Beers in Review: Sonoma Chicken Coop

Sonoma Chicken Coop was not our original destination. Sammy and I wanted to grab a couple of beers from the Tied House. I am admittedly not a big fan of Tied House beers. I’ve found the line of beers they carry to be boring and inconsistent at times. As a result, we don’t frequent them to often. Still, this is American Craft Beer Week and I wanted to support my local craft breweries.

At least I want to support my local craft breweries. It would help of they were where they were supposed to be. Sammy and I found street parking and walked over to the Tied House only to find out the Tied House (in San Jose) is no more. The signage is gone, it’s a mess in the interior and there’s a huge-ass hole in the front of the building where it’s obvious that’s where they pulled our their brewing equipment. All of a sudden, whatever critiques I had about that place flew right out of the window. I was sad. As big as San Jose is, we only have 3 breweries. Well, two breweries now and one of those two would rather be affiliated with a small town instead of San Jose. A quick check of the San Jose Tied House website shows that they were supposed to reopen from their remodeling on May 15, 2009, that’s today’s date, a date I seriously doubt they’ll be meeting.

With a heaviness in our hearts, we headed over to Sonoma Chicken Coop.

Stout, Sonoma Chicken Coop

I ordered a simple sausage and meatball spaghetti dish. What I should’ve ordered was their pale ale. The toasty malt flavors would’ve gone well with the sausage and meatball while the hoppiness would’ve been a nice compliment to the red sauce. Instead I ordered their stout. Couldn’t be helped, it was their seasonal beer and I’m a sucker for seasonal.

The stout pours out an opaque, black with a lasting brown head. This beer has a sweet, deep roasted, burnt malt flavor with lots of coffee and chocolate flavors. The hop bitterness is noticeable and in balance but takes a back seat to the malt character. The stout is a full-bodied beer with medium carbonation. Once the beer warms up, the aroma is echoes that of the flavor.

What I should’ve ordered with this beer was dessert.

ESB, Sonoma Chicken Coop

I’ve had this beer in the past. This time though, Sammy ordered it but I thought I’d do another write up on this beer. Why not?

The ESB pours out a clear, light brown/amber in color with an off-white head. There’s a toasted malt flavor with hints of offset by a medium/medium-high hop bitterness. This is a medium bodied beer with high carbonation. The aroma is similar to the flavor.

Sammy remarked that she thought this beer had a more pronounced hop flavor than was expected for the style. To my surprise, Sammy prefers the ESB we have on tap back at the house. I feel all warm and tingly inside.

Sammy and I end up meeting with more friends later on in the evening. We hit up the new tequila bar and I am introduced to the wonderful sipping experience that is Don Julio Añejo. I got a lot of woody character in the aroma and flavor as well. There was a spicy finish and I detected a boiled peanut flavor. I like boiled peanuts. I like Don Julio Añejo. Good times.

Here are the pics from the old Tied House.