My five year plan is to visit, and thereby sample the wares of, every microbrewery in the state of California. I include the ‘big boy” craft brewers since the goal is drinking beer not business profiling. That being said, if they have multiple breweries, I consider one stop at one brewery a fulfillment of my goal.*

These are my personal ramblings about beer and should, in no way, be construed as the last word on either the subject or locations mentioned. And, since we are in the disclaimer business, let me just say two things... one, it is a lot easier to start up a webpage than an actual brewery and, two, when you are going headfirst into Chapter 11 the last thing you worry about is closing out your website. Combine that with the general uncertainty of the information highway and you won’t be overly dismayed when you track down a brewery and find it either DOA or something completely different as they say.

All these dire warnings and disclaimers will, of course, fall by the wayside every time you find that cozy little brewpub in some out-of-the-way burg where the food is good and the beer is great…

*See the amendment to this plan at the bottom of the February 26,2012 blog post...

Monday, December 31, 2012

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…
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)