Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale (revisited)

This is one of my all-time favorite beers, and it's brewed locally here in San Diego @ the Karl Strauss brewery. San Diego has lousy water, but it's great for bread and beer. And this beer is KILLER, great flavor, body and taste, and check out that color!

Mission Blonde Ale

WOW! All kinds of flavor without being loud or obnoxious. Really a standout beer. Expensive 22 ounce bottle, but worth it. I'll definitely try this one again. Brewed locally, too.

Stella Artois

Had I tried this beer before? I forget. Anyway, I picked up a six-pack of Stella from Trader Joe's. Opened one up while I was making dinner and listening to A Prairie Home Companion. Tasted nice, not a ton of flavor. Opened another one and drank that. Does this shit have any alcohol in it? Opened a third one. Still searching for any kind of buzz.

Opened a forth one. Certainly drinkable, not bitter. Kind of boring. Like dating some pleasant girl who has absolutely nothing to say whatsoever, no opinions, no funny stories, nothing. Drank the fifth and sixth ones. Maybe I haven't had any beer for a long time. Is this it? I felt nothing. Aside from a certain lightening of my wallet, this beer was like seven bucks. Pretty label. That may be the best thing I have to say about it.

There are better beers out there waiting for you to locate them.

This blog has moved

This blog is now located at http://wagner-beer.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://wagner-beer.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Tsingtao

A beer that will punch your lights out and steal the money hidden in your shoe. Tsingtao is a rough town from what I've read and this beer means business. Decent flavor without much polish. I used to drink Tsingtao just because I was so amused to see a beer from China available. It's decent but not great.

 

Sapporo

Sapporo isn't any better than when I tried it earlier this year, but look at this little tiny can. I wonder what these are for? Stick one in your lunchbox?

 

Shiner Bock

Good, solid beer with no personality. Inoffensive.

 

Sam Adams Octoberfest

BOOM! Earth-shaking flavor!!! This is the best beer I've tasted so far, no kidding! OUT-FUCKING-STANDING!!!!! This beer KICKS ASS! Brilliant construction and finish are words that come to mind -- it looks great, it smells great, it tastes great! THIS is what beer ought to be!!!

 

Pilsner Urquel

Somewhat reptilian-tasting beer. Kind of a weird Iron Curtain vibe to it. Not impressed. Better beers to be found elsewhere.

 

Sam Adams Pale Ale

Not a beer for me! I appreciate it's well-made but I did not care for it at all, kind of like radiccicho or one of those weird bitter-tasting salad lettuces. Just not anything I'm interested in. It's beer, it's well-made, but it's not what I'm interested in as far as beer goes. Not recommended, but it's not bad beer.
To each their own.

 

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

An excellent beer with a high fuck-you-up factor. Looks kind of red in the photo, doesn't it..? Goes well with food. Plan on an early bedtime if you drink more than a few of these... A bit of a bite, but nothing too objectionable.

 

Pete's Strawberry Blonde

Not a bad beer, but a weird taste. If I were stuck on a desert island and a crate of this washed up with the tide I wouldn't hesistate to drink it, but I can't imagine trying another one otherwise. Strawberry is just not a taste I'm in a hurry to associate with beer. Definitely unique, I guess would be a polite thing to say. Well-made, but offbeat.

 

Spaten

OK, but not great. Ordinary flavor. Somewhat deflated tasting beer. Maybe it was the trip from Munich? That's not exactly around the corner from San Diego where I am. Still, I get the impression that this beer is not one of the best around, even if you lived in Munich. Not recommended.

 

Red Stripe

Rough edges, not too impressive. Can't say I'll go this route again. Just not that great. I'd had this before and remembered it as being a lot better.

Kind of disappointing. Not recommended.

 

Stone Pale Ale

BITTER!!! Good flavor, but way fucking bitter. Too bitter.

 

Sam Adams Summer Ale

"Wheat Ale Brewed With Grains of Paradise and Lemon Zest" -- a lot of flavor and no bitter taste at all. Really impressive!

The label reads "Refreshing, crisp and tangy, Summer Ale is brewed with wheat malt, lemon zest, and Grains of Paradise, a long-forgotten and mysterious brewing spice used by Renaissance brewers centuries ago. Inspired by the traditional Belgian White ales, Summer Ale is an American wheat ale from one of America's original craft brewers."

I saw Jim Koch on FX's "The X Show" and I've heard him on the BC and Woody Show on KIOZ Rock 105.3 here in the badlands (San Diego) and he's got a really well-developed sense of humor and is sharp as the proverbial tack.

I've gotta say, this is one impressive beer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! No where near as heavy as its color would make you think. Really outstanding.

 

Warsteiner

Made my eyes blurry... ha ha ha, just kidding. Gotta love digital cameras. Ordinary but drinkable beer. Not highly recommended.

 

Widmer Brothers Wheat Beer

Unfiltered, it says. thick beer. suffocating. maybe I could mix this half-and-half with the Dos Equis..? Good flavor, not bitter. Really not bad.

 

Sam Adams Spring Ale

No photo?

Delicious, refreshing beer with an odd little bite of bitterness at the end, which is kind of surprising. Another excellent Sam Adams beer.

 

Sapporo Draft Beer

Thin-tasting, mediocre beer. A real disappointment. It seems like I'd enjoyed this beer a lot more in years past. Has it always been this water and undistinguished..?
Definitely not worth trying. The only disappointing beer I've tried since I started these pages a couple weeks ago.
Not recommended.

 

Tecate

Great summertime beer. Not too sophisticated but it's got good flavor and if you've ever been way down south then you've got a lot of good memories associated with Tecate.


It may not be great beer, but it's good stuff. Recommended!

4/17/10 update: The thing about Tecate is that you need a LOT of it. This is a great beer for people who like to drink a LOT of beer. Last weekend I drank a couple of 22 ounce bottles of Red Trolley and felt those, this weekend I drank three 22 ounce Tecate cans (shrinkwrapped in a three-pack) and felt not so much. VOLUME is key to enjoying Tecate. Buy a 24-pack if the store doesn't have a 36-pack. And pack them in a sink full of crushed ice. And hammer them down, one after another. Excellent summertime beer. Proper use of Tecate will give you a huge beer belly, but it's worth it.

Rolling Rock

Too sweet. Tastes like candy from some sleazy roadside carnival. Not actually beer, but a disappointing simulation. And I have five more of these little pups to enjoy. Oh, lucky moi.

 

Peroni

Broad, clean taste, somewhat bitter. Infinitely preferable to Rolling Rock, which I’m trying the same night as this birra. Overall I wasn’t too impressed, but after a Rolling Rock I can tell that this is A) real beer B) good beer. It may not be the best beer in the world, but it’s a hell of a lot better than Rolling Rock.

 

Negra Modelo

Fantastic beer. Highly recommended. One of the best Mexican beers I've ever tasted. Actually one of the best beers from anywhere I've ever tasted. Lots of flavor. Goes great with food. Excellent beer!!!

 

Newcastle Brown Ale

GREAT BEER. OUTSTANDING flavor. Really one of the best beers I've tried. Very highly recommended. Outstanding beer.

 

Molson

Excellent. Excellent flavor. Balanced and deep. Highly recommended.

 

Miller High Life

My graphic design professor, James Van Eimerin, was drinking a High Life or two when we ran our four-color made color (ie stripped, not separated) senior graphic design project on a tiny printing press one weekend. So it had nostalgia going for it. And high hopes. Hey, he'd forgotten more about graphic design that I've ever learned, so maybe he knew about beer, too.
It's ok beer. Nothing too exciting. Not bad, though. And check out the woman in the red sombrero on the can... is that weird or what..?
Kinda plain, kinda middle-of-the-road... ordinary, in a word, I guess.

 

San Miguel

Could be worse. Not too impressive compared with other good beers, though. Something of an underdeveloped taste, possibly having to do with mistreatment by the Spanish and Americans and Japanese over the years. And Catholicism. I can't decide. It IS beer and it isn't bad, but there's something that isn't quite realized in this brew.

 

Miller Genuine Draft

Bright, clean flavor. Refreshing. Good beer. I used to drink this back in the late 80s. Really good beer. Significantly better than Miller High Life. RECOMMENDED!

 

Meteor Pils

Sensational beer, from France of all places. I didn't realize there WERE any French beers (kind of like French rock music). This is GREAT beer, kind of a lemon taste, TONS of flavor, no bite -- OUTSTANDING BEER! You have gotta try this one if you can find it. Superlative!!! It tastes like a 1970s Van Halen album sounds. No kidding, you have GOT to try this one!!!

 

Longboard Lager

Good beer. I took a vacation to Maui in 2002 and was surprised at how few Hawaiian beers there were to try -- like none aside from this beer, and I've since learned that the BOTTLED beer from Kona Brewing Company is brewed ON THE MAINLAND!!! HELP!!!
Apparently the costs of brewing and bottling in Hawaii are prohibitive. The Kona Brewing Company brews KEG beer on the big island. Weird.
Anyway, this is GOOD beer! Really enjoyed it. Clean, flavorful, no bite to speak of (aside from the price! Ha! Ha!). Recommended.

 

Labatt Blue

Clean, bright flavor, very slight bitter aftertaste. Excellent beer.

 

Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale

I assume "Red Trolley" means the famous (but before-my-time) RED CARS that ran all over southern California before the auto makers and Goodyear bought them out and scrapped them -- oh yeah. But they got sued. And had to pay the maximum fine. All of $50,000. Replaced a working mass transit system with endless cars and freeways and traffic jams.
But that's another story. THIS BEER KICKS MAJOR BUTT. Seriously. OUTSTANDING flavor, ZERO bitterness -- really, REALLY great beer! I was seriously impressed! Karl Strauss apparently knows what he's doing. If you can find this beer, TRY IT!!! Persistent head, but ask any guy if persistent head is a bad thing...
: ' )
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

 

4/15/10: I bought a couple of these this past weekend to enjoy while grilling for the first time this year. I'd forgotten just how good this beer was. Really satisfying. Terrific flavor with a smooth taste and finish. Expensive but worth it. Real depth of flavor.

Karl Strauss Oktoberfest

OUTSTANDING BEER! Sensational flavor and finish. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! One of the best beers I've ever tasted. I know Karl Strauss is based in San Diego but I hope the beer is distributed far and wide. INCREDIBLE beer! OUTSTANDING!

 

Karl Strauss Amber

Karl Strauss brews here in San Diego (aka The Badlands) and I must say he knows what he's doing. This beer fucking rocks. A lot of flavor and zero bitterness. Very highly recommended. My ex-wife works across the street from the Karl Strauss Restaurant in town and they refer to it as "Building K" as if it were part of their facility -- they always take candidates to lunch there. It was built as a Japanese restaurant, so the architecture is somewhat odd. But the food is good and the beer is GREAT. Truly one of the high points of living in San Diego. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. If you can find this beer, you ought to try it. It's pretty darn good!

 

Kirin Ichiban

I like Japanese food, I like Japanese women... but this beer didn't do a thing for me. It tasted flat and uninspired.
A real disappointment. I seem to remember ENJOYING Japanese beers back in the 80s, but then I was dating an Asian woman, so... wait, that has nothing to do with it, does it..? It's not as if she douched with Japanese beer... so never mind.
Carbonated yet flat-tasting. Nothing special. I was disappointed and somewhat surprised at how disappointed I was with this beer.

 

Kirin Lager

Decent beer. Oddly this was more palatable than the "Kirin Ichiban" beer. Kinda thin, though.

 

Hinano

Excellent beer from Tahiti. Champagne-like flavor, delicate flavor and carbonation. Excellent beer.

 

Heineken Dark

Not so good. Not as good as I expected, nor as I remember it being. Bitter, weird foamy head. Not as much flavor as I expected.
Overrated. Oversold. Not recommended.

 

Heineken

OK, but not that great. Kind of an odd bitter flavor, just a small sour note of bitterness that doesn't work in its favor.
Decent beer, but not great.

 

Guiness

THICK, HEAVY beer. You almost need a sharp knife and a fork to consume this beer. I've actually mixed it with other beers to make it a little less sludgelike. Excellent flavor, but it drinks more like an elixir than a beverage. Cool little CO2 unit inside the bottle which apparently carbonates it when you open it. Not for the faint of heart. This is serious beer.

 

Kona Brewing Pacific Golden Ale

I don't have any strong impression of this beer. I remember it was very expensive (found it on Maui, where EVERYTHING is expensive).

 

Gosser

I've really been enjoying this beer (2002). It's clean-tasting and not bitter at all. Very refreshing. Reminds me of Tecate without the bite-back. Really an excellent blond beer (I hesitate to say "light" beer since from what I've tasted "light" beers ought to be used to extinguish forest fires only, or consumed strictly by people who don't like beer...).
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

 

St. Pauli Girl

Good beer. Nothing outstanding or memorable, but a solid, decent beer. No complaints, but nothing to paint the cave walls over, either.

 

Gordon Biersch Pilsner

Good beer. Well-made.

 

Gordon Biersch Marzen

Thick, slick, with lots of flavor, not bitter. Heavy yet indifferent.
Beautiful color but no one home.

 

Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock

Beautiful color. Decent beer. Flavorful.

 

Foster's

Surprisingly good beer. Very slight bite at the end but overall a flavorful, tasty brew. VERY GOOD!

 

Fat Weasel Lager

Foul-tasting, dirty beer. Ugly experience. This beer tastes like cheap sex or worse. Somewhat bitter, somewhat oily, wholly unpleasant.
Definitely NOT RECOMMENDED.

 

Firestone Lager

LOTS of flavor. Good beer, if a little too loud... like some loud girl who's fun at a party and maybe not so much fun when you find that she's loud ALL of the time.
Overall good flavor, and really a lot of it. Just a bit too much flavor, which sounds odd, but that's how I found this beer to be.

 

Firestone Double Barrel

No shit. strong, lots of flavor, bitter. Good beer, but not for the mild-mannered. beer drinker.

 

Dos Equis

Watery, not a lot of flavor. Kind of a watered-down Tecate.