David Kline

9.3

Rusty amber flesh; sparkler top. Siesta’s over, ditch the blanket. Strong prickly pear jelly, candied jalapeño, key lime pie forever. Margarita with triple sec, smoky Mezcal, blood orange, raspberry, pixie stix, caramel, basil, deconstructed Old Fashioned, finally rounded out by vanilla. Rich rich rich. This is more cocktail than beer, but an interesting take on a Gose. — 3 hours ago

with Courtney

David Kline

9.4

Rim to rim inky. Wild blackberry, cassis and black currant resonates with graphite accents. After 7 days open this shows as Christmas pudding, incorporating cedar, tobacco and antiqued parchment into the clove, nutmeg and plummy-date-y-fig-ness. There is also an interesting chopped cordwood. With a mouthful of super chewy tannins and teeth-staining extraction make this little monster a mouth wrestler, but after days, it submits and never really quits with generous rosemary, thyme and eucalyptus. Graphite goodness shades the currant, and the blackberry is dried, concentrated magic. New world nose, but Old World depth while remaining thoroughly Californian. I would have left this mag alone for 10 years, but free is free. The personification of a black bear. — 13 days ago

with Judd and Courtney

David Kline

8.8

Dark applesauce look and almost as thick. Looping bubbles curl into this tight off-white pinkish ‘do’, which sits around just long enough to flash bold plumes, then slip away to small bird bones and wishes and liquid musical notation. Cherry bombed beet explosion! Dark planks of herbed meat, beneath raspberry reduction. Echoes of mechanical oils. Slamming wail of tart sirens implode on the palate, making you feel the sting before you taste it. Lemon and cherry compete to screw the citrus and cranberry shock into a visceral reaction that feels like sour grapefruit, but tastes reasonably fruity. Strange Mutant. — a month ago

David Kline

9.0

Short’s Huma Lupalicious IPA. Pergola lacing. Warm oranges, carrot cake, white cherries, spaghetti squash, pineapple upside down cake, baklava, pencil shavings and pound cake waft from this bakery of delights. Rich, creamy and lemon-marshmallowy in scope, sporting banana pudding and lemon pith, lime and trailing bitterness of green onions and chewed pencil. Final note is zests of every citrus with an extra zest of grapefruit. From primordial pudding to a backbone of citric acid that makes even the lowest slug or troglodyte stand up. — 6 days ago

David Kline

9.2

Heavy hitter here! Lemon Madelines covered in dark caramel, cola, orange zest, aged rum, fine tobacco, vanilla, baked blood of tubers, roasted chestnuts. The palate is aggressive as a sleeping beast caught unawares. An awkward silence, impending clash, metallic taste. Ethiopian coffee-candy, burnt cinnamon roll, honey-maple babies, brown sugar, licorice extract ash, African dream tea, Fernet branca tonic. Lingering dark aftertastes. Heavy and potent as the surprised eyes of the roused beast. Lunge. — 11 days ago

David Kline

9.0

Key Lime Pie and Lolita? Hard slap of apple cider riding high on waves of apricot and cinnamon stick that is cheating with apple in Pickleville. Asian spices shimmer alongside. Real tart briny lime plays nice with Old Key Lime House-made pie. Bing cherry bringing the cringe from the fringes to the face cave! Sugar-olive dichotomies. The push and pull cancellations have me imagining pickled persimmon existences, dried, spiced Asian plum, banana pepper, potpourri woods, candied ginger, and bite after bite the palatal assault assuaged by lime and sugar and graham cracker. Bittersweet tang for the twang thang. — a month ago

David Kline

9.1

A feast of perfect amber teetering between translucence and opacity, well built like a manor whose dissolution laces with cobwebs, diagonally climbing vines and lichen. Spartan tastes of pineapple, lime, clementine and apricot appear as disembodied as faint memories and spirits swept like spindrift into blue skies above brine. Lime pith and lemon oils stir in grapefruit eddies. Just a glimpse of bitter lime and guava sail the far horizon. — 7 days ago

David Kline

9.0

Twice-flambé-d bananas foster. Oak char, tea biscuit, brown sugar, baked graham cracker crust, vanilla bean, chocolate edibles. Incredible mouthfeel, vacillates between creamy-sweet and an almost brassy pètillant resonance, whose impulsiveness is tamed by the soft influence of oak. Everything is right with this combo of red ale and oak. Just enough restraint here to let the elements work their magic. Bitter entry subduing sweet notes of Turkish coffee, milk chocolate, cigar box, rum raisin, cinnamon stick. — 11 days ago

with Courtney

David Kline

8.9

Volatile, yeasty, and blasting out the key lime merengue that keeps a’coming! When it finally subsides you still have spitbug pearls boasting density. Briny and pudding-grapefruit-pickly-peach, sour tangerine, kumquat, lime leaf, baked apple soaked in apple vinegar and dried. Late dates here, but large format, so still chugging along, bruised but unbowed. — a month ago

David Kline

9.4

Beer battered, breadcrumbed, roasted chestnuts in an adumbrated rhubarb grotto swollen with overripe tart fruit. Scents can be deceptive, however, as the palate is round, but the tartness well-integrated into the prettiest pin cushion of citrus flower; Orange, limes and pomelo, stuffed with infinite strands of Brett-specifics of ginger, nutmeg and tea leaves dusted with nano-funk. Such a sensational marriage of unexpected harmonies. I suspect the raspberries sew it all together seamlessly. — a month ago