Pic(k) of the Week: OCA x2

Old Coast Ales is a production brewery (with taproom) that opened in 2017. It's located in St. Augustine ^*, Florida, USA, a few blocks southeast of the Bridge of Lions, a 100-year-old drawbridge that connects Anastasia Island to downtown St. Augustine.

We visited on 1 July 2021. Here are two draught beers we ordered (and enjoyed) in the brewery's taproom.

Left to right:

• Oh-8-Oh
  5.7% ABV (alcohol-by-volume)
  "Mildly bitter and balanced between malt and hop flavors, this pale ale features Sultana and Sabro Cryo hops."
  ---> Me: Yep. More like a classic pale ale's bitter and earthy than a latter day's fruity or cat-stinky. Had two.


• Empirical
  American IPA
  6.6 % ABV
  "Old skool American IPA with a solid malt backbone and a heavy hop of Amarillo, Simcoe, and Centennial hops."
  ---> Me: Yep. Bonus points for beauty.

Old Coast Ales is a production brewery: meaning that it does not have a kitchen as would a brewpub. But, 'not to worry.' Innately connected to the brewery is a taco eatery that was busy when we visited. After purchasing some fare (which we ate while pairing drinking our beers in the brewery), we understood why.

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Hop geeky

Hops —the female (and non-seed bearing) flowers of herb bines— are used by brewsters in beer:

• for their herbal/spicy/fruity flavors and aromas
• to add drying bitterness as a counterbalance to malt sweetness
• to lesser extents as beer-foam enhancers, beer shelf-life stabilizers, and anti-microbial agents.

There are many varieties of hops grown (such as Amarillo and Sultana, above), propagated for their flavor, aroma, bittering potential, farming yield, and resistance to agricultural disease.

-----more-----

• ^* St. Augustine (from Spanish: San Agustín) is a city in the Southeastern United States, on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously-inhabited European-established settlement in the contiguous United States. Augustine of Hippo [pronounced Oh GUS tin as opposed to the city, pronounced AWW gus teen] is the Roman Catholic saint for whom the city is named.
  —Wikipedia.
  
  
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of images posted on Saturdays, occasionally (as is the case today) with a good fermentable as the subject.
• Photo 27 of 52, for year 2021. See it on Flickr: here.
• Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10 II.
  • Lens: Lumix G 20/F1.7 II
  • Settings: 20 mm | 1/50 | ISO 200 | f/8.0
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


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