As soon as I saw that Breski’s had the Stone Cold beer…. I was grabbing the keys and jumping in the car for the drive over. I picked up a four-pack of this, as well as a four-pack of the FVCK COVID beer which I did a beer review of previously. This is another one of those beers that falls into the category of ‘got it because of marketing’ over got it because of what hops are in it, or flavors, or adjuncts, or knowing the brewery’s reputation, etc. Like some bad beers I’ve had, like Trial by Wombat, or Jon Voight’s Car, where I got them because of can art or name of the beer – I got this because its the Stone Cold beer.

Early 2000s, high school me was a huge wrestling fan. We watched each RAW, each SmackDown, even the minor shows like Heat, Velocity, Metal, etc. We also watched TNA when they started up with the Wednesday PPVs and their Impact show. We watched WCW at its tail end when it ended and WWF bought them out in 2001. We were big fans of ROH as well, me and D. Scott were at Final Battle 2004. D. Scott, R. Dibeler, and myself have been to a couple of shows, the more notable ones being WWE Unforgiven 2003 and WWE Royal Rumble 2004. Stone Cold was one of our favorites, mine in particular, along with (sad to say now due to everything that’s happened – but – Chris Benoit), Taz, RVD, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, (Rory’s favorite was always Kane) – and that’s just listing the WWF/E wrestlers. Not getting into the indies or puroresu or lucha libre and stuff.

And this might surprise some…. but Stone Cold Steve Austin knows a little bit about drinking…..

Maybe…. just a little.

So what better beer to do a review of on National IPA day than the Stone Cold Steve Austin IPA beer?!

Beer: Broken Skull
Brewery: El Segundo Brewing Company
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: 67
Untappd Description: Broken Skull IPA: A bad-ass 6.7% India Pale Ale designed by Steve Austin and ESBC for the working man & woman. It features Citra, Cascade, and Chinook hops to deliver big flavor with an easy finish. Now stop reading and start enjoying this awesome beer! Cheers! -Steve

According to their Untappd page, El Segundo Brewing Company (ESBC) is from El Segundo California, United States, and is a micro brewery. (I honestly thought they were from Texas, not California, so I learned something new by clicking their Untappd page.) They have 286 unique beers for a 3.87 global average rating (as of 8.6.20). Their Untappd Description reads: “El Segundo Brewing Company is the product of founder, Rob Croxall’s love and passion for beers. More than anything, Rob has a knack for hoppy beers. Being a brewer, he decided leave his longtime career in aerospace financing to establish his own microbrewery. Rob invested in the Los Angeles area. El Segundo Brewing Company specializes in hops that provide outstanding and unique bitter flavors of beers. The brewery focuses on its personal dry hopping brewing method that produces fine aromas. Rob’s great love for hops has become the motivation behind the success of El Segundo Brewing Company today.”

Lets jump right into this review and tackle the beer itself. Appearance is a clear, bubbly pilsner / light West Coast looking IPA. Not very dark, not very malty, completely clear minus the bubbles (very well carbonated), this honestly looks like it could have been a pilsner, or lager, or a lite beer – Miller or Coors – when poured out. Big foamy head to it that just kept bubbling up.

Aroma is light hoppy, and not a whole lot more. Which is pretty typical for an IPA; especially American / West Coast style, etc. There’s no adjuncts, nothing added to it, no ‘milkshake’ or ‘New England’ – ness to it, its a straight legit IPA, in the old vein. The hop combination of citra, cascade, and chinook is pretty distinguishable. I grow cascade and chinook hops at home, and I can pick out their aromas pretty distinctly. Citra is also another easy to pick out hop aroma and flavor, mainly because its name is a pretty big indicator. There is no other real aromas to this, its just hops and ‘beer is beer’ smell. No malt, no sweetness; just the citrus, grassy, slight lemon, a little bit of pine, that comes from the combination of hops in this.

Flavor… and taste…. is where this falls a bit flat. And no, the beer itself isn’t flat…. its just, there’s not a whole lot here. Its actually pretty bland. Me and D. Scott decided it tasted like a ‘starter IPA’. Do you have a friend who you want to start drinking IPAs, and want to move them away from Miller Lite, Coors Lite, and Yuengling Lager? Then this is the beer for you! And being an easily marketable beer – “The Stone Cold beer!” or “The Stone Cold IPA” it should be an easy pitch for you to get your buddy to drink it. There just sadly isn’t a whole lot going on here flavor wise. Its not bad, there’s no off flavors, nothing tastes horrible, no lingering after taste thats bad…. its just underwhelming. Its watery, its a bit thin, it tastes like hops in water, and not a whole lot much of anything else going on. The hops don’t even come off as that strong and don’t give you a complete kick or gut-punch hop flavor either. The hops give off a slight, very light, citrus flavor, like a lemon peel in water kind of thing, there is a little bit of grassy and earth notes and just a wee bit of a pine / pinecone hop taste, but none of it is severe, or even strong. That isn’t to say this is a horrible beer and you won’t like it, its a perfectly accessible and perfectly fine beer, for 12$ (a little bit less I think, maybe a little over 12.10$ with tax) a four pack, this is a very fine, crushable even (only 6.7% ABV and the light flavor makes it go down easier) beer, that you and a buddy can kill an evening playing video games and drinking this. So in that way it makes for a perfect beer for Stone Cold Steve Austin…. and that’s the bottom line…………….. Because Stone Cold Said So!

Kick.

Stunner.

Ultimately though, my opinion of this, if given the choice between this and the many other options out there, might be closer to Stacy Keibler’s:

My Untappd Rating: ***.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 8.6.20)

I want to think some of that rating bump is namesake and marketing, but maybe others genuinely loved it or at least liked it better than I did. I dunno, if you’ve had it, leave me a comment and let me know what your thoughts were on it. Maybe I’m way off base. Maybe the cans we got were different or off. I dunno, let me know, I’d love to hear from you guys!

As always, thanks for reading everyone. Check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, you can find the links for them at the top and bottom of each page. We’re almost up to 200 Twitter Followers, so please click the follow and like buttons on each of our social media accounts, it adds up and really helps!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

And that’s the bottom line…. because Stone Cold Said So! Austin 3:16 says I just opened a cap of whoop ass on you! WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT?!

Oh…. I could go on all day doing this! Better stop and have another beer. Cheers all!

Happy National IPA Day!

-B. Kline

Back with a beer review – and its been a while for one of those. The most recent was This is Nut the Fluff Your Looking For by Fourscore Beer Co on March 24th and before that it was the Irish Car Bomb by Rotunda Brewing on March 16th. This beer review is a bit different… because this beer was released over two years ago. This is a science project beer review, similar to the Black and Blue Tastee beer review I did. I figure since I have the entire month of April off, I’ll do like November, and release a new blog post (at least one new blog post) each day. It’ll help me fight to keep my sanity anyway. Also, as a heads up, its come to my attention as I’ve started writing this, that the Y-U-H-N-M buttons on my laptop’s keyboard aren’t working the best (I have to press at certain angles or all but hit them). Thats what I get for letting my ten year old do her first from-home school project on my computer during this quarantine. So hopefully, I’ll catch all the errors, but sorry if any pop up.

So while everyone else was busy in the house, I cleaned out the beer fridge a bit, and in the process, found this gem buried waaaaaaaay deeeeeeeeep in the back of it, behind some September Spring House IPAs and a wet hop IPA can from Pizza Boy done with Sunny Brae hops farm (which sadly, is no more). I might due science experiment beer reviews of those beers as well, we’ll see.

I’m not a drain pour type guy, even when a beer is old, or what have you, I typically finish it (even if that entails doing a chug and just getting rid of it that way). So I had to crack this bad boy open and give it a try.

Also, as those who have been following the blog know, I’m a big Seinfeld fan – as my Haze Charmer review can attest. This particular reference stems from the episode – The Mom and Pop Store (Season 6 – Episode 8). In it, George Costanza buys what he thinks is Jon Voight (the actor)’s car. It turns out its not the real actor’s car, but a periodontist.

Ok, so lets just get to the review, enough about the sillyness that is Seinfeld and how I’ve managed to find a two year old can in the back of my beer fridge!

Beer: Jon Voights Car
Brewer: RAR Brewinng
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

My original check-in on Untappd, from January 2018:
Super tart. A little sweet but not cloying. Downright delicious. The plum isn’t as noticeable as the boysenberry or currants. Thanks Matt!

(I had gotten a four-pack from a friend in a trade, thus the shout-out.)

But, lets break it down, now.

Appearance is a vibrant, pretty, royal purple. Foamy still with a great amount of carbonation still. Its sparkly, its pretty, it looks just like a sour. Despite its age, nothing looks off, even leaves a nice purplish foamy head and leaves good lacing too.

Aroma its not as potent as it probably would have been. Its still pretty heavy on plums, some notes of blackberries, currants, boysenberries, and possibly other berries. It smells like most sours do, fruity, tart, some pungent-ness.

Taste is still there, but this is probably where it dips the most. The plums taste a lot more acidic, a lot more funky than tart or even sour, theres an underlying heavyness to this, that I doubt was there the first time (especially for only a 4% sour). You do get some notes of boysenberry, currant, etc, but not really strong or anywhere near as powerful as I imagine it used to be. This has settled some, so the sweetness is pretty much out of it, but its still not cloying and the mouthfeel still feels right.

My original Untappd rating (two years ago): ****.75
My rating for it *NOW*: ****
Global Rating: 4.07 (as of 4.1.20)

Sorry this took so long to post. It is incredibly frustrating having to all but smash my fist through my keyboard to get the U-N-Y-M-H buttons to work, never realized just how often I use those letters!

And I know I should have done some kind of April Fools post…. but I just can’t bring myself to doing it. This past twenty days, and the next thirty days, feels like a joke enough. So please everyone, take care of yourselves, distance, washing, love your loved ones, help your communities. Cheers!

-B. Kline