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.
