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.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
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.
Subscribe
Notify of
223 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Unsurprised
Unsurprised

Yoga can be fun.

comment image

Unsurprised

Yep

scotchnaut

redundant.

Unsurprised

Leave the towel. Take the girl.

scotchnaut

“Towels. How do they work?”

-Mrs. Insane Clown Posse

...

Once I clicked on a Groupon ad for some strapless pushup bra that looked like that and now every third email they send me has some sort of boob product in it.

Marc Trestmans Windowless Van

Sure, “Once”.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I should have known better than to hope that Cleveland – fucking CLEVELAND – would make this competitive.

Unsurprised
Unsurprised

Apparently she didn’t believe she could fly hard enough.

Brocky
litre_cola

Due to my blackoutedness yesterday I am now “volunteering” to write thank you notes for decilitres gifts. Good times.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Apparently IBM’s Watson is unable to detect causal sexual harrassment in the workplace.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

If it gets enough data it could probably do better, though. Maybe they should assign it to follow Isiah Thomas around for a week.

Brocky

it’s just programmed to interpret any action taken by any female as flirting. that makes it okay

herodotus450

Plugging “random” dfo comments into image search:
comment image

Unsurprised
Unsurprised
Unsurprised

Well, the gif lords have seen fit to bestow upon us moving pictures of Carrie Coon naked from the series finale of The Leftovers.

Wow. Nice ass. http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/kqnq0zm899yvu85r6for1ihghnwt48hp

Brocky

you ever have one of those moments where you go..

Holy shit, that girl was totally dropping hints at me

comment image

Unsurprised

Have we met?

herodotus450

Nope….

...

She seems… nice.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

The hiRes shows that the guy got doughnut glazed.

Unsurprised

I’m fixing to become a cider man, myself. I had an apple one that I somehow had never tried before even though I went to the brewery. It was delicious and 10.5% ABV.

ballsofsteelandfury

I’m having dinner at me local pub and they’ve got Stone Enjoy By. I’m drinking it and it’s not bad. Definitely goes down easier than most IPAs.

Romonobyl

Enjoy the blog folks, I gotta start working on Midweek Rations before this buzz gets out of control. Also, fuck the Shooty-Hoops Patriots (aka Warriors).

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

How upset do you think Tiki Barber was that he didn’t get a callback to be the host of Battle of the Network Stars?

Romonobyl

Is that shit back?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Eh, I’d happily describe Tiki Barber as a shit person, but he wasn’t a shit back. He was actually quite a good back.

Unsurprised

Is Michael Strahan hosting?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

DeMarcus Ware

Romonobyl

It ain’t Battle of the Network Stars without Gabe Kaplan and Robert Conrad.
Fuck me I’m old.

ballsofsteelandfury

Or LYNDA CARTER IN A SWIMSUIT!

scotchnaut

Word has it that Tiki simply borrowed a phrase from his first marriage when he said, “Hey baby, it’s time for me to move on.”

litre_cola

Yesterday may have gotten away from me. Seems that drinking at the pub then a bbq then the bar for 12 hours is frowned upon by an overtired mother. WHO KNEW????

Unsurprised

Is this the de facto Open Thread?

Romonobyl

Looks that way.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Ooh, look at all Mr. Fancy with his Latin words.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Ahem, I mean “dominus fancius”.

litre_cola

Now write it on the wall 100 times.

Romonobyl

After 4 shots of Stoli’s.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Fun fact: I was declared persona non grata at my alma mater because I used to write my name in urine on the wall of the dorm where the nerds lived.

Unsurprised

You could’ve just said your dorm.

Brick Meathook

Murderer Caryl Chessman is strapped down for execution in California
comment image

A guard shoos away a nosy photographer who has wandered in
comment image

A black hood is placed over the head of the condemned to hide the hideous contortions of his death face during the proceedings, while still providing good vision and the ability to speak normally. The logo of The Westinghouse Electric Company is embroidered on the hood, despite this being a gas chamber.
comment image

Gratliff

Oh hey, it’s the logo I see for the first minute after I turn on my TV.

Gratliff

So Adam Jones is cosplaying as Virgil tonight

comment image

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Tim Tebow is cosplaying as a Virgin tonight. It’s a disturbingly authentic portrayal.

Unsurprised

Virgil struck me as more of a Cleveland guy, being the saddest man in wrestling and all.

Romonobyl

Scrolled down to earlier comments about teh heat. I live in what I thought was the hottest, most humid place on the planet, until I spent a week in New Orleans in July. Our hotel room was air conditioned, but there was also a dehumidifier in the room. I had to empty that bitch out twice during the night, I never new it was possible to take a bite of air.

...

Same basic experience for me when I went to South Florida in July. I think I ended up coated in sweat walking from my car into the office.

The Maestro

Stories like these are why I prefer the cold to the heat. Cold? Put on another sweater, light a fire, drink some hot cocoa, whatever. You’ve got options. Hot? And your A/C breaks? You’re completely and utterly fucked.

...

This is generally my attitude as well though I’ll concede some places such as the California coast are exceptions my heat hate.

Unsurprised

From the mountain desert. I’m used to a dry heat, but heat is still motherfucking heat, and if it weren’t for the rain Portland would be perfect.

Romonobyl

Yep, I actually have an emergency window unit I keep in my closet. I’ve had to break it out a few times when the central A/C went AWOL.
No fucking way would I live here without phase-change refrigeration.
(Just went all physics on dat ass!)

Gratliff

I was in Mississippi in December once and it hit 90. Never going south of the Mason-Dixon again. Fuck that gulf.

Unsurprised

Then you’re in luck. The Gulf is coming to you soon thanks to the Republican Party.

Gratliff

It’s convenient because as a Michigander, I’ll already be here when here becomes the last habitable place in the country.

Unsurprised

Shit. The Gulf encroaches from the south, Atlantic from the east, and Hudson Bay from the north. Who’d have ever guessed that the last vestige of civilization in North America would be in the upper peninsula?

Gratliff

Alexa Bliss has been extremely giffable tonight.

Gratliff

And really, just generally incredible

comment image

Romonobyl

Speaking of Harry Caray, anybody hear with midwestern based-ball roots remember Jack Brickhouse? THAT was a sports announcer.

laserguru

“Hey Hey!”
Hell yes. Brickhouse was the announcer when I first became a Cubs fan.

...

I wonder how many chubby dipshits are happy a man has replaced a woman in the SNB booth tonight?

scotchnaut

Does anyone remember when I had to stay up past 11pm because the NBA Finals were shown on tape delay?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Come on Cleveland! I told myself that if this was a tie game I’d have another beer.

Mr. Ayo

Did you include the spread in your calculations? You should.

JustStopDude

How the fuck was asking for ANOTHER Mummy movie, this time featuring the patron saint of Scientology?

For a movie like this, you have to go all out and get Nicolas Cage right?

comment image

Wait…does this mean Tom Cruise is hurting for money?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Eh, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s halfway decent. Tom Cruise, for all his faults, usually makes pretty good movies.

Unsurprised

No, he’s in movies that are better than they aren’t, and in spite of him.

The Maestro

I mean, those temples to Xenu ain’t gonna build themselves, y’know!

Romonobyl

That looks disturbing like the kind of dictator Dennis Rodman could get behind.

scotchnaut

The best/most interesting movie I’ve seen in the last year?

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet. Based on a kid’s book, it’s directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (of Amelie fame) and is the farthest thing from a kids movie that you can imagine.

JustStopDude

I went and saw my first ever 3D movie. It was Guardian of the Galaxy 2. I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the movie ending.

I will never watch another 3D movie again. I do not get why 3D is popular at all. Its so fucking distracting and nauseating.

Wakezilla

I don’t think it’s popular, but more false hope by the theaters that it will catch on

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Low Commander of the Super Soldiers is a somewhat of beer and…

This typo makes me happy.

...

Between 4-10% ABV, for sure.

The Maestro
litre_cola

Kind of didnt want to post the 70th comment.

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Nicely done. Thanks for making IPAs great again.

The Maestro

Damn, you know your D is all kinds of fucked up when Shaun Livingston is dunking on your ass.

...

Eugh. ESPN does their damnedest to make Sunday Night Baseball unwatchable.

JustStopDude

Its a toss up to which I hate more…the Orioles on Sunday Night Baseball or the Ravens on MNF. I think its more painful when the O’s are on ESPN just because the Orioles’ announcing crews are fucking top notch.

I love it when I am home and people bitch about the O’s announcing. Mother fuckers…I challenge anyone to sit through a White Sox broadcast.

...

Hawk is gradually being put out to pasture and the guy they’ve replaced him with isn’t too bad. I know a lot of people like Steve Stone, but I find him intolerably smug.

The Cubs’ team is generally well-liked, but the people who don’t like them *hate* them and I can’t quite figure out why.

Most of the other broadcast teams I’ve heard I like a lot less than the Cubs’ team. I haven’t heard the O’s crew before.

laserguru

It’s Deshaise. Len is great but JD is happy grabbing the low hanging fruit.
Berman finds his jokes timely.

...

I always though J.D. had self awareness that his jokes were terrible and I could tolerate them. I actually thought it was Len people disliked because he doesn’t waste time on the usual bullshit narratives most broadcast teams lean on.

laserguru

I respect anyone who’s slapping the bass.

JustStopDude

I have no fucking idea how the O’s got him, but the varsity squad has Gary Thorne…hall of fame announcer for the NHL…Gary freaking Thorne.

The dude could announce my bowel movements and make them EPIC!

Even better, I think he hits the sauce hard when the O’s are getting blown out.

...

Speaking of hitting the sauce hard, that’s why Hawk is only doing road games for the White Sox instead of home games. He actually lives in Indiana not far from South Bend, so it’s an quick drive for him to go there and fly to wherever the Sox are playing. Turns out he was making the drive to Bridgeport back to Indiana shitfaced fairly often.

laserguru

Least surprising news ever. I remember going to Wrigley in the late 80’s and watching Harry build a castle out of his empty Bud cans. When I lived in Rock Island, Harry was working for the South Siders with Jimmy Piersol (RIP Jimmy you crazy bastard) and those 2 would be flat out shit hammered by the end of the game.
Fun times.

...

I feel like Harry’s boozehoundery is going to be lost to time. I don’t think young fans are aware of how fucking sloshed that guy got.

The Maestro

This makes me think of the story of how Harry went out 288 straight days in 1972. 354 days of the year, all in all. That kind of drinking is the stuff of legend.

http://deadspin.com/harry-caray-went-out-drinking-288-straight-days-in-1972-1585102309

JustStopDude

I’m working this job with a really old field engineer from the Netherlands.

The stories these old guys have about getting utterly shitfaced and then going into a drive room to commission medium voltage gear…its fucking insane.

Even in the home office, the old chick my desk is next to…the one who was one of the original “GE Girls”…she has stories about how every single meeting room had a stocked bar and that everyone usually had at least a bottle in their desk.

reminds me of this Bill Hicks bit…

https://youtu.be/RksFruS6Qf0?t=42

Unsurprised

I was talking to someone from Arizona earlier at a party and reminiscing about the days of drive-thru liquor stores in NM and AZ.

JustStopDude

Evening ladies and gentlemen.

My deep research into the Canadian way of life in Ontario is continuing. Its absolutely stunning here on the lake during the summer. The sprawl however is just brutal. I mean there is traffic here on this Queen Elizabeth highway all the freaking time. I cannot imagine trying to get around here in the winter time.

Hamilton is what I imagine what Baltimore was like during the 50’s. What I mean is that even though there is a massive amount of heavy industry here, its not all abandoned. People have jobs so no one is stuck getting into the drug game to make ends meet. Its kind of depressing when I think about home and “what if”.

herodotus450

comment image

laserguru

Prop Joe!

The Maestro

Hamilton is… a strange place. The rest of Ontario rips on it a lot as being the little brother to cities like Toronto and Ottawa, but the reality is that it’s honestly not nearly as economically depressed as places like Windsor, Sault Ste. Marie and Sarnia, which have all had the shit kicked out of them thanks to auto industry and steel mills closing up shop.

Still, I’m never gonna live there. No sir.

And yes, fuck the QEW with a rusty pitchfork.

JustStopDude

It reminds me a LOT of Nagasaki. What I mean is that there is insane amounts of heavy industry in Nagasaki…and you can walk around. Like the same area in the US would be a no go area for safety.

Gary Indiana has basically the same facilities and production as Hamilton and its a fucking depressing death trap.

The Maestro

Gary, Indiana is not among my list of places I’m hoping to visit anytime soon.

Hamilton has seen a resurgence of industry in recent years. Probably about 20 years ago a lot of folks were worried that it might slide into a Baltimore-ish decline, but with some steel corps amalgamating recently it seems to have staved that off for now. I’m glad that’s the case. I don’t know about the future of Canadian heavy industry at all, but I’ll take a Hamilton doing alright for the time being for sure.

JustStopDude

The site I am at is doing it pretty good, at least by my impressions walking around the site for a few hours yesterday. I mean you can tell if the local workforce gives a shit just by walking into the drive room. Plus, they are investing a lot of money just in this training. Most places now a days refuse to pay for the training or if they do, they just never schedule time for it. Its going to be a bit nerve wracking for me because its basically three weeks in a row and the few people there I have already met…REALLY know their shit.

...

There’s actually a pretty good brewery in Gary I can take the train to, so I might file a field report sometime soon.

laserguru

If you want we can do a DFO get together at Beechwood.
Motherfucker right down the 405 from me.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Steve Kerr should try to score an endorsement with Hertz Car Rental.

JustStopDude

“Hertz…we are going to make it Hertz!”

I’ve rented cars from them for so much for work that I could rent one for free for months on end. That said, its like every five or so business trips, they will utterly and completely fuck something up and I promise “NEVER AGAIN!”

Then I use one of their competitors and its even worse and I just come back gritting my teeth.

BrettFavresColonoscopy

comment image

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Uh oh, Warriors are down early. Time for someone to shuffle into Lebron’s landing zone while he’s taking a jump shot.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Wow, Kevin is getting no “love” from the crowd.

/thanks, I’ll be here all week.

...

Related to my heat rant, if all goes well in the next couple weeks, I’ll be moving to a place with *gasp* central A/C so I won’t have to cook every summer in my shit-hole water-damaged apartment.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh
...

Even in denim?

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

SHORT ENOUGH TO AIR OUT PUSSY.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Fun fact: “The High Eighties” is how [can’t think of anyone appropriate] referred to his college years.

herodotus450

George W. Bush? Too old. Chris Farley? Too dumb. This joke: not such easy nut to crack

Unsurprised

I thought it was self-referential at first. Sorry.

Maybe yeah right? He’s older than the devil.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Speaking of “punch”, has anyone seen that new “Ferris Bueller” commercial from Domino’s?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Did Santana mess up the national anthem? Something felt off, like he repeated a verse or something.

Brick Meathook

comment image

...

“Miss. I need your ticket. Miss… MISS! YOUR TICKET. THAT’S NOT YOUR TICKET.”

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I’d punch her ticket.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Kitten! I mean kitten.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

“I’d punch her ticket in an elevator.”

– Ray Rice

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

“I’d punch her baby.”

– Steve Smith

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

“Mmmm, punch!”

– Andy Reid, breaking through a wall

...

/female passenger puts panties back on, gets up, gets off train

Unsurprised

Once again, the DFO experience ends in disappointment for all parties.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

SEE! THAT HOW YOU DEAL WITH TEMPERATURES IN THE HIGH 80s!!

...

Alright. You got me. Gotta concede I was wrong about everything.

scotchnaut

Worst The Far Side ever.

...

It’s in the high-80’s right now and I fucking hate it. The worst part of summer is it being this hot and people saying they like it. You’re lying. You never set the temperature this high when you get the chance because it’s too fucking hot.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 68 which is actual good temperature.

ballsofsteelandfury

Truly spoken like a man that has not lived in southern California…

...

Average month high in L.A. never goes above 80, so it sorta proves my point.

And just checked San Diego and the highest month average is 76. So yeah.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

That’s why they call it average.

Colorado is also great in the 80s and tolerable in the 90s.

Those same temperatures in Houston suck sweaty balls.

...

Average in Chicago is something like 84 in the summer months and even with equal humidity, those five degrees are a lot different.

And God, I’d never live in Houston. Sprawl and humidity and at the top of my shit list.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

87 in Chicago is also a different story. + it’s Chicago.

...

No doubt. But the appeal of SoCal to me is that it doesn’t get that hot as often.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

A couple of miles inland it does. San Diego is also pretty hot; but it didn’t bother me when I was there. 78 in Maryland was uncomfortable to me.

...

True about going inland. I noticed that in San Francisco and was shocked at how different it was.

...

I like how ESPN’s montage about the “great” Cubs-Cardinals rivalry was just a bunch of times in the last 15 years when pitchers threw at hitters.

It’s not a good rivalry and it’s rarely meant anything. It mostly exists so St. Louis can pretend it’s more than the unremarkable flyover country city that it is.

Romonobyl

You’ve nailed what I consider to be the main difference between an okay beer and a really good one…the finish.
A beer can taste pretty decent up front, but if whatever lingers is unpleasant then I’ll pass. Like you I don’t mind a little bit of a hoppy bitterness, but not to the point where you need a drink of water to kill the taste.
I’ve been told almost the same thing by numerous women in my life, but concerning an ENTIRELY different activity.

theeWeeBabySeamus
ballsofsteelandfury

I really wish my palate could handle the hops, but they are just too bitter for me. I will definitely check out Beachwood, though, as they are fairly close by.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

My friend who home brews, just went on an extensive rant against overly hopped IPAs, in particular cascade hops, which many of the breweries use as they are the cheapest. Of course some of them are ones I like, but I absolutely see where he is coming from. And like me, he is always right, just ask him.

Romonobyl

Yeah, it’s almost like atomic chicken wings. It’s more like bragging rights or a manhood test than an pleasant experience.

Wakezilla

Your friend is 100% right.

ballsofsteelandfury

I’ll try it.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Nice work.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

comment image