Ovila Quad

Now time for...Ovila Quad!

Ovila Quad is a barrel-aged concoction that is aged in brandy barrels (it has a cousin aged in wine barrels which may be reviewed separately depending on our whims).  This beer is a belgian trappist style brew.  It's flavor is more yeasty than hoppy.  The Ovila quad is sweet with a subtle hint of brandy at the finish.  It's also quite potent, clocking in at 10.1% alcohol by volume.

Overall, your enthusiastic amateur beer tasters writing this blog did not love it, but we do love it's neat back story (plus it comes with a champagne cork in it!).

Ovila is brewed by Sierra Nevada and some of the proceeds go to support an order of monks in Chico, California at the Abbey of New Clairvaux.  These monks are rebuilding the chapter house from an ancient monastery in Spain that was purchased by William Hearst in the early 20th century and shipped stone by stone to San Francisco.  Hearst purchased the stones from the monastery in order to build another spectacular castle (a la the Hearst Castle, but this time for his mother), but the project fell through as his fortunes waned in the Great Depression.  The bricks were eventually given to the City of San Francisco and sat in huge crates in Golden Gate Park for decades.  They were going to be used to build a museum of medieval history, but the appropriate funding was never secured.  While stored in the park, the crates caught fire and many of the stones were irrevocably damaged.  However, a sufficient number survived to rebuild the chapter house from the original monastery.  The city gifted the remaining stones to the monks in 1994, and they broke ground on the chapter house in 2004.  It is nearly complete now and can be toured by the general public.

Black Like My Heart...

Today's contestant:  EvilTwin Russian Roulette.

The first thing that drew us to this one was the label.  Pretty nice graphic (though you can't necessarily appreciate it in this piece of photography).

Whoa, this is one dark IPA!  Very pretty chocolate color which was not at all what we were expecting when we poured it from the bottle.  Hoppy with a little bit of sweetness and pleasantly bitter.  Quite drinkable, and not the kind of IPA where you can only stand one glass before being overpowered.  All in all, though, we're not convinced it was worth the 15.99 price tag for 1 pint and 0.9 fluid ounces.  But you won't be disappointed if that price point is within your means.

Hello Pliny the Elder

Shortly after moving to San Francisco, we realized we had landed next to the best beer store we had ever stumbled into.  With over 800 craft beers available by the bottle, this store is a true beer-lover's mecca.  We have a lot of work to do.  First up:  Pliny the Elder.

Hoppy yet smooth and not too bitter.  This is a micro brew that even people who drink Miller Lite will enjoy (such as one-half of your humble narrating team).  It's pretty, too.

We were first sold a bottle of this brew under the recommendation of one of the store owners.  They told us, "If you want to be really popular, bring a bottle of this to your next party."  Turns out, she was right.  This beer is difficult to find, and, even if you do manage to track down an elusive supply, you'll be lucky if they agree to sell you more than one bottle at a time.  That's alright.  We'll be back.