A New Find

Last weekend, Mark and I were missing our Satruday afternoon sampler days (it had been a few weeks) so we ventured out to BJs since Mark got a gift card for his birthday.  The Sharks were playing an unusual 1 pm game that day so we sat, watched some hockey, drank some beer, and shared the lettuce wraps.  The Sharks ended up losing so good thing we had enough beer to distract me from the loss. 

 No reviews for BJs today as I have done that before but as always I enjoyed the Brown, Porter, and Stout and Mark's favorites were the Pale and the Stout.  Today I really liked the Red as well!

Mark and I were made aware that a new micro brew is brewing and hopefully opening their own tasting room in our area.  Strike Brewing Company is currently brewing out of Hermitage's space in San Jose and distribute their beer to local places.  Strike has an interesting philosphy on how they created their beer.  The brewers are all athletes so wanted to brew local alcohol content beers that you could drink and then continue on with whatever you have planned for that day without feeling the negative effects of having a few too many drinks.  Mark and I were somewhat skeptical as we associate lower alcohol content with lower flavor.  I realize this is now always the case but thinking of a Blonde versus a bold IPA or a Belgain. We found out online that Harry's Hobrau by our house sells Strike beer so we headed down to test it out.  When we arrived we found out they only carried the Blonde in bottles and none of the other beers so Mark got the Blonde while I branched out and got a Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye.

The verdict: Surprising amount of flavor!  For a blonde and for the low alcohol content, this beer had a surprising amount of flavor.  Now given the choice, I don't order blondes but if I was going to order one, I would enjoy this one.  I got the Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye which I'm  guessing I tried in the sampler at Sierra Nevada in Chico but I don't see this one around here so I got it.  It was good as well.  Nice and malty, rich brown in color, and slightly sweet.

Even better, Harry's has a great beer selection.  So many great brews on tap and in bottles.  They carry a number of the San Diego breweries we miss (Ballast Point, Stone, Green Flash, Port) as well as locals (Drake's) and North Bay breweries (Lagunitas, Mendecino brews).  The bartendar looked to be around our age and as the bar wasn't very crowded, she was able to spend time talking to us.  We told her we were impressed with the selection and she said that her manager is a beer geek.  She asked us about places we had been and what we liked.  She told us that every Thursday night from 6-9 pm they do appetizers, beer specials, and sometimes single brewery tap take overs.   We're excited to go sometime to check it out. 

In final beer news, SF Beer Week is coming up February 11th to 19th.  I've been looking at the calendar and making a list of events to check out. 

Beer Tasting Night Round 3

Last night we had some of the college friends over for some relaxed beer drinking.  We asked everyone to birng a 22 oz bottle of beer to share and then we tried them all.  We ended up with 7 different kinds of beer.  Here they are listed in order: Blue Moon, Crystal Wheat by Sierra Nevada, Orange Shush by Ale Industries, Doppel Weizen by Sierra Nevada, Rye'd Piper by Ale Industries, Ovila Dubbel by Sierra Nevada and the Abbey of New Clairvaux, and the Sheaf Stout.

I've already reviewed some of them before so I'm just going to stick to the new ones. 

 The Crystal Wheat by Sierra Nevada has an ABV of 5%.  Mark and I have had this one in Chico when we went to the Sierra Nevada brewery but I haven't reviewed it here yet.  It's a nice, light beer and one I would order if I saw it out at a bar.  It's very light on the hops and has a citrus flavor that many wheats do.  Overall, I like this one. 

 This is the Ovila Dubbel.  It's a Belgain style collaboration between the Abbey of New Clairvaux and Sierra Nevada with an ABV of 7.5%.  It is very carbonated and has one of the champagne style cork tops.  The color is dark and carmely.  I was expecting a very sweet, malty, and strong Belgain but these flavors were much more mild than I was expecting.  This made Mark like it a lot more than he probably would have otherwise!  The reviews on this one were positive. 

We finished with the Sheaf Stout from Australia.  A nice dark color with the standard creamy head of a stout.  The smell was tradtional for a stout as well with a roasted scent and hints of chocolate.  The taste started off strong with the roasted flavors that I like but then turned into a bitter finish.  The bitter finish caused me to not enjoy this beer as much as I would otherwise. 

Well, that's that!  A few old favorites and a few new beers. I enjoy beer tasting nights.  It's nice to just sit and chat and since each bottle is shared so many different ways, you get to try many more types than you would otherwise.  It was a good night!  Even better is that even though it was Sunday night, it felt like a Saturday as today is Martin Luther King Day so a day off work.  Sweet!

The Beer Company, Monkey Paw Brewery, and Mission Brewery

While in San Diego, Mark and I took advantage of a day with no plans to find some new breweries.  I went to the San Diego Brewer's Guild website to see if we could find some close places to go.  We found 3 breweries all in downtown San Diego or just outside of downtown.  2 of the 3 of them we had never heard of so we were excited for some new brews!

We started at The Beer Company on Broadway Street.  This was a brew and pub so we decided to have lunch here as well.  Looking at their website left us slightly confused about whether they brewed their own beer or just had guest brews on tap.  The website listed happy hour specials for cocktails and included their martini list.  However, there was no mention of a single beer on tap!  A brew pub with no beer on it's website?  Minus one point for poor advertisting.  The lack of beer listing didn't stop us from trying and we headed down to downtown San Diego.  Upon arrival, we realized we would have to pay for parking.  $8 for parking later, we were finally at the restaurant.  Minus one point for parking payment.  The Beer Company had 8 brews on tap.  Their sampler worked where you chose 4 4 oz. pours so Mark chose 4 and I chose four.  Usually, I refer back to the website to remember specific names and varieties but since I can't do that, I don't have a lot of specifics to write about for this place!  The server didn't know the order that the bartender poured Mark's in so we had to do a bit of tasting to figure out what was what.  The pale ale was good as it was nice and hoppy but not too offensive.  The IPA had a floral smell to it but it wasn't one of Mark's favorite.  They also had a sour on tap that neither of us was excited about and it tasted exactly as we expected.  Sour.  Overall, their beer was enjoyable and had some good flavors and tastes but nothing was too noteworthy.  The food was really good though!  If I was local, I would go back for lunch or dinner and a pint sometime. 

Then we headed over to Monkey Paw Pub and Brewery which was only half a mile away.  With free parking!  This was alreay a better start.  The inside of the pub was more like a bar with wooden table benches for seating and just a few pub items on the menu.  It was a place that if I was a local I would go for a few drinks on a weekend night.  They had a number of guest brews on tap and 4 of their own.  They don't do samplers so Mark and I each got a pint.  Mark got the Pineapple X-Press Xtra Pale  Ale with an ABV of 5.2%.  He liked this beer but it was a little to mild for him.  There wasn't enough bitterness or hoppiness that he enjoys in a pale ale.  It was just a little too sweet.  I got Santa's Pet Monkey Holiday Ale a Choco-Vanilla Imperial Porter.  This beer boast an ABV of 9.0% so it comes in one of the goblet glasses.  I really liked this beer! It was sweet with the vanilla flavor but still big in taste.  I thought that Mark wouldn't enjoy this one but when he tried it he really liked it!  I think he liked mine better than his.  I would like to go back to Monkey Paw and see if their brews rotate.  They also have a lot of event nights with other breweries. On December 13th it was Ballast Point Tiki Night with keep the glass Tiki glasses and refill specials.  On December 30th, it was cask night with Stone Smoked Porter with Coconut.  Monkey Paw seemed like a great local place with good beer.

Finally, we went over to Mission Brewery.  Mission Brewery was located in an industrial part of town so this made it difficult to find.  Their warehouse was really big with a long bar, lots of seating, a shuffleboard table, and a foosball table.  Definately one of the fancier warehouse breweries we've been too.  Here you paid for samples individually, $1 each.  I like this way of doing samplers.  It lets to try them one at a time so the last ones don't get warm.  For $7 you could also potentially try all of their beers.  Not too bad pricewise either!

They had 7 brews on tap so Mark and I switched off ordering so we got to try all 7.  We enjoyed the Amber.  It had a nice balanced flavor to it and would have been enjoyable to drink outside on a warm day.  The Double IPA was big, hoppy, and bitter and Mark liked that one.  The Dark Seas was a nice dark beer to round out the samples.  Overall, the beer at Mission had some good flavor and we enjoyed what we had.  By the 3rd brewery though, you begin to forget some of the specifics! 

That was our day in San Diego.  We got to add 3 new breweries to our San Diego brewery travels and definately had some good ones.  It was then time to head home for some food to balance it all out.