Over the past weekend I along with several friends went on a celebratory trip to Las Vegas, Nevada the so-called Sin City. After my friends missing their flights and myself arriving 7 hours earlier than their deferred flights I found myself wandering into a Pub in Monte Carlo. This aptly named “Pub” happened to have a hell of a tap list and had six Left Coast beers on $5 pint specials for the afternoon. I surely couldn’t miss that offer. After a quick google I learnt that Left Coast Brewing Co. is a chain of Brewpubs and pizza restuarants with four locations in California. The first beer I decided to try was the Hop Juice Double IPA which was chosen for obvious reasons. The Hop Juice is a hop heavy San Diego style Double IPA brewed to a whopping 9.7% ABV with 82 IBU’s through the addition of Cascade, Mt Hood, Centennial, CTZ and Simcoe hops.   Hop Juice is also dry hopped for two weeks with Centennial for extra hop power. The pour is a glorious bright orange in the body and has a thick and sticky frothy head that coats the entire glass after a few sips. The aroma is pronouncedly resinous including noted herbal and pine scents and fresh grapefruit zest notes. A rather full and floral nose with heavy tropical fruits and mild toasted caramalized malts atop the heaps of hop aromas. My first few sips were quite sweet and resin forward with enhanced bitterness and dry astringency after a few more sips. The bitterness and resinous smack is long lasting and adds a few tropical pineapple and grapefruity citrus flavours into the mix. The boozyness goes unnoticed with a prolonged bitterness stealing the show.Light floral notes and subtle toasted malts are subtley shoved aside in the heavy hop centric flavour profile. Overall, a nice Double IPA overall with a heavy staying power and big bold hops throughout.

Grade: 92/100

 

The smaller and equally powerful cousin of the Hop Juice is the Trestles. Trestles is  single IPA brewed with CTZ, Chinook and Simcoe hops as well as dry hopped with Simcoe and Centennial to 92 IBU’s and 6.8% ABV. Trestles pours a brilliant gold with a hue of light orange in the body and a thin creamy off white head that somehow looks out of place. The aroma much less brutal and intense with poignant pine resins but with mild citrus and light floral accented hops aromas. There are a few mild grainy malt and toasted malts notes in the aroma despite the rather golden appearance. Sweet citrusy hops in the first sips with more caramel malts than expecting adding sweetness and a good balance. Mild resinous and piney flavours add an interesting character to the mix with moderately heavy bitterness shortly following. The finish is overly astringent but a solid aftertaste of resinous hops is present. Not exactly tasting as much bitterness and drying hops as expected but a nice well balanced hop heavy brew none-the-less. Overall, a solid brew I am glad I tried. Unfortunately I wanted to try the Voodoo Stout after this but the keg ran dry.

Grade: 89/100