Did I just pay $3.99 for a 22-ounce bottle of Lagunitas Equinox Pale Oat Ale? Yep, I just paid $3.99 for a 22-ounce bottle of Lagunitas Equinox Pale Oat Ale. Not on clearance either mind you as this beer was just recently re-released (Lagunitas says it was first brewed in 1995 on the label). But then, Lagunitas beers have always been one of the best bargains in craft brewing.

That wouldn’t matter if the beers weren’t good; they are. In fact, I’ll match their beers up against any craft brewer out there. Factor in price, and nobody, I mean nobody, gives you the bang for your buck that Lagunitas does. Why just the other day I was sitting at Taco Mac sipping a foaming 20-ounce draft mug of delicious Lagunitas New Dogtown Pale Ale, for which I paid a mere $5.50.

As I wrote my review up for this webpage, I learned that New Dogtown is a hybrid beer partially using the recipe for Lagunitas Kill Ugly Radio Ale. I bought that beer in 2007 for just $2.99, and contrasted it to the $11 Left Hand Rye Bock and $8 Avery Kaiser it was parked next to. Today, it’s not uncommon for some carft bombers to command $15 to $20-or more. You can buy a lot of Equinox Pale Oat Ale for that kind of money.

From the label:

Qan you imagine a world without Beer? Everything ewe gnoe would be different. Phish might phly, daugs might uze power touls. Pfriedae nights mite be spent building treez out of the day after tomorrow's pstale sour qreem and cheaze leavings. And then their'd bea the speling iszuues. Thingss wood bee just plane wierd, eye meene weird. Come two thinq of itt, Eye think aya cood stand beain a liddl bit hapier write gnau... (glug, glug, glug... gulp.) Mmm, aah! Once again all is right with the world, the fish are in their ocean, the dog will not maim me, I'll have a date for Friday night, and I know for sure that in fact God loves me. Beer. You only borrow it.

Such fun, that. Now what would you pay? But wait! There’s more:

Lagunitas Equinox Pale Oat Ale has an alcohol content of 8% by volume with 50 IBUs. This is the part where I would normally tell you how much I paid for it, but I already did that. Shame on you if you weren’t paying attention.

Lagunitas Equinox Pale Oat Ale pours to a bright orange amber color with a thick creamy tan head and a sweet fruity nose of peaches, mango and passion fruit. Taking a sip, the beer has a very light matinees up front followed by pasty oat notes and lots of fruity hops. They’re very much like in the nose, mangos and passion fruit and perhaps more apricot than peachy here. They become a little citric too I think, but finish fruity and quite bitter with some alcohol warmth, too.

This is a very fruit beer but it’s also got that wonderful silky smoothness that oats can impart. Stylistically, it’s probably best called strong ale or American strong ale (categories designed to put strong beers into that you really don't know where the hell to put anywhere else). However you peg it, it is delicious and at this crazy low price it gets a full five out of five in my book.

Home