Tasting Notes from Across the Pond

with Mistah Rick

JC's Bay Area friend samples some of the more interesting craft beer selections from central California as well as further afield.

July 15, 2016

I'm at Barclays, the only place I could ever consider my home pub on their last night. Not business failure, but the landlords (in the American sense, the property owners), after 2 years of success, were unwilling to renew the lease, having the urge to open a restaurant of their own.

Being on vacation I missed some of the "beginning of the end" events, like a beer dinner & the last members day. Tonight was billed simply as "drink until the beer runs out." After seeing the thin crowds in previous nights I wondered if any of the regulars would show up.

I needn't have worried. Everybody I could imagine who still lived in Calif was here. Regulars I hadn't seen in years. (One I feared might be homeless or dead.) Almost every former bartender I could think of, including Darryl, a diabetic bike racer who never drank beer but worked his way through graduate school here. Beer distributors & beer community people i saw here only a few times. And, as usual, I met a couple new interesting people. There are 2 guys in armor plate & one in chain mail. They turned on a blacklight & people in white look amazing. They set off fireworks. People are straying beyond the "no beer beyond this point" sign & even drinking on the sidewalk. Not even the police care.

July 14, 2015

Just a few years later (1972) Ken Grossman (who is about our age) took a detour from a cycling trip & fell in love with Chico. After running a home brew supply shop for a few years (at a time when it wasn't even legal to brew at home) he founded a small scale brewery called Sierra Nevada, using scrap tanks, pumps & pipes acquired from dairies. In 1984 - 1987 they upgraded to large, beautiful copper brew kettles from a defunct brewery in Germany. 30 years later they're brewing 1.2 million barrels a year.

I tasted a few off-the-wall Beer Camp beers (with adjuncts like corn grits, black tea leaves & hibiscus) as well as a nice new double IPA. Everything seemed as fragrant & fresh as a meal prepared with fresh garden ingredients.

December 5, 2015

To wind down from a busy week of chaos at work I headed to small, quiet (normally) Independent Brewing Company in Jack London Square area, only to hear that a mediocre live band was tuning up there. Instead I went to Beer Rev, where none of my friends go anymore since the business divorce & death of our dear friend Fraggle. But the beer selection is still excellent & the recorded metal music is excellent.

After an IPA from a Corvallis, Oregon brewery, Flat Tail, fermented with wild yeast, I ventured into dark strong territory. Prairie Ales of Tulsa, Oklahoma is one of the most renowned US brewers, and their Prairie "Bomb" is on tap. A 14% Imperial Stout, it is well named for its strength. But that misses its subtlety. Aged on coffee, cacao nibs, vanilla and ancho chilis, this is a rainbow of flavors. As my 10oz pour gently warmed I went through them in succession. Coffee and chocolate first. Then lots of vanilla. I don't know what masked it -- perhaps an illusion of bitterness -- but in the final wave the chili came on strong. I've had this beer before on tap and in bottles, but I can't recall any beer where I went through such a distinct and complete spectrum of flavors.

I'm extremely happy that we have their brews through the wonder of distribution, but I wonder why these brilliant alchemists choose to remain in Tulsa.