San Diego Monster Mash Ale

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

A surprising find, while me and Karen stopped by here after watching her neices play soccer on a beautiful Saturday morning. And while I wouldn't say that this is a "beautiful" beer..., it is still fairly interesting, overall.

Arrived from the server a bit dull looking -- yet another SDBC House Brew a bit lacking in the carbonation dept. Bare wisps of foam on top of the rather dark (nearly opaque) body.

But this beer tends to take charge once you give it a sniff. The hops aren't in the forefront, but they are surely there in enough force to warrant mentioning. I think this is another area for improvement, but overall, no complaints.

At least the flavor profile lives up to it's share of the bargain. A bit sweet in the front, while the malt takes over in the middle, and with an interesting hoppy vibe in the backend. Not award-winning, but interesting to make sure that you never felt that this was an arduous beer to down....

(Reminded me a little of what Winterhook used to taste like, ~10 years ago....)

Overall, a beer that shows some promise, but I think really could use a bit more gumption in the final analysis. While this seems to be (for example) a spiced winter beer that's missing all of it's spices, and has some room for improvement, I still think it's decent enough as-is for an occasional pint at the San Diego Brewing Company....
//TB