{"id":13214,"date":"2016-03-16T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T15:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=13214"},"modified":"2016-03-16T00:56:49","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T07:56:49","slug":"beer-touring-novo-brazil-brewing-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2016\/03\/16\/beer-touring-novo-brazil-brewing-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer Touring: Novo Brazil Brewing Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"novobrazil_01\"<\/a>The second stop on our #southbayuprising brewery tour proved the saying \u201call that glitters isn\u2019t gold.\u201d The shiniest stainless steel in the county resides at Novo Brazil Brewing Company<\/a> <\/strong>(901 Lane Avenue, Chula Vista)<\/em>, but what\u2019s inside is dull and spotty\u2026assuming we\u2019re referring to one of the many large fermentation tanks that actually has beer in it, that is. Many of them were empty at the time. But, dang, the place looks <\/em>good.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s actually a lot to be said for the lengths brewery owners go to when it comes to providing an inviting and comfortable environment for their customers. At Novo Brazil there’s a lovely\u00a0tasting room with plenty of seating, TVs broadcasting soccer matches, colorful wall-hangings, and even a help-yourself popcorn machine. A bevy of stacked barrels greets guests en route to a rather spacious sampling space with many beers to choose from, including some unearthed from those very vessels.<\/p>\n

\"novobrazil_02\"<\/a>My party and I were greeted into the consumption phase of our stop at Novo Brazil by the scent of movie theater popcorn. No, it wasn\u2019t coming from the aforementioned machine\u2014it was rising from the non-existent head of a Pilsner. Aside from this obvious sign of\u00a0diacetyl, the beer didn\u2019t exhibit any characteristics of a classic Pilsner\u2014straw-gold appearance, tightly bubbled white head, sharp back-end bitterness. I\u2019d have mistaken it for a blonde ale or a flat pale if forced to venture a guess.<\/p>\n

Another of the\u00a0subpar offerings included a\u00a0dry stout that tasted like it been filtered through a Randall filled with ash-tray residue, probably from the improper use of really dark grain, or scorching the wort. We also weren’t fans of the Belgian-style quadrupel.\u00a0I\u2019d had a barrel-aged version of the quad during last year\u2019s San Diego Beer Week<\/strong><\/a>. Back then I\u00a0picked up some sourness, which is highly uncharacteristic of a big, malty Belgian dark strong ale aged in oak. I had hoped the problem was with the barrel, but the base beer had a weird pomegranate-like fruitiness, as well as burnt caramel bitterness and an off-putting cloying sweetness.<\/p>\n

Novo Brazil\u2019s Russian imperial stout was better than the aforementioned dry stout, but still had too much bitterness in the finish. A Belgian-style tripel was low on aroma and big on banana and honey sweetness, but was again too bitter\u00a0at the end.<\/p>\n

\"novobrazil_03\"<\/a>The brewery’s hoppier offerings fared better with the group. The English India pale ale we tried had no noticeable hop aroma, but its IBUs (international bittering units) were spot-on for a UK-style IPA. The\u00a0Otay IPA was under-carbonated, but it did have a nice citrusy nose with flavors to match thanks to the use of Amarillo, Centennial, Citra and Simcoe hops.\u00a0A second IPA, Copacabana, had a lemony scent but was pretty one-note on the palate\u2026that note being bitter.<\/p>\n

Our last stop of the day\u00a0was the oldest of the South Bay\u2019s three fermentation interests, Border X Brewing Company<\/strong><\/a>, which awaited us in Barrio Logan. Check in tomorrow for that report.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: In his day job, Brandon works as the marketing manager for Miramar\u2019s AleSmith.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second stop on our #southbayuprising brewery tour proved the saying \u201call that glitters isn\u2019t gold.\u201d The shiniest stainless steel in the county resides at Novo Brazil Brewing Company (901 Lane Avenue, Chula Vista), but what\u2019s inside is dull and spotty\u2026assuming we\u2019re referring to one of the many large fermentation tanks that actually has beer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,369,1],"tags":[1353,2133,376,2360,442,1805,1387,2079,2590,390,2577,2580,1739,2459,1010,2589,1681,2588,267,1439,909,2154,2134,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-13214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-beer-news","7":"category-beer-styles","8":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","9":"tag-sdbeer","10":"tag-amarillo","11":"tag-beer","12":"tag-border-x","13":"tag-brandon-hernandez","14":"tag-centennial","15":"tag-chula-vista","16":"tag-citra","17":"tag-copacabana","18":"tag-craft-beer","19":"tag-diacetyl","20":"tag-eastlake","21":"tag-india-pale-ale","22":"tag-indie-beer","23":"tag-ipa","24":"tag-lane-avenue","25":"tag-novo-brazil","26":"tag-otay","27":"tag-pilsner","28":"tag-san-diego","29":"tag-san-diego-beer-week","30":"tag-sd-beer-week","31":"tag-simcoe","32":"tag-west-coaster","33":"entry","34":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-3r8","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}