A BREWSKI PILGRIMAGE INTO THE SANTA CRUZ MAOUNTAINS

I have to admit that the “spreadability” of my blog postings sometimes gives me a strong dose of the heebie-jeebies.  The notion that what I put down, in a moment of stream-of-consciousness scribbling, becomes fodder for the minds scattered hither and yon across the universe makes me worry now and then.  

A few weeks ago my friend, and former Santa Cruz resident, Lance came to town and we wound up, after a 10 cent tour of his old stomping grounds, in Boulder Creek just north of home.  This was, of course, motivated by my need to check Boulder Creek Brewery off my grand survey. 

Now Boulder Creek isn’t very big but it has supported this brewery for quite a long while and it is in a nicely funky, mountain town building with an eatery attached. The bar proper is a utilitarian, no-nonsense affair with an old kitchen cabinet for a back barand stacks of beer making ingredients and hardware crammed in where there was room.  Satellite radio was pretty much it for décor.

 Having spent the last hour driving thru redwoods, I started with their Redwood Ale.  Hummm… just a wee bit “skunky”.  Working on the two pronged logic that, a) even beer that’s not so good is better than no beer at all, and, b) if you don’t like that one, try something different, I drank my pint and ordered another of the American Blonde.  Nice and crisp and much different from the Ale but… there was still that skunk outside the open window somewhere.  After casting a more critical eye around the back bar, I concluded that, if cleanliness is truly next to godliness, we were a long way from church. With all the components on public display it was easy to see the lackluster cleaning procedures and the un-capped transfer hoses hanging on the walls, sucking up the “atmosphere”.  I would not be surprised to discover that Jesus was sitting on the bar in diapers the last time they cleaned their taps.

Not a great experience but it was happy hour and Lance bought the beers so it wasn’t a dead loss. Kind of like the guest who got the undercooked potatoes, I didn’t want to post this and have someone I don’t know take it as a definitive review.  I therefore have been dragging my feet about entering the visit on my blog.  Until yesterday when I had the opportunity to sample more of their beer that had been kegged and shipped to a different set of taps.  Gotta say, all the difference in the world…  a great tasting beer (Golden Girl Pale Ale) , a good lunch and my faith in zymurgy restored.

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS...

As I began wrapping up my time in Quincy I had one more local notch to cut into my beer list.  With that as motivation, I set out on an overnight road trip with my good friend Jeff to pay a visit to the Feather River Brewing Co. down the hill in Magalia.  This is a sleepy little town just beyond Paradise with a happy tangle of streets and roads. Considering that the Brewery is actually out the back side of town, we were more than happy to surrender navigation to the disembodied young woman mounted on the dashboard of Jeff’s car who admonished us to “proceed 12 miles on…” and “turn left onto Larter…” leading us unerringly to our destination.  If you take a notion to visit you need to e-mail, call ahead for an appointment or, better yet, both. 

This is a deceivingly small operation with an astonishing amount of top flight equipment wiggled into a well planned space.  Roger Preecs is the Masterbrewer, chief cook and bottle washer and a hoot and a half to hang out with.  He welcomed us with open arms and full sampler glasses and regaled us with stories of the Brewery’s birth and growth involving invention, scrounging, serendipity and neighborly good deeds liberally dosed with skill and passion.  This is a man who loves beer and brewing, knows what he likes and has reaped awards aplenty over the last quarter of a century in the process.  He had three beers on tap that day; Dark Canyon Ale, Raging Rapids Ale and Honey Ale.  In the course of the tour we sampled all three (a couple twice just to be sure…) and were impressed enough to haul off a mixed case for later… that’s right, he also has a bottling line (with its attendant tale of the aforementioned scrounging and serendipity) nudged into the building.

This is far from the biggest or prettiest layout, but I challenge to you find that reflected in the flavor, quality and attention to detail of the beer. Easily the most gregarious brewer I’ve ever met, we drove away pleased to have made the acquaintance of both brew and brewmaster. 

LATER THAT SAME DAY…

Not wanting to haul our butts back up the canyon the same day, we rolled down Skyway into the east side of Chico where we holed up until late afternoon.  Rested and rarin’ to go, we hailed Chico Cab and snagged a ride to the Sierra Nevada Brewery for dinner and some more serious imbibing.  This is one of the showcase west coast breweries, sprawled over a large piece of real estate, complete with hop farm, solar arrays and one of the greatest places for “pub grub” in all of northern California. That being said…

I’m probably gonna get some shit about this (and remember this is all about one man’s opinion…) but Sierra Nevada is far from my favorite beer.  Don’t get me wrong, I drink it, and their commitment to the community and environment can’t be beat. I stuck to Porter to go with my Fish & Chips but Jeff jumped in with both feet and ordered the “full meal deal” sampler platter. This is an impressive array of all sixteen of their offerings and covers the spectrum from Kolsch to Stout with lots of hops in betwixt and between.  Impressive, yes, but I am concerned that with nearly a dozen and a half taps on line, maybe sometimes tasting different takes precedence over tasting good…

This is not my first visit to Sierra Nevada nor will it be my last but I will continue to drink the one or two that appeal to me and leave the rest for those who need more adventure in a glass of beer than do I.

SEAFOOD & BREWSKIS

One of the redeeming qualities of Santa Cruz seems to be its proximity to a large number of micro breweries.  Having been thwarted in our attempt to wander up to Boulder Creek Brewing Co. to sample their wares we regrouped and the next night I grabbed Tama up from work and we headed south on good old Highway 1 around the horn of Monterey Bay.

First stop was in the small town of Marina for a visit to The English Ales Brewpub.  Just off the main drag, in the merchant area of town this was a charming blue collar gathering spot. It is the closest thing I have ever seen, this side of the pond, which resembles an honest-to-god English pub.  Nowhere in sight are the acres of dark oak paneling and the faux horse brasses. No dark crannies with green glass shades on the lighting nor gigantic Guinness mirrors.  Tall windows face the street letting in plenty of light to wash over the owner’s eclectic and whimsical collection of oddments and nearly 700 regular’s mugs hang from the ceiling. It was about 6:00 on a Friday night and the place was packed. One of the brewers was out in front have a smoke and, having spotted my notebook, covered in beer stickers, he made a point to chat me up and make recommendations about their beers. No IPAs or apricot ales here… they only make English style ales, porters and stouts. Following his advice I had a pint of their Anniversary English Ale since they were out of their true ESB.  It was the brewmeister’s first totally original recipe and it speaks well of his talents. This is a place that I will visit many more times.

A beer and some jalapeño poppers under our belts we headed down the highway to Monterey where, after some wrong turns and a long and valiant search for parking, we ended up at The Cannery Row Brewing Co. for more beers and dinner. It’s a big, big place and it is right in the middle of tourista central so, on a Friday night, it was a bit of a madhouse.

That being said, because our hearts are pure and our cause is just, we were in the right spot to snag a table in the bar after only a few moments and in no time at all the waitress was hovering and delivering beers and dinner menus.  I sampled Madame Flora’s Red Light Special and Canning Line Belgian Ale and found them both excellent (keep your taps cleaned and pay attention to your brewing and you have my vote…)  In spite of the crush of people and the noise level in a cavernous brick warehouse (4 big screen flat screens behind the bar…) the dinner was yummy and the beers were, as I said, excellent.

There was one more brewpub in Monterey but it was downtown in the square where they were have at least one extremely upscale car show and parking was, at best, just a dream so we turned the car homeward leaving us an excuse to return for another visit.

CAIFORNIA DOT GETS IN THE WAY…

All kinds of strange and curious things conspire to slow the pursuit of the glorious but elusive brewski. Last night we had plans to snatch Tama from the jaws of work and head up into the hills to the Boulder Creek Brewing Co. in, oddly enough, Boulder Creek, California, just a few miles north of Santa Cruz. All went well until we got a handful of miles north on State highway 9… oops, the road is completely closed until mid-October. There are alternate routes to be sure but they were all on the map we didn’t throw in the car prior to departure so we elected to go another time. Instead we hit a local BBQ joint for smokey bits & pieces of Mr. Cow and Mr. Pig.

Tonight we head south to Marina and Monterey for 3 other microbreweries.

Here’s hoping the road is open and not too cluttered right after work…

IT'S A DIRTY JOB, BUT...

I decided that I’d had enough of the bachelor life and fired up the ol’ Subaru for a road trip from Quincy to Santa Cruz. Needless to say, I had taken a moment days before and mapped out a list of possible brewery stops along the way.

My first stop was in beautiful downtown Yuba City where I attempted to track down the Sutter Buttes Brewing Co. easy enough to find with googlemaps but I failed to notice at the bottom of their webpage that the phone number said, “This is where your phone number will go.” Woulda been a good clue that they may still be in the womb as it were. No sign on the building yet and tools scattered from hell to breakfast… you shrug your shoulders and drive on.

Pacing myself I lay low until I hit San Jose which my list says is home to a long line of taps. No luck at the first place, The Hermitage Brewery… found the address (and only the address…). No odor of spelt, no hint of beer and damn I’m getting hungry. Next stop was much more successful… Not really in San Jose but I defy you to tell me where it ends and Campbell begins and, besides, the other one in San Jose (Shizmo Brewing Co.) had the decency to post an “opening soon” line on their website.

The Rock Bottom Brewery is in the back of a mall complex and is a full-blown restaurant with a brewery in house. I polished off a pint of Raccoon Red and a nice big bowl of chicken noodle soup. I chatted up the brewmeister (who had never heard of Hermitage Brewery either…) and got another brewery to add to my list.

The Sonoma Chicken Coop which will soon be known as the Campbell Brewing Co. is another big brewery/restaurant. Being a diehard fan of an honest to God English Style Bitter I ordered up their ESB. The bad news for the wandering sampler… they only serve a 22 oz. glass (three bucks!) so, since I also had a short sampler of their Scotch Ale, I ordered a plate of chicken tacos. 50% off because it was just before 2:00 pm, they were good (but not seasoned) and loaded (seemed like tortillas were more expensive than chicken or avocado?) Gotta say though, a good ESB with the right amount of hop and a tasty, malty finish.

To avoid the unpleasantness of getting plowed with miles to go still, I left nearby Sunnyvale for another time and moved toward Santa Cruz on highway 17 to Los Gatos. Downtown and around to The Los Gatos Brewing Co. Yet another big, local restaurant & Brewery. I sampled their cheese stuffed roasted red peppers while I sucked down a pint of delicious Dog Tale Pale Ale. Good to the last drop and definitely time to switch to water and get on down the road to meet up with my lovely wife.