My Beer Buddy had a tough day so we knocked off early and went to one of our favorite watering holes, Lamppost Pizza /Backstreet Brewery in Vista.

Sage is having a Playmaker IPA that he likes and drinks here all the time. I am drinking a Austmarr Baltic Porter. I hadn’t heard of this beer before so I had to give it a try. For a porter I find it on little on the light side of color. It’s more of a dark amber with a beautiful cream color head. It’s on tap here and it’s a little too carbonated for me. But, I do like the bubbles, so that makes me happy.

The smell is light and has a toffee scent to it. It has a full mouthfeel to it. It has a nice coffee/toffee taste to with a nice cocoa finish. The alcohol content is 6.9% but the beer doesn’t have an alcohol taste. Overall, I like it quite well and would definitely put it in my “afternoon” beer category.

Update: Just talked to Dave the brewer here at Backstreet and he told me that the Austmarr Baltic Porter is a specialty of the Backstreet up in Irvine, Calif. (Which explains why I hadn’t heard about it before.) There’s only one keg on tap here, so it’ll be gone before the weekend . But on a brighter note Dave says his specialty stout, “Old Vlad Oatmeal Stout”, will be on tap starting Monday. (Beer w00t!) Better yet, for Backstreet Vista’s 3rd “Anniversarye” there’s going to be a whole bunch of good stuff available. (More on that in another post).

Molly and I are blogging to you live from Backstreet Brewery in Vista, Calif. — our neighborhood brew pub (where we are also upstanding members of the Mug Club). Molly’s a happy girl today. Unlike Brewer Dave has a number of fresh beers on tap this week. I’m always up for the house’s Playmaker IPA when it’s only the afternoon (have to pace myself), but I’ll probably nip at the much stronger HopFather IPA before we wander home for dinner. Molly on the other hand has her stein filled with Austmarr Porter. I’m not familiar with the beer, but Molly seems to really be enjoying it.

The last time we were here and the selection was extremely limited, I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it in a moment. I can see her sipping and tapping away at her laptop right now. In the meantime, here’s a shot of Backstreet’s brewing area. If you click on the image and look at the upper right, you’ll see Brewer Dave shoveling some hops (not a technical term) for a new beer he’s working on.

:: Cheers!