As we anxiously watch the changing of the guard at one beloved craft house I am thoroughly enjoying the meteoric rise of one of my all time favorite small scale craft house’s that have have been brought back to life by a very talented brew master in Evan Price and a very aggressive program of super premium beers across a wide range of styles. Price started to gain regional prominence when he started creating amazing recipes at Taps Fish House in Brea. His IPAs and spot on replications of other styles began to draw the neck beard crowd in droves. He was offered the brew master position at then fledgling Noble Ale Works who had a pretty decent IPA with Big Whig and the periodic Citra centric Nobility. Price came in and with new CEO Brian Rauso built a very talented team that blew folks away when just in their first year together took gold at the 2013 LABF with their amazing Tongue Tickles DIPA, fans lined up at the tiny brewery in a commercial industrial park in Anaheim for its first bottle release. I sent a bottle to Chris Steltz @ BeerGeek Nation.com who called it maybe the best west coast DIPA he had ever had. The Shower Series followed soon and along with their other sought out brews like their coffee infused milk stout Naughty Sauce, the game was on. They released Galaxy Showers this week for the second time, the last being September 2014, I place it side by side with their Citra Showers and Nelson Showers as possibly the best west coast DIPAs being brewed. The amount and style’s these guys are cranking out covers the entire spectrum and each beer is fanatically hand crafted. Noble Ale Works won silver at GABF for their Nose Candy session IPA, their first of what I think will be many more.
Their beers were really lame when they first appeared. Were they in 750s? Awful packaging to match the gross overblown beers. Glad they reinvented themselves.
Re-invented themselves is an understatement Jason. These guys are really hitting their stride with everything they are brewing. I never recalled 750s, only 22oz formats, but I do agree that the packaging was horrible. I really like their new branding initiative and the beers aint bad either !
Yeah. They did a great job. A combo of the the packaging and this thread got me to re-visit.
St Archer was a bit in the same boat for me although they have not reached the level of Noble. Me and a buddy went to Provisions in Orange one night only to find it was a tap take over by St. Archer. I sighed and mentioned to my friend how the beers were mediocre at best and said we should head somewhere else. I didn’t realize the St Archer guy was standing next to me He jumped in and said they had a new brewer who got them new hops and they changed some recipes. I tasted them again and yep, these were now very solid beers. Their Pale Ale is a staple at the house.
Jason, I sure hope you got to taste the new Galaxy Showers, it may be the best of the Shower series to date, and yes I mean over Nelson and Citra. Absolutely a stunning double, so soft and juicy and there is no way you can detect the 8.8%. I just sent some back east to my Trillium OH TO connect, can’t wait to see his take on this as it is very much in that new england east coast style, lots of ripe juicy fruits, very little bitterness and crushable even at 8.8%.
RE: Saint Archer. I think this latest batch of the DIPA may be the best they have ever done, so juicy and fresh, I also love their Pale Ale when I get it fresh.
It’s funny, I put St. Archer in the same category as Modern Times… Lotso hype, but no delivery. The beers are all mediocre, and nothing reaches epic heights, for me.
Want to check out Noble, but no time to go to the OC, do they bottle the showers series?
Interesting to see the comments re: St. Archer. I love their IPA, DIPA, and Mosaic IPA. I just hope their recipes don’t change now that they’ve been bought by Big Beer.
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He jumped in and said they had a new brewer who got them new hops and they changed some recipes. I tasted them again and yep, these were now very solid beers. Their Pale Ale is a staple at the house.![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}