A Love of Beer: Baltika & Bigfoot & Tony's Darts Away

I know, I know, the blog came a day early but deal with it, you will all get to see me on Wednesday for the first ever Video blog along with some friends of mine. I checked the stats and was incredibly surprised to find traffic from Bulgaria and Poland, India and Malyasia. 6 people from BG, just for that, I totally have to do a Bulgarian beer in honor of Martenitsa (if I can find one other than Astika which is now made by the Anhauser company, which I personally think messes up anything it touches, even if the Germans did buy it. SUGGESTIONS please), which I'll give everyone who isn't familiar with it a little culture lesson. Who knows, you may need it for Jeopardy someday.

My dad left me down in So Cal so he could go up to Portland for my grandmother's birthday and revealed to me last night that my cousin is unveiling his Bourbon barrel aged beer on Friday. I'm incredibly jealous that I can't be up there for that because my cous puts out the best beer around (by far, you haven't had beer until you've had his, I really think he should start a business but that's just me). Some other time I'll have to go up there and taste the epic beer that he puts out, sooner rather than later. Anyway, my dad and I went to Tony's Darts Away last week. My third time there, so I figured I'd start off with a review of the place in the event anyone decides to come to Los Angeles on holiday anytime soon...

Tony's Darts away is on Magnolia Blvd in Burbank, CA, if you ever come to visit Los Angeles, you seriously need to go to Tony's Darts Away. They only serve Californian beer, as in, made right here in this fine state. If you have money to spend and time to kill and you happen to be hungry, you seriously need to drop by. At night it's a little packed, even on weekdays, I don't even wanna know what weekends are like. But during the day practically no one is there and it's a better time to experience some very fine and very good mircobrews. The bar tending staff is incredibly helpful, flights start around 8 bucks but they'll give you samples for free. On my flight (which is 4 samplers basically) I had Alesmith IPA, Blind Pig (out of the Russian River brewery which is Nor Cal), Old World Hef (Bootleggers), and Requiem Vanilla Coffee Stout (Gentleman Scholar). I rated them, 1. The Hef, 2. Requiem, 3. Alesmith, and 4. Blind pig.
The menu is broken down into IPA and non-IPA, so if you don't like IPA in particular, I'd turn to page two. I also had Pliny the elder, which is an IPA and reminds me of what good dank bud smells like only transformed magically into taste. I had a German Rye beer, which my bar tender didn't care for but I really enjoyed it. And something called "Yellowtail" which was a lager, surprisingly much like every other Lager available in the US but 100 times better than commercially produced swill.
The food is incredibly bomb. Seriously, the home made chips and the chili con carne are to freakin die for. If you live in California, anywhere near Burbank or Los Angeles, you need to go here. They serve the UK style pints, which my cousin from Belfast says "is a real pint". No pitchers from what it looks like, but I suppose you could ask. Anyways Tony's has a website, which is here. It includes a menu, a facebook page, a twitter page, and a few other goodies for you tech savvy people.

Getting onto what we're really about, which is reviewing this weeks beer selection. I wasn't really thrilled with this one, though the Baltika came as a surprise. Here's the break down...starting with Baltika.

Baltika is out of St. Petersburg Russia, has won an award for superior taste by the International Institute of Taste & Quality in Brussels. You can find it at Bevmo for 2.19 for a 22oz bottle. Now this beer was sort of bipolar, I actually had to crack another one open today (which is next to me) because the first time...I was sooo not into this beer at all. It smelled to me like apple cider with a beery feel, it's a nice color and hardly bubbly but in the very beginning I was very surprised at the apple like taste but then it went down hill. I kid you not, the aftertaste was like that of a rubber tire. I nearly dumped it down the drain but I gave some to John (my stepdad) who rather liked it and said I was full of shit. So I gave Baltika another chance. This Russian Bad ass packs 8% ABV (alcohol by Volume), which is just 1% shy of how alcoholic the Old Rasputin is. After half a glass the beer judo whooped my taste buds into accepting it for what it was and actually enjoying it. After a quarter of the glass, the initial gnarly aftertaste went bye bye and I found myself wondering how the Russians managed to make a decent mass produced beer without compromising. Baltika is NOT watered down like Budwiser or the other mass produced swill, it actually has a pretty unique taste that wins you over after beating your tongue up, putting cement shoes on it, and making it sleep with the fishes. Oh yeah, and there's even a little "K" to let you know it's Kosher. Not my favorite but certainly interesting. I thought for sure I'd end up hating it after the first couple sips but I kept drinking anyway. Russia outdid it self on this one and I'm a fan of their Russian Standard Vodka (it's the only one I'll drink, you know that guy who made the periodic table, yeah, he came up with the recipe for that), I can now say I'm a fan of their beer. For how inexpensive this is, you need to go to Bevmo and try it yourself, especially if your a big fan of Russia. I'd recommend drinking it while playing Tetris.

See last weeks blog if you want a picture of it, I believe it's the Russian version which looks exactly the same in English only readable to non-Russian speakers/readers.

Bigfoot Barleywine style Ale...Seriously, wtf was this. I've had Barleywine before (homemade via Oregon fams) which I liked a lot, but this...this was IPA. It's a reddish color and not really too foamy but seriously, it tasted like IPA. If I wanted IPA, I would buy it. It has a nice grassy aftertaste after the initial hoppy-ness you find in an IPA, but it lingers for a second. If you want a sub IPA, then I guess you could buy it. It's 11.99 + tax for a 6 pack, which you might as well buy a 12 pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (which is pretty much an IPA). Don't get me wrong, I like what S.N puts out, and I liked this, but it was a let down as far as wanting something different. I thought maybe it would be sweet but it's actually rather bitter. I'd drink it again if offered, or at a party, but I wouldn't buy this again for any reason other than for a friend who loved it. If you like IPA, you'll like this. If not, stay away from it. My cousin still makes the best Barleywine and so far the best beer, but I doubt anyone could take that title away from him. The label is a little cartoony for my taste, but I suppose that's what makes it adorable in certain ways, I wanted to love it but it let me down the way Robot Unicorn Attack did.

So a hit and miss as far as beer is concerned, be on the lookout Wednesday for the first ever Vlog in which we'll review all 4 of the last 2 blog posts beer.

Next week it's...

Grand Teton Bitch Creek