- Location
- San Diego
We loosely describe our local "pub" The Hop Stop, as our version of The Drovers Arms (minus the character of a Yorkshire country pub). Situated in the historical part of town, it's surrounded by trees with an extensive beer garden. Right across the road is the railway preservation society, with their 0-4-0 narrow gauge steam loco, dating from 1907.
We nipped in there on Boxing Day after checking out their taplist.
Speaking of steam locos, I started with Loco Motives (6.2%), a WCIPA collaboration between El Segundo Brewing and Burgeon Brewing. I've long been a fan of El Segundo, who are known for their WCIPA's, Stouts and Barley Wines. They hardly ever brew a hazy IPA.
Burgeon are from up the road, in Carlsbad, but I couldn't work out what part they played in this collaboration as it had El Segundo written all over it.
Hop-wise, it featured Simcoe, Citra Dynaboost and the newly named Krush hops. This last one is interesting in that this hop was originally bred by the Pacific North West's Hop Breeding Company way back in 2007. For 17-years, it was known as hop HBC 586 as an experimental variety, finally passing the audition as a commercial hop brand in 2024.
With this trio of hops, Loco Motives, gave both fruity and tropical flavours (think orange, pineapple, mango and peach), with a resiny woodiness in the finish. With zero bitterness, this was a far cry from the old malt-driven IPA's, that we used to enjoy on the east coast, but still a delicious light-bodied and totally packed full of flavour IPA.
We nipped in there on Boxing Day after checking out their taplist.
Speaking of steam locos, I started with Loco Motives (6.2%), a WCIPA collaboration between El Segundo Brewing and Burgeon Brewing. I've long been a fan of El Segundo, who are known for their WCIPA's, Stouts and Barley Wines. They hardly ever brew a hazy IPA.
Burgeon are from up the road, in Carlsbad, but I couldn't work out what part they played in this collaboration as it had El Segundo written all over it.
Hop-wise, it featured Simcoe, Citra Dynaboost and the newly named Krush hops. This last one is interesting in that this hop was originally bred by the Pacific North West's Hop Breeding Company way back in 2007. For 17-years, it was known as hop HBC 586 as an experimental variety, finally passing the audition as a commercial hop brand in 2024.
With this trio of hops, Loco Motives, gave both fruity and tropical flavours (think orange, pineapple, mango and peach), with a resiny woodiness in the finish. With zero bitterness, this was a far cry from the old malt-driven IPA's, that we used to enjoy on the east coast, but still a delicious light-bodied and totally packed full of flavour IPA.