Lagunitas Brewing - Night Time Black IPA

I wish more breweries made them, or at least made them this good. Black IPA's are in a league of their own. With all the characteristics of an IPA, juicy and citrus flavors and bitter, sometimes dry, but with roasted malts. Taking your palate to a whole different place.

First came the Lagunitas Day Time, which is a great session IPA. Low abv and extreme drinkability was the idea behind that one. Well, every yin has it's yang. Night time is the dark, dinner beer. Bigger abv at 7.9% yet hardly noticeable. Last year it was available in 22oz bottles but this year it has been put into 6 packs. Cool. More for less. This beer is available in Jan/Feb. Cheers!

My Score: 100

Rate Beer: 99

Beer Advocate: 92

Lagunitas Sucks

So I've probably written on more beers from Lagunitas than anyone, but, it's sort of hard not to talk about all of their work when it's some of the best around and certainly one of my top favorite breweries. For so many reasons beyond beer, too. So they have this seasonal release called Brown Shugga' and at one point in time they were setting out to make another yearly batch, but something didn't turn out quite right and what they had was an entirely different beast. They decided to call it Sucks, mostly as a joke that Lagunitas can't get anything right. Bunch of damn stoners. But, alas, as an accident they just so happened to create one of my favorite beers. But even it too, was to be released seasonally, Not anymore. Ladies and Gents, I give you the year-round, 32oz (that's 1 quart) of liquid gold. Sucks can now be found everywhere, forever. Thanks to the new Chicago brewery Lagunitas can keep up with their ever increasing demands. If you ever find yourself in Chicago with a spare several hours, do yourself a favor and go to the brewery. I promise you'll be blown away. Sucks is a cereal medley of grains; barley, rye, wheat and oats. Liberally dry hopped for dankness. I can't tell you what hops they use because, well, they don't tell anyone. Jerks. Just trust me, go drink a lot of this beer. Cheers!

My Score: 99

Rate Beer: 100

Beer Advocate: 97

Thirsty Thursdays with Dave: Lagunitas IPA

Most people hear IPA (India, not Indiana pale ale) and think of the most overwhelming bitterness and it turns them off. Maybe they just haven't had the right one. Here in the Mitten, we've had Bell's two-hearted shoved down our throats. I do mean that in the best way possible (it was, after all, rated one of the best IPA's in the world. Twice.) but some may not know that IPA's aren't always tongue crushing. For instance, Lagunitas IPA. The west coast has a very distinct style of IPA's which are more citrus-based than anything, as the mid-west and east coast offers more earthy or floral styles. Lagunitas is everywhere finer beers are sold. Pair with cheeses, fish or chicken taco's or, the sun, the beach and a fat joint. Cheers and mahalo!

-Dave