A week ago Sammy and I were invited by the south bay homebrew club Worts of Wisdom to join them on a San Francisco Pub Crawl. The idea was to take the Caltrain up, drink a lot and get home safely via the train. The invitation was also opened up to the other south bay homebrew club Silicon Valley Sudzers. Since Sammy and I were late arriving to the original meet up point in Sunnyvale, we wouldn’t know how many people were going to be on the pub craw.
I have only taken Caltrain once prior to this pub crawl. It was to a Giants game. I don’t remember if they won or lost but we took the last train out of town that night. Sammy had never been on the train before so this was an experience she spent the last 30 minutes asleep. Good times.
Within walking distance from the Caltrain station, 21st Amendment was the first stop of the day. By the time Sammy and I arrived, the majority of the people going on the pub crawl were already there. I didn’t take a formal count but there were around 15 - 20 of us at the table. I found the staff there to be friendly and accommodating. Even though we ate sandwiches on the train, we ordered a salad to snack on while there.
Monks Blood, 8.3% ABV
Sweet beer, I can taste the dark candi sugar they used to make this beer. I can also taste some dark fruit notes, especially fig, as well as some oak flavors and hints of vanilla. The beer was cold when it arrived but once it warmed up, the aroma was similar to the flavor, just heavier on the sweetness and fruit character. Monks Blood is a dark brown color with a tan/beige head, medium-full in body with medium-high carbonation.
This beer is one of the newest additions to the stable of 21st Amendment line of beers and there have been select, retail locations that have been fortunate enough to stock 4-packs of this beer. Monks Blood is part of the Insurrection Series of limited edition beers that 21st Amendment is brewing up and canning to rise up “in revolt of what canned beer should be”. Mighty fine beer, if I must say so. Gotta find a 4-pack of this someplace. Here’s a link to the Monks Blood spec. sheet (it’s a .pdf).
Noir de Blanc, 4.8% ABV
Very dark brown beer with an off-white head. Aroma is a combination of corriander, floral notes and some wheat malt. The flavor is slightly sweet with noticeable wheat malt flavors, some spice character with hints of citrus and a surprising dark chocolate component. It is light in body with medium-high carbonation.
Noir de Blanc is an oxymoron in a glass as it is a dark/black witbier. Were I blindfolded, I would’ve drank this beer and told you it was a witbier as Noir de Blanc pretty much hits all the major points that define a witbier but it’s not at all what I expected when I looked at this beer. The interesting dark chocolate notes I picked up are a result of the TCHO chocolate used in brewing this beer.
Rogue Alehouse, 673 Union Street, San Francisco, CA 94113 map
Most of the other homebrewers arrived at Rogue Alehouse via Muni but we hitched a ride. This location is the southernmost boundary of “Rogue Nation”. They don’t brew any Rogue beers here, this is just a bar. With a 40-tap count, Rogue not only carries many of their beers on tap but has a pretty decent guest tap selection as well.
Other than being an outlet for Rogue beers, there is not much outstanding about this location. Well, it is a great place to get beer on draught. You can also pick up many of Rogue’s beers on bottle here as well. Other than that, it’s a straightforward bar. The “beer garden” in the back is also roomy and I can see how nice it would be out there during one of San Francisco’s mild summer evenings.
Clear, pale amber colored beer with an off-white head. There is a balance between the biscuity, slightly toasted malt flavors and aroma with the citrus/spicy, slightly pungent character of the hops. Hop bitternes is about medium. Since I’ve never had Juniper berries before, I can’t really comment on whether or not I can taste them. This is a medium bodied beer with medium carbonation.
I had also wanted to try Yellow Snow IPA but didn’t get around to it. Truthfully, I wasn’t impressed by Juniper Pale Ale. I thought the biscuity malt character was an interesting way to go but overall I found the beer to be a little dull. Maybe if I knew what Juniper berries tasted like I could appreciate it more.
The first time I went here was for a beer & cheese pairing event a couple of years ago. I don’t think this will be my last time here but I’m not in any rush to get back. It’s not that Rogue Alehouse sucks or anything it’s just that there are better places in the city to get beer at. Speaking of which…
La Trappe, 800 Greenwich Street, San Francisco, CA 94113 map
Almost a stone’s throw away from Rogue (more like two blocks, unless you have a really good throwing arm) sits La Trappe Cafe. By day, it looks like an unassuming cafe but by night, it still looks like an unassuming cafe. The real treat is to go on in and take the spiral staircase downstairs to the bar.
Even in broad daylight, you feel as if you’re in a cave. The bar is low lit for ambiance while the exposed brick walls add to the othercountry feel of place. As one homebrewer said, “Gentlemen, welcome to Belgium”. You can pull right up and grab a seat at the bar or at any one of several tables spread throughout. In the back area of La Trappe is a very dimly lit “hole in the wall” that is another seating area. We fit most of our group there and from that location, you have good views of the place.
Very dark brown beer with a beige/tan head (I think, it was pretty dark in La Trappe). Very rich and complex flavors consisting of caramelized malt, figs, dates, raisins with some pear and slight clove phenolics. The aroma is similar to the flavor. This was a full-bodied, medium/medium-high carbonated beer with low-no hop bitterness. It is pretty sweet and definitely malt forward.
I love “Noël” beers for a variety of reasons, primarily because they taste so damn good. This beer was no exception to that as the only thing I could think of was “Wow”. Luckily for me, this would not be the only “wow” beer of the evening.
Gold-ish color with a white/off-white head. Lots of yeasty, phenolic character in the aroma such as pears and clove as well as a spicy, peppery note. The flavor echos the aroma with the addition of a pils-like malt flavor. This beer has aa medium-lo hop bitternes. Generally speaking, this beer has a lot of “white flesh” fruit character. Avec les bons Vœux is medium/medium-full in body with medium-high/high carbonation.
The beer’s name, Avec les bon Vœux de la brasserie Dupont translates into “With the best wishes of brewery Dupont”. This beer was originally brewed to be given as gifts to the brewery’s best clients but demand started to exceed the seasonality of the offering that Dupont started brewing this beer in greater volume. Listed as a “Christmas Saison”, I felt this beer was a very solid saison regardless of the season.
Saint Lamvinus, Brasserie Cantillon, 6.0% ABV
OMFG!!! Wow. This beer was shared by BJCP judge and fellow homebrewer Matthew. I felt guilty when after finishing my taster Matt poured me more. This is definitely a “must try” beer and one worth sharing. The flavors are just too intense to keep to oneself.
The beer pours out a clear-ish, red-brown (more red than brown) with a white/pink-white head. The aroma is full of brettanomyces character, lots of barnyardy, horse(blanket) character with some fruit notes. The flavor is completely unlike what the aroma teases you with as it’s primarily tart throughout with just enough residual sweetness to prevent this from being a sour bomb. I can also taste red wine flavors and slight oak notes as well. My description is woefully inadequate, just try this beer if you can.
This lambic is unblended with merlot and cabernet-franc grapes added to the beer while it is aging in Bordeaux barrels.
Vigneronne, Brasserie Cantillon, 5.0% ABV
Vigneronne is another OMFG beer, the second of the day. This beer was “on the house”. While we were enjoying Saint Lamvinus, the bartender opened this bottle and poured a little bit in several glasses. Thank you, La Trappe.
This beer pours out a clear gold with a white head. The aroma has a lot of fruit character to it not unlike white wine with a tart note. The flavor is also tart but there’s a lot of fruit in this beer. Again, woefully inadequate description. If you can find this, definitely give it a shot. Unless you don’t like sour beers in which case, pick it up and mail the bottle to me. As with the Saint Lamvinus, this beer was also brewed using grapes. In this case, hand picked white Italian grapes.
With about 19 taps and a beer list in the 400s, this is one of the better places I’ve been to grab a beer and definitely a reason for me to brave the parking disaster that is North Beach.
Toronado, 547 Haight, San Francisco, CA 94117 map
What can be said about the Toronado that hasn’t been said before? Their bartenders can be rude, the place is tiny but dammit if they don’t have a great beer selection that is constantly rotating in new things.
N’ice Chouffe, Brasserie La Chouffe, 10.0% ABV
The holiday offering from Brasserie La Chouffe. This is a full-bodied, malt-forward beer with a rich and savory malt character. Sammy likened the body of this beer to a coconut creme with spices. I just found out I have a 750mL bottle of this beer in my refrigerator that I’ll be reviewing in greater detail.
The other reason I don’t have a full review is because my notes suck at this point. Rereading them strongly implies that I may have been (read: no doubt about it) drunk at the time and scribbled something in my notepad to satisfy my inner sense of needing to write something down when in reality I probably just didn’t care at this point.
Sorry to disappoint yet again but this is another suck-ass review due to bad notes. In retrospect, I’m surprised I even got this far with the note taking. For your reading pleasure, my notes, verbatim:
Smells like tortillas, hints of fruit character, spices, pear…
Fritz, 581 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102 map
The group was originally supposed to dine at Suppenküche but with 15 of us, the wait would’ve been about 2 hours. Hungry and running low on patience, the group decided to make a break for someplace else. Being a little too hungry, Sammy and decided to stick around and have dinner at Fritz.
Sammy and I first heard about this place while watching the Malou Review with Malou Nubla. As their name would imply, the house specialy at Fritz would be their fries. Nothing more than french fries, Fritz separates themselves from other places with a wide variety of dipping sauces for their fries. In addition, they also serve savory crepes as well as dessert crepes. Surprisingly, they had a poor Belgian beer selection. I would’ve expected a place specializing in Belgian-style fries to have a a decent Belgian beer list selection but they didn’t. Here’s a link to their menu (it’s a .pdf).
In case you were wondering, here’s what we had for dinner:
- Arles Belgian Mussels - shallots, butter, parsley, garlic and white wine. Note that not all Belgian mussels are available at all locations.
- Fritz - regular order of fries with balsamic mayo and smokey honey mustard.
- Duchamp savory crepe - mushrooms, rosemary chicken, fresh spinach and swiss cheese.
- 2° Below - Winter warmer from New Belgium Brewing Company.
Long story short, the dipping sauces for the fritz were too cold to really appreciate but between the two, we finished the smokey honey mustard. The fritz themselves were nothing to write home about, flavor wise, but they did have a great crispness to them. The Arles Belgian mussels were very good. Simple ingredients but very satisfying and “home-like”. I liked this so much I slurped up as much of the steaming liquid as I could. The Duchamp was just “okay”. I found it to be satisfying but simplistic in its flavor profile. Then again, chicken is a neutral meat that, in my opinion, requires a lot of work to get really flavorful if served sans skin. Lastly, we were pretty beered out and only drank a small portion of 2° Below. To try and give it some sort of review would be unfair.
The train ride back was not the best of experiences. A little tipsy, Sammy and struggled with slight nausea and headaches on the ride back. If I could’ve fallen asleep, I would’ve. As with many other trips, the ride back seemed to go much quicker than the ride up but it still wasn’t quick enough for me. Still, beats driving drunk any day.
The success of this little outing has inspired me to try and organize my own beer train/pub crawl type of event. I’d like to thank Worts of Wisdom for organizing this event and for welcoming us along for the ride.
I initially suggested the topic of Summer Beers because no one else had, which surprised me. I thought this would be a fairly straightforward topic to write about but it wasn’t. Summer has kept us pretty busy here at BetterBeerBlog with all the festivals, events and good times. We’ve been so busy that I didn’t even get the chance to hit up the BevMo and pick up the Summer seasonals that were in stock. So, for this topic, I remedied that situation and headed over to BevMo to pick up what Summer Seasonals were left. I invited a couple of friends over for dinner and we had a mini-Summer Beer Fest to determine which beer would be the “Best Summer Beer”. Here are the beers we had with some of my notes.
