- 13,924
- 5,900
Ahhhh snap.
These other local NM breweries need to step it up ten fold
La Cumbre's Malpais Stout just got canned this week for the first time. I'll be picking some up tomorrow.
They dominate the IPA consumer market (marble is a close second). They dominate the hefeweizen market (not much is close to be honest). They will soon dominate the stout market with this bad boy. I've had it for years. I think it's on the bitter side, so the 7.5% isn't as sweet as some other breakfast stouts or chocolate/oatmeal or imperial stouts. It's as solid as any other 90-95 rated BA easily available stouts. The 7.5% makes it an in between a normal stout, and an imperial so the ratings or comparisons can be tough.
Canned or bottled NM brewery beers just aren't as prevalent as other states appear to be. Most are still on their way up from the ground floor, so they aren't even thinking of packaging.. But for me atleast, tha's where the savings is.. A $4.50 pint of OKAY beer is okay to do once in awhile. Getting a full growlers worth for $10 is where the deal of the weekend is. I will soon be showing more love towards La Cumbre's product line. They have done it right from the beginning.
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Tonight I had a stand alone La Cumbre Elevated IPA to finish off the case I bought awhile back (hope you enjoy those yeahitsRUST. My same dated cans were WONDERFUL).. I don't know if I will ever try a IPA blind tasting again. I see that brewing news is doing a march madness style bracket again this year
http://www.brewingnews.com/nipac/
Has anyone taken part in this sort of bracket challenge tasting? I tell myself I would never do it again because my taste buds were just totally shot after one or two IPAs. I could sense some differences. But the vast majority probably went to waste.. Even tasting beers at the bar can be a challenge. It's not feasible to try a beer empty stomach every time you want to try one.. La Cumbre Elevated IPA in cans is amazing on an empty stomach as your first beer of the night.
I'll be popping the top of my 2-14-14 Project Dank bomber shortly. I'll post up some photos/reviews soon
Edit:
Here we go
This is one of the only beers I have gone back and forth with constantly. I like it, I love it. I like it a touch but the price is out of range for its "value". I'm still conflicted. On draft, it's the best Beer I have ever had... etc..
An hour after having the elevated, I pop open the dank bomber. A near 1.5x potency in smell/aroma is present compared to elevated.. Taste, as I have mentioned many times before leads to a much thicker mouthfeel. It feels like a 8.5% DIPA. Taste this time around was borderline dank onions, if that makes sense. It had a true sense of that raw piney citrus flavors. That may be more to do with the batch #4 than the overall style of the beer (the tasting this weekend showed the 1/31/14 more favorable to me). It's a beer garnering near perfect scores online. I don't know if its exactly worth it. I feel its much more accessible and cheaper counterpart, which has been around going on 3 years is a STAPLE product (elevated IPA) deserving of a higher BA score.
The resolution is that dank may be something I drink brewery only on draft, experiecing the greatness outside of the bottle, and elevated is something that seems to thrive in brewery and/or canned.
With every batch, it may be one I ultimately try, as I'm just sucked into this craze.. Trade wise, it's an iffy proposition unless ya'll really want to try it.
These other local NM breweries need to step it up ten fold
La Cumbre's Malpais Stout just got canned this week for the first time. I'll be picking some up tomorrow.
They dominate the IPA consumer market (marble is a close second). They dominate the hefeweizen market (not much is close to be honest). They will soon dominate the stout market with this bad boy. I've had it for years. I think it's on the bitter side, so the 7.5% isn't as sweet as some other breakfast stouts or chocolate/oatmeal or imperial stouts. It's as solid as any other 90-95 rated BA easily available stouts. The 7.5% makes it an in between a normal stout, and an imperial so the ratings or comparisons can be tough.
Canned or bottled NM brewery beers just aren't as prevalent as other states appear to be. Most are still on their way up from the ground floor, so they aren't even thinking of packaging.. But for me atleast, tha's where the savings is.. A $4.50 pint of OKAY beer is okay to do once in awhile. Getting a full growlers worth for $10 is where the deal of the weekend is. I will soon be showing more love towards La Cumbre's product line. They have done it right from the beginning.
------------
Tonight I had a stand alone La Cumbre Elevated IPA to finish off the case I bought awhile back (hope you enjoy those yeahitsRUST. My same dated cans were WONDERFUL).. I don't know if I will ever try a IPA blind tasting again. I see that brewing news is doing a march madness style bracket again this year
http://www.brewingnews.com/nipac/
Has anyone taken part in this sort of bracket challenge tasting? I tell myself I would never do it again because my taste buds were just totally shot after one or two IPAs. I could sense some differences. But the vast majority probably went to waste.. Even tasting beers at the bar can be a challenge. It's not feasible to try a beer empty stomach every time you want to try one.. La Cumbre Elevated IPA in cans is amazing on an empty stomach as your first beer of the night.
I'll be popping the top of my 2-14-14 Project Dank bomber shortly. I'll post up some photos/reviews soon
Edit:
Here we go
This is one of the only beers I have gone back and forth with constantly. I like it, I love it. I like it a touch but the price is out of range for its "value". I'm still conflicted. On draft, it's the best Beer I have ever had... etc..
An hour after having the elevated, I pop open the dank bomber. A near 1.5x potency in smell/aroma is present compared to elevated.. Taste, as I have mentioned many times before leads to a much thicker mouthfeel. It feels like a 8.5% DIPA. Taste this time around was borderline dank onions, if that makes sense. It had a true sense of that raw piney citrus flavors. That may be more to do with the batch #4 than the overall style of the beer (the tasting this weekend showed the 1/31/14 more favorable to me). It's a beer garnering near perfect scores online. I don't know if its exactly worth it. I feel its much more accessible and cheaper counterpart, which has been around going on 3 years is a STAPLE product (elevated IPA) deserving of a higher BA score.
The resolution is that dank may be something I drink brewery only on draft, experiecing the greatness outside of the bottle, and elevated is something that seems to thrive in brewery and/or canned.
With every batch, it may be one I ultimately try, as I'm just sucked into this craze.. Trade wise, it's an iffy proposition unless ya'll really want to try it.
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