My Beer Buddy had a tough day so we knocked off early and went to one of our favorite watering holes, Lamppost Pizza /Backstreet Brewery in Vista.
Sage is having a Playmaker IPA that he likes and drinks here all the time. I am drinking a Austmarr Baltic Porter. I hadn’t heard of this beer before so I had to give it a try. For a porter I find it on little on the light side of color. It’s more of a dark amber with a beautiful cream color head. It’s on tap here and it’s a little too carbonated for me. But, I do like the bubbles, so that makes me happy.
The smell is light and has a toffee scent to it. It has a full mouthfeel to it. It has a nice coffee/toffee taste to with a nice cocoa finish. The alcohol content is 6.9% but the beer doesn’t have an alcohol taste. Overall, I like it quite well and would definitely put it in my “afternoon” beer category.
Update: Just talked to Dave the brewer here at Backstreet and he told me that the Austmarr Baltic Porter is a specialty of the Backstreet up in Irvine, Calif. (Which explains why I hadn’t heard about it before.) There’s only one keg on tap here, so it’ll be gone before the weekend đ . But on a brighter note Dave says his specialty stout, “Old Vlad Oatmeal Stout”, will be on tap starting Monday. (Beer w00t!) Better yet, for Backstreet Vista’s 3rd “Anniversarye” there’s going to be a whole bunch of good stuff available. (More on that in another post).
