Lucky 13 Alt – Lagunitas Brewing Company, Petaluma, CA

ABV: 8.8%

IBU: 76

Beers from Lagunitas are back in Colorado and I’m one happy beer consumer. One of the first beers I fell in love with, after moving out West, was Lagunitas’s hop bomb, Hop Stoopid. With 110 IBUs, it is like Thor’s Hammer filled with hops. Lagunitas left the Colorado market in October of 2011, allegedly from a dispute with a distributor, but that is all hear say from reps. It was also under expansion at that time & they were planning to expand brewing capacity to three times what they had been producing. I could give a bunch of numbers like number of barrels produced prior to and after expansion; but you can get that from their site. Unfortunately, their new brewing equipment (mashtuns, bright tanks and more) were damaged in a port while being unloaded from a cargo ship. This halted most of their production and expansion plans. Luckily a couple months later, undamaged equipment was installed and brewing resumed.

On July 16, I received my 1st shipment of Lagunitas in more than nine months. Along with Hop Stoopid came a seasonal 22oz. bottle (aka bomber) called Lucky 13.alt. It is their Anniversary ale and it comes out in May or June, depending on the year. They change up the recipe from year to year. This year’s changes include a lighter malt base and supercharged with Amarillo hops. The color is a dark gold with a light red tint. A white frothy head caps off this beautiful looking beer. The aroma is all hops with notes of zesty citrus (lemon and grapefruit). On first sip you get a nice mild malt, think a pilsner or blonde ale, and then the hop flavor explodes all over the palate. Rich and refreshing it has summer beer written all over it, figuratively. If you enjoy hops on any level, than you MUST have this beer. I can’t, nor won’t, stop drinking this beer.