Metric Brewing November 2019 Visit

November 16, 2019 Mike

I have to tell you, I was so happy to get back to Metric! I don’t know what it is, maybe the experimental philosophy of the place, the great staff, or the absolutely awesome beer names, but I’m a really big fan of the place. The last month or so, I was thinking it should be our next stop, but we were trying to get our passport cards taken care of before they expire, and there were so many places that we haven’t been to in awhile. I guess that’s the price you pay with so many breweries in town.

This week we had another big turnout, Jesse and I were joined by Scott and Bill, who frankly should be promoted to “regular” status by now, and on top of that, Dave and Jerry joined us! Along with terrible renditions of Duran Duran Songs, and tales of household disaster woes, we had some great beer and some good laughs.

I know, “what about the beers?” you say. Here goes:

Liquid Luck – ButterScotch Blonde – 6.2% ABV – There was a little bit of joking as to weather this was intended to be a butterscotch beer, or if maybe it had an issue with diacetyl and was cleverly marketed. I didn’t get the expected slippery coating in my mouth that comes with diacetly, so I can safely say it was intended to taste like butterscotch.

All joking aside, this is one tasty beer. It had a delicious caramel and butterscotch flavor, at a level that let you know it was there without smacking you in the face. That restraint is something that all of the Metric brewing beers I’ve had seem to share. It finishes slightly sweet, but had a bit of an alcohol heat that you could detect when you exhaled after the finish, and now that I see it’s 6.8%, which I would have never guessed when I was drinking it, I can understand.

Patrick Hazy – Hazy IPA – 6.4% ABV, 32 IBU – “Nobody puts Patrick Hazy in the corner!” Oh man, I don’t want to admit how many times I’ve been subjected to the movie Dirty Dancing, but that line in the beer’s description cracked me up.

I have to confess that I’m not (yet) much of a fan of Hazy IPAs, they just don’t taste enough like beer for me. That being said, this one is about as juicy as you could want, has a nice grapefruit / citrus flavor, and slightly grassy note that might even have a bit of pine in it. If Hazy is your thing, I would suggest trying this one.

[Jesse]
While I may not be as big a fan of Metric as Mike seems to be, it was a fairly short conversation to talk me into going here again. Once I looked at the tap list online, I was hooked. They had several beers that sounded great but I spied a barleywine that cinched it for me.

As the evening approached, I remembered that Metric was one of the breweries in two (of the two, I believe) that use the Digital Pour system. So, I installed the app and checked to see how much of that delicious sounding barley wine was left…..and it was kicked. Arrgh! Oh well. That was just one of several beers that sounded pretty good. I wasn’t wrong about that.

Hipster Speedball – 5.6% ABV 18 IBU – I’ve been on a stout kick since the weather has started cooling down so I had to give this one a try.

Pronounced, but not overbearing, coffee flavor. It was just enough to let you know it was there. The lactose gives this beer a sweetness that works really well with the coffee. It’s smooth enough that I had to pace myself when I was drinking it, as well.

My one issue was that it seemed a bit thin to me. Jerry made a good point that there are several types of stouts and American stouts typically have less body than their European counterparts. Makes sense to me, anyway. Regardless, I’d order a pint of this anytime.

Hazy Like the Wolf – 7.7% ABV 40 IBU – Collaboration with Cerberus – Do you like tropical fruit? Do you like juicy IPAs? Then you must go get some of this beer. Boy, oh boy, this is a tropical fruit bomb in a glass.

The nose tricks you into thinking this is going to be a run of the mill hazy IPA, but as soon as you take a sip – POW! Pineapple, mango and citrus. All that was missing was the little umbrella. It finished a little hoppy, but nothing that can compete with the tropical flavor. Quite a good beer.

It had been a little while since we had been to Metric, but I think we may be heading back there sooner rather than later. It sounds like they have some pretty awesome beers coming up. I was particularly interested in hearing that a Belgian quad was a few weeks away from being tapped. I’ll be there with bells on and something tells me that I won’t have to work to hard getting Mike there as well. Of course, wehn we do, we’ll be sure to share it here.

Beers from Metric Brewing that we’ve reviewed: