PDX.

Roadtrip.

For the trek back home, we scheduled a pretty aggressive beer tour through NorCal and Colorado. A quick rundown of the breweries: North Coast, Sierra Nevada, Moab, Breckenridge, Great Divide, Avery, Twisted Pine, Ft. Collins, New Belgium, Odell, Funkwerks, Left Hand.

We took a jaunt north up to North Coast in Ft. Bragg. We bypassed a few other NorCal spots like Menodcino, Anderson Valley, and Lost Coast in the interest of time.

We had an ok meal at the brewery, and it was nice to see the whole lineup on draft. A secondary shop was across the street with lots of swag.

Finally heading back east, we ran into Chico to pop in to Sierra Nevada.

SN is no small operation, and their facility shows it. The great thing about breweries is that they recycle when they can. Aside from the typical practice of shipping spent grain to farms, SN composts their used material and uses plenty of solar panels to take advantage of the CA sun.The brewery also operates a full-blown restaurant which was pretty good, and it was nice to have a good meal under the sun.

The long drive through Nevada and Utah was punctuated by a stop into Moab Brewery after some hiking at Canyonlands and Arches. The real gem of the whole trip, however, was hitting up the Denver area breweries. After some iffy weather through western CO, we rolled into Breckenridge for a handful of drinks.

Great Divide was a short walk away which had a really nice lineup.
The bar was pretty small, but the whole operation itself was pretty small, relatively speaking. Not much food to speak of, but the tour is decent and the bar is great.

I've had the chance to sample offerings from Avery now and again, always pretty good but nothing outstanding.

Seeing a full lineup from Avery was pretty cool. They do some pretty exclusive stuff. Unfortunately, the atmosphere is pretty crummy, very college UG feel. We ordered some light food, some sort of sweet potato tater tot chili cheese concoction, which was pretty great except for the swarm of flies in the joint.



The beer was pretty damn good though.

We ended the first day at Twisted Pine, which was a bit of an off place,populated by mostly older folks in contrast to Avery. The beer was a little tamer aside from the Ghost Face Killa that I tried. Brewed with ghost peppers, it is the hottest thing I've ever tasted. Plenty of chili beers have a peppery taste with some degree of burn, but this one just kept burning, most of it hitting after the swallow so you have no idea what you're in for. It's one of the more impressive beers I've have, and so I brought back a few bottles.

We were the first visitors at Ft. Collins Brewery the next morning. We showed up at open, but apparently their winter hours were different from what was on their website. They served their samplers in something that looked like an oak stave which was pretty nice. I do recall the chili beer here which I found very pleasant and well-balanced.

The next big hit was New Belgium; we had to book the tour over a month in advance. New Belgium is a brewery that's always been near and dear to me. I remember drinking Fat Tire in UG as a luxury. Even these days, it's still a solid beer. I recall reading that their were starting canning, but sure enough, I saw 12-packs of Fat Tire and Ranger in micro-kegs.


New Belgium is a pretty green brewery. They do the efficiency-driven techniques of recycling kettle water and heat exchange, but they also own a good-sized piece of property. In addition to solar, they have covered a few ponds on their property as methane generators. Pretty cool.
They do a lot of bike-related art, of which I was fond. Chairs and balanced sculptures. Also, barrels of La Folie.

Odell had a nice feel in their taproom. The tour itself wasn't much to speak of, but the tap room was by far one of the largest I've seen, lots of polished wood and windows to catch the Colorado sun.


We ordered a couple of the pre-built flights to hit pretty much everything of interest. The swag shop was displayed in crates against the wall which was unobtrusive but also weird. I will note that Odell uses brushed cotton for their shirts like Backcountry, in contrast to most folks who use American Apparel or heavy duty types like Gildan.

We also managed to get some time in Funkwerks, a tiny little operation cranking out funky Belgian saisons. Their merch was pretty good, I have to say. It reminded me a bit of some of the old Element product. There was also a onesie that was pretty awesome.

Left Hand was another sort of odd place whose crowd was akin to Twisted Pine. The beers were great and came with great regard. The merch was also pretty nice but somewhat overpriced compared to most places. I walked away with just a pint glass though all the merch, glassware included, was pretty cool.

At some point, we also hit Oskar Blues which was across the highway from the hotel at which we were staying. A jaunt across the highway and a skip under the fence led us to show up in some roundabout side of OB but we found our way inside anyway. The experience was rather underwhelming. The staff looked mostly like high school kids, the food tasted a bit pre-packaged and rather salty, and the service was fairly slow. Still, Oskar Blues's bar was good, and their brews are great.

Past CO, there wasn't much to hit. Boulevard was booked up, and we weren't passing by Shlafly. There was the standard hit at Goose Island and then a one-day haul back to NY. At some point, I would like to hit up the Ohio breweries. Overall, it was a pretty solid trip. Very few places have the density of top notch breweries like Denver area but cramming a dozen breweries into two days, not for the weak-willed, but very awesome.

SD Beer Tour.

Drove down to San Diego this past weekend for a pretty sizable beer tour. Over three days, we hit 9 breweries as well as the San Diego Zoo and Legoland in Carlsbad, which is probably the most epic thing I have ever seen in my entire life. The San Diego Zoo has a rep for being pretty awesome, and it did not disappoint. Of note, I have finally seen a giant panda in person. They are as hilarious as I expected.A solid morning and early afternoon was well-spent. There is also the Safari Park, but we didn't have time for that this time around. We also fit in a couple hours at Legoland which is coolest place I have ever been. There were Lego builds of Vegas, San Francisco, New York, iconic battles from Star Wars, and plenty of random Lego builds throughout the park.

I should also mention that I didn't take notes. This was mainly in the interest of time as we had a fairly tight schedule. Plus, impressions should suffice. As I've said before, it's not always about good beers and bad beers. At the end of the day, there are beers you remember and those that you don't. First brewery on the list was Stone.

Stone Brewing Company.

In Escondido, Stone is the largest in SoCal and, I believe, the largest craft brewery in CA. This place is the epitome of West coast philosophy and probably the beer mecca of the west. Their facility, of which I didn't think to take pictures at the time, is by far the nicest of any brewery I've visited. Their brewing floor is expectedly huge but is walled off by floor-to-ceiling glass panes which allow a view from their restaurant which is also fantastic. The high vaulted ceiling carrying over from the brewery makes for a wide open space and floor-to-ceiling glass on the opposing wall minimizes the separation from the indoor and patio dining sections. The ambiance is very big, uncrowded, simple, and natural...dare I say, organic. The food is naturally organic and local when possible and is quite tasty and fresh. I had a buffalo burger which is always nice to see. Beyond the patio is a small but walkable garden, complete with waterfall and pond. It's all done very tastefully and none at the expense of the other components, so bravo, Stone. They also said they're planning on opening up a hotel across the street which should be pretty epic. I will have to come back for that.

I had a Cali-Belgique IPA with my meal which was a great representation of the Belgian pale ale style. This was a beer I had been putting off for one reason or another, but seeing it on tap, I decided I probably wouldn't see that again anytime soon. I thought it was milder than Stone IPA and had a well-rounded spice profile that balanced well with the hop backbone. The Belgian influence is present, and all the bases were covered on this one. I would definitely drink this more often.

Their guest tap list was also pretty impressive. The Biscoff Break and Before, During, and After Christmas by Evil Twin Brewing, a brewery from Denmark.

The dessert was a blueberry-bleu cheese-jalapeno cheesecake which was also very good. The bleu cheese meant a cheesier instead of overpoweringly sweet cheesecake and probably also lent to its creamier texture. The jalapeno was an interesting addition as it added a mild jalapeno taste but with very little heat. A cool dessert to have tried.

Tour was the standard spiel, and our guide was pretty funny and had a sweet beard. Tasting was four pours from the standard lineup, and the swag in their shop was pretty cool. They had swingtop potbelly growlers and swingtop 1L bottles; they also had a fill price for 40 oz Kleen Kanteens. They also had awesome glasses, a lot of different, unique styles for some of their specialties: tumblers for Double Bastard, tulips for pales, wide-mouth flutes for Vertical Epic, a pilsener-like glass for Arrogant Bastard. Cases of 15th Anniversary were up for early sale, which I would have liked to have bought but they weren't breaking up cases yet and my money probably would have been better spent elsewhere.

Green Flash Brewing Company.

Green Flash was tucked away in a commercial park that also housed some genetics research places. Weird. Their tasting room was a large, cordoned area of their brewing warehouse and was run rather more like a bar. A nice touch was contracting with good-looking food trucks to provide the munchies. Their bar was very street fair-style but with way more taps, which came out of nondescript, white building which could have been a portable shed.

Palate Wrecker IPA, Trippel, Le Freak IPA, San Diego Saison, Cuvee Trippel, Double Stout, Sugar Smack Dubbel.

Pizza Port (Port Brewing)

For dinner, we tried to get into Pizza Port at Solana Beach, but it was packed. We ended up just driving back to Carlsbad and got into the Pizza Port there, which was also busy, but larger and easier to find seating. The pizza was great and the draft list was pretty diverse. We got the Whambo IPA and Great American Brown. Whambo was a slappy IPA with a really strong hop character. I actually didn't get through the pint because I had a headache and it was just a bit too assertive after a long day.
Pizza Port was a fitting end to the day as Lost Abbey was the first stop the next day.

Lost Abbey.

Lost Abbey is the Belgian-style side of Port Brewing. Their beers are bottled in bombers, corked, and pricey, but not without good cause. Left to right: Road to Helles, Witch's Wit, Serpent's Stout, Wipeout IPA, Mongo IPA, Old Viscosity Barley Wine.

Wipeout and Mongo were both pretty tasty, and I ended up getting bombers of those just in case I wouldn't be able to find them at a Bay Area store.

And then Devotion, Red Barn, Lost & Found, and Judgment Day.
Devotion is a blonde ale which was average to me, maybe a little overcarbed, but I'm comparing to something like Leffe. Red Barn is a saison, nothing to say about it. L&F is a dubbel, Judgment Day a quad. Both were pretty tasty, and I might pick up some bottles to bring home.

The brewery itself is small but nice, previously inhabited by Stone. Despite being a random bar built in a warehouse as is typical, the staff and patrons made for a much better atmosphere.

Ballast Point Brewing Company

Next stop was Ballast Point which was a new, high priority brewery for me ever since I saw their Sculpin IPA take top seat in a readers' poll for best IPA and, consequently, tried it. Tour was interesting since they talked about their continual expansion, basically knocking down walls and sprawling into the neighboring floor space of the commercial building. Ballast Point also has a budding distillery section though I didn't get to try any of that. I believe a vodka should be hitting shelves soon to be followed by a whiskey with rum and gin plans down the line. A bit diverse but Rogue has done just fine on that road. They also mentioned that eat batch of Sculpin takes $10K of hops. But the magnitude is lost on me since I don't know what they're paying for hops and which ones. We did the full board tasting: Wahoo Wheat, Ballast Point Pale Ale, Calico Amber Ale, Piper Down Scottish Ale, Black Marlin Porter, Sextant Oatmeal Stout on nitro, Fathom India Pale Lager, Big Eye Ipa, Sculpin IPA.

The first round was fairly meh, porter was average, stout was super light with the nitro line. Fathom IPL was an interesting twist and would like another shot at it sometime. Having had the Sculpin before, Big Eye didn't bring much to the table.

Hess Brewing Company

We headed over to Hess for their one-year anniversary bash. It was a lively event tucked away in a light commercial/warehousing district, complete with two food vendors, a t-shirt printer claiming to be able to screen a Hess shirt "in 6 minutes or it's free", and a band that was setting up as we were getting ready to leave. I went for the Unno Anum BPA, I suppose their anniversary brew, which came with the nice willi glass and discounts on fills. The Unno Anum was pretty good, and it wasn't something I expected to see from such a new, small brewery. We also had tasters of their porter, a rye imperial stout, and the orange honey wheat.

AleSmith Brewing Company

Around the corner from Hess was AleSmith. I had never heard of this brewery until recently, by happenstance really, trolling Google Maps for random breweries. They are highly rated, and for an SD brewery, that means a lot. In fact, their distribution only appears to go as far as north as LA so I guess I'm lucky I bought the bottles I did. Had I known just how limited their distro was, I would have bought more. Left to right: IPA, Old Numbskull Barley Wine, Speedway Stout, Grand Cru, Nautical Nut Brown, Anvil ESB.

All the beers at AleSmith were quite good, and it's not common for a brewery to have a big lineup and nail it on every one of them. A well-deserved rep.

The Bruery.

On the way back to the Bay Area, we stopped at the Bruery in LA, rolling in a few minutes before opening. A fish taco truck was parked outside. We forewent the snack as we were headed to another ale house nearby for lunch. The Bruery was a nice setup, and I liked their flight tasting mechanism. You buy in for 5 pours, get a nice full-size tulip, and 4 bottlecaps to cash in for your next 4 pours. Kinda cute.

Salt of the Earth (geuze with truffle salt) and Saison de Lente. SotE was crazy and killer. I tried to get a few bottles but they were all out. I could definitely taste the salt and truffle influence, a very interesting beer.

Cuir 3rd Anniversary Old Ale and Black Orchard (dark wit bier):


Batch 300 (oaked tripel with citra hops) and Loakal Red:


Iniquitus (Belgian golden strong) and Bierbauch (oaked imperial maibock):

Acer Quercus (smoked brown ale) and Run BMC (imperial pilsner):


Mischief (hoppy Belgian golden strong):

Ladyface Ale House and Brasserie.

We stopped for lunch at Ladyface on the way out of LA. The draft list was not bad for being an eatery, and we got a flight of part of their offering. La Blonde (I think), Trois Filles Tripel, Ladyface IPA, Chesebro IPA, Picture City Porter.
Most were so-so but I remember the the porter had chocolate shavings on top. The regular, Ladyface IPA, I thought was much better balanced and a better drinker than the Chesebro IPA, which is actually a too-blown-out imperial. Food was decent though rather overpriced for the portions. It was bit of an anti-climactic finish after the Bruery and the weekend in general, but you make do with what you get.

Naturally, I also got a lot of swag: about 9 bombers, though a few of them are extras to trade back home; a glass at pretty much every place; and a shirt and a sweatshirt, my first brew-related clothing. I figured I needed to be able to show some cred at brewfests. I'll take a big picture of all the glass and swag when I get back at the end of the summer.

English Ales Dragon Slayer IPA.

We stopped by English Ales after spending the afternoon in Monterey's aquarium which was pretty nice, I found this place on Google Maps and appeared to be well rated. English-style ales are often either not English-style at all or labeled as such because it's subpar sugar water, so if an entire American brewery was going to dedicate itself to English beers, it was worth checking out. As it turns out, English Ales is a small operation residing in a very small commercial strip, occupying two or three spaces, one for the brewing, one for the bar, and one for some additional dining tables. There is only one guy at the front, presumably the owner, manning the bar and the floor, serving and busing plates. The ambiance is ok, if a bit out of place with the overall location, with British paraphernalia all over the walls. The ceiling was lined with mugs marked with number, date, and name of the mug's owner. $30 gets you in, but it wasn't clear what you get other than a pricey mug.

Menu was half sandwiches, half British fare with some appetizers and salads. I ordered the "fish, bangers, and chips" which actually only came with one lukewarm but generically tasty banger. The Dragon Slayer IPA was an English-style IPA certainly. If they would call that a Dragon Slayer, an American West coast IPA must be the Devil himself. Nose is a pleasant, mild hop but taste is more on par with the average (not Dale's) American pale. Lingering bitter on the finish and sessionable. There isn't much to say about it.

It's not often that I walk away from a brewery or brewpub without any swag, but nothing here really caught my eye nor did I feel compelled to get anything. There were some bumper stickers and apparel along with a sold-out "Women of English Ales" calendar for sale. As far as glass, only a standard pint glass and a standard brown growler were available, neither of which interested me. Usually, I at least walk away with a coaster, but no coasters here, just napkins.

Karl Strauss Brewing Co.

I went to LA with some folks over Fourth of July weekend and wound up at Universal Studios. I managed to get them to take lunch at the Karl Strauss nearby so I could give their beers a whirl. I wasn't expecting a very good spread from something hanging around Universal, but their tap list was pretty decent. I got a flight to start off.

From left to right:

• Off the Rails: The imperial version of their Red Trolley, maltier with a charred finish, creamier head, sweet bread.
• Pintail Pale Ale: Heavy citrus, grapfruit, floral, tea notes. Light body and mouthfeel. A session beer.
• Red Trolley Ale: A Gold Medal at WBC 2010. Too sweet for a red. Saliva and hop on the finish. Low head and a bit milky. After tasting the wit, I also got toffee.
• Too Legit Wit: Reminded me of Middles Ages Swallow Wit. Not too spicy in that Hoegaarden way but I did find some nutmeg on the finish.

I also got the Tower 10 IPA to go with my meal, which was a French Dip, I think. It was pretty good, but maybe that's just because I haven't had one in a long time. I apparently didn't write anything down about it. I guess it was only ok then.