SoCal Suds

My wife and I got some cheap airline tickets out to LA earlier in the year and made a New Year's trip out of it.  Fortunately, my wife has become quite a fan of craft beer as well, and she indulges me in my passion of seeking out great beer by letting me incorporate some of our trip around that search.  Here are the results from Southern California...so far....:

December 29, 2011:  First stop of the trip was San Pedro Brewing just 20 minutes off the plane at LAX.  Great location in the shadow of the spectacular Vincent Thomas Bridge at the big shipping port of San Pedro.  The beer was so-so (their Red Ale was decent), but their food was excellent and definitely the star of the show along with the ambiance.




December 30, 201: Today was the official "Brewery Day" of our trip.  We visited five in total in the north San Diego area that is known for its great craft beer.  First up was Ballast Point Brewing.  Here's a look at their board of offerings.  Excellent beer overall.  We had their sampler and my fave was the Sculpin (it's a type of fish) IPA.  We brought two bombers of the Sculpin IPA and the Victory at Sea Imperial Stout home with us for an upcoming Calfornia beer-tasting we are going to have at our house.

 




Our second stop was close by at the tiny Alesmith Brewing.  We had their sampler as well and I was
actually disappointed in their hoppier offerings, their IPA and the Horny Devil.  Both had a weird baloney
 (not kidding) taste to me.  Their Speedway Stout was very good, however, with a nod of interest also to the
Special Speedway Stout which contains chipotle and morita peppers for a heck of kick.

  




Green Flash Brewing was next and all their beer was excellent that I tried.  I had the  Double Stout, a taste
 of the Winter's Folly and a glass of the  I Plead the Fifth Black IPA.  This brewery is a real up-and-comer with
bottling distribution to a large section of the country (no, not Tennessee yet).  They recently moved into a much
larger facility which was spacious and full of taps as you can see in the picture above.

  


Mecca achieved!!!
 I finally made it to my favorite brewery of them all!!  Stone Brewing is the granddaddy of all California craft brewers.  Incredible products available throughout the country including Tennessee, thank goodness!.  This is a glass of the Self  Righteous Ale.  It was awesome.  I got a bomber of it to take home as well.






Our last stop was The Lost Abbey Brewery.  It had a been a long day so I only had the Hot Rocks Brown
German Lager which was very good.  This little artisan brewery is a favorite among locals here and for good
reason.  They are producing some amazing beer here.  My wife actually brought me some of their other offerings
a few years ago when she was out here without me.

 

Date unknown......What the???  Who took that???  Hey, it was $3 and I bought at a Rite-Aid near our hotel.  And I never had Corona Familiar before.  I was not impressed.  Turns out its the same as Corona Extra, just in a bigger bottle. 

 I also had a decent IPA at Stuft Pizza and Brewing, a regional chain restaurant with a location near our hotel in Dana Point.  They actually have their beer brewed off-site at Firestone Walker Brewery, a central-California brewery with a good reputation.  The IPA was pretty good.

beer updates



The beer can hotel in Denmark...yeah, I'm totally going!

 A recent Mt. Juliet Beer Company variety six-pack that I put together included:

1. Grand Circus IPA (can) - Atwater Brewing, Latrobe, PA

2. Sam Adam's Latitude 48 IPA - -Boston -  bottle - very good

3. Harpoon Octoberfest - back to Boston - bottle

4. Highland Clawhammer Oktoberfest Lager - good - bottle

5.  Stranger American Pale Ale - Left Hand Brewing - Colorado - bottle

6. Yazoo Fall Lager - pretty good - bottle

Milkman's Autumn Amber - home brew bottle from my friend, Chris, with his own cool labels
I also had his Milkman's Nut Brown Ale which was my favorite and his Milkman's Summer Light.  Nice job, bud, keep up the good work!

I also had a Chattanooga Brewing IPA at Taco Mac on a recent trip back to Chattanooga

Christmas Cheer and Christmas Beer

This year's Christmas tree with a beer theme was my best-looking one yet thanks to some feminine touches by my wife Ashlee and our friend, Tarryn, who added silver ornaments throughout and spruced up the six-pack cartons with some glittering spray-on snow.  We also tied on a few empty bottles as ornaments including a home brew made by Tarryn's husband and my friend, Chris.

The beer tree got even more adornment when our friends, John and Monique, surprised me with several strands of beer-cap garland that they made by hand!!  They had a bartender at their local watering hole save caps for them and then drilled two tiny holes in each one and ran steel wire through each.  Above is a close-up view of their fantastic work.

Some of the new-to-me beer that I offered at our annual Christmas party (and whose cartons I displayed on the beer tree this year) were Saranac Brewing's Season's Best Nut Brown Lager, their Big Moose Ale (a hoppy winter pale ale) and their Caramel Porter (by far, my favorite).  I also picked up a six-pack of Abita's Christmas Ale which was very good also.  Thanks to the Mt. Juliet Beer Company for providing such an excellent selection of beer to choose from again this year.

I had a New Belgium Snow Day Winter Ale at my friend, Caroline's Christmas party.  It was tasty.

I also got a couple good high-gravity pints in my stocking from wife including:

Missing Elf Double Bock (9.5%) and Lobster Lover's Porter (8.2%) from the Rinkuskiai Brewery in Lithuania

NOLA & THE ATL

I took a quick trip to New Orleans and Atlanta this past weekend and was able to try several new beers during my journey.

While in New Orleans, my wife, Ashlee, and I stopped in the International Beer House on Bourbon Street late on Friday night.  They had a good selection of craft beers on tap.  I settled for the locally-made Hopitoulas from Nola Brewing.  This 6% ABV West-Coast style IPA was delicious.  Ashlee had the Strawberry Ale from Covington's Brewing which is also Louisiana-based.   I had a sip of it and thought it was OK.

A classic sign on Bourbon Street.  Not good ones particularly, but definitely big ones.



Bright lights, Crescent City.



On Saturday I flew up to Atlanta to meet my friends Wayne, Jim and Ryan for our second annual G.A.M.E. (Grown-Ass Man Extravaganza) Weekend where we travel to see our beloved Tennessee Titans play a road game.  The night before the game we had dinner at Max Lager's Grill & Brewery.  The food was excellent and their house IPA, the Hopsplosion, was pretty darn good.

We spent A LOT of time at the Phillips Arena location of Atlanta's own regional chain, Taco Mac, where they have 130 beers on tap.  I did my best to try as many new ones that I could including the following:  Breckinridge 471 IPA (Colorado), Eye Patch IPA (Monday Night Brewing - Atlanta, GA), Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale (Monday Night Brewing), Sweetwater Crank Tank Rye'd Ale (Atlanta), Breckinridge Christmas Ale (Colorado) and Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy Brown Ale (Georgia).  My friend, Rex, who lives in Atlanta and was kind enough to show us around a little on Saturday night actually introduced me to the Wild Heaven brown ale at a very cool bar called Ormsby's, but I had a full pint the next day before the game back at Taco Mac.  I enjoyed them all with a nod to Monday Night and Wild Heaven for producing some great products out of fledgling local microbreweries.  Hats off to Taco Mac for continuing to make these unique beers available to the public in a great setting with delicious food as well.

The Titans unfortunately lost to the surging Falcons on Sunday afternoon, but we had a great time at the game and enjoyed some sweet seats near the field in the fabulous Georgia Dome.  The photo above was taken from our seats just before the game started.  Taco Mac has a set-up inside the dome as well,  but I didn't find it until late in the game.

Taking another gamble on good beer in Sin City

I got a couple of really cheap flights to Las Vegas recently ($150 RT!) and went out to play some poker and, of course, drink a little beer.  After a little research, I found a few new places that I hadn't been to before and also visited a few of my old favorite spots as well.

First up was Big Dogs Brewing Company.  They have 3 locations in the Las Vegas area and I chose the Draft House Barn in N. Las Vegas, Their beer was excellent.  I had the Dirty Dog IPA and their Red Ale.  I even got to meet their master brewer, Dave Otto.    A return here is without a doubt.



I found out about Barley's Casino and Brewing thanks to a buy-$50-in-gift-certificates-for-$25 deal I found online.  It's located over in Henderson, Nevada, which butts up to the east of Las Vegas.  I had their Red Rock Red Ale and their Black Mountain Stout.  Both were pretty good, but I will give a nod to the stout.  I used one of my $25 gift certificates to have the two pints and a huge sirloin steak that was delicious.  I returned on the second trip to use my other $25 gift certificate and had two more pints of the stout and another huge porterhouse steak while watching some NFL games.  The pints turned out to be only a dollar on NFL Sundays...wow!



On a non-beer note:  on my first trip, I stopped in Gold & Silver Pawn which is where The History Channel's "Pawn Stars" TV show is filmed.  None of the "pawn stars" where on site when I visited, but it was kind of cool just seeing the place which was packed with visitors.

Another non-beer Vegas first was that I actually got to see the volcano in front of The Mirage erupt.  I have been here a half-dozen times and never saw it occur in person even though it goes off every hour on the hour.

On my first trip I also returned to a couple of my favorite Vegas beer-spots also.  First was Yard House, a restaurant and bar chain which has over 100 beers on tap.  It was actually a new location for me as I visited the one near the Red Rock Casino which is about 10 miles west of the one I usually visit on Las Vegas Blvd.  I tried two of their "shortys"  i.e. half pints, that I hadn't had before.  They were the Squatters Hop Rising, a double IPA (9% ABV) from Utah, and the Firestone Union Jack IPA, out of California.  Both were excellent.  Back over on the The Strip,  I had the Deadlift Double IPA out of Oregon at Pour 24, a good beer bar in the NYNY Casino, and the Humboldt Hemp Brown Ale out of California at Burger Bar which is located between the Luxor and Mandalay Bay casinos.



On my second trip I checked out Ellis Island Casino and Brewery over on Koval Street which runs parallel to The Strip.  I had heard of this place for a while, but never had a chance (or the nerve)  to check it out since its in an albeit seedier side of Vegas.  I walked over since it's only a couple blocks from where I was staying up on Las Vegas Blvd. and made sure it was still daylight.  I encountered no problems and the place is actually not bad at all.  Their craft beer is pretty good and the kicker is that the pints of it are  free if you are gambling.  I had their pale ale which was OK, their stout which was better and their Octoberfest which was weak in color and so-so in taste.  I also made $6 playing video blackjack...so who's complaining.  By the way, if you don't gamble, their pints of beer are a whopping $1.75 each!   Hoo-ray for the "seedy" side of Vegas!!



Just a cool shot of the Bellagio Fountains going off around midnight on The Strip with Bally's and the Paris casinos in the background.



Another great non-beer find was Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area 20 miles west of Vegas.  This beautiful area has a cool 13-mile motor trail through it with some amazing vistas.  Yes, that's snow on the mountains in the background of this shot.  It actually spit snow on me at one point of my tour in a place accurately called Icebox Canyon.



I also got to be in the audience during part of the live filming of the final table of the 2011 World Series of Poker on ESPN.  First prize: $8.7 million.  The eventual winner was Pius Heinz from Germany (he's the one in the white hooded sweatshirt in Seat 6).

New HOPShire

My wife, Ashlee, and I took a trip recently up north to New Hampshire to visit our friends, Amy and Jeremy, who live in Portsmouth.  Happily, Amy and Jeremy share my love of good beer and a few beer stops were on the agenda.

Our first stop right off the plane was the Red Hook Brewery of New England outside Portsmouth.  This west-coast-founded  pioneer  in craft brewing (1981) set up shop in the northeast in 1996.  Pictured above is the largest beer cooler in the eastern United States.  They have a beautiful brewpub attached to the brewery with tasty food and all their beers on tap.  Ashlee and I both had their sampler paddle.  After lunch, we went on an entertaining (and generously-poured) tour of the brewery for $2.

Tiny Portsmouth Brewery is located in the charming downtown district near the famous seaport.  Their beer was good and their food wasn't bad either.  We ate there for lunch on our second day of the visit.  I had the Rye Not Pale Ale.  They have been doing it right here since 1991.

We found this place quite literally by accident on our way back from visiting The White Mountains on our last full day in New Hampshire.  Moat Mountain Brewing is a small brewpub located in the touristy town of North Conway.  We stopped for lunch and I was impressed with their beer selections.  I tried their pale ale and their IPA.  Moat Mountain, by the way, is one of the nearby peaks that make up The White Mountains.

A few other new-to-me beers I had on the trip were a bottle of Long Trail Ale (Vermont), a bottle of Hooksett Ale from White Birch Brewing in Hooksett, NH, and a bottle of Octoberfest Hex from Magic Hat Brewing over in Vermont.  Thanks to Amy and Jeremy for finding these great beers for us to try during our visit.

Speaking of travelin' and beer....

On our second music cruise of the year (and our second visit to Mexico), we docked in Cozumel (we were on  the smaller dingy to the left) and I got to try my first Victoria Cerveza in a bottle.  Not bad, just your basic light Caribbean-style lager beer.  But the day was hot and it was cold...can't ask for much more.

Brews New's - August/September 2011



Saturday, September 10, 2011:  A lovely Red Hook IPA at a harbour bar in Key West, FL while waiting for a rain shower to push through the area.

 Some other recent "new to me beers" include:

Schafaly (St. Louis) American Pale Ale (Cask) draught at WOW Wingery in Mt. Juliet, TN

Triple Haze (New Orleans) draught at WOW Wingery

Napa (CA) Smith Organic IPA (bottle) at Buckley's Steak House in Memphis, TN

Hop Project # 56 draught at the new Yazoo Brewpub in Nashville, TN

Legend (VA) Brown Ale (bottle) at Diamond Shoal Restaurant in Buxton, NC (Outer Banks)

Post Road Pumpkin Ale draught from Brooklyn (NY) Brewing at WOW Wingery

Hoptober from Fat Tire (CO) draught also at WOW Wingery

Spechers Double IPA (Wisc.) bottle at Drifters BBQ in East Nashville

Jackalope (Nashville) Pale Ale draught at Grassy Knoll Movie Night in E. Nashville

Jackalope Maple Brown draught at Grassy Knoll

hIPA from Magic Hat Brewing (VT) bottle from Conch Republic Liquours in Key West, FL






August 26, 2011:  Enjoying a Ghost River Pale Ale atop The Madison Hotel in Memphis, TN where it is brewed.