Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Winters, California has a new brewery (with tap room underway) in Berryessa Brewing.
Aside from the cool logo, there is litle on the official Berryessa websites about their brews that I could find in a quick search so, like I asked with Southern Pacific Brewing, if you have sampled their beers at Sacramento or San Francisco beer weeks, let me know your thoughts and give me recommendations.
Should I try Freshie, their pale ale or their Common Sense California common first?
I have posted about quite a few new breweries and it is only March! And here we go again, Latitude 33 opened on the 3rd! So this is really fresh beer.
The name comes from where they are located in North San Diego county and also the fact that they have a theme of adventure running through their branding which leads me to the beers and their names…
The Pasha’s Rye Brown sounds tasty (I love a good brown ale) and I love the name.
“Roasted malts and rich, spicy rye offset with a unique hop character. The Pasha’s is a unique brown ale worth fighting for.”
Now I really need to plan a San Diego beer adventure!
Camel Corps IPA heads toward the New Zealand hop route.
“Our signature India Pale Ale combines English roots with a little twist from New Zealand hops to create a delightfully unique San Diego-style IPA.”
Here is the scoop on the second reviewed Oregon beer from my college town of McMinnville, “Dopplebock started out as a Lenten beer for the monks in Germany. During Lent they would forgo solid food and get all their sustenance from beer. Needless to say it was big beer with lots of unfermented dextrins. Once the public got a taste it became very popular. We call our beer Mediator because we think that a 22 ounce bottle is probably better shared than drunk alone. It’s rich, toasty and malty, with a few plum notes on the palate and the slightest roasted character in the finish. I think this would go really well with a number of cheeses.”
Here is my review of Mediator from Heater-Allen
Our second stop in Ireland courtesy of interwebs help at the Beoir site is at Messrs Maguire
But there are not going to be any stouts, Irish or otherwise for me, if I visit. I will be heading straight to two German styles.
No2: BOCK
“A classic of the style, winner of the Best Overall Beer Award at the Independent Irish Beer & Whiskey Festival 2009. This strong beer is easy drinking, with a mild malty aroma and a medium body. Reasonably sweet for a stronger beer, this finishes clean and crisp and leaves you wanting more.”
No3: HAUS LAGER
“A classic European pilsner-style lager, hopped with specially imported continental hops – Czech Saaz and Bavarian Hersbrucker – to impart a crisp, moderately bitter flavour. This beer has a dry, subtle maltiness with a nice floral aroma.”
I had the pleasure of sitting and talking with the folks at Kenai River at the CanFest last year but they did not mention this beer.
“We try to brew just as often as we can, just these little single batch brews,” Hogue said. If all goes as planned, the 20 pounds of Belgian candy sugar and 15 pounds of the bears – that’s about 2,565 multi-colored gummies – will create a Belgian Tripel that’s about 9.2 percent alcohol”
It might work. But I hope it is just a hint of gummy bear flavor.
Normally, I do not go out on St. Patrick’s Day. And if provoked, I will declare that it is a beer beginners night and I don’t fancy my chances on the road from other revelers and police checkpoints.
BUT…(and you all probably saw that coming), if the Bruery is throwing their Reserve Society Celebration that day? Exceptions are made.
Beer buddy Richard and I arrived in slightly rainy and slightly cold Anaheim in the afternoon to get in line for the festivities not knowing how it would play out since it was our first time at this event.
I had heard through the beer hop bines that last year’s party was not optimal. But from the start, this celebration was smooth as 2009 Papier. We were allowed in the tent early to avoid more rain. Check in was quick and painless and after the initial long lines as people targeted their must have beers most lines throughout the 3 1/2 hours were very short. You could walk up and get Chocolate Rain in no time flat.
The choices were ridiculously great. Papier, Coton and Cuir. Black Tuesday. Multiple versions of Carmen and Smoking Wood oh and Eagle Rock brought Libertine and Deuce, Bootleggers had Black Phoenix and Knuckle Sandwich, Hangar 24 had Pugachev’s Cobra and their DIPA and TAPS brought the awesome Imperial Balinese Stout and Crystal Pils.
But this was THE place to have Bruery beers. And my favorite was Sour in the Rye with Kumquats (Thanks Dave for the recommendation). Fruity and tart and well balanced. Just awesome. I had my first taste of ISO:FT and Carmen with Kiwi too.
And for those in the Irish mood, you could get a beer dosed with Centennial hop oil. My green beer was Humulus Lager and boy was it green and hoppy.
Oh and great food from Beachwood (love the blue cheese grits), plenty of water and soda and enough room that you did not feel cramped. I just wish I had more than ten tickets and another couple of days to work through the whole list of beers!
I was fortunate enough to visit the Twisted Pine when I visited Boulder and I sure wish this beer had been on tap cause I would have snapped it up because chai in beer should be done more often in my opinion.
“On March 3rd, Twisted Pine Brewing Company will release Sacred Spice, the third beer in its Artisan Ale Series. Fans of Twisted Pine and craft beer in general have received the endeavor – which pairs a distinctive new brew with a different local artist each month – with open arms, eyes and mouths. In its first two months the popular project has gained attention statewide and the brewery hopes to build on that success with March’s offering.”
“Sacred Spice is an Imperial Porter invigorated with traditional masala chai spices skillfully blended by Boulder-based Sanctuary Chai. The enchanting ale carries the delightful scent and flavor of dark, roasted barley as well as the provocative aroma of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and other spices used for centuries to embolden Eastern teas. However, much like the brewery’s heralded Big Shot Espresso Stout, Sacred Spice strikes a fine balance whereby the flavors exhibit a seemingly natural harmony so that no taste bud is dominated but rather each one satisfied. The bold, black ale is 10.1% ABV with 33 IBU.
Sacred Spice’s label features a piece titled ‘Life is Beautiful’ by local artist Millicent Kang. The release party will double as an art show for Kang, whose works will adorn the Twisted Pine ale house for the entire month of March. The artist will also be on hand to discuss her art and sign bottles for collectors in what has quickly become a celebrated monthly event. Further details can be found at the brewery’s website.”
Beer and pizza is my favorite pairing but running a close second is beer and burgers. And thankfully, there are great burger places popping up that have the same craft ethos as our beloved breweries.
One of them that is inching ever closer to L.A. is Eureka! Burgers.
The closest locations are Redlands or Santa Barbara as of now but that just encourages the old-fashioned road trip. Head to Hangar 24 then hit Eureka in Redlands. Or go to Hollister then Eureka in the Santa Barbara area.
First Rogue came out with a Portlandia beer in conjunction with the IFC channel and now Laurelwood has a pils with the iconic Portland statue on the label.
“When creating this beer, we set out to create a lager that has its heart in the Northwest. This beer has a firm bitterness with flavor and aroma impressions of pine, citrus and fresh cut grass which is the signature of American hops while still on their best behavior. A new classic, a NW Pilsner will all the implied contradictions.”
I don’t think you can pickle it but there probably is a specific recycling bin with a bird on it that you can put it in.
All day today, BELMONT STATION will be celebrating it’s 15TH ANNIVERSARY.
And here is what they are going to do to celebrate, “Yep, it’s been 15 years since the founding of Belmont Station as the first specialty beer store in the Northwest. Thanks to you we’re still here so we’ll be breaking out some vintage bottles to sell and have a few surprises on tap. Ted Sobel of Brewers Union Local 180 is bringing us two firkins of his unbeatable genuine cask-conditioned ales, including one brewed just for our 15th, with 15 malts.”
I wish I could take the day off, fly up to Portland and stay there all day if only to have Brewers Union beers.