SLOWLY I RETURN, STEP BY STEP...

Holy smokes and oops, sorry… I looked over my notes and discovered that I had visited breweries almost a year ago that I haven’t written about yet. So, to rectify that gross oversight, I humbly offer the following notes and memories.

06/02/2013 - Looking for a wee bit more scenic route up to a weekend in San Francisco we headed up highway 1, outta Santa Cruz through Davenport. Long about half way you come to signs for the town of Pescadero… with no town in sight. Turns out that the town of Pescadero is about 3 miles off the highway, but snugged right up against the coast highway is a gas station with a nice brewery/restaurant right behind it. This would be The Highway 1 Brewing Co. and, since we had breakfast out and a late start, we wheeled in for a brewski.

 After reviewing the choices I settled on a pint of Pepper in the Rye… a curious and intriguing blend of beer and spices. I’m not much for fiddle farting around with the simple elegance of just plain ol’ beer, but this one was subtle enough to pass muster. I wouldn’t wanna drink a half rack of them of an afternoon, but it was well worth the stop and the sampling… and the bar bites we ordered were just the thing for a short lunch.

A few weeks later I found myself back in Quincy once again with a need to visit lovely Susanville to track down Lassen Ale Works.

Since my friend Traci needed to hit up the Social Security Office in Susanville, she likes beer and she shares my passion for fish & chips, it just screamed out Road Trip! 

Of course, despite claims on their website, the Social Security offices were closed so we repaired to the brewery to assuage our feelings of betrayal and to avail ourselves of beer and grub. Since I was driving, Traci ordered a tasting flight and I limited myself to a pint of  Bizz Johnson Blonde. While we were perusing the menu the owner came by, a discussion ensued about the quality of fish & chips here and there and, for all intents and purposes, she offered to comp the lunch if we didn’t like their version. Bottom line, we ordered fish & chips, all the beers in the flight were excellent, the fish & chips disappeared and we paid for our lunch. Granted Susanville is a bit out of the way and on the way to nowhere else, but this place is well worth the drive.

A few days later it was time to head home again to Sammy Cruise and the lovely Tama. Instead of a marathon through drive, busting down the freeway for six hours, I decided to wander home the back way and hit a couple of “out of the way” breweries that had been dodging their place on my list.

Just up the hill from the place where John Marshall discovered gold on Mr. Sutter’s property is the Gold Hills Winery & Brewery. A little hard to find and once you find the parking lot your work day is still not over.

Down the stairs, across the road, a peek into an empty foyer, a couple of locked doors, round the back, down another flight of stairs, across another small parking lot and you find yourself at the bottom of a last, short flight of stair that takes you to the beer tasting room.

It was hot and I was tired so it was a real treat to get a cold, excellent 22 ounce bottle of 49’er Red to drink on the shady deck overlooking acres of vineyard. As I said, it was hot and I was miles from a motel room but their beer was so good that I bought a variety of other beers to consume later.  Well worth a stop if you’re out that way but hit the web ‘cuz they got short hours and they’re only open a couple of days a week…

Down the road into the flats and the heat, heading to prison and Lockdown Brewery in beautiful downtown Folsom, California. Right in the middle of old town and up a flight of stairs in a beautiful old commercial building, it had all the appearances of a nice, cool and refreshing break from the late afternoon heat. But, sadly, appearances can be deceiving and when I asked which of their beers I should start with, I was informed that none of their beers were available on tap… no weekend rush draining the kegs (it was a Saturday…) no “just ended” local celebration… they were just out of beer save but one.

Being no stranger to this sort of adversity I ordered a pint of the beer they had and I must say it was very good. I sampled Stoney Bar Scotch Ale and then, after hearing that they offered no kind of food nor bar snacks, I paid up and moved on down the highway to my Motel 6 reservation and air conditioning…

I must remind readers here (again…) that this is by no means a critical review of the breweries. I was there once, for half an hour, and may well have hit their only flat spot.

You truly should not base your visit or avoidance plans on what you read here… remember that even a bad beer experience is better than a no beer experience.

WISHING YOU HOLIDAY GOOD BEER

Up until now I have only posted visits to actual breweries where I could sip their samples straight from the source, as it were.  Here I am going to wander off the beaten path for a moment but if you read on I am sure you will forgive me for this wee diversion.

What with our beer-centric son-in-law coming for Christmas I felt compelled to encourage Santa to fill his stocking with bottles of beer that he couldn’t get easily in his home state of Idaho… two of his favorites from Russian River Brewing and one from a small brewing company out in the wilds of Magalia, CA.  Knowing that three bottles of beer would hardly wet our respective whistles I also stocked up on a sampling of bottles from Santa Cruz breweries.

Okay, that all disappeared by the end of Christmas Day so we made a quick pilgrimage around the corner to AJ’s… a gas station mini-mart on the outside but a rarified gem on the inside where you can find organic, local foods, maybe some halal goat meat by the pound and a really swell selection of micro beers.

Perhaps you are wondering why we do this with such dedication… above and beyond the part where we get to drink beer.  By poking around in the recesses of the brewing industry you find yourself tasting the artistic dabblings of people who can think “outside of the keg” as it were.  Everybody knows that you drink beer when you eat oysters, right?  But it takes a clever duck to pull off using the oysters in the beer and skipping the middle ground.  If you are land-locked, then maybe oyster beer seems down right nasty… but if you have every slurped the liquor from underneath a truly fresh raw oyster on the half shell then you know that this is not going to be a bottle of fish flavored lite beer.

Some outstanding, some less than remarkable but all are now history…

FLYING DOG BREWERY   Fredrick, MD

Raging Bitch Belgian IPA

Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout

DOGFISH BREWING CO.  Milton, DE

Chicory Stout

PORT BREWING CO.  San Marcos, CA

Mongo IPA

RUSSIAN RVER BREWING CO.  Santa Rosa, CA

Damnation Golden Ale

Pliney the Elder

FEATHER RIVER BREWING CO.  Magalia, CA

Raging Rapids Ale

GRAND TETON BREWING CO.  Jackson Hole, WY

Sweetgrass American Pale Ale

SANTA CRUZ ALE WORKS  Santa Cruz, CA

IPA

Dark night Imperial Stout

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAIN BREWING Santa Cruz, CA

Amber Ale

Devout Stout

Well, sure, that was fun but, hey, the beer is all gone again. Luckily there is a small mecca - an oasis if you will - in downtown Santa Cruz.  The aptly named 99 Bottles of Beer offers just that.  Between a long row of taps and an envious bottle cooler they do, indeed, proffer an actual count that exceeds 100 choices of the brewer’s art. Yes, you can get Coors Light and, yes, you can get a $20 Chimay not to mention pretty much everything in between.

We hit the taps for a couple of hours and then bought a varietal six-pack of take away for dinner and dessert.

Firestone Walker Velvet Merlin 

Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale  Paso Robles, CA

Old Speckled Hen  Suffolk, England

Anchor Steam Beer  San Francisco,  CA

Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA  San Francisco,  CA

St. Peter’s Cream Stout  Suffolk, England

Abita Turbo Dog English Brown Ale  Abita Springs, LA

Guinness Black Lager  Dublin, Ireland

Shipyard Monkey Fist IPA  Portland, ME

Eye of the Hawk  Mendocino, CA

Uncommon Brewers Casserly Pale Ale 

Uncommon Brewers Siamese Twin Ale  Santa Cruz, CA

Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron  Milton, DE

Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout  Booneville, CA

Its an ugly job but someone has to step up…

OOPS, SORRY 'BOUT THAT

Yeah, I know. I have been more than a little remiss about posting my beer conquests. But with art shows to get ready for, the lovely Tama having major surgery and the impending holidays... well, it ain't much of an excuse but its all you're gonna get.

In the ensuing months I have made three separate forays into beer country in September, October and early December... and here they are.

GONE OUT EAST

One thing you learn on a project like this… it’s true, size doesn’t matter.  About a hundred miles west of Quincy you can visit a brewery that is now pushing the limits of calling themselves a micro… I’ve already posted my opinion on that one. About twenty miles east of Quincy you can find the antipodal option for the serious beer lover. 

Out on highway 70, pretty much across the highway from the town of Blairsden, sits Undercover Aleworks.  Look for the sandwich board out on the side of the highway saying they are open and tootle up the winding driveway into the trees.  Small but dedicated to craftsmanship in every detail this small brewery seems to contravene some basic laws of physics by being larger inside than outside – you among the trees, the beer among your tastebuds. 

These are people who take beer seriously and life with more than a bit of whimsy, making the whole visit a chance to stop and smell the fermentation.  A curious tangle of local ordinances prevents them from serving food (even though Susan has been a restaurateur for years…) but they have no problem with you bringing in a picnic to wash down with a few of their beers.  I had already gorged myself on Mexican food just up the road so I was happy just to suck down a couple of pints. I started with Deep Cover Ale, an old favorite from local bar taps and then, because I wasn’t driving. I ordered up a pint of Transplant Saison, a specialty brew celebrating a local friend’s recent successful surgery.

There isn’t much to do here except savor the beer and listen to the wind wandering through tall trees but it is remarkably hard to get back off your butt and get on with your business… what a great legacy for a brewery.

GET THEE BEHIND ME CABIN FEVER

‘Tuther day we decided that Tama had just about enough of languishing around the house recovering from her surgery so we planned a little weekend run up around Petaluma.

Along with some casual antique gawking and visits to local bakeries and cheese makers, I managed to find a couple of breweries that needed my attention.

First stop was in Sebastopol at the HopMonk Tavern, one of three area branches. This is a spacious bar & restaurant with a steady line-up of local and national performers on weekends.  We hit there in the early afternoon and the bar was still well littered with straggling lunchers and such.  They offer a long line of taps with a strong variety of local micro guest beers, but, being on a mission as it were, I ordered their own Hopmonk Tavern Ale.  A lovely, well crafted beer with all those things your mouth asks for in ale. It was perfect for washing down those bar bite fries we also ordered.  I probably could have spent much of the afternoon working my way down the tap line but, hey, this was a road trip…

Well, we wandered many miles and sampled artesianal cheeses, went looking for Tippy Hedren at Bodega Bay, gobbled pastries from tiny bakeries and finally headed back toward the golden gate.  By the time we got back to Petaluma we realized that we weren’t quite ready to drive home so we got ourselves a room, rested up and went out looking for dinner and another notch on my brewery list.

A little research and a little reconnaissance got us to Dempsey’s Ale House.  Unfortunately having no plan left us on their doorstep at dinner time on a Saturday night in the big city.  The place was hopping, so we left our name with the hostess and went to try and find a place at the bar.  In no time at all someone already at the bar got the call that their table was ready so we parked our carcasses on the bar stools and I reviewed my options.  By name alone I settled on a pint of their seasonally offered 707 Wet Hop Ale… again with the pleasant surprise that hopping beer is no longer a blood sport.  It was a nice blend of fresh hops and lots of malt… livelier than a lot of beers and a joy to slurp down. 

By now our hostess was looking for us, but we had already eyeballed the menu and decided that we would move on for dinner.  Not that the food didn’t look and sound great, but after you have hit a hundred or more brewpubs you find that there is a little too much common denominator in their menus and the thought of another round of BBQ Ribs or Beer Battered Fish & Chips (two of my perennial favs…) just doesn’t make the grade anymore.  So it was back across the street from our motel for a hole in the wall Mexican place and a couple of bottles of Modelo Especial.

YET ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO VISIT OROVILLE

Okay, let me say that when I first moved to California, up in the north end of the state, Butte Creek was my  “go to” grocery store beer.  Secondly, let me remind you all that I have said many times that there are two kinds of brewpubs… breweries that serve food and restaurants that also make beer.

When you go to check out a brewery inside a casino, well, your first thought is that it is just another hook to entertain gamblers.  So imagine my delight when I stopped in Oroville to check Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co. off my list. It was just gone lunchtime and the bar had just opened so service was slow starting… nobody’s fault but mine.  As soon as the gal behind the bar got her prep done everything moved rapidly into first class.  

I ordered a pint of Ocktober Fest Marszen because, hey, it was the two buck daily special. Knowing I had to drive another 70 miles up the canyon I also ordered a big bowl of clam chowder with bread for lunch. Excellent but no surprise there… casino food is always good. The beer was also excellent, delightfully so, and in talking to the bartender I found out why.  Seems that their brewmaster is Roland Allen, the guy who brewed and owned Butte Creek Brewing (and, coincidentally, the first stop on my quest to visit all the California microbreweries…)  Once I found out that little fact I felt compelled to order a pint of their award winning Black Jack Brew Sweet Stout.  Even better than the Marszen and I left a happy, happy man once again.

Even if you don’t have a fist full of dollar bills to feed the slot machines, if you are passing through Oroville I strongly suggest you add the couple of miles to your odometer and sidebar yourself in for a beer and a bite.

WINE COUNTRY MY ASS...

Well, I had planned to just buckle down (up?) and hustle straight home from Quincy… but the best laid plans, eh?  I did well over the “back side” to Oroville and arrived about quarter to eight in the AM… a wee bit too early to make a stop at the Feather Falls Casino Brewery so I will save that for a later drive-by.  70 to 99 to Sacramento and I-80 west and I was skimming right along. 

But then ‘long about Vacaville the headwind suddenly got very gusty and the taillights began to multiply rapidly.  I couldn’t face a long drive through the hideous east bay concrete corridor so, spotting a sign suggesting highway 12 and Napa as an alternate, I opted for a shot across the Golden Gate and straight south to San Jose. 

Motoring along on the fringes of wine country I stopped for a highway flagger at an intersection and, while stretching my neck, my gaze fell upon those magic words, “Brewery”.  Almost without aid my trusty van wheeled right and into the parking lot of Napa Smith Brewery.

Again just a wee bit before the sun crossed the yardarm, so I had the bar to myself with the exception of the barkeep and two of the brewers on an early lunch break.  Had a nice chat with them all while sampling their current seasonal offering, a pint of Ewan Paine Scottish Ale.  I am a big fan of Scottish ales and this was an extremely good one so the time passed quickly and conversation, turning as it often does in this situation, touched on the brewer’s arts and my personal quest.  This led to a suggestion that I might want to avail myself of the offerings just up the road in Sonoma.

Now Sonoma is generally know for wines and tourists and the scant 11 miles of roadway was more than generously sprinkled with both.  The town itself is one of those classic coastal farm towns centered around a square with a park and a surround of old building facades.  

Now days, of course, the buildings have given over from hardware stores and millineries and feature an endless parade of art galleries and tasting rooms, but a short drive down a side street gets you into the “real” part of town and The Sonoma Springs Brewery.  

This is a small, no frills set-up with a Jerry Garcia look-alike brewmaster and the bar and a few two-tops cheek by jowl with the array of hoses and buckets and other stainless steel accoutrements of the zymurgist’s art. 

They don’t serve food, other than peanuts, and they didn’t open for another 20 minutes so what could I do but wander across the street to the lovely, ramshackled taqueria y tortillaria and wolf down a small plate of tacos al pastor… ummmm. 

Okay, one o’clock had come and the bar was, indeed, open for my custom. Reviewing the chalkboard I settled on a pint of Enchanted Forest Black IPA which turned out to be a lovely black lager (a perennial favorite…) nicely hopped (all through the process…) to give it the bite of a good, traditional IPA.  Once again I find that brewers are choosing to make good IPA’s instead of the kind of crap that seems to be mostly based on a dare.

Having miles to go before I was home I passed on another beer and motored my way southward.  There are still more breweries in the neighborhood but I wanted to get home and needed my wits about me to negotiate 101 through San Francisco so I will rest easy knowing that with a free weekend and a designated driver I can handily check them all off my bucket of beer list.