First "review": White Labs
Before the meat of this post, I want to digress for a moment first, and explain why "review" is in quotation marks. So, first first, I'll just cut to the chase and give you the capsule: White Labs doesn't make great beer, but that's okay, and they blew my mind.
So, "review." I've been wrestling with what to call these posts I'll be making. Because, they're not reviews, in the sense that we usually use the word. I'm no authority; I'm very up front about the fact that I'm a fairly recent beer enthusiast. Especially in a city like San Diego, there are all sorts of people better equipped and educated than myself to provide proper critical reviews of beer and breweries. I won't be applying any sort of numerical score, or star rating, or even a "thumbs up" to these breweries. My posts are instead simply a way of recording and sharing my experience. I'll tell you what I encountered, what I drank, and what I thought about it all. I will share my own response and experiences, and if any of that helps you decide to go try one of these places yourself, Awesome. But, I'm no critic, and these are not reviews: simply records and musings.
With that said, my first brewery of 2015 was White Labs. (Well, technically, my first brewery of 2015 was Modern Times, since I was there on January 1st, but that doesn't really count since I'm there several times a week. They'll get their own post later.) I've been wanting to check out White Labs for a long time, and given its role as yeast supplier, it seemed like an appropriate way to begin this project.
In case you're unfamiliar with White Labs Inc, they've been around since 1995, when Dr. Chris White decided to improve the way yeast was developed, packaged, sold, and used. Now (according to this random article I found online), White Labs is the premiere supplier of yeast for American craft beer.
And that's the important thing to keep in mind when visiting White Labs: they're an actual lab. They're a lab first, and a brewery second. Don't take that to mean that they don't know what they're doing, or that they don't care about beer. They definitely care about beer. That's why the company exists. But, it's really all about the yeast.
I work part-time in UTC, so I figured I'd roll over to White Labs after work on Tuesday evening. It's down at the end of the Miramar strip of breweries, right before the 15, off Kearny Villa Road. They've got a parking lot of their own, plus there's street parking. I can imagine that during the day, or at a busy time, parking might be difficult, but I had no problems at all. Signage isn't great: it's not quite a "you have to know it's there," but I imagine they get very little random walk-in business. Access to the tasting room is via the parking lot.
So, walking in, I was the only customer. Got there a little before 6:00. During my time there (1.5-2 hours), one woman came in for a growler fill and left, and one other man (clearly a regular) came in. Now personally, I hate other people, so I had no complaints about this at all. They've got a really well-designed space, though, so even at capacity, I feel it wouldn't be too terrible. There's a large bar, with a mix of stools and tall chairs. A couple wall-rails around the room for standing customers, or additional stools. Several tables, both standard and high-top. Plus a good amount of standing room. I appreciate the mixture of seating options.
The space was perfectly lit—not too dim, not too bright. Nice tall ceilings. Couple of TVs. A good space.
32 taps, plus 3 casks. There were no casks on while I was there.
Now, the meat of it. What makes White Labs stand out is that they split their wort (what beer is before it becomes beer, but after it's water and a bunch of grain) into 4 different batches before adding the yeast. They then add different strains of yeast to each batch of wort, so that they wind up with 4 iterations of, say, a milk stout. The 4 are identical, except for the type of yeast used to ferment the beer. The outcome of all of this is that the ideal way of drinking at White Labs is to get a full flight of the 4 different versions and see how big a difference the yeast makes in the final beer.
This is kind of what I was getting at when I said at the beginning that it's okay that their beer isn't great. It's not supposed to be great. Remember, they're trying to sell yeast. The beer is a vehicle for the yeast strain, and anything too interesting or assertive would obscure the unique qualities of the specific yeasts at play. So, when I sat down and asked the helpful bartender (seriously, all the staff I encountered were friendly and informative and all-around great) what he recommended, he responded, slightly frustratingly, by suggesting I should get a flight of whatever I was thinking about brewing, so I could see which yeast I might want to get.
Now, I understand this response. Of course I do. But, when a customer asks for a suggestion, make a suggestion. I know you might not like the same thing I like. But, tell me what you like, what you stand behind, what you feel best-represents your establishment, what other people come to you for. If your suggestion doesn't interest me, then I can always order something else.
So, over the course of my time there, I got the Milk Stout flight, the Saison flight, one taster of the East Coast IPA, and one of the Imperial Stout. When he first suggested that I just try the style of beer I like, I told the bartender that I like the darker stuff, but I was skeptical of whether they were really the best vehicle to see the yeast variation that I wanted to get out of my visit. I said that with such heavy flavors, such strong malt flavors, surely the yeast couldn't do much there, and something lighter would be a better showcase for what made the brewery unique.
He started me with the Milk Stouts, and after my first sniff and sip of each, I apologized and shut my goddamn mouth. Well, obviously, I didn't literally shut my mouth. I needed to drink the beer, after all. But I definitely shut the hell up.
Each of the four was completely different. They weren't all great, but I really didn't care. As a learning experience, it was stunning. The two brewed with #028 (Edinburgh Scottish Ale) and #500 (Trappist Monastery Ale) were delicious. Unsurprisingly, #028 resulted in a very Scotch Ale-like flavor, while #500 almost tasted like a Hefe, giving off some definite banana whiffs. That's not to say that they weren't still Milk Stouts, because they were, but each of the four set up shop at a different spot along that stout spectrum, each with their own complex set of flavors and aromas. Knowing that that difference was just down to the yeast was mind-blowing.
None of the Saisons were as outstanding as #500 Milk Stout, but they still demonstrated a similar range of flavors. I was particularly struck by the variation in clarity and color with the Saisons. They were all in the pale yellow hue, but one of them was a little more coppery, one was a bit paler, etc. More importantly, they ranged from crystal clear to cloudy and impenetrable, and all because of the yeast. Flocculation. Science. Amazing.
The East Coast IPA was with #090, the "San Diego Super Yeast." It resulted in a good example of the style to compare with our more local IPAs: milder and maltier, less bitter, but still very hop-forward. It was nice and pine-y. Not my style, but solid and enjoyable.
The "Border Psycho Imperial Stout" was also made with the Super Yeast, and it was definitely tasty. Like everything I had at White Labs, it was not super distinctive or interesting; it was a textbook Imperial Stout, without anything to set it apart from the pack. A little sweet, nice and roasty, beautifully dark. Textbook. But it was a well-done example of the style, and I enjoyed it greatly.
Other notes I took:
"foamy pours" (A couple of my tasters and at least one of the other customer's were about a third head. Not a huge problem, but a little irritating.)
"window into lab" (One wall has a window allowing you to look into the actual lab on the other side. Nothing too interesting going on while I was there, what with it being 6:00 on a Tuesday night, but going during business hours might be rewarding. Either way, just having the reminder that this was a functional lab was a really interesting element.)
"great music" (This is important. Especially when there aren't too many customers, you've got to have good music going.)
"Dig the flask lighting fixtures" (Several chandeliers made out of Erlenmeyer flasks. Pretty cool looking.)
"Pressure" (At a couple points, I felt a slightly uncomfortable pressure, akin to the feeling of being an inexperienced wine drinker at a fancy wine tasting. Probably more from myself than from the staff, but it was an odd sensation. The feeling that I had to see and identify the different flavors of the yeasts. Probably in part because I was planning on writing about it here? We'll see if that continues to be a thing with future visits.)
"I learned something" (Natch.)
So, all in all, a good way to start this quest of mine. None of the beers blew me away, but they were good. The yeast-tasting aspect of the experience was amazing, and did in fact blow me away. White Labs is definitely a beer nerd kind of place, so I don't know that I'll make it a regular stop in my post-work-drink rotation, but I definitely have a couple friends I'd like to go back there with. Everybody with any interest in beer should definitely go at least once and learn a bit more about what goes into what you're drinking.
