BetterBeerBlog

On the way up to The Good One Santa Rosa Beer fest, Sammy and I decided to stop by Hopmonk in Sebastopol for a late lunch. This isn’t the first time I’ve been to Hopmonk, I sorta forgot to write about it the first time. Anyway, Hopmonk is a craft beer bar/restaurant/music venue that is owned by Dean Biersch. If that name sounds familiar, it should as Dean is the “Biersch” part of Gordon Biersch Brewing Company. Having sold off his share of the brewery quite a few years ago, Dean had been absent from the world of craft beer for several years. Hopmonk is his latest foray back into the world of craft beer.

Located in Sebastopol, Hopmonk is in a building that looks like it once could’ve served the railroad industry. I say this because it’s kinda barnyard-ish in shape but the most telling feature is that it is built on a raised foundation. At this point it’s just speculation. We walked inside and made a bee line right for the bar. The main dining area of Hopmonk holds about a dozen or so booths for slightly larger parties while the rest of the seating is made up of 2-3 person tables. The bar is located on the left side of the building while the kitchen on the opposite side. Hopmonk has about 13 beers on tap featuring house beers such as kellerbier, tavern ale, dunkelweizen as well as other breweries such as Gordon Biersch, New Belgium, North Coast, Moonlight and Firestone Walker just to name a few. Their bottle selection is very nice as well featuring beers from Franziskaner, Napa Smith and Anderson Valley.

Behind the bar is Shannon. She takes our order, Belgian-style mussels and fries for me and salmon for Sammy. As for our beers, I order the Kellerbier while Sammy has Lil Opal from Firestone Walker.

Kellerbier, Hopmonk, 5.3% ABV

Kellerbier pours out a cloudy, gold in color with a fluffy white head. There is an earthy and spicy character to the hop aroma and flavor that is backed by a biscuity malt character that is also apparent in the aroma and flavor. Kellerbier has a medium hop bitterness not unlike a pale ale. This beer is medium bodied and has a prickly carbonation level. The mouthfeel is slightly dry yet refreshing.

A kellerbier is essentially a beer brought up from the cellar while still hazy. At least that what it says on their website. More simply stated, it is an unfiltered pilsner. If you’ve had a German-style pilsner in the past, this beer will be similar but “unfinished” because it’s not filtered. Personally, I like the change in pace of this beer. All the pilsner character you like in the style but unrefined, raw if you will.

Lil Opal, Firestone Walker, 4.3% ABV

Lil Opal is cloudy and a slightly lighter gold color than the kellerbier. It also has a white head. The aroma is sweet-ish with honey-like notes with some fruit esters thrown in for good measure. There is no discernable, at least to my palette, hop aroma. Malt flavor is sweet, wheat-like with a slight spiciness and yeasty finish. There is also some fruit notes that I cannot put my finger on. This is a medium-light bodied beer with medium carbonation.

Lil Opal is an interesting beer. You can download the full info sheet here. For those of you who can’t be bothered, I can give a quick overview. Firestone Walker brews a wheat wine they call Big Opal. Instead of letting the remaining malt go towards cattle feed, the brewers are Firestone Walker decided to brew a beer from the second runnings and ferment the wort made from those runnings with a Saison yeast. The process is a bit more complicated than I make it out to be but who really cares how they made it as long as they made it good, right? Sammy and I both enjoyed this beer.

When our food arrived, Sammy and I cut the chatter and grubbed down. We left San Jose a little late and were famished. I’d have to say my mussels and fries dish was absolutely delicious. The mussels were cooked well, not at all rubbery if they were overcooked. The star of this dish was the sauce the mussels were steamed in. Full of flavors. The garlic fries that came with the dish were great as well. Sammy’s salmon dish was a very good dish as well. Also very flavorful but I only had small bites and I couldn’t really comment on the quality of this dish. The only bad thing about our food, my dish in particular, was that they didn’t serve it with any bread. I could’ve used a few slices to sop up the remaining soup in from my dish.

In addition to the main dining area, Hopmonk also features a spacious “beer garden”. Mostly made up of decomposed granite, the few plants that are growing are great choices for the area. Hopmonk is also the home of the Abbey. I would think that Dean is a huge fan of music to have built a theater for himself. Hell, if I had the money, resources and will, I probably would’ve done the same thing.

In any event, if you are able to stop by Hopmonk, go on in and grab a pint or two and maybe even somthing to grub on. We like the place and would recommend it for dinner and drinks.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 1:41 am and is filed under Beer Bars, Craft Beer, Reviews, Spotlight On. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.