BetterBeerBlog

Almost the entire time Sammy and I were in Fort Collins, Mike and Bonnie kept saying how we could just pick this up and that up at Wilbur’s. By the way they spoke of the place, you’d think that Wilbur’s is just another corner liquor store in a small college town. You’d have thunk wrong.

Wilbur’s Total Beverage is probably the best bottle shop I have ever seen. They are huge, easily surpassing BevMo in terms of square footage as well as selection. In the better BevMo’s, you will find maybe 4 aisles of beer with most of those beers on shelves. At Wilbur’s they have one aisle; one, very, long aisle. An aisle as long as the the store is as deep. And it’s refridgerated. Refridgerated! They also have another “standard” (standard as is relative to aisles in their store) that has some imported beers from Belgium and England as well as Belgian-style beers from American craft breweries.

In my awe, I forgot to take a picture. I was like a kid in a toy store; eyes big as platters with a grin to match. I couldn’t believe such a place existed. Great beer selection? Check! Great beer selection refridgerated? Check! Man, I could’ve easily spent hours and hundreds of dollars in there.

In the end, Sammy, Bonnie, Mike and I created a “mixed six-pack” to drink back at the house. Here are my reviews for the beers we drank. Keep in mind that we didn’t go through all six but here are the ones we did go through:

• Wilburfest, Ft. Collins Brewery - This beer was specifically brewed for Wilbur’s Total Beverage by Fort Collins Brewery. A märzen/oktoberfest style beer, Wilburfest pours beautifully clear, caramel in color with an off-white head. European hop character, slightly earthy with a toasty malt aroma. Slightly sweet with a toasty malt character, this beer has medium-low/medium hop bitterness. Very clean, low esters.
• Major Tom’s Pomegranate Wheat, Ft. Collins Brewery - Ft. Collins Brewery was the one brewery we didn’t make it to while in Ft. Collins. We just ran out of time. Brewed with pomegranate concentrate and lightly filtered. Major Tom’s pours out blonde/straw color. Light malt aroma - light sweet taste, medium-low hops. (Reviewed by Sammy).
• Wet Mountain IPA, Il Vicino Brewing Company - Sweet malt aroma and flavor characteristics with a citrus and floral hop aroma and flavor. The bitterness is medium-high/high but not long lasting. While I thought this beer was fairly good, this beer reminded me of those perfume knockoffs that get sold to tourists. They smell just like the brands they’re supposed to be but don’t last nearly as long. Same with this beer. It has all the right notes but they just don’t play the song for very long. Il Vicino is a wood over pizza joint with mulitple locations but it seems that all their beer is made at a single location that gets distributed to their other locations.
• Rocky Mountain IPA, Ft. Collins Brewery - Strong floral hop characteristics with sweet malt underneath. Sweet malt flavors give way to floral hop flaovrs and a high hop bitterness. Medium-high body and high carbonation.
• Nectar of the Hops, Redstone Meadery - Bonnie has been asking us about the bottle we brought over for some time now and this was as good as a time as any to crack this baby open. This sparkling mead was sweet smelling with slight hop aromas. The flavor is crisp, clean, sweet with hop undertones and a slight caress of hop bitterness. Not big fans of mead, Mike and Bonnie took a liking to this mead mainly because of it’s sparkling nature.

Yes, I do realize the irony of my review. I talk up on how awesome and diverse Wilbur’s is and then all I do is pick up Ft. Collins Brewery beers. I didn’t really realize it until I wrote the post. What can I say? We missed visiting Ft. Collins Brewery and picked up some of their beers instead. I just wish we picked up more of their beers. In any event, if you are ever at Ft. Collins, Colorado, give Wilbur’s a try. Let me know if you walk away just as impressed.

As expected, a lot happened in our time here in Colorado. I will do my best to retell the tale in as much detail as necessary but there’s a lot to go through. I only hope my notes were adequate and the photos enough.

Day one of the GABF trip started off very early in the morning. Sammy and I had a 7:30am flight directly to Denver and with the current level of airport security, that means we had to be there at least an hour early. Having gone to bed around 3am the same morning, I already knew we would be tired but that’s why you sleep on the plane.

The last time Sammy and I traveled on airplanes, it was for our honeymoon to Hawaii. I don’t remember having to pay any fees for checking in our luggage but United Airlines makes you pay. $15 for the first parcel and $25 for each additional piece. We ended up checking in two pieces and paid an additional $40. Sonofabitch. Vacations, no matter how well you plan them, will always be a drain on your resources and I felt this was just the beginning of being nickel-and-dimed the whole trip.

While mostly uneventful (all flights should be really), we ran into some turbulence during our decent. Normally I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash towards turbulence. It’s just a little bit of pepper on a bland flight but during our approach run, it’s slightly disconcerting. As you can obviously tell, we landed just fine.

On our way to the rental car shuttle, we happened to run into Steve Donahue, brewmaster for Firehouse Brewery and Grill located in Sunnyvale. We just happened to look up and saw each other. Usually we’d be shooting the breeze talking about beer, beer-related things and the upcoming GABF but he had his entire family with him. It’s one thing to talk to someone when they’re by themselves and quite another when they’re keeping track of their children. Unfortunately, that would be the last time I would see him. We stopped by the Firehouse booth a couple of times during the Saturday afternoon GABF session but he wasn’t there.

For those who are interested in knowing, Sammy and I booked Advantage Rent-a-Car. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate our experiences with them as 7 out of 10. The check-in process took forever. Due to their “low” rates, there was a huge line. Luckily we were on an early shuttle so we managed to get to the front part of the line but all the paperwork was quite a hassel. The guy who helped Sammy out was nice enough to upgrade out vehicle for free because we would’ve had to wait another 20 minutes for our car to be ready. Instead of a Neon, we were upgraded to a Hyundai Santa Fe. This ended up being a very solid vehicle with pretty decent fuel economy. I also didn’t appreciate having to leave a $300 deposit because we were using our debit cards. These things work exactly like credit cards so I don’t really understand it. The good side it that we saved $300 by not having access to it. Lastly, the rental agreement we had forced us to return the car with a full tank. I’m sure we could’ve gotten the other option to return it empty but it was a numbers game. It’s still a pain in the ass to feel nickel-and-dimed with fees, insurance and deposits only to get kicked in balls one last time by having to fill the damn thing up for the company.

In order to maximize our trip, I decided to group the breweries we toured by geography. Knowing ahead of time that we’d be in Boulder for the Gold Medal Dinner at the Kitchen, I planned to visit Redstone Meadery, Avery Brewing Company and Twisted Pine Brewing Company before heading over to the Kitchen.

So we were finally on our way to Boulder. Our bags were stowed and the car was running smoothly. We unpacked our Garmin GPS to get our bearings and directions to Redstone. Having arrived in time, I felt pretty good about getting to Redstone in time to go on their tour. It’s always nice to see how the pros go about doing things when compared to my own homebrewing processes. Please take note because no one told us the following two points:

First, if you are going to be recharging any sort of electronice equipment via cigarette adapter, rent a “smoking” car. In a non-smoking car, the cigarette lighters are disabled. With a dying GPS unit in our hands, this came to bite us in the ass a couple of times.

Second, make sure you carry some cash when driving in Colorado. Programmed to take the fastest route possible, our GPS unit directed us on one of the most immaculate and well-kept freeways I have ever been on. What we didn’t know was this freeway was immaculate and well-kept because it was a toll-enabled freeway. Altogether we had to pay a little less than $8 worth of tolls but had we blown our small wad of cash on breakfast, the trip would’ve been a little more stressful having to look for an ATM.

Redstone Meadery

As with many other breweries and meaderies I’ve been to, Redstone Meadery is located in an industrial building it shares with a few other businesses. When you first walk in, you will be in their tasting room area. Their taps are to the right while their seating is to the left. We walked through a door that led to the guts of the meadery where their production line is. Sammy and I were a few minutes late and we joined the tour that was already in progress. Joe was our tour guide and quickly led us through the meadery. When I say quickly, I mean very quickly. He seemed a knowledgeable guy but somewhat ill suited for the tour. He didn’t project very well and had a tendency to focus on individuals during the tour. It’s not that he was playing favorites, he would just focus on one person and run with it.

Redstone has a variety of products that they sell. It seems they market their meads as “Mountain Wines” or “nectars“. They also have a “Reserve” line for aged products. I really wish they would just call them what they are but I can completely understand why they market their products under various names. Despite being the oldest fermented beverage known to man, mead is the most unknown. Having to educate each and every person you meet on what a mead is can be tedious at best so it’s better to just call your product something that people are already familiar with. That being said, Joe ran us through quite a number of their offerings. Here are my quick notes on their products:

• Traditional Mead - Sweet.
• Juniper - Infused with juniper. Little bit of spice on the nose, some wood in the flavor. Used oak cubes in the fermenter.
• Pyment - Mead made with grapes. Slightly sweet, some green grape notes.
• Pinot Pyment - Caramel color, red wine notes, dry finish.
• Blueberry - “Blush” in color, sweet, slight blueberry flavors.
• Plum - Pale peach color. Sweet, slight tannic character. Plum flavors are subtle.
• Solstice - As the name would suggest, brewed seasonally. Very perfumy, various spice character, made with vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks.
• Necter of the Hops - We ended up buying a bottle of this to share with our hosts Mike and Bonnie. Earthy sweetness in the aroma. Sparkling, slightly sweet, slight hop flavor in the finish. Uses Amarillo and Centennial hops.

Joe really rushed us through the tastings. It was bam, bam, bam; one right after the other in quick succession. I felt like I was being rushed through my tasting notes. Not sure what that was all about though. It was as if he had much better things to do than cater to the few questions of some potential customers. Even though we ended up purchasing a box of their mead-filled chocolates and a bottle of Nectar of the Hops, I was looking to spend more. I had originally heard of Redstone from Basic Brewing Radio beer podcast and thought that if I ever made it to Colorado, I would make it a point to visit them. I have to say it was a disappointment. It really makes me appreciate the quality of service I get from Rabbit’s Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale.

Overall, I have to say that I have mixed feelings about Redstone Meadery. I believe that they make pretty good meads and that with the breadth of their products, they have something for everyone. That being said, their people have to work harder at selling a little known and misunderstood product. I am a big fan of mead but I didn’t feel as if I learned anything new or if they even wanted to teach me. I’m not sure if I’ll be visiting them again. Chances are I probably will but only reluctantly. If you’ve been to Redstone before, I’d love to hear from you and get your take on the place.

While there, Sammy and I made some friends with a couple from Minnesota. Dwayne is a fellow home brewer and mead maker. While we didn’t see them on the Saturday GABF session, we did run into them at Avery Brewing Company right after visiting Redstone Meadery. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get a chance to write down Angela’s pancake recipe using spent grains. If they’re reading this, send me and email!

Avery Brewing Company

Avery Brewing Company is located a few miles away from Redstone and is tucked away in another industrial park. A huge amount of people were already there by the time we arrived. They were part of a GABF tour that took them to Avery and Oskar Blues amoungst other places. The tasting room was packed and almost standing room only. They had quite a few beers on the board but since we weren’t part of the tour, we were limited to just 5 tastings that were doled out when we exchanged Avery bottle caps for a tasting.

Based upon their website the next brewery tour would be at 4pm. Having finished up at Redstone much earlier than expected, Sammy and I figured that we would have a few hours to kill before then. Luckily for us, the tour worked in our favor as Avery broke their schedule and gave a couple of tours early. While the tasting room was where most of the people were, the actual brewery spanned a few buildings not even connected to the tasting room. Unless you were really paying attention, you might have picked that out. Avery is a 40 BBL system. Our tour guide C.V. explained to us that they’re not nearly operating at full capacity. The current brew team works a 5 day work week from 5am until 1am in a couple of shifts. For them to feel they were running at full bore, they’d have to be working literally 24/7. I would suppose having room to grow is a good position to be in.

Here are my tasting notes from the few beers I did have. What I would later find out is that Avery produces some of the biggest beers throughout Colorado. Running through their entire line would render me drunk. With the Gold Medal Dinner hours away, I thought I should pace myself.

• Uberschweign, 9% - “Super Pig” is their double dry-hopped version of their Hog Heaven barly wine. Since I haven’t had Hog’s Heaven before, I can’t compare the two. Uberschweign’s aroma was reminiscent of how the Instant Ramen Noodle “Oriental” flavor packet smells like. Weird, I know. Besides that, there’s a resinous hop character. Sweet malt flavor balanced by a spicy and earthy hop flavor.
• Volgebekdierden, 10.5%- “Platypus”. Blend of three different small-batch  projects aged in five different oak barrels. Sour notes and dank fruit in the aroma. Sour and tart flavors dominate the taste with some brett (brettanomyces) funk in the finish with moderately-high hop bitterness.
• IPA, 6.5% - Cleaner hop aroma. Citrus hop notes in both the flavor and the aroma. High hop bitterness. What else would you expect from an IPA?
• White Rascal, 5.6%  - Pale straw in color with a white head. Phenolic Belgian yeast notes with hints of vanilla and spices. Slight wheat maltiness and white pepper in the flavor. Light and refreshing.
• Oude Deux, 8.0% - Mohagany in color with amber highlights and beige head. Clean, roasty malt flavors with slight spicy yeast notes. It’s like a Belgian-style stout/porter. This is a one-off small batch of a dark, roasty Belgian Ale; only 2 kegs.

After the GABF tour had left, the Avery tasting room had calmed down quite a bit. Brewmaster and namesake of the place Adam Avery was a few paces from where I was sitting. I wanted to chat him up before the Gold Medal Dinner but didn’t have the opportunity to introduce myself. A caterer showed up with a tray full of BBQ ribs. For a few moments, everyone just stood around looking at the tray wondering if we could get some. I prodded Sammy into getting the first plate and she opened up the flood doors then with everyone else following suit. After all, who’s going to be the jerk to tell the girl she can’t have any ribs?

Overall, I felt that Avery Brewing Company was one of the better breweries I had visited both in the quality of their beers, their people and their establishment. It will be on my “go to” list of breweries next time I am in Colorado.

Twisted Pine Brewing Company

Twisted Pine Brewing Company is located in an industrial park in Boulder, Colorado (Starting to see a pattern, hmm?). Being a production brewery, they have limited hours and open their doors to the public at 3pm. When we arrived, there seemed to be an event going as as there were caterers manning a BBQ grill as well as benches and tables set up near and on the parking lot by Twisted Pine.

Inside Twisted Pine you’ll see a small bar like set-up for their tasting room. Going with the the whole “tree” motif, all their taps have been installed on a log. Behind the bar, you can see the brewery through a glass window.

Having reacquainted myself with my inner hop head, I order the Hoppy Boy IPA. It is caramel color with amber highlights and an off-white head. This beer is aggressively hoppy with an earthy hop aroma and flavor. The hop bitterness lingers long into the finish overshadowing the malt side of the beer. It takes me some time to polish off the pint. By the time I am finished, it’s time to head over to the Gold Medal Dinner.

Sammy ordered their Raspberry Wheat. This beer is gold in color, clear with a white head. The aroma and flavor are of raspberries. Hop flavor and bitterness are low to none with a medium-low level or carbonation.

Honestly, I didn’t give this place a fair enough chance. We just happened to have a few minutes to spare before dinner and I wanted to drop by to at least say I had one of their beers. I should’ve ordered a sampler instead of a full pint. Twisted Branch Brewing Company did win Silver for their Big Shot Espresso Stout at GABF this year and I didn’t get a chance to try some. If there’s one thing I’m learning from my beer adventures, it’s that you can’t judge a beer by it’s label. Case in point, Twisted Pine may not look like much from the outside but they are award-winning brewers.

I’ll cover the Gold Medal Dinner in another post mainly because I think this post is long enough. Also, the Gold Medal Dinner was such a fantastic event that it deserves its own post.

In every city that is worth it’s weight in beer, there is one pub or bar that is the place for beer. In San Francisco, there’s the legendary Toronado. In the Hayward, we have the infamous Bistro. San Diego has it’s own pub who’s philosophy is representative of the craft ales of the area: O’Brien’s Pub, The hoppiest place on Earth.

O’brien’s came highly recommended by more than a few locals. Jeremy, who we met over in Toronado, recommended O’brien’s highly. And often. He said that if he had only two places to visit here in San Diego for beer O’brien’s would be first with Holiday Wine Cellar coming in second, edging out Stone Brewing Company.

O’brien’s is located in a strip mall in what I believe is the Asian part of town. Next door to O’brien’s is a yogurt shop. In the same plaza, you’ll also find a Tapioca Express, Tofu House, Noodle House of Otemoyans amongst other places. So if you pull into the parking lot and feel like you’re in the wrong place, chances are you’re not.

The interior of O’brien’s is unremarkable. The bar is the main focal point of the establishment. Above it is a faux awning/roof thingie where O’brien’s is showcasing their apparel. There are tables scattered throughout the place and the chairs remind me of office chairs on casters. On the ceiling are a number of coasters. The second best part of their decor are the two oversized Belgian ale glasses that double as fishbowls for a pair of betta. The best part of the decor is the line of 20 or so taps, of course.

Alpine Duet IPA, 7% ABV

The first beer I order is Alpine Brewing Company’s Duet IPA. The first time I heard of Alpine Brewing Company was over at Boonville. They happened to be the campsite right next to New Belgium Brewing Company. Since then, I’ve been wanting to drive over to Alpine and pay them a a visit. Unfortunately for us, Alpine was a bit further away than we anticipated and we couldn’t fit them into our schedule. The Duet IPA is a seasonal IPA brewed with Amarillo and Simcoe hops “in perfect harmony”. (On a tangent, I find “language in context” interesting. Here in the Bay Area, and in most parts of the United States, “Amarillo” is pronounced a-ma-rill-low while in San Diego they pronounce it ah-mah-ree-yoh. Meaning “yellow” in Spanish, I prefer the latter pronounciation myself. Anyway…) This beer was served pretty chill. Even so, I could smell the grapefruit-like citrus notes as well as piney and floral characteristics. Pours out a pale amber with burnt gold highlights. The waitress topped me off so there wasn’t any head at all. This beer has a clean yet sweet malt character with a medium/medium-high hop flavor and bitterness. I found this beer to have good balance for the style. It is medium bodied with a medium level of carbonation.

Green Flash West Coast IPA, 7% ABV

Green Flash is another San Diego county brewery that we didn’t get a chance to visit. I was slightly bummed at that but that just gives me another reason to go back. Brewed with Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Cascade, this was one hoppy beer! Lots of citrus, floral and piney hop characteristics with some malt aromas underneath. Light brown in color with amber highlights and an off-white head. Aggressively hopped. Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin hoppy, with my tongue playing the part of Rich Franklin. The hop bitterness lasts long into the finish. I love me some hops but man, was this one hoppy beer. The West Coast IPA is medium bodied with medium carbonation.

It’s interesting to note how both the Alpine and Green Flash beers are both “West Coast IPAs” but the Alpine is just way more balanced. As a result, I enjoyed drinking the Alpine more. Still, I’m not knocking the Green Flash West Coast IPA, just trying to give you a sense of what to expect.

Food

Having made a stop here right after visiting Balboa Park, Sammy and I decided to order some food as well. We order two dishes: the fish and chips along with the Brewer’s Sampler Plate consisting of crackers, green apple slices, pear slices, sausages, salami and a couple of cheeses. First, the fish and chips. I had heard very good things about O’Brien’s food so I was a bit disappointed when our fish and chips arrived. While the chips portion of the dish tasted fine, I found the fish portion not as good. The fish seemed overfried as the crust was crunchy. The filet faired no better and was on the dry side. It made me long for the fish and chips from Churchills.

The Brewer’s Sampler Plate faired better. The sausages were split in half and grilled, along with the salami. The salami seemed overdone. As with most (if not all) grilled food, the salami had the signature grill marks but I think in the process of obtaining those grill marks, the meat had dried out. Good thing the sausages turned out fine, moist and flavorful. The apples and pear tasted fresh and had a wonderful aroma. We had two types of cheeses; a soft, white, creamy cheese and a more pungent veiny cheese. Both tasted well enough but I don’t know enough to really say it was the best cheese I’ve ever had. Between the two dishes, I enjoyed the Brewer’s Sampler Plate more.

In addition to serving beer and wine, O’Brien’s liquor license allows him to sell one (1) bottle of imported beer per customer. They have a pretty decent selection of bottled beers easily surpassing the 150 mark. Since there were two of us, we picked up two bottles. Originally, I wanted to purchase a llimited edition bottle of their Levud–A Belgian-style Golden Strong Ale but since it was a domestic brewery, it was off limits. I wish I could tell you which two bottles we picked up but I didn’t write them down. Compounding the situation, we visited a bottle shop right afterwards and picked up more beer. The two got lost in the crowd and I don’t remember which ones they were. I believe one of the bottles was called Guido and it’s a Belgian ale brewed with raisins and honey. The other, not sure.

Conclusion

If you’ve been to the Bistro in Hayward, you’ll feel right at home at O’Brien’s. Both owners are passionate hop heads and it shows through their selection of draught beers. Although truthfully, I walked away from O’Brien’s a little disappointed. This place received so much hype that when I finally got there, it didn’t live up to the expectations I had. Most of my disappointment came from the quality of the food. I already knew to expect a high level of quality from their beers but their kitchen was talked up as well. We didn’t get a chance to talk to any of the people there but that’s okay. The last thing I want to be is pushy.

Don’t let my experiences with the food here turn you off to a San Diego beer landmark. This is a great place to have great beer, or two, or three.

Alesmith is one of those breweries that was originally on my list of places to visit. At first, I was 50/50 about going but after getting recommended by a former San Diego resident and beer lover, I decided that this place definitely needed a visit. Located near what seemed to be an aircraft museum, Alesmith is tucked away in and industrial park, not unlike Lost Abbey. Unless you were specifically lookiing for them, there’s really no way you’d be able to find them on accident. Yet, when your reputation starts to expand far beyond the confines of your brick-and-mortar location, getting found becomes the least of your problems.

It’s quiet outside when we pull up. Sammy and I enter through a side door into the Alesmith tasting area. So far, it’s nothing to write home about. There are stacks and stacks of palettes all around, each containing either kegs, bottles or brewing supplies. We round a corner and see the tasting room set-up that Alesmith has. They have a small bar surrounded by about 10 or so people being manned by one, Alesmith employee. Not necessarily quiet but not quite buzzing, it feels as if we’ve walked into a private tasting party. Jessica, who is holding down the fort, gives us a warm smile and invites us to join in.

Being unfamilar with their beers, Jessica gives us a brief introduction to their beers before pouring us a sample. Each sample is .50 cents and you are able to purchase their beers by the growler or by the bottle. As with many other places, they also have shirts and glassware for sale. Sammy contemplates picking up a shirt but “Lil’ Devil” is out and she feels “Horny Devil” is… setting the wrong example. She does settle on the “Periodic Table” of beers poster though.

Jessica, as we learn chatting with her, is in an “all-around” sort of position in Alesmith. She does some distribution, some marketing and a whole lot of physical labor. In fact, just about everybody in Alesmith has the ability to wear different hats. You kind of have-to when there are only 6 of you. Open only between the hours of 1pm - 4pm, there’s not a lot of time for us to sit back and really get to know each other and the beers. Jessica does a great job with the samples and before we know it, we’ve tried everything Alesmith had on tap that day. I wish I could say that I tasted everything they had to offer but they were out of some stuff and the new stuff would be ready days after we left. Just another excuse to come back and visit San Diego.

Here are my notes on the beers:

Nautical Nut Brown Ale, 5% ABV

Reddish brown in color with amber highlights and a beige head. Clean malt aroma with grainy/nutty notes with medium/medium-low hop aroma. Malty and grainy flavors hit my tongue first followed by slight nuttiness. The hop flavors appear in the finish are medium-low in intensity and bitterness. This beer is medium bodied with medium high carbonation. This is one of their lighter offerings and is pretty good. I wish my photos were better but the tasting cups were translucent instead of transparent.

Lil’ Devil Belgian Ale, 6.66% ABV

Nope. That is not a typo. This beer’s ABV was specifically crafted to be 6.66%. Whenever I think of Belgian ales, I usually thing of abbey ales or Trappist ales yet I can’t tell you the number of Belgian ales or Belgian-style ales that have clearly demonic overtones in their names. Go figure. I think it’s a testament to the abilities of the brewers to be able to dial in your beer’s specific gravity to give you a devilishly interesting ABV. Lil’ Devil is cloudy, pale golden straw in color with a creamy, white head. Sweet malt character, slight wheat malt, spicy Belgian yeast and corriander are in the aroma of the beer. The flavor is sweet wheat in character with a compliment of spiciness from the yeast. Hop bitterness and flavor is low; body is medium-low/medium with a high level of carbonation. Even though the alcohol level is high for this particular style of beer, it’s hard to say anything really bad about it other than that.

Anvil ESB, 5% ABV

This was the very first beer produced at Alesmith and is considered their flagship ale. It is amber in color, clear with a beige head. I’m picking up a sweet malt aroma with low/medium-low hop aroma. The beer’s sweet, caramel-like malt sweetness is upfront with a medium hop bitterness and flavor in the finish. This beer is medium in body with medium/medium-high carbonation level. The Alesmith website will tell you that they use imported English hops in this beer and I will be the first to say that I can’t tell. This is all to do with how I haven’t drunk enough English ales to burn those hop characteristics onto my senses than it is anything Alesmith has or hasn’t done. A much long winded way of saying my tongue is ignorant on English ales.

Wee Heavy, 9.5% ABV

So far, both the beers I’ve tried prior to this Wee Heavy are light on hops, at least by American West Coast standards. Also known as a Scotch Strong Ale, the Wee Heavy-style of beer is a result of circumstance and geography. With a climate unsuited to growing hops, Scotland has had to import all of their hops at a highly taxed rate. Having sufficient malt production capabilities, they brewed a strong ale that was low in hops. All the Scottish/Irish beers are similarly low-hopped. Alesmith’s Wee Heavy is a dark brown with beige head. Very low hop aroma with clean, yet sweet malt aromas with slight smoke. Sweet, slightly toasty malt flavors dominate this beer with toffee, caramel notes and noticeable alcohol presence. This beer is full bodied with medium-high carbonation. If you ever get a chance to try this beer, please do so as it is a world-class example of the style.

Old Numbskull, 11% ABV

Unlike the previous ales I’ve tried from Alesmith so far, this is by far the hoppiest, yet balanced. Caramel color, clear with a beige head. Citrus, floral and piney hop aromas with sweet malt characters underneath. Some alcohol notes as well. I find this beer is pretty well balanced. There’s a very sweet malt profile that is slightly toasty and caramel/toffee-ish in character that is kept in check by an equal amount of hop bitterness and flavor. The hop bitterness is immediate but not clingy. This is a medium bodied beer with medium-high carbonation. At 11%, the alcohol character is smooth and not harsh. A very tastey barleywine.

Speedway Stout, 12.5% ABV

Holy crap this is a good beer!. I don’t have to be a Recognized-level beer judge to know that. This is also a big beer. 12.5% is a huge number for a beer, particularly this style. If I wanted to get all technical, this could be considered an Imperial Russian Stout. The Speedway Stout pours an opaque, black with a tan head. Roasty, chocolatey, some hot peppery spiciness make up the aroma. Sweet and roasty malt flavors, chocolate flavors with a touch of soy sauce make up the flavor profile. The hops are there, enough to support the malt character but the balance is definitely in the malt end of the spectrum. There’s noticeable alcohol character in both the aroma and flavor but in either instance, it is neither harsh nor solventy. This is a medium-high/full bodied beer with medium/medium-high carbonation. Wow, what a beer! Just when I thought I was out from enjoying stouts, this beer pulled me right back in!

I wanted to stay longer and talk with Jessica more but it was closing time. Seeing as how San Diego has a gazillion sunny days a year, I’d hate to keep her working any longer than she needed to. I wanted to pick up three bottles of beer while Sammy was contemplating picking up a shirt. In the end, we bought a bottle of their Wee Heavy and of the Speedway Stout. I wanted to bring back a bottle of the Old Numbskull but Sammy used her “alotment” to pick up the “Periodic table of beer” poster instead. It’s not hung up yet but it’s pretty cool. Very beer geek!

If you are a fan of good beer, I would highly recommend Alesmith beers. They are good all across the line and are multi-faceted and, in the case of their bigger beers, complex and nuanced. Unless you call ahead to schedule an appointment, don’t expect a brewery tour during their tasting hours. I am assuming that they only staff one person during that time and they don’t have the ability to run the tasting room and give a brewery tour at the same time. The physical location of the place isn’t much to look at but does it really matter? It’s the beer that counts. Good thing Alesmith as its priorities straight.

Still reeling from our fantastic experience at Lost Abbey, Sammy and I decide it’s time to eat. We ask Terri, Sage and some locals sitting next to us at Lost Abbey where there’s a good place to eat around here. Unanimously, they all recommended Churchills Pub & Grille.

Minutes from Lost Abbey, Churchills is an English-style pub. If the English themed decor didn’t tip you off, maybe the silhouette of Winston Churchill as their logo would. They have a few parking spaces up front and another lot to the left.

When we arrived, the place was fairly empty. There are pool tables, video games, an outdoor patio with three firepits and darts. Normally, Sammy and I sit at the bar. We find that sitting at the bar gives us the opportunity to talk up the bartenders and locals but after being up since 4am, we decide to take a quiet booth for ourselves.

Churchills has the prerequisite English beers on tap such as Boddingtons, Bass, Smithwicks and Newcastle. They have a few others but they also have a great selection of local craft ales. As fairly impressed as I am by their draught offerings, I am further impressed by their bottle list. our waitress brings over about a 5-page list of all their bottled beer. Representing 5 countries and over 200 different beers, I am in awe. Part of me is excited that they have so many beers while the other half wonders about the logistics of storing these beers.

Dechute Twilight, 5.0% ABV

Our waitress takes our drink order. I have the Deschutes Twilight while Sammy orders the brown ale from Black Sheep. The Twilight is a seasonal pale ale from Deshcutes that is brewed with a blend of 4 different types of hops and malts. In the dim light of the pub, Twilight appears to be a pale amber color and clear. What little head looks to be off-white in color but I can’t really gauge it because our bartender poured the beer right to the top. It has a fruity, citrus and piney aroma with a clean malt presence. The beer has a moderately-high level of hop flavor and bitterness with clean malt flavors taking a supporting role. Twilight is medium bodied and medium/medium-high in carbonation. I must say, I didn’t finish this beer. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I was getting beer-ed out by this point. We had some ridiculously flavorful beer at Lost Abbey, some with pretty high alcohol levels, and my body was shutting down. I would like to order this beer again because it was pretty good but I just couldn’t finish it.

Black Sheep Ale, 4.4% ABV

Sammy faired a little better than myself. Her Black Sheep brown ale pour our clear, brown with amber highlights and an off-white head. I was taken back by the very prominent bready aroma coming from the beer. It smelled like toasted wheat bread. I expected more flavor to come throught but this is an Engligh beer and English beers are restrained, if anything. Sweet malt flavors with a toasted wheat bread quality reign with this beer. The hop flavor is moderate, along with the bitterness. The balance definitely leans toward the malt side. This is a medium bodied, medium carbonated beer.

Boasting the best fish and chips (who doesn’t boast that, really?) we take them to task and put in a half-sized order. The fish is beer battered cod. The fish is light and flakey while the batter is appropriately crunchy and slightly sweet. The coleslaw is light on the mayo with citrus notes. I normally don’t like coleslaw but I am enjoying this one. The chips (also knows to us Yanks as french fries) are perfectly fried.

I order the Churchill Pub Steak. It is supposed to be flavored with either a cajun rub or with just cajun spices. I don’t really taste the spices but I do taste the char from the grill. The steak is cooked to order (medium rare) and is flavorful and moist. The waitress gives me the oddest look when I order mushy peas as my side dish, as if she can’t believe someone ordered them. Looking like baby food, mushy peas are like a thick split pea soup. It is creamy and the peas are somewhat crunchy and nutty in their flavor. I also order steamed veggies that are very plain. I am satisfied by entree but not really wowed. It was reasonably priced and after an evening of drinking, it really hit the spot.

Sammy orders corned beef and cabbage with a side of crisps (also known as potato chips. Oh, those crazy Brits! Next thing you know, they’ll be calling cigarettes fags.). The corned beef has been cooked/steamed in Guinness stout. She is really enjoying them but I find them to be just alright. The corned beef is moist yet salty. By contrast the bed of cabbage they’re on are very plain but it’s okay as the flavor from the corned beef seasons them. Her order of crisps are actually pretty good. They taste like they were just cut and fried to order and are seasone with a spiced salt. Normally Sammy doesn’t finish her food but she manages to put this one away. A testament to both her hunger and how well they’re made. As I said, she really like this dish and I thought they were “alright”.

Overall Churchills is a pretty good place to eat. The food is relatively affordable and freshly made. The fish and chips were the best dish of the evening while their draught beers showcase local craft ales as well as the standard English pub favorites. Their bottled beer list is very impressive if none of the draght stuff is to your liking. By the time we left, Churchills was starting to fill up with the locals but we were too beat to make any new friends. Still, I encourage you to stop by and form your own opinions. I’d love to compare notes.

On our way to San Diego, Sammy and I decided to stop by Pizza Port Solana Beach. For those who aren’t familiar with Pizza Port, let me give you a little history. There are 3 Pizza Ports. The Solana Beach location, opened in 1987, is the original followed by Pizza Port Carlsbad (1987), Pizza Port San Clemente (2003) and a 50% ownership interest in the production facility in San Marcos (2006) called Port Brewing but better known as Lost Abbey. Tomme Arthur is the original brewmaster at Solana Beach and the recipies he developed there are brewed at each of the Pizza Port locations.

Since then, Tomme Arthur has moved onto Port Brewing full time. Even though they all share the Pizza Port name, each Pizza Port location brews all their beers themselves. Port Brewing is responsible for brewing the Pizza Port and Lost Abbey beers for distribution purposes.

There is a small parking lot for that is shared by all the surrounding business. Parking can be a problem but we founded a spot a block away or so. They have a small outdoor patio area but the majority of their dining space is indoors.

When we arrived, Pizza Port Solana Beach was packed! There were so many people. I had thought we arrived at the tail end of the lunch hour but business was still going strong. There was a wide variety of people as well.

The Solana Beach location has a surfer motif for the decor. There are surf boards hanging from the wall as well as a skateboard or two. There are picnic bench style tables throughout the location and video games in the back. To the left is where you can order your pizza but you have to go to the bar to order your beer. Yes, you have pay for each separately. I think it’s silly to make the customer pay at two different locations but from watching business go, it makes for a very efficient process. Mike was the man slinging the beers during lunch but I failed to ask him if he was the head brewer or the bartender.

Sammy and I ordered a small “vegetarian” pizza called “Laguna”. It’s more of a New York style pizza with a thin crust but not as thin as a true New York style pizza. The tomato sauce is tart, the cheese melted, gooey and crispy in some areas. Olives, artichokes and onions make up the vegetables. This was a very good tasting pizza, just the perfect size for the two of us. Since this is a beer blog, it’s time we get to the beer.

Ghost Shark Session, 4% ABV

Sammy ordered a Ghost Shark Session ale. Ghost Shark Session is clear, dark caramel in color with an off-white head. Sweet and toasty aromas define the malt characteristic with slight grainy notes. The hop aromas are earthy in nature. The flavor closely mirrors the aroma. Toasty, sweet malt flavors are the first flavors to hit my tongue with a moderate hop flavor and bitterness in the finish. This is a well balanced beer of medium body and low carbonation that gives it a creamy texture.

Swami’s IPA, 7% ABV

Citrus, floral and piney hop characteristics define the aroma of this beer. Very, very nice. Swami is clear, pale amber in color with an off-white head. The malt flavor is clean and sweet but definitely playing second fiddle to the aggressive hop flavor and bitterness. This is a medium body beer with medium carbonation. Overall, a great example of an American IPA.

Belgian IPA, 8.5% ABV

This is an incomplete name. It’s really called Wednesday Belgian IPA or something similar. Anyway, This beer pours a cloudy, straw color with a white head. A sweet wheat malt aroma is balanced against a spicy, peppery Belgian yeast character. The fruit esters I’m picking up on are pear, apple and hint of pineapple. While not apparent in the aroma, the IPA part of this beer shows up in the finish where the hop bitterness hits late, and hits hard. It’s like a Belgian triple combined with an IPA (duh!) that showcases the best of both. This is a medium-high body with a high level of carbonation resulting in a spritzy and tingly mouthfeel.

Conclusion

For whatever reason, I keep forgetting that I am writing about craft beers. I must remember that my subject matter, at its very core, is an artisanal product. So when I make plans to visit a brewpub that is know for making exceptional, world-class beers, I have no idea why I have such high expectations for their actual locations as well.

Despite the world-class quality of their beers, Pizza Port Solana Beach is still, in essence, a pizza joint that makes its own beer. Their main clientele are the good people of Solana Beach and the occasional beer geek/tourist such as myself. Their pizzas are tasty, their decor appropriate and, most importantly, they have a very unassuming attitude about themselves. Sure, they have a small portion of their wall space dedicated to their trophies and ribbons but if you judge a place by their staff, you’d never pick this place out as being any more special than a Pizza Hut or Roundtable. To add to their awesomeness, they carry a very respectable guest tap list as well with a couple of notable northern California breweries as well.

If you’re a beer lover, than you must pay Pizza Port Solana Beach a visit. In fact, you should probably visit all their locations. Their Carlsbad location, in particular, has a very good bottle shop right next to it. How can you not love a place that makes excellent beer that sells the excellent beer of other breweries?

I have lamented in the past about the dearth of quality beers here in San Jose. For the most part, it’s true. Outside of Gordon Biersch in downtown and Rock Bottom in the Pruneyard, there’s not much going on. Most places have the same seven or so taps that everyone one else has. If only distributors would take notice; people enjoy trying something new and different. Especially if it’s quality stuff. Not surprisingly, I heard about the place I’m writing about from a distributor.

I realize this is a beer blog and what I’m about to write next some may consider blasphemy but until I can be proven wrong I’m going out on a limb and saying that Wine Affairs in San Jose has the best beer selection that I’ve come across in San Jose. Yes, Wine Affairs; it’s a wine bar. I can’t believe I’m writing it myself but it’s true. I could find someplace in the future that’s better but for now, it’s Wine Affairs

As you may recall, a week ago I went to a beer and food tasting event held at Spencers. It was there that I was able to talk to Brook, the sales representative from Wine Warehouse who supplied the beers for the evening. She mentioned a few places here in San Jose that she has accounts with so the wife and I decided to stop on by after work yesterday to check out.

Wine Affairs is located in the Alameda neighborhood of San Jose right next door to the Bollywood theater. It has a very unassuming facade but once you get in, the place opens up. There bar is to the right and there are racks and racks of wine for sale. With comfortable seating everywhere, a Jazz band was setting up to play for the evening. A relatively new, a Jazz band is scheduled to play every Thursday night. We took a seat at the bar and right off the bat we noticed what I will dub the Winerator. I have a kegerator at my place for distributing my homebrews. Wine bars tend to have a Winerator. It looks like a wine vending machine but instead of the bottles falling out at the bottom, they have spouts with push-in handles you press your wine glass against to get your wine. It’s pretty trick being all stainless steel, temperature and nitrogen powered. I should clarify: the fuel source isn’t nitrogen but they do use nitrogen to push the wine out of the wine bottles and into the dispensers. Nitrogen is used because it’s fairly inert, helps prevent the oxidation of wine and doesn’t affect the flavor of wine. Okay enough about wine, this is a beer blog after all.

Not sure if you’ll be able to read everything on the menu but I took a photo of it. There are some beers that I don’t find particularly appealing, Shiner Bock for instance (and the non-alcoholic beer). Wine Affairs carries couple of Belgian beers on bottle, some German beers, and some good American craft beers. Because Oktoberfest is right around the corner, Wine Affairs has three oktoberfest-style beers as their specials. Here’s a link to their beer menu but it looks like it’s their summer menu.

The first beer I tried was Blanche de Chambly (5% ABV) by Unibroue. As I’ve written before, Unibroue is a Canadian brewery that specializes in Belgian-style ales. Outside of Belgium, they’re probably one of the best breweries brewing Belgian ales. Unfortunately in my exuberance, I didn’t take a photo so my written description will have to suffice. Bottle-conditioned, Blanche de Chambly pours out a cloudy, pale straw color with a white head, appropriate for the style. The aroma is on the phenolic side, peppery, spicy, with slight citrus and herbal quality along with very slight apple and pear notes. As with most beers the flavor mirrors the aromas. The phenolic flavors hit me first as I taste a little bit of white pepper and cloves. The citrus is present but slight while the other fruits, which were subtle at best in the aroma, are all but non-existent in the flavor. The wheat characteristics are noticeable but not overly so and it’s not as sweet to my palette as other witbiers are. The beer is medium/medium-low in body but medium-hi/high in carbonation. It’s light, spritzy and effervescent. Overall, a decent example of a witbier with a lot of the Belgian yeast characteristics you’d expect from the style.

The second beer I had was the St. Bernadus Abt 12. Like the Blanche de Chambly, this too, is a bottle-conditioned beer. This beer is a dark brown, almost mahogany in color. It is cloudy with a lasting beige/tan head. Right off the bat, I get dark chocolate notes in the aroma. This is a yummy smelling beer. As I smell the beer more, the malt sweetness starts to come through as well as some of the characteristic dark fruit aromas (figs, plums, dates) that Belgian Dark Strong Ales are known for. There’s also a slight fusel aroma from the alcohol that progressively gets more noticeable as the beer warms up. My initial sip reinforces what my nose already knew. Dark chocolate flavors, dark fruit flavors, sweet malt and some melanoidic flavors (probably due to the candied beet sugar) are all apparent. There’s a slight bitterness that isn’t very hoppy but apparent as well that I might think comes from the alcohol. At 10% ABV, St. Bernardus Abt 12 is a big beer. The alcohol notes that were only slight in the aroma have warmed and opened up in the mouthfeel. While not solventy or harsh, I get a pleasant warming in my throat and a little bit of a bite on the palette.

The final beer we tried was the Erdinger Weissbier Dunkle (dark). Trying something different, I let my wife Sammy pic the beer and write the review. This is her review as transcribed from out little notepad:

Sweet, toasty, brown foam head, low hop, light hop aroma, 5.5% ABV. Tart, clean, medium-high carbonated finish. No bitterness. Citrus hefe characteristics with dark malt flavors. Hefeweizen blended with märzen. Toasted bread, med-low body.

For the most part, Sammy does a good job recognizing flavors and talking about them but not so much in the writing department. Just in case you haven’t noticed, she hasn’t done any posts in the entire time the site’s been up. She’ll be the first to say writing isn’t her strong suit. Sammy does hit all the high points. Obviously, it’s a dark beer with a tan head. The aromas are subtle; low to no hop aroma, slight sweet malt aromas and slight fruit esters as well. It’s very clean. Dunkleweizen beers are a favorite of mine since they’re similar to a traditional hefeweizen but with the Munich malt flavors you’d expect from a Märzen. Over all, a decent dunkleweizen. Our bartender Paula said she gets a tinny flavor from the beer and it could be a sign of age. Like the other beers, this is an import and who knows what kind of condition it was shipped and stored in before it finally arrived at Wine Affairs.

In addition to the beers, Sammy ordered a flight of residual sugar wines. I’m not going to review those here though but I will briefly touch upon the food we ordered (you can view the menu here). We had the cold cut plate which consisted of Pâté de Campagne with black pepper, prosciutto, Rosette de Lyon (salami-style sausage from France), Saucission a L’AIL (Garlic Sausage) and Secchi salami. Served with garlic and oil soaked olives and slices of toasted bread, it was a typical cold cut plate. One of the salamis smelled like feet though. I’m guessing it was the French one.

We also ordered the sautéed mushrooms pizza “Asian” style which had crimini and shiitake mushrooms over marscapone smeared flatbread. This was a tiny, tiny pizza. At first I thought it was a thin-crust but it ended up being this light and flaky (messy) flatbread. This was my least favorite dish but Sammy enjoyed how different the flatbread changed the characteristics of the dish. It was a decent dish and a different take on pizza but not my thing. So, we’re split.

While not on the menu you can download, we ordered some spicy chicken wings with tarragon. Normally I’d be weary of anything with tarragon as it has a black licorice flavor I’m not into but I gave it a go anyway. These ended up being pretty good. Most of the time whenever we order chicken wings, they arrive at the table just slathered in sauce. It’s a mess to eat. These wings looked like they were season with a dry rub instead of a sauce. They were full of flavor and had enough head to let you know they had some kick without making you beg for mercy later on. I’m not a spicy food kind of guy, like, I won’t add it to my food. But, if it’s already in there, I don’t mind it so much. The tarragon was noticeable but not overwhelming, well balanced.

In addition to having a pretty good beer list, the staff at Wine Affairs were, for the most part, very attentive. More importantly, they were knowledgeable. Paula had been working at Wine Affairs since they opened a little less than a year ago in November. She is self-admittedly a wine person but has tried many of the beers on the menu if not all of them. Juan is learning to be/is a sommelier. In addition to being a sommelier, Juan is also a homebrewer who specialized in organic beers. While there are organic beers on the market, I’m guessing Juan brews his own as the selection is still fairly limited. We didn’t get a chance to talk to Diane, the owner, but we saw her helping out once the crowed settled in. According to Brian, a sales rep who has Wine Affairs as an account, Diane is a sommelier with an excellent palette. Brian sat next to us and we had a pretty good conversation as the evening wore on comparing/contrasting beer and wine. I learned a little bit more about wine from him while I’d like to think I showed him a thing or two about beers. He’s actually a very cool guy and was great company.

So there you have it. A wine joint with the best selection of beers in San Jose. If I didn’t see it I wouldn’t have believed it. Here are a few more photos of the place. It was a last minute decision to visit Wine Affairs so we didn’t bring our digital camera. All the crappy photos shot with my cell phone camera. If anyone would like to recommend a place to go that they think has pretty good beers here in San Jose/south bay, let me know and I’ll add it to my list. I’ve received some suggestions in the past and we’re just getting to them now. Keep the suggestions coming!

It was good to getaway for the long weekend. The thing about “getting away from it all” is that sometimes, the mind takes longer to come back than the body. I’ve physically been back for almost a week now but mentally, I’m still on vacation. At least I was until tonight.

So now I’m playing catch-up. It’s okay though as I have a slew of things to write about. Specifically, I got to try a lot of beer that I’ve never had before. Instead of boring you with an extremely detailed description of everything we did, I’m just going to break the trip up into multiple posts. It’s just easier that way.

On the way up to Windsor, we took a leisurely drive up the coast to Tomales Bay for oysters. After picking up two bags, we continued our northbound trip only to stop once again for lunch. Having driven by this place a few times, we decided to pull over and stop at The Marshall Store.

Sammy and I ordered the rock cod ceviché and a half dozen smoked oysters. Originally we were just going to drink some water but I didn’t feel right starting off my long weekend without beer so I doubled back inside and picked up a bottle of Downtown Brown and Great White, both by Lost Coast Brewery out of Eureka, CA.

The Great White is Lost Coast’s example of a witbier. This is an unfiltered, wheat beer spiced with corriander and “Humbolt herbs”. This beer has wheat characteristics as well as slight tangy, spritzy citrus notes in the aroma. This beer is a hazy, pale straw in color with a white head. As in the aroma, I can taste the sweet wheat malt and citrus notes. This beer is smooth and slightly creamy in mouthfeel. it is effervescent in its med-hi carbonation and medium body. A great beer to drink on this warm Friday afternoon.

I choose this to pair with the rock cod ceviché. When the ceviché arrived, it was uninspiringly plated in a coated, paper plate and served with a side of tortilla chips and garnished with a leaf of lettuce. I am a huge seafood lover and when I find a place that does ceviché well, I make a note of the place. The Marshall Store ceviché wasn’t too special. The rock cod it was made of tasted fresh and lacked any of the “fishy” smell some seafood may have. I could taste the lemon and lime juice they used to “cook” the cod but it wasn’t overpowering. The fresh tomatoes, red onion and cilantro added a freshness, crispness to counter the texture of the fish. Overall, this was a decent ceviché but nothing to write home about. I found the store bough tortilla chips to be one-dimensional and a cop-out (how hard is it to freshly fry some tortilla chips?) while the lone lettuce leaf didn’t add any value to the dish other than color. This dish went very well with the Great White and elevated the ceviché.

The next beer we had was Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown. An example of the American Brown Ale, this beer poured a milk chocolate sort of brown. It was fairly clear with an off-white head. I could smell the sweet malt aromas but the hop character was subtle, at best. This beer started off sweet and malty but had some toasted bread flavors in the finish. The Downtown Brown is medium-bodied, medium-carbonated with a slight grainy astringency. This beer is a classic example of the style. I found this beer to be enjoyable but a bit on the boring side. I’m not bad mouthing the brewers at Lost Coast more than I am making a comment on a dull style of beer. Still, this is an easy drinking beer that can be versatile in its food pairings.

I picked this beer to pair with our half-dozen order of smoked oysters. The smoked oysters were artfully arranged on the platter. The Marshall Store doesn’t smoke these oysters on the spot, they buy them pre-smoked and packaged. For them to smoke the oysters on the spot would take too long so I can understand when they purchase pre-packed oysters. Despite that, this is a solid dish. The smokiness on the oysters was the dominant flavor, almost overpowering the natural aroma of the oyster. Served on a garlic buttered slice of toasted bread, the smoked oyster was topped off what what tasted like Thousand Island but could’ve been an aioli of some sort. Lastly, a spicy, smoked BBQ sauce was in the middle of the platter. Unfortunately, this dish overwhelmed the Downtown Brown. The brown’s malt flavors were overpowered by the smoke of the oysters and the spice of the BBQ sauce. Still it wasn’t a horrible pairing but the smoked oyster dish begged for something with a bit more balls.

After eating to my tummy’s content, Sammy and I chilled for a few minutes to enjoy the view. When we had left San Jose, the temperature was rising fast. Sitting by the seashore, the weather was perfect by The Marshall Store. The sun was out and a cool, ocean breeze was blowing. We could see a few boats parked right by the store and all along the road way were tables and chairs for The Marshall Store customers. They have a weird alcohol license where they could sell you alcohol but you couldn’t consume it anywhere withing the store premesis. This explains the tables and chairs along the roadway.

The Marshall Store is a quaint little place by the sea. Specializing in oysters, their seaside location almost guarantees the freshest of seafood. They have a surprising selection of local craft beers and a few of the macros as well as wine. Overall, Sammy and I enjoyed the scenery, the food and the beer. It’s a great little place to stop by, stretch your legs and grab a bite to eat. Not a destination unto itself, it does make a nice pit stop along the way.

The wife and I decided to go out for dinner last night. After dropping off a cake sized version of the triple chocolate shooters we had at our Let’s Get Lit event, she decided to head over to Hukilau in the Japantown district of downtown San Jose.

I am torn by this restaurant. I find that whenever I go, the service is either good or bad; it is rarely in-between. At times, this place can be very hectic and crowded or, like many other restaurants, it has it’s slow periods. I’ve had good and bad service in both instances so I’m not really sure what to attribute that to. I can’t blame it on the wait staff as no one there is consistently good or bad either.

The food is typical Hawaiian fast food-type stuff. You can download their menu here. Needless to say, there’s nothing really groundbreaking or truly authentic about their food but what keeps bringing me back is their poke, or raw tuna salad (for lack of a better term). I think the cuts of tuna they use are decent… lean but good texture. They mix it with diced red onions, green onions and a particular type of seaweed. The sauce is soy based but not overly salty. I can’t find any other place that comes close to their poke so I keep getting sucked back in.

So, like any other bar in San Jose, they have the same 7 bottles and similar taps. The only difference is they carry the mainstream Japanese beers (Asahi, Sapporo) on bottle and Kona Brewing Company beers on tap. Uninspired, I ordered an iced tea and Sammy ordered a Widmer Hefeweizen. Our waitress told us they were out of that and suggested Kona’s Wailua Wheat, so that’s what Sammy got instead.

This beer is named after Wailua Falls on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. This beer poured a hazy, gold color with a white head that didn’t last too long but left decent down the side of the glass. There is a noticeable fruit aroma of guava and a slight wheat malt characteristics in the background. The initial flavors you get are the guava fruit flavors while you get wheat malt character in the finish. There are slight banana esters in the aroma and flavor but those are subtle at the most. I also noticed a fruity tang to this beer as well with low hop flavor. This is a medium-low bodied beer with high carbonation. It is light and effervescent.

Sammy is good with her Asian fruit flavors. She ate a lot of them growing up and continues to eat them now. So, when she says she smells and tastes guava, I believe her. In fact, those are the same characteristics I picked up. My initial sip instantly brought me back to our honeymoon when we were on an ATV tour at Kualoa Ranch. Our guide took us on some backroads and we stopped to pick some fresh guava from the trees. This beer reminded me of that. Yet the product page on the Kona website says they use passion fruit. So, I guess you can substitute passion fruit wherever I used guava but that’s what we both tasted and smelled.

Overall, this is an effervescent and refreshing spring/summer passion fruit wheat ale. When consumed on those hot days and warm night, I doubt anything will hit the spot as nicely (think Hawaii!). I think the fruit dominates the base beer flavors to a degree but this is meant to be an entry-level beer. It is supremely easy to drink I and think you could do some interesting food pairings with this beer.

This post is pretty much a continuation from our Safari West Weekend. You can read Part 1 here. I broke this weekend up into smaller chunks to avoid one massive post. Those are hard to write and I’m sure they’re hard to read. Anyway…

Walk about half a block down from Sweet Spot Pub & Grill and cross the street to your left into Courthouse Square and that’s where you’ll find Flavor Bistro. The first thing I noticed when walking up to Flavor Bistro was a big banner promoting the fact that they’re now open on Sundays. Seeing as it was a Sunday when we strolled up for a visit, I was mighty glad they made that change.

First of all, I have no idea what a bistro is. It looks like any other restaurant, just with a French sounding name. The very first time I ever heard of a bistro was on Three’s Company. After all those years of going to culinary school, Jack finally opened up his small restaurant unoriginally named Jack’s Bistro. Unlike the set on TV, Flavor Bistro was anything but small. It’s not huge by any means but it was certainly a lot roomier than I was expecting.

What prompted me to search out Flavor Bistro for a visit was their beer selection. To be specific, they serve Moonlight Brewing Company beers exclusively. Finally, what looks like a casual, fine-dining restaurant that pays attention to their beer list as much as they do their wine list. On the day they showed up they had four of Moonlight’s beers on tap: Lunatic Lager, Moonlight Special, Death & Taxes, and Twist of Fate (I would link the beers from Moonlight’s website but they’ve redesigned it using Flash so I can’t link to them directly).

Sammy and I ordered a beer each. I had the Moonlight Special (seasonal) called “Out to Lunch”. The beer is burnt gold color, slightly hazy with a white head. At the time, the beer was pretty cold and I wasn’t picking up much aroma. A little bit of malt sweetness with a spicy, peppery flavor from either they yeast or the hops. This beer has very low hop bitterness. This could be Moonlight’s interpretation of a Belgian Wit, although it was too clear for the style. I felt it was medium bodied with medium-low carbonation.

The bartender wasn’t too knowledgeable regarding the Moonlight beers, so I didn’t have any information regarding “Out to Lunch”. Imagine how retarded I felt when I looked it up and found out it was another hop-less beer, much like “Working for Tips”. *sigh* So much for my credibility. According to The Thirsty Hopster, “Out to Lunch” is a “golden colored ale brewed with blood oranges, cherries, and black pepper”. At the very least, I got the spicy, pepper flavors right. I wasn’t picking up on any overt orange aromas or flavors but I may have picked up on more sublte citrus notes when the beer was cold, hence me calling this an attempt at a witbier. I didn’t pick up any cherries at all, though.

Looking back at my notes and comparing them to what I was able to find out about the beer, I would have to say Brian Hunt, Moonlight’s brewmaster, did an excellent job with this beer. Not conforming to the defined style of beer, he experimented and pushed the envelop of what beer is. “Out to Lunch” managed to dupe me into thinking it was one thing when it was something else entirely. This raises the question of “what is beer”? If we stick to the strictest of interpretations, “Out to Lunch” is more a malternative not unlike your Smirnoff Ices or Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Yet, if we follow common sense and the tried and true idom, “if it walks like duck and talks like a duck”, “Out to Lunch” is more of a beer than the standard American lagers I was first exposed to. In any event, this was a great beer and in retrospect, I regret not having another.

Sammy ordered the “Reality Czech-style Pils”. When compared to the Lagunitas Pils from Sweet Spot, Sammy feels that “Reality Czech-style Pils” was a little more hoppier, light in body but heavier than the Lagunitas. The beer is a hazy, straw color with a white head that left good lacing on the glass. After the beer warmed up a bit, the Pilsner malt aroma started to come through and the flavor had a sweet, grainy character to it. Between the two, she favored the “Reality Czech-style Pils” over the Lagunitas Pils because it was more complex.

It’s a shame that no one in the South Bay carries Moonlight beers. If I ever open my own place, you can bet I’ll do what I can to bring Moonlight down to the South Bay. From what I’ve heard anecdotally, Brian Hunt is basically a one-m