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June 21, 2012

Happy Anniversary to Us!

As part of promoting Merideth’s book, Teachings from the Tap, we are holding “Meet the Author” events in the seven American cities covered in the book. Portland’s turn came this past Sunday with an event at the Green Dragon. I couldn’t have thought of a better way spend our 23rd Wedding Anniversary.

Doubling down on the Reggie Deluxe at Pine State Biscuits

With time to spare after our early arrival in the Rose City, Merideth and I started the day at Pine State Biscuits. We don’t normally wait in long lines for anything, but I wanted to treat Merideth on our anniversary. The half hour wait was well worth it. While Merideth went with a simple biscuit with ham, egg and cheese, I doubled down on the Reggie Deluxe. A piece of fried chicken, bacon, two eggs & cheese topped with gravy on a flaky biscuit, the moist and juicy fried chicken alone was worth the price.

From Pine State, we took a short walk up Belmont St. to the world-famous Horse Brass Pub to watch the Germany v. Denmark Euro 2012 match. While we viewed the Germans triumph 2-1 and win Group C, Merideth and I enjoyed a number of Pacific Northwest brews. Merideth’s favorite was the Urban Farmhouse Ale from Commons Brewery while I absolutely fell in love with the sublime cask version of Double Mountain’s Hop Lava.

We only had time for one new brewery on the trip, Gigantic Brewing. A familiar Portland sight greeted us as we pulled up to the brewery in our taxi: rolled up industrial doors and a plethora of picnic tables out front.

There were four house beers. The star was Gigantic IPA, a 7.3% ABV brew with delightful citrus and pine notes. Merideth tapped The City Never Sleeps, a Saision as her favorite. The only beer we didn’t care for was Rauchweizen and the Bandit, a smoked Hefeweizen. I love both styles, they just didn’t marry well for me.

From Gigantic, Merideth and I proceeded to the Green Dragon. We still had a few minutes to kill before Merideth’s book event so we popped across the street to my favorite beer stop in Portland, the Cascade Barrel House.

Quickly spying The Vine and Sang Noir on the menu, I ordered each of those as well as samples of the Raspberry and Apricot. The Vine, a soured, blended Ale with white wine grapes, was nicely tart. Sang Noir, aged in Pinot and Whiskey barrels then blended with Bing cherries was brilliant with a wonderful, dry, cherry flavor.

The last night of PDX Beer Week, it was a quiet evening at Green Dragon. Nonetheless, Merideth was able to spread the beer travel word and sell a few books. It was great sharing beers with old friends and new. Thanks to the helpful staff at Green Dragon for making us feel so welcome. And a HUGE thanks to Lisa Morrison for all her help and kind words.

View all the images from our day in Portland…

June 16, 2012

Getting Punchy at MBF

Not even one speck of fog greeted Merideth and I as we arrived at the Monterey County Fairgrounds mid-Saturday morning. With only blue sky above us, it was going to be a glorious day for the 2012 Monterey Beer Festival.

All set up! Our booth with Peter B’s Brewpub

With Merideth’s book to sell, we weren’t at Monterey Beer Festival to make merry, rather to promote Teachings from the Tap. But that doesn’t mean Merideth and I were all business. Setting up next to our friends at Peter B’s Brewpub, we were guaranteed an afternoon of fun and good beer.

The festive crowd at Monterey Beer Festival

The VIP Session was mellow. We chatted with friends and a few book customers. Once that first hour was up, however, the floodgates opened and our relaxing afternoon was over. From our vantage point away from the main area, we could see a large mass of people busily getting into the business of drinking beer.

Keeping the beer flowing at the Peter B’s booth…

We were happy to see that Peter B’s was very, very, busy. With long lines continually in front of the booth, the wonderfully dry and tart Alvarado St. Raspberry Wheat quickly ran out. Our collaboration Bavarian-style Hefeweizen was also very popular, despite it not being served with the banana round with clove mohawk, a garnish I recently invented. Even with the warm weather, the bright and smooth Oatmeal Stout aged in Chardonnay barrels was also a hit. I focused my limited beer drinking on the delicious IPA, both keg and cask versions. Being big proponents of our local brewpub for the last 18 months, Merideth and I were so pleased to see their beers heartily consumed and enjoyed.

A bit of levity during the busy day was provided by Kevin, brewer at Peter B’s and the ‘mature’ one of the group. He had this ‘punch’ sticker which he tried to stick on other people. In the end, Kevin unknowingly sported the sticker the longest, while Petra from Trailside Cafe gave the sticker an extended tour of the festival. Somehow, I was the only one who was actually punched, courtesy of the Celebrator’s Mr. Pitsker.

All and all a great day for us at Monterey Beer Festival. Thanks to Kevin, Carrie, Christian, Sonny, Renee and the Craft Beer Gnome for making it a fun day!

View all the images from the Monterey Beer Fest…

June 13, 2012

Go Bears! and Quakes too.

In the blink of an eye, it was already Saturday morning, the last day of our trip. Having packed a lot of breweries into the first three days, we had a light schedule planned for our finale, a couple of breweries followed up by the San Jose Earthquakes v. Philadelphia Union soccer match.

The idyllic setting for Twin Lakes Brewing

After a quick lunch at Mckenzie Brew House in Chadds Ford, we crossed back into Delaware. Most of our beer travels take us to small brewpubs or industrial park breweries. Rarely, do our brewery visits include a historic 252 acre farm. As we drove up the long driveway to Twin Lakes Brewing, Merideth and I were struck by the beautiful setting. Though, I have to say, I only saw ONE lake.

The brewery was housed in an out building on the farm, the old tractor barn. We entered the upstairs tasting room after the daily tour had already begun. While sipping on Greenville Pale Ale and Tweeds Tavern Stout, we listened to Sam Hobbs, brewery co-founder, talk passionately about his family history (seven generations on the farm!) and the Twin Lakes brews. Sam was particularly emphatic about their ingredients, especially the pure water that comes from the aquifer on the property.

Merideth and I were chatting casually with Sam after his talk. Knowing we were from out of town, he asked us where. Replying California, Sam remarked that he went to university in California, Berkeley to be exact. In another example of beer making the world smaller, turns out that Sam and I graduated from Berkeley the same year (1988) with the same major (Political Science). Twenty four years later, we met for the first time, both deeply involved in the craft beer world.

Sam was a very gracious host and wanted to show us more of the farm. Spending the afternoon drinking beer and walking all over the farm sounded great. But we had to get back to Philadelphia for the soccer match.

We finished our trip on a cold, windy and eventually rainy night at PPL Park along the Delaware River. Sam had given us cans of the very drinkable Greenville Pale Ale for the road. After coaxing her out of the car, Merideth and I tried our best to tailgate in the less than stellar conditions. I think the Tweeds Tavern Stout would have paired with the weather much better.

Our San Jose Earthquakes, behind 2 goals from Steven Lenhart, defeated Philadelphia 2-1. A nice ending to a memorable last day of our trip.

View all the images from our trip…

May 30, 2012

Our Local Beer Scene – Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

On Memorial Day weekend, Merideth and I took a break from our hectic book lives to celebrate the opening of a new local brewery, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola.

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, CA

Like it seems with most brewery openings these days, a myriad of delays pushed back a scheduled January opening to late spring. On a couple of occasions, their Facebook status announced an opening day only to be later cancelled. But the big day finally came Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

A festive occasion at Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

Despite the delay of maps on the douchephone sending us to a nearby mobile home park, we arrived at Sante Adairius’ industrial park location a few minutes early to find the soft opening already in full swing. We joined our Grillin & Chillin friends in the tiny tasting room.

There were six beers to try on opening day and Merideth and I had four of them. I started with 831 IPA, a 7.2% ABV brew with really nice pine and citrus hop character. Merideth went with their Belgian-style Golden Ale, Golden Bell. We followed those up with Sara Loves Brett, a tart, pleasantly bretted brew with nice lemon notes. Merideth and I finished with Saison Bernice, a lightly bretted Farmhouse Ale that shined after it warmed up a bit.

Things are really looking up in our local beer scene. This event was the first of hopefully a string of brewery openings on the northern end of Monterey Bay. Congratulations to the folks at Sante Adairius! Not only did they survive starting a brewery but debuted with a excellent selection of beers.

View all the images from the Sante Adairius opening…

May 23, 2012May 23, 2012

Meet the Author at Grillin & Chillin

After Saturday’s book launch, our Teachings from the Tap road show continued at Grillin & Chillin in Hollister.

The "Teachings from the Tap" road show hits Hollister

Sharing the stage with Firestone Walker on brewery night, Merideth and I enjoyed an evening of beer, friends and beer travel talk. Of course, Fran was first in line to get her books signed.

Thanks for our friends who came out to Hollister. And thanks to Chuck, Joanne and the Grillin & Chillin staff!

Upcoming Meet the Author Events: May 24-San Francisco, CA, June 2-Sacramento, CA, June 5-Sand City, CA, June 9-Monterey, CA, June 21-Seattle, WA, July 6-San Leandro, CA, July 7-Concord, CA, July 22-Oakland, CA. Visit thebeergeek.com to get more information on these events.

Available at beertrekkerpress.com and Amazon.com

View all the images from the Grillin & Chillin…