Welcome back beer mavens, slingers, drinkers, and connoisseurs, let’s jump back on the hop train and dive into a delicious new beer. What we’ve got for us today comes to us from the fine folks at 21st Amendment Brewery, in San Francisco, “In 2000, Nico Freccia and Shaun O’Sullivan founded the 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco’s historic South Park neighborhood. The popular brewpub is now at the heart of the new city center, just south of the financial district and only two blocks from the San Francisco Giants baseball park. In addition to eight rotating taps of multiple award-winning hand-crafted house beers, the pub has been voted “Best Brewpub”, “Best Burger” and “Best Happy Hour” by the San Francisco press.” The 21st Amendment of course repealed prohibition, reopening the floodgates for beer production. While this brewery came much later, it still stays true to the roots of its name and aims to create unique and hand crafted beers.

What we have today is 21st Amendments first beer brewed at their new San Leandro Brewery, a facility which for years operated as a large scale bakery and churned out delicious toaster pastries, which may or may not have rhymed with “hop carts” if you catch my drift. This beer here was brewed to celebrate the history of the building while at the same time churning out a new delicious brew. Can you really brew a beer that tastes like a breakfast toaster pastry? Let’s hit the toaster and find out —

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Beer — Toaster Pastry India Red Ale

Brewery — 21st Amendment San Francisco, CA / San Leandro, CA / Cold Springs, MN

ABV / IBU — 7.6% / 74

Price / Size — $4.99 / 19.2oz @ Elizabeth Station, you may bump into a finalist or two. . .

Availability — Limited, for now

Stovepipe can poured into 20oz Becher glass, can encoded “Enjoy by 01/30/15”

Appearance (4.25/5) — Pours out of the tall can with a nice and fairly vivid red hued body. There is a lightly toasted white colored head that forms and leaves behind some fairly consistent and sticky lacing.

Aroma (4.25/5) — Aroma is quite pungent and bright, lightly sweet notes of pastry malts, as well as some really juicy notes of strawberry, blackberry, and some light pineapple and melon sweetness. This sounds strange, but is does smell like a fresh jar of  strawberry preserves.

Taste (4.5/5) — Taste is lightly hoppy and quite bitter, light notes of pine, lemon, and sweet malt character, develops into a really sweet and delicious strawberry field of flavor. Nice notes of juicy hops are balanced by a dry and sweet crackery malt back bone. This really does taste just like its advertised, in the best possible way.

Mouthfeel (4.25/5) — Medium bodied, with nice lingering finish. The carbonation level is spot on as well, with a nice crisp bite to it.

Overall (4.25/5) — Very nice, one of the best IRA’s I’ve had, this hits all the right notes, with no component overpowering another one. Really delicious.

Drink well my friends, enjoy some new beers this week (there are LOTS!), or imbibe on an old favorite!