Beer of the Week: Electric Blues

From the Beer Writer: Four months ago, a new brewery quietly joined San Marcos’ suds scene. Dubbed Blue Fire Brewing, it’s a family affair with brewing being handled by a pair of brothers who graduated from MiraCosta College‘s acclaimed BrewTech vocational program. They credit the lessons learned at the college’s brewery-equipped classroom for what they’ve been able to accomplish on a professional level. This week’s featured beer, Electric Blues, has me wondering if BrewTech’s curriculum includes a history component. Built around classic C hops, fortified with a sturdy, semisweet malt backbone and at the top of the single-IPA ABV (alcohol-by-volume) spectrum, it’s a throwback to the West Coast IPAs of old. And by old I mean well before the bros that brewed it could drink…legally, anyway. With a peachy nose and flavors of apricot, orange and pine needles plucked from the forest floor, followed by dankness and resin in the finish, it’s a youthful take on a classic that’s respectful, tasty and (look out) old-school strong.

From the Brewer: “The beer pours a vibrant yellow with a fluffy white head. The aroma is like lemon-zested pine needles; bright citrus up front with a layer of dank pine all around. It’s assertively bitter on the palate with flavors of grapefruit and lemony citrus lingering for a bit. Those hoppy compounds leave the back of the tongue tingling and your mouth coated. It’s very quaffable for the amount of flavor that is packed into this 7.5% ABV brew. The malt bill on this IPA, which we treated to reduce gluten, is meant to be complementary to the hops, providing a subtle backbone of bready malt character. This iteration of Electric Blues is bittered with CTZ hops, with Cascade and Chinook providing the lead roles in whirlpool and dry-hop.”—Tommy Gordon, Brewer, Blue Fire Brewing