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.