Santa Rosa Brewing
(short notes)
Santa Rosa, California
All beers sampled draft at the brewpub, August 1995.
| Golden Pale | American Pale Ale | ** |
| Strong diacetyl in nose. Decent malty/hoppy start, big diacetyl in middle, bready finish. This beer has the potential to be a good Training Wheel Ale, but the diacetyl kills it. |
| Two Rock Amber | American Amber Ale | **1/2 |
| Maltier than the Golden Pale, and Red in color. More hop flavor in middle, with a distinct diacetyl profile (although not as strong as the Golden Butter.) |
| IPA | American IPA | * |
| Medicinal, smokey phenol overwhelms this beer. There is little or no evidence of the usual IPA flavors; the distracting phenolic is clearly a fault. |
| Charlie Gow informed me that, while the beers were indeed bad that evening (he himself opted for an Anchor Liberty following an attempt at the IPA) they generally were much better. As this is his local brewpub, I imagine that he has created a large enough sample-size to be able to confidently make such a statement. |