Tasting Notes from Across the Pond 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, 2015Just 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, 2015To 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. |