Enjoying Some Solid Beers at Bagby Beer Company: A First Visit
Bagby Beer Company in Oceanside has a minimalist modern visual aesthetic
Last week, along with a couple of other guys, we did a quick two-day brewery tour of San Diego County. I say quick, because we visited only about 10% of the breweries in the county. The first brewery we visited, Bagby Beer Company, was on our way down to the rest of the county, located in Oceanside. The facility was less than a year old, having opened up in August and features very lovely minimalist modern visual aesthetic and has a quite a spacious capacity. While they had other breweries’ beers on-tap, they also had 22 of their own beers on-tap. While there, we tasted three flights of beer, with us splitting the tasting.
First flight of beers
Our first flight began with the Of Kölsch (5.3% ABV), a German-style Kölsch, which we found to be sweet and light, refreshing for warm weather. Next up, we had the Back Garden (3.8% ABV), an English-style pale ale, which was probably good for the style, but not for me. Next up was the Struggle Bus (4.8% ABV), an Extra pale ale on nitro, which I found to be pleasant; I liked the hops, but I didn’t care for it having the nitrogen. Rounding out the flight was the Priscilla (5.9% ABV), a robust porter, which was yummy, malty, and coffee-y; it was also my favorite beer of the first flight.
Second flight of beers
For the second flight, we started with ALT in the Family (4.7% ABV), a German-style altbier, which was a pleasant beer, with some toastiness, and almost crisp like a lager. Next up was the Wiseacre Wheat (5.3% ABV), a Hefeweizen, which had a yummy banana-ness. Yes, a yummy hefeweizen; a hefeweizen I actually enjoy! For a hefeweizen, it’s got a nice, smooth body. This beer surprised me by being not only a good beer, but a tasty hefeweizen! This beer was my favorite in the flight. Next up was ‘Tis the Saison (6.2% ABV), a Belgian-style saison, which had a peppery nose and was good. Rounding out the flight was Worker Bee (6.4% ABV), a golden ale with honey, which was nice-tasting with honeyness, nice effervescence, and some toasty maltiness.
Third flight of beers
For our third flight, we started off with Grief Counselor (6.2% ABV), an American pale ale, which was a very danky pale ale – I’ve never had such a danky pale ale. it’s smooth, pleasant, and, oh, yeah, danky. I would put this pale ale on a short list of really yummy pale ales I’ve had. Then we moved into IPAs. We had Dork Squad (7.7% ABV), an American IPA, which was a very delicious IPA, with some interesting characteristics of onion and perhaps other vegetation that was nicely lightly-bodied, but not too lightly-bodied. Next up was Nerd Herd (8.8% ABV), an Imperial IPA that has a not insignificant body to it, nice hopping, a little danky, and decent. Finishing up the flight was Dinkus (9.2% ABV), an Imperial IPA, that was danky – dankier than the Nerd Herd, close to the Grief Counselor.
Bruges Cruise
Following these three flights, we then finished up with drinking the Bruges Cruise (11.4% ABV), a Belgian dark strong, which had a raisiny, fruity nose and malty, that tasted lovely, syrupy, boozy and dry, and, yes, very delicious.
Our drinking trio enjoyed this brewery that is coming up on its first anniversary and that is housed in a space whose visual aesthetic is unassuming and let’s the beer speak for itself. The beers were solid and, while it didn’t seem like the brewery was trying to do anything crazy, was making sure that all of the beers were quite good. In addition to the beers being good, our bartender was also pretty knowledgeable about the beers they served there, which was quite helpful. I would definitely recommend a trip to Bagby Beer Company in Oceanside.
