Merideth and I took the afternoon off this past Tuesday to take care of some business on the other side of the Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz. Our business was twofold. There are two new breweries in Santa Cruz to visit and add to the list. Plus we wanted to make a recruiting visit for SF Beer Week.
Santa Cruz holds a special place in our hearts. When we moved back to the Monterey Peninsula in 1994 from the Bay Area, it was somewhat of a culture shock… not to mention a beer shock. After we tired of driving to Berkeley every other weekend to get our ‘fix’, we discovered Santa Cruz, Berkeley lite. It wasn’t quite Berkeley, but it was a heck of a lot closer and the beer scene was good.
So, we are always excited to cross over to the other side of the Bay, especially when we get to add some breweries to the list.
The first new brewery was Santa Cruz Ale Works. ‘New’ might not be the most accurate thing to say because they did open their doors in 2007. And we had tried their IPA earlier in the year when a friend shared his growler. But this was our first visit to the brewery.
The head brewer, Marc Rosenblum, was formerly the brewer at Santa Cruz’s venerable Seabright Brewery. There were four beers on tap, a Hefeweizen, Pale Ale, IPA and Saison. The Pale Ale and IPA, both nicely hopped just as I like it, were the beers of note.
The brewery and tasting room is located off of River Rd behind Costco. Call or email for tasting room hours.
Our second brewery of the day, Uncommon Brewers is located just minutes away on the other side of Highway 1. We first heard about this brewery when we met the brewer/owner, Alec Stefansky, at the Red Restaurant and Lounge in Santa Cruz on Halloween last year.
Uncommon Brewers is part of the new wave of brewers, organic, green, canning and innovative.
We tried both of their beers; the wonderful Golden State Ale flavored with toasted poppy seeds and Siamese Twin Ale, a Belgian-style Dubbel brewed with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and coriander. Siamese Twin, at a hefty 8.5%, is deceptively easy to drink. In the spring, look for 12.5% version called ‘Sinister Twin’.
Many breweries today are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment and Uncommon Brewers is a part of that trend. One of the more interesting green things – and something we had never seen before – were these cool plastic kegs sourced out of the Netherlands. Round and light in weight, they save on transportation costs and when empty are simply crushed and recycled.
If you want to visit the brewery, you need to make an appointment. I suggest visiting their website for the listing of where to find their beer.
All and all, we enjoyed a productive day in Santa Cruz. We added two more breweries to the list and we were also able to generate interest in SF Beer Week.
“Great American Beer Festival” is the latest Year in Beer episode of One Pint at a Time.
Today was our second and last session at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival. The Saturday day session is the ‘connoisseur’ event exclusively for members of the Brewers Association and American Homebrewers Association. You even get a glass glass as opposed to the plastic one the masses get. This is also when the Brewers Association announces the medals in the beer competition.
Now for the announcing of the medal winners. There are 75 different categories and each of the winners is called out and the brewers walk across the stage to receive their medal and get their picture taken with Charlie Papazian. The categories range from “Fruit or Vegetable Beers” to “American Style Specialty Lager” (swept by Anheuser-Busch) to “Old Ale or Strong Ale”
Once the medals are announced, the crowd scrambles to go sample the medal winning beers. And as if magic, the brewery signs that display the names of the beers suddenly have little gold, silver or bronze medal sticker next to the winners.
Merideth finished up the afternoon playing guitar hero with our friend Brad Ruppert and his crew from Beer Magazine. She was able to belt out Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” to the enjoyment of the gathered crowd. Unfortunately, her band failed on their attempt at the GoGos classic “We Got the Beat”.
Our day in Denver began where every beer geek ends up at some time or another in Denver; Falling Rock. This epicenter of the Colorado beer scene draws people to its taps on a normal day. But during GABF, specials events and special beers ensure a large, thirsty and boisterous crowd. And when Chris, the owner, comes on the PA to announce a new special keg is being tapped, the cheers ring throughout the pub.
After a short stop at our hotel, it was off to our very first session of the Great American Beer Festival. Here I should add a disclaimer. We have media passes so we got to enter the hall early through a special door, bypassing the immensely huge line of people waiting to get in. We heard anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour wait so note to any future attendees…. get in line early.
The breweries are grouped by region and then alphabetically within the region. As expected, breweries such as Russian River, Lost Abbey and Dogfish had long lines, which we avoided. We heard a number of different strategies such as come prepared with a “hit list” or concentrate on one particular region at a time but we opted for the wander continuously and just randomly choose a beer.
For Merideth, her favorite might have been the peanut butter beer from Blue Moon. Recommended by our friend, Jay Brooks, Merideth immediately sought out this odd brew. And it was odd, at least to me.