Commentist Beer Barrel: Shoot to Thrill

Good afternoon, beer coin-a-suers. [DFO’s] resident drunk beer reviewer, Make It Snow, is an a lot of something else right now apparently, and as BFC pointed out last week, guest posts are a happenin’. I am your Low Commander of the Super Soldiers, and this week you are stuck with ME!

It has been a while since an IPA has found its way into the Barrel, so I decided to change that this week with a review of one of up and coming Beachwood BBQ & Brewing’s beers. Located right in the heart of downtown Long Beach, I have not yet made the pilgrimage North to peruse their boozey wares, but that will likely be changing soon. I have been rather impressed with their bottle selections so far, all of which I have had being IPAs, so I figured why break that trend now? It also gives me an excuse to use one of my fancy IPA glasses that I got for Xmas last year.

Ribbed, for your buttchugging pleasure

Thrillseeker is a double dry-hopped IPA that sits at 7.1% ABV and over 100 IBUs. The initial dry-hop contains Chinook, Summit, Centennial, and Simcoe, and the second doubles down on the Simcoe and Chinook. That’s a lotta hops! My bottle had a date code of 5/23/17, and it’s hard to get much fresher than that. It pours a fairly light orange and the head maintains a good half inch of foam after coming down a little. The smell is powerfully hoppy with a kick of citrus, which is about exactly what I was expecting with this beer. My initial sip started very clean; you get all the taste of the sweet malts and tropical citrus up front, before quickly giving way to a mild bitter earthiness on the back of the tongue. And let me tell you, that bitter bite isn’t going anywhere for a while. Each sip afterwards builds upon it, and even if you take a break for a minute or two, you’re going to have that lingering in the back of your mouth.

I let this beer warm up a bit to see how it would change, and my did it. After a good 30-45 minutes, this thing became the definition of a hop bomb. That lingering backend bitterness changed to a kick in the teeth that encompassed my entire mouth, and I couldn’t taste any other damn thing. If that’s what you’re going for, have at it, but this quickly went back in my fridge for a bit to round out those sharp edges.

Overall, it’s a pretty tasty IPA with a not overpowering bitter bite, but I didn’t find it particularly special among a lot of the other offerings available today. If I happened to find it on tap anywhere, it certainly would be a go-to, but I wouldn’t necessarily be tracking this down. That being said, it is a solid addition to the quality line up of Beachwood’s growing selections and if you happen to find something by them, I sincerely doubt that you would be disappointed.

Low Commander of the Super Soldiers is a somewhat of beer and drank a can of Stone Ripper in the shower before this 22 oz of Beachwood Thrillseeker. He enjoys talking in the third-person a little bit too much, and drank the majority of this Thrillseeker while finally completing Mass Effect: Andromeda. He recommends the beer, not the game.

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Low Commander of the Super Soldiers
Low Commander of the Super Soldiers is a native North County San Diegan with an affinity for the Padres, beer, whiskey, punk rock, video games and the end of days. If you eat a fish taco with a fork in his presence, you may lose your hand.
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[…] know I’ve profiled a lot of IPAs the last few times I’ve been guest hosting the Beer Barrel, so I decided to do something a […]

[…] I know that I went and wrote about an IPA last week, and while many people probably won’t believe me, they are in fact not my favorite kind of […]

makeitsnowondem

Good shit, LC. Thanks for filling in this week!

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

My dad proposed to me a new idea for a site that uses facial recognition software to match people that look alike called doppleganger. To see who you look like. Then a second layer DNA search to find who you are related with around the world. His way of monetizing it was once you get a database sell it to the US government. If they say no sell it to Russia or China or whatever government would pay the most.

That is treason, right? Is that just ok now with Trump as President?

Senor Weaselo

The first half is a hokey Facebook app, the second is Ancestry, and the third is… the NSA?

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

yes

Wakezilla

Sounds pretty kosher. Given your government demands passwords for entry, they’d say yes

Brick Meathook

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Romonobyl

Brick, FWIW, I truly appreciate your airplane porn entries.

Romonobyl

And I think this is the most beautiful machine forged by the hands of man:
http://www.ml407.co.uk/ml407wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IMG_7303-1024×683.jpg

Brick Meathook

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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laserguru

My proudest moment today was walking to the gym where I noticed they had a brand new heavy bag.
Untouched it was.
I went 3 rounds with it.
It’s been fucking touched.

Senor Weaselo

Phrasing?

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

It’ll never do that again.

Brick Meathook

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Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

So I started my day doing my normal sunday brunch with my mom, except today I ended up with a few volunteers from the events I got stuck doing because my mom always over schedules herself. I am apparently the “Armenian Meatball Soup” guy. I always make most of it but it is always my moms thing but she never stays in the booth

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Holy shit, we’ve got three at the table. Paging Ayo and others…

Mr. Ayo

Can’t. I have to be up early for a 12 hour drive.

Unsurprised

No Veep tonight? This is the worst thing in the world.

The Leftovers finale was good, though.

BrettFavresColonoscopy

If anyone wants to take my fake money, see MTWV at the DFO poker table

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I am doing a GoT Season 6 RW until someone shows up at the poker table or I drink myself to death with this new plan that I will follow through with for too long.

I rooted for that asshole kid that betrays Jon to die since the ep he was introduced

Mr. Ayo

Enjoy your shot sir.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I am playing now, still took the next 2

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

So no one is up for poker tonight? I have sat alone for hours now. Ok, instead I am going for creating a drinking game where I drink whenever someone other than me posts a comment

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Drink!

(I’ll try and make a brief appearance at the table)

ballsofsteelandfury

Double drink!

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

I am doing this with shots, both are done now

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

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BrettFavresColonoscopy

You know what the NBA needs? More concussions.

Unsurprised

“This is why I don’t play checker. Too dangerous.” — Trent Green

Brick Meathook

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Senor Weaselo

Evening lizard people. As I wrote, have two genuinely good teams ever generated more of a resounding meh?

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

Well having to watch 82 + 12 (13 for the guys getting blown out this series) before the finals when every single person assumed they would get here might have something to do with it

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Time for Top Chef, where there is actually some amount of suspense as to who is going to win.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

So there is no new TV, and I have a shit ton of free time (that I should be spending looking for a job) and am counting down the days until new GoT. I have spent the last 6 hours watching fan theories on youtube on what will happen.

/The 6 hours previously listed was actually 10, but the other 4 was listening to my dad randomly be for or against the same action by a world leader based on their party. Yelling at me when I basically agreed with him. And saying Fox News is the only network that can be trusted.
//”There is no evidence for man made climate change”
“You studied to be a fucking rocket scientist at Northwestern”

Unsurprised

Watch American Gods.

You don’t watch Veep or Silicon Valley?

...

This reminds me to watch Veep.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

Quit Veep season 3 I think. I didn’t hate it just never bothered to watch new eps. Silicon Valley I should watch, if only for TJ Miller

...

The ESPN crew is announcing the Cubs game from a reserved section of the bleachers and when they loosen the shot enough you see this busty woman sitting to their right and boobs.

scotchnaut

“Today’s NBA-without the cult of personality we’d be as popular as mixed-doubles table tennis!”

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

The NBA is broken.

...

I’m actually hoping for Golden State to take a 3-0 lead just so they can blow it and birth an even more hilarious meme.

Unsurprised

Oh, Lord. Let it happen.

Senor Weaselo

Don’t let the Warriors potentially blowing a 3-0 lead distract you from the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead.

...

I’m just here for the meme-able blown leads.

ballsofsteelandfury

I said that in the early 2000s.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

and it is more popular/ raking in more $s than ever.

...

Another thing I won’t miss about this dump I live in now: It retains heat like no place I’ve ever lived. It’s nice in the winter, but in the summer it means if it gets above 80 outside, it’ll stay above 80 inside well past sunset even as the temperature falls outside.

...

Damn you heat. DISSIPATE!

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

OK, mold and moist heat? Fuck that noise. You also need a place with a BBQ grill; I will throw in $10.

herodotus450

What I imagine when ya’ll talk about playing poker together
http://achewood.com/index.php?date=02222005

ballsofsteelandfury

You are so correct its not even funny.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

How is your mom’s MS and why aren’t you at the table?

ballsofsteelandfury

It’s clearing up, thanks!

herodotus450

Thats basically the tagline for achewood
http://achewood.com/index.php?date=12042006

Unsurprised

You gotta use Bing for that stuff.

litre_cola

You nailed it. Precisely, just add addictions.

...

Someone at this Cubs game is wearing what appears to be a Milton Bradley jersey.

Milton Fucking Bradley.

scotchnaut

Are you saying that people that lack impulse control can’t have heroes?

Brick Meathook

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Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Think I can forget about that beer. Fortunately, I didn’t say a damn thing about whiskey!