OK guys, bear with me as I go through this. This is going to be LONG and I'll likely break it up in parts to make both the writing and reading do-able. I'd really like to sit down with you all and talk about this over a beer, but since we can't this will have to do...
First, Jeff is right - I have to thank my wife and my buddy's wife for setting this up and being OK with us going over Valentine's weekend.
They are simply the best and we're lucky to have them.
Without further ado, off we go:
Friday: We left home early to make sure we didn't get stuck in traffic which turned out to be non-existent. It was a warm, but foggy morning as we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge:
After arriving a bit early the shuttle showed up and we loaded on. It's a typical small shuttle with folding doors, two-wide seats that face each other like a train does and seating for 14. We had 6 on board so there was plenty of room. Even packed full, it would have been comfortable. Oh, did I mention the keg in the back?
After a quick signature on a release form (Yes, I know that drinking beer can be hazardous to my health thank you), the driver asked us if we wanted a beer. Ummm, yes - that is after all why we were there, right? He poured us a glass of Lagunitas Little Sumpin' to get us started. He was a laid back guy, early 30's and clearly just enjoyed what he was doing. With beer in hand we headed out to
Third Street AleWorks in Santa Rosa which was only about 10 minutes away. We walked in and took a seat at the bar. My buddy had found a Living Social deal for them earlier that included an appetizer, a full sampler and a new growler that would be filled upon leaving for $21. Good deal! Let's see, what's on the drink list:
The sampler included everything on the board except the barleywine which they were out of. No worries, there would be plenty of beer....so line them up please! The sampler paired with some beer-battered onion rings was a perfect start to the trip. In addition to what was on the board they had two beers on the cask taps so we had +2.
I won't review each beer, but I will call out the standouts at each place + anything special. The porter and stouts were 'ok'. Fine for a sample, but I couldn't drink any more of them (shocking, right?).The pale ale was 'meh'. Little aroma and just kind of bland with neither hops nor malts taking a prominent stance.
The IPAs were solid. Nothing great, but nothing bad. The Double Standard Double IPA however was good. Like this -->
This was only available on tap at the brewery because it was San Francisco Beer Week, and this was not the last special beer we would taste in the next 48 hours as a result.
The beer clocked in at 9.1% ABV and had a very aggressive hop-presence. We were going to have a full pint of it after the sampler but decided to see what the rest of the day held in store. Needless to say we were very excited to see what else we would be imbibing!
Stop #2: Bear Republic in Healdsburg. Again, about a 15-minute drive or so....nothing too long at all. Many people here have had the Racer 5 IPA and are fans and I've had a few of their beers so we were amped up to get there.
We arrived around 1:00 or 1:30 and were hungry so we ordered a full lunch here, too. A nice order of beer-battered (see a theme here?) fish n chips to go with a beer flight worked out perfectly. The place was crazy busy with only a single bartender working the bar where we sat plus the orders coming in from the tables so it was a bit of a wait. When asked about the flights we were told we could try either the 'normal flight' or the 'hoppy flight' so we went with the latter. Mind you, we could have tried both but started there since there were a number of stouts and porters on the regular flight that we were avoiding.
Once again, line them up please!
Because they were so busy, he provided us a card that gave us information about the beers, which was actually nice since we weren't going to get his full attention anyway:
These were outstanding beers! The top two were pale ales showcasing some experimental hops. The second was better than the first and I would have gladly had a pull pint of that one. The Racer 5 IPA is a damn good IPA. Period. The Hop Rod Rye was really good. I expected to not like it since it stated it was 18% rye and I like my rye in moderation and that is exactly how it came across - yummy! The Black Racer 5 IPA was OK in the taster size but even what they call low roasted flavor would be too much in a full pint for my taste. I'm thinking that those that like this style (ahem, Paul, Chris, Jeff) would really like this one. The Cafe Racer 15 IPA is listed as a Double but looking at the stats, I think it's approaching Triple numbers, isn't it? In any case, this beer rocks. Everything you want in a strong IPA and nothing you don't. A GREAT beer, for sure. Only available on tap, though....
Apex IPA, listed a a IPA but really a IIPA. WOW. Excuse me, I meant:
Winner, winner chicken dinner this beer is PHENOMENAL. It was just released at the brewery and will be showing up soon in other states: CO, FL, MA, NC, NY, TX, VA, WA. Find it and drink it. If you don't like it, I will give you your money back. My local store is going to start carrying this soon so I can arrange some traded for those interested. It's just that good and I'll be surprised if it doesn't pick up a good following. Yeah, I brought a few home....
No more pics from Bear Republic as I got lost in the beer goodness there.
Stop #3: Lagunitas in Petaluma. One more short ride and we arrived at Lagunitas which is by far the biggest brewery in the area. If I heard correctly, also the 6th largest craft brewery in the nation and #16 overall. The place was big and it was packed at 3:30 on a Friday. Good for them. We started off upstairs in the tasting room that's inside the brewery itself and overlooks the operations. The room feels like you are in somebody's funky basement and Wayne and Garth should be showing up at any moment (party on!). It was busy, but not so crowded that you felt like it was cramped.
They served 5 samples to us: Czech Pilsner, Censored Copper Ale, Dogtown Pale Ale, IPA and Couch Trippin' Fusion
which has it's own story here. We tried the SF version which was dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin and aged in whiskey barrels. After the samples, the bartender told us the story about how the brewery started, his trouble with the law (lots of it, really), and each beer that we tasted. Honestly, the talk was a bit long and should have been WHILE serving the beer but beggars can't be choosers, right? We WERE drinking free beer so I guess I should just shut the hell up and enjoy it.
Lagunitas was one of the first breweries to really start aggressively hopping beers and they are known to be one of the early definers of the West Coast IPA style. Think hops, think Lagunitas. The Pilsner is very Saaz heavy. If that's your thing, you'll love this beer. If not, you won't. I don't. Now, the Censored on the other hand is an AWESOME amber ale (they call it Copper Ale). It has a great story behind it but we'll come back to that later since I knew we'd be back on Day 2 for a VIP tour here so I'll cover that later. The IPA rocks, and the DogTown Pale Ale which I never tried before might just be one of the best Pale Ales on the market. It has the aroma of an IPA and just enough bitterness to make it interesting and the Simcoe can be smelled from 5 feet away. Seriously.
The Fusion was whiskey heavy and probably very good if you like that sort of thing. I'm not a liquor drinker so I just prefer it to not be in my beer but others around us really like it a lot. YMMV.
When the tour started we ducked out into the public taproom since we knew we'd get more in-depth the next day. This allowed us to see the grounds and dining area which were really cool. The outside section has a white and clear tarp over it (about 25 feet high) and lighting like you might see at a wedding reception. Very pretty, and underneath were heaters and picnic tables to force you to sit with others and socialize. There were a few smaller tables as well for the non-social types or those just wanting to be in a smaller group.
We ordered a few more samples and then settled on their Nelson IPA, made with.....<drum roll>....yep, Nelson Sauvin hops which I'm a huge fan of. I don't know if it was bittered with them as well but they held true to their style and didn't skimp on the aroma nor late additions. Again,
. They served them in custom mason jars with their name and logo on them. Nothing fancy in terms of glassworks but it certainly didn't hinder the taste nor the aroma. This was another "in the tap room only" beer and made the whole trip worthwhile. Meaning, that if that was the only good beer we had it would have been worth it - very similar to the Apex from Bear Republic in that sense (they taste nothing alike).
They served the beer with peanuts in the shell and pretzels like any good brewery should do IMO
. We sat with a couple on the tour with us and just chatted. Since this was stop #3 everybody was chatty
When the time came to leave, they picked up the tab for the drinks - very cool.
From here, it was back to where we were picked up. We decided to not stay at the hotel across the street and opted for something a few more miles up the road. By now, we were fine to drive, although we did have another taste of the Little Sumpin' on the shuttle again, of course. We had been drinking water all day long and they provided it on the shuttle in bottles, too. It was very important to keep the palate cleansed and keep hydrated. We drove for about 10 minutes to our hotel, checked in and then headed out for a 1.5 mile walk. Why? Because the temp was in the low 60's, we thought the exercise would be a good idea, and it would lead us to this..........
<more to come>
