroma is hoppy, like grapefruits, and also surprisingly malty. The label makes claims of being quite bitter, but the IBUs are a manageable 66.6. Well, manageable for me. Your mileage may vary.

Depending on how cold you drink this one, the bitterness is going to vary. When it was fresh out of the fridge, it had a very sharp bite to it. However, as it warmed up, the flavor mellowed out. The hops are very present, with enough malt to avoid being overwhelmed by them. It's mildly carbonated, with a medium-to-big body. It finishes with a little bit of bitterness, but the aftertaste is actually pretty sweet.

Final thought - Like many of the beers from Lagunitas, this one packs a nice amount of hops into each sip. Unlike the others, this one isn't quite as sweet. So if you're looking for an enjoyable hoppy beer that isn't too sweet, this is the one for you. Plus it's pretty good, so you might as well give it a try.

-Jon

Hop Stoopid

Beer Name: Hop Stoopid
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
ABV: 8%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a tumbler
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

This beer has an interesting name, and that's good enough for me. Before I'd even poured it, Kate had decided she was going to spite taste it. She rated it as "it's not as bad as some others," so you can add that to my final thought if you'd like a wider range of opinions.

Hop Stoopid is a hazy beer with a golden orange color to it. I tried to get a nice head on it as I poured, but I didn't have any luck there. No real head or lacing to speak of for this one, which is slightly disappointing. I have come to expect some fluffy white tops on my Lagunitas IPAs, so I'm curious as to what happened this time. There's a pretty hoppy aroma to this one, with some grapefruit and a lot of pine. The hop aroma lasts for a while, and it keeps any malt from coming through.

This beer packs a bitter punch at first, but it's not overpoweringly bitter. Right at the beginning of each sip, it seems like it's going to be ridiculously bitter, but this fades away and ends with a bitter and malty finish. It's actually a lot maltier than the aroma suggested, and nicely drinkable. The flavor just seems to be missing something.

Final thought - I'd rather drink their everyday IPA, or Maximus. This beer was fine, but there wasn't anything about it that would put it above Lagunitas' other hoppy offerings. It's a good choice if you're looking for an IPA that isn't too citrusy.

-Jon

Wilco Tango Foxtrot

Beer Name: Wilco Tango Foxtrot
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
ABV: 7.85%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I can never find a date on Lagunitas bottles, but this is a seasonal beer that comes out in February, so I would assume it's made sometime before that. It's listed as "American strong ale," which is something of a cop-out category for anything above 7% ABV that people can't classify into a more specific category. Also, 7.85% is oddly specific for a beer's ABV.

Wilco Tango Foxtrot bills itself as "A Malty, Robust, Jobless Recovery Ale." This does not give a large amount of information, although I am expecting malt. The beer is a dark coppery brown color, and it poured with just a bit of head. This faded away pretty quickly, but it still left a nice lacing pattern even though it's a little light. For a beer that boasts about its maltiness, there seems to be more than a hint of hoppiness in the aroma. There is some noticeable malty sweetness, but there's also a bunch of citrusy hops. From the description, I thought this might be a Kate beer, but I'm starting to doubt that.

Well, this is right on the border of possibly being drinkable for Kate. There is a nice hoppiness to each sip, but there's also a nice malty breadiness to it. It's actually kind of hard to pin down everything that's happening here. It seems like citrus hops at the beginning, with some other hop flavors mixed with the malts afterwards. At the end, there is a crisp bitterness that lingers just enough to make me want another sip. This is a very smooth beer from start to finish.

Final thought - Another winning beer from the fine folks at Lagunitas. This one reminds me of A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' but with a little more sweetness. Kate said we should move to San Diego at dinner tonight, but I think I could also handle moving to northern California and being near this place.

-Jon

A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale

Beer Name: A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
ABV: 7.5%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a tumbler
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Kate and I were excited to find out that Whole Foods Market has a craft beer section. Well, she wasn't that excited, but I was really excited and that was probably enough for both of us. The excitement was dampened a little when we arrived and we found that the selection was smaller than I was hoping for it to be. More beer choices is generally a better thing.

I did end up with a couple new brews to try, one of which was Lagunitas' somewhat ridiculously titled A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale. This is a golden orange beer that poured into my glass with a big fluffy head. This faded away slowly, leaving a nice lacing pattern behind. The aroma here is a big blast of hops, with a major emphasis on the citrus hops. There's also a very noticeable sweet graininess as well.

The sweetness and hops are both present in the taste. Most prevalent to me is a sweet grapefruit flavor along with some other citrusy flavors, mostly lemony. It also has a bready sweetness to it that keeps the bitterness from the hops in check. Actually, this beer is not very bitter at all, unlike most hoppy beers. It finishes with a nice bit of hops and malt, and the aftertaste of hops hangs on for quite a while.

Final thought - This beer is great! It has a bunch of flavor, but it's not quite as bitter as their IPA or Maximus. There's a lot of sweetness here as well, and everything is very enjoyable.

-Jon

Maximus

Beer Name: Maximus IPA
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
ABV: 8.2%
Serving method: 12-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

Lagunitas has a standard IPA, and then they have this beast with an ABV 2% higher. This is the one you want if you're up for some hoppiness, but you are pressed for time.

Maximus is a orangey-amber beer. My first bottle poured with a nice fluffy head that lasted for a little while before fading away with a good lacing pattern. My second bottle did not have any head at all, which makes me think I might have banged the second bottle and loosened the cap, as that definitely seems like something I'd do. There is a good aroma of fruity hops, and some sweetness mixed in as well.

There is a lovely mix of hops and malt here. The fruity hop flavors are very noticeable, but there's a whole lot of malt to keep it from overwhelming the taste buds. There are some citrus flavors, and it seems like an almost tropical taste. There is a nice bitter finish, and a slight aftertaste that sort of clings to your tongue. It's nicely flavored though, so it's not a problem. Light carbonation helps to accent the hop flavors.

Final thought - I prefer their original IPA to this one, but if you want a bigger beer, you can't really go wrong with Maximus. It's like their normal IPA, but with more of everything: alcohol, hops, bitterness, malt... what a delicious beer.

-Jon

Lagunitas IPA

Beer Name: Lagunitas IPA
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
ABV: 6.2%
Serving method: 16-oz draft in an octagonal glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

I don't know what kind of glasses they use at Magpie, but they definitely have some tasty beverages to put in them. And for me, that's good enough!

This particular IPA from Lagunitas is a nice golden color with some orangey highlights. It's a little bit cloudy, and it came with a nice amount of head. The aroma is strongly hoppy, mostly in the citrus department. There's also a little bit of piney hop aroma, but it's faint.

As expected, this packs a hoppy punch. I am getting only the citrus flavor, which is just fine with me. There's also a malty flavor in the background, but it's only very faint and just enough to keep the hops from overwhelming the tastebuds. This beer is pretty smooth, even with a medium amount of carbonation. The finish is bitter, but not too bitter for an IPA, and it's not as dry as a lot of others. I think you could probably drink a couple of these without suffering from a hop overload.

Final thought - Fantastic IPA. I tend to prefer the citrus hops with at least enough maltiness to notice, and this one works perfectly. California tends to be the king of the American IPAs, and this is no exception.

-Jon

Cappuccino Stout

Beer Name: Cappuccino Stout
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
ABV: 8.8% or 9.2%
Serving method: 22-oz bottle in a pint glass
Born/Bottled/Shipped on: Unknown

And yet again I must deal with one of my beer pet peeves: company's that have one ABV on their bottles and a different one on their website. How am I supposed to gauge how intoxicated I should be feeling if I can't get a straight answer?

Lagunitas (which is incredibly fun to say with a heavy Spanish accent) Cappuccino Stout is a semi-transparant dark brown with some ruby coloring. Think of a slightly reddish cola. It had almost no head and even that little bit disappeared almost instantly. There also is not much lacing. The beer's aroma is malt and coffee, but the coffee smells slightly artificial. As the beer warms, the smell becomes quite delicious.

This beer has an intensely bitter coffee presence. It dominates the other flavor, which is a little bit of sweet malt. It's almost like they are having a battle on my tongue, which doesn't seem like a good thing. Other than that, the beer is very lightly carbonated, which makes it pretty smooth. The aftertaste is similar to drinking a cup of coffee.

Final thought - With all the other coffee stouts and porters that I've tried, I have a pretty high standard for this style. Sadly, this beer doesn't stack up. The coffee flavor is too bitter and it masks the other tastes I'm expecting in a stout.

-Jon