Brewed By: Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma, California
Purchased: 22oz bomber bought at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, Illinois; 2013
Style/ABV: Imperial Red Ale, 8.65%
Reported IBUs: 76.92
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away or some shit, I had me Lagunitas' Lucky 13.alt, which was more sublime than heroin trips gone overdose. Tonight I'm drinking the regular Lucky 13. Any beer that uses "Mondo" in the name should come with a doobie and Billabong T-Shirt. I digress. About Lagunitas (Pronounced: "LAH-goo-KNEE-tuss"):
Lagunitas is a brewery I dabbled with when I hit up their controversially named "Kronik" (Lagunitas Censored) back in November 2010. The Lagunitas website has some cool info on the brewery and the beer, and can be found here. The brewery was founded in 1993 out in Lagunitas, California, and has since moved to Petaluma in California. It seems like Lagunitas is run by a bunch of deviant madmen geniuses, and the brewery appears to be a true grassroots movement, if you catch my drift.
According to Lagunitas, the Lucky 13 was originally a 13th anniversary release for 2006. The Lucky 13.alt uses lighter malts (hence the blonde-haired woman on the bottle). The regular Lucky 13 (tonight's beer) features a brunette-haired woman on the bottle. Using my dick wizardry, I can deduce that tonight's beer will have darker malts than the Lucky 13.alt. According to my bottle, tonight's beer clocks in at 8.65% ABV, and packs 76.92 IBUs.
As you kind of expect, the beer pours an amber/caramel color, and kicks up two to three fingers of dense, soapy, off-white/amber head. In bright light, the beer is a magnificent amber-red color; the head is soapy and sticky and leaving plenty of lacing; the body looks to be filtered, and has nice tiny carbonation bubbles.
The aroma on this beer is nuts. Lagunitas is doing something right with their Lucky 13, because damn. As I was pouring this beer out I was getting blasted with sweet, bready citrus, resinous tropical fruits, and cake/toffee/brown sugar goodness. There's big brown sugar, pineapple, oranges, mango, and some plum. It's like their Brown Shugga' had an illegitimate love child with their Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale.
This isn't quite as mind-blowing as the Lucky 13.alt was (as per my memory), but this is about as good as a malty hop bomb can get. This beer lays on sweet, sappy, resinous citrus: orange, mango, pineapple, hints of plum. The whole thing is supported by a bready/cake malt base, with big brown sugar, caramel, bread, and biscuit.
This is dense, pushing a full-bodied mouthfeel. The mouthfeel is fat and bready with sweet resinous punch, but is surprisingly drinkable for around 8.7%. This beer screams Lagunitas, and if you've drank a few of their beers, you could probably pull this one out in a blind tasting with ease. That said, palate depth is outstanding, and complexity is not far behind. This veers towards sweet and bready, with resinous/sweet citrus up front; resinous sap and cakey bread in the middle; and bittering-but-still-malt-foward sweet hops on the back. The finish is nutty, bready, and then punches in a nice dryness.
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| Lagunitas Lucky 13 |
As you kind of expect, the beer pours an amber/caramel color, and kicks up two to three fingers of dense, soapy, off-white/amber head. In bright light, the beer is a magnificent amber-red color; the head is soapy and sticky and leaving plenty of lacing; the body looks to be filtered, and has nice tiny carbonation bubbles.
The aroma on this beer is nuts. Lagunitas is doing something right with their Lucky 13, because damn. As I was pouring this beer out I was getting blasted with sweet, bready citrus, resinous tropical fruits, and cake/toffee/brown sugar goodness. There's big brown sugar, pineapple, oranges, mango, and some plum. It's like their Brown Shugga' had an illegitimate love child with their Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale.
This isn't quite as mind-blowing as the Lucky 13.alt was (as per my memory), but this is about as good as a malty hop bomb can get. This beer lays on sweet, sappy, resinous citrus: orange, mango, pineapple, hints of plum. The whole thing is supported by a bready/cake malt base, with big brown sugar, caramel, bread, and biscuit.
This is dense, pushing a full-bodied mouthfeel. The mouthfeel is fat and bready with sweet resinous punch, but is surprisingly drinkable for around 8.7%. This beer screams Lagunitas, and if you've drank a few of their beers, you could probably pull this one out in a blind tasting with ease. That said, palate depth is outstanding, and complexity is not far behind. This veers towards sweet and bready, with resinous/sweet citrus up front; resinous sap and cakey bread in the middle; and bittering-but-still-malt-foward sweet hops on the back. The finish is nutty, bready, and then punches in a nice dryness.
I'm feeling a Strong Above-Average on this. It's not quite as good as the Lucky 13.alt as per my recollection, and I think the Brown Shugga' and the A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' offer a slightly more fulfilling experience from top to bottom, but this beer is absolutely stellar otherwise. It's also super cheap. Bombers of this were sitting on the shelf for like 4.99. That's a steal. I'm about to pair this with a spicy quesadilla. Spicy as in I'm adding ghost pepper sauce. The sweeter notes in this would do well with wings and sweeter spices or peppers like Habanero or the Bhut Jolokia. For some reason this beer also reminds me of a Margarita, so I feel like Mexican food pairings would work. It's quite tasty, and at 4.99 a bomber you have no reason to not check it out.
Random Thought: Lagunitas is coming to Chicago...and although they've had some delays, I do look forward to their arrival. It's going to be pretty sweet. The craft beer scene in Chicago is booooming!
That was awesome!! Thank you. I am a recent concert to solely beer libations now. I have no idea how you are able to make, nuances, flavors, tastes, smells...
ReplyDeleteI just like the #lagunitas brand I've determined. Idk if I've had the blonde Lucky 13. Right now, partaking of the one you speak of here. I have gathered that I like #lagunitas perhaos bc they are more hoppy.
I am totally with you on the ghost pepper, although I wonder... do you now know of the Carolina reaper? It us the spiciest now of world supposedly. Its home is just down the street from me. I still have not tried but one of these days. Tonight though, the brown #lagunitas is being paired with yakirori
Again thanks for sharing your thoughts. They were great as well aa informative, interesting and helpful
L