Merideth – Page 7 – thebeergeek.com

October 13, 2011

Hike-n-Beer: Great Smoky Mountains NP Edition

People often ask me how I stay so slim drinking as much beer as I do. After LMAO at the idea of being considered “slim,” I generally answer something about not eating fast food, watching what I eat, and exercising. Admittedly, that last part is often a challenging routine to maintain, but we’ve developed something we like to call “Hike-n-Beer.” Basically, it’s a hike followed by a session of beer drinking. During the summer Chris and I hike with the dogs and drink beer afterwards almost every weekend, but it doesn’t really become Hike-n-Beer unless we’re joined by friends.

We try to maintain this routine even while on our trips and hiking is one of the easiest forms of exercise while traveling. Our Western North Carolina itinerary included a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with our friends and fellow beer trekkers, Matt and Michelle.

The morning after Wednesday’s Urban Beer Hike in Asheville, we were all moving a little slow. Even so, we managed to pile ourselves in the car and drive over an hour to the park. Driving in Western North Carolina is a beautiful sight–clean, fresh air, lots of green grass, and loads of trees lining the road. It was also an interesting experience to drive through Cherokee, a town at the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the headquarters of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Interspersed with vintage motels we passed shops that sold “1,000 styles of moccasins,” “authentic Indian crafts,” and “rat cheese.” We had no idea what that last thing was, but it just didn’t sound right to us.

We started our 6-mile hike at a trail head located in a campground. It started out slow and we meandered on a path along the river. Leaves frequently fell from the canopy of trees above, a sign that fall had arrived. Before we knew it, however, the terrain turned steep and the uphill climb seemed to go on forever. The tree cover was beautiful, but even at the top, we could only get slight glimpses of the mountains and valley below because the trees blocked the view. From what I could see, the mountains were covered in green with patches of rust here and there. Give it another few weeks and the mountain sides will be an amazing display of bright red fall foliage. The lack of full view was okay, though, because by the time we reached the top, we all had beer on the brain. It wasn’t lingering we had in mind, but rather getting to the beer part of Hike-n-Beer.

After two and a half hours, we were back at the car and a short time after that, we arrived at our first stop: Heinzelmännchen Brewery in Sylva, North Carolina.

Definitely a gnome theme at Heinzelmännchen

Sylva is a small historic town of around 3,000 people; the perfect location for a quaint brewery with a gnome for a logo and “Your Gnometown Brewery” for a motto. Heinzelmännchen had several beers available to taste, including the Weise Gnome Hefeweizen (described as a “clear wheat ale”), Middleworld Brown Ale (a light-bodied malty brew), and the Black Forest Stout, which was a Schwarzbier.

We enjoyed our samples while wandering around the brewery (Chris especially liked the flag that read “Chillin’ with my gnomies”) and chatting with Deiter, the bräumeister. He even suggested a tasty little cafe for lunch where we could get the brewery’s Gnarly Gnome, a Black IPA not available at the brewery for tasting.

The wonderful Gnarly Gnome at City Lights

Heinzelmännchen Brewery bills itself as the “beer brewed for food” and they offer a cookbook of their favorite recipes for sale, as well as offer monthly food and beer pairing events. While the beers weren’t quite as authentically German as we were expecting (and I hoping), they were solid and tasted refreshing after our hike.

After lunch at the City Lights Cafe up the street, we were back on the road and headed to Bryson City and Nantahala Brewing. Located on across from the Great Smoky Mountain railroad stop, Nantahala is housed in a large quonset hut that is divided into several businesses, including the brewery, a bar, and a kayak rental company.

Inside, Nantahala was huge with the feel of an airplane hangar. With more than enough floor space, a long bar and a large projector television, the bartender assured us that during football games, the place is packed. The tourist season is almost over, however, and having been open only since March, the bartender wasn’t sure what business would look like in the slow season.

Nantahala had all three of their year-round brews available for tasting. Chris especially liked their flagship beer, Noon Day IPA, a 6% brew with a piney hop flavor. In addition to the Dirty Girl Blonde Ale and Summer Wheat seasonal offerings, they served a Belgian Extra Pale Ale, their App Trail Extra Pale ale fermented with Belgian yeast. This was a popular one with our group.

The beers at Nantahala were tasty and the atmosphere fun and playful, but we were losing steam fast. The hike, sun, and beer had all caught up with us. During the ride back to Asheville, I thought it might be time to add an a new part to our Hike-n-Beer: Hike-n-Beer-n-Sleep.

View all the images from our day

October 10, 2011October 11, 2011

Go Beers!

Ah, the fall season.

More than looking at the date on the calendar or watching the leaves turning colors (we don’t have much change in seasons where we live, anyway), how does one recognize the arrival of fall?

For me it’s the noticeable shortening of daylight, warm days followed by cool nights, and a growing number of pumpkin beers appearing on store shelves. The biggest marker of all, however, is Saturdays focused on Cal football. Beer and football. Now there’s an undeniable sign that fall has arrived.

During college in the late ‘80s-early ‘90s, our ritual included walking the one mile from our apartment to Henry’s at the Durant Hotel near campus. The place would be packed with students and alumni alike, which turned the pub into a roaring sea of blue and gold. At first, our drink of choice was Henry’s signature concoction, the Golden Bear, which if memory serves me, was 151, vodka, and champagne with a splash of orange juice. Two of those and I was ready to endure the oft times disappointing games. Once craft beer came into our lives, we switched to Golden Bear, a lager brewed by the now closed Golden Pacific in Berkeley.

When Barclay’s, a pub in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood, opened in 1991 we incorporated it into the ritual. We left home, stopped at Barclay’s for a beer or two, continued walking up to Henry’s to have a Golden Bear, and eventually we were off to the stadium. Later, we dropped Henry’s in favor of longer sessions at Barclay’s. All this in time for kick off, which for many years was 12:30pm.

Then came a major shift. In 1994, we moved back down to the Monterey Peninsula, an hour and a half away. So what did we do? Well, we had to maintain the beer-Cal football ritual, so we simply commenced our football days an hour and a half earlier.

During any other time of the year, people might call us rigid, ritualistic, creatures of habit or even perhaps stuck in a rut. However, during football season, no matter what the ritual, it becomes tradition.

For over twenty years we’ve gone to great lengths to maintain our tradition. This year, however, is going to be the biggest challenge ever to our game day routine. With the renovation of Memorial Stadium, the games have been moved to AT&T Park in San Francisco.

So what does this do to our ritual/tradition? Well, so far there’s been only one “home” game. We drove to Fremont and took BART into the City. From there it was pre-game beers at City Beer Store (such a sacrifice) and the Public House (another major sacrifice) and 21^st Amendment post-game. Oh, the suffering we’ve endured so far to maintain our beer-Cal football tradition…*insert Scarlet O’Hara dramatic swoon here*

The next game is USC on Thursday, October 13. We plan to hit the grand opening of the newly expanded City Beer Store for our pre-game beers. And believe me, we’re probably going to need them. But such is the life of a craft beer loving Cal football fan…Go Beers! Uh, I mean Go Bears!

August 26, 2011August 26, 2011

Walking Among Giants

It’s not everyday that I have a chance to tap into my inner-hippie/tree hugging self, but on the second full day of our trip, I had the perfect opportunity to do just that. Having made the bulk of our additions to “The List” on Friday, Saturday was about communing with the stunning and majestic nature of California’s North Coast.

We started our trek south by taking a drive on the Avenue of the Giants, a scenic 31-mile stretch of the old Highway 101 which runs through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park and parallels the modern-day highway. The winding road was shrouded in the shade of the Redwood forest, which reminded me a lot of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It wasn’t until we stopped at Founder’s Grove that I realized just how much bigger and taller these trees were in comparison.

Founder’s Grove is a half-mile guided loop that offers a quick and easy way to get a real sense of California’s famed Redwoods. It was there that we got our first up-close and personal look at these “giants,” including the still standing Founder’s Tree (which was the first of many trees to get a hug) and the fallen Dyerville Giant. Measuring 370 ft. after it fell in 1991, the Dyerville Giant’s fall registered as a small quake on the Richter Scale and reports stated that it sounded like a train wreck. Words can’t convey what it was like to stand next to it. This tree was amazingly huge! That was just the warm-up, though, and we soon got back in the car and headed for the Rockefeller Forest.

The giant redwood is sprouting giant redwoods

Off of the Rockefeller Loop, Chris and I started our hike on the Bull Creek Flats North trail where 3.7 miles later we crossed the river and returned via the Bull Creek Flats South trail. The adventure was more of a strenuous walk, but it was long and tiring nonetheless. Along the way we wandered through the largest remaining old growth Redwood forest in the world, alongside Bull Creek , and around the base of a hill. Simply amazing! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

View all the Avenue of the Giants images

Enjoying an evening at North Coast Brewing

Afterwards we drove an hour and a half to Fort Bragg on the coast. Our day’s adventure surely deserved a giant-sized reward and North Coast Brewing fit the bill perfectly. Our quaint motel was a short walk down Main Street from the brewery and its Taproom & Grill across the street.

The Taproom & Grill seemed to be Fort Bragg’s hot spot. We were lucky enough to get a small table in the bar, while the crowd continued to grow around the hostess station. We eventually moved up to the bar and the number of people waiting to be seated in the dining room remained steady throughout our whole visit.

Chris is really enjoying his cask Red Seal

Scrimshaw Pilsner is one of my favorite beers, but I opted to drink something different and instead chose Acme Pale Ale. Chris was excited to find Red Seal on cask and he showed little hesitation in ordering one. Both went well with our popcorn shrimp starter. Despite the busy dining room, the service in the bar was efficient and friendly, which meant Chris downed several pints before I had a chance to finish my first one. Luckily our motel was walking distance away.

Our first pint or two (or four in Chris’s case) took the edge off and our tired bodies started to relax. It was time for dinner. My Carolina pulled pork was full of tangy goodness and was accompanied by a yummy jalapeño-spiked corn cake. Chris thoroughly enjoyed his thin-sliced pork chop with mashed potatoes and vegetables. It was a good-sized portion but Chris still wished there was more of it.

Brother Thelonius ice cream with beer brittle

The crowning glory of our North Coast Brewing visit was dessert. It didn’t take me long to down my large bowl of Brother Thelonius ice cream with beer brittle and Chris had to act quick in order to get a taste of it. Rather than pair it with Brother Thelonius, however, I finished up my pint of Pale Ale before moving on to Le Merle, a tasty high alcohol saison. Chris went dark and ordered mud cake a la mode, which he appropriately paired with Old No. 38 Stout, an ingredient used in the cake. We were so absorbed in our respective desserts that we barely spoke until they were finished.

We concluded our night with a competitive game of Scrabble, which I lost. However, after a day of walking among giants and an evening at one of my favorite breweries, I’d say we were both winners.

View all the Fort Bragg images…

July 23, 2011

The Glam Life of Beer Travel

Ah, the glamorous life of a beer traveler. Tuesday morning I awoke at 2:40am with a scheduled departure from our house at 3:30. Calls for the make-up girl at that ridiculously early hour prompted my friend Andie to respond with, “It doesn’t matter what you look like, it’s 3:30am!” This was just the beginning of the journey, though, as our flight from San Jose to Seattle left at 6:40am. Why in the world would we plan such a sadistic schedule? Well, first of all, I don’t make the schedule. But secondly, it’s one of the sacrifices one makes for the glorious reward of beer travel.

We arrived in Seattle at 8:30am and drove directly up to Bellingham. The home to a couple of fantastic breweries, no stop in Bellingham would be complete without a visit to Boundary Bay Brewing. We’d been there before, so it wasn’t new to “The List” but that didn’t matter because we knew the beer would be fantastic.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the first pint of the day

They weren’t quite open when we arrived, so we anxiously waited outside for the door to open. While pacing the sidewalk, I peeked through the gaps in a hops-covered chain link fence to see a gem of a beer garden hidden below. Unfortunately it was overcast and breezy out, unusually cool weather for the Pacific Northwest in July, so the beer garden was not an option.

Instead, we sat at the bar an enjoyed a quick round. I opted for the Pilsner. With its surprisingly dark golden color and assertive flavor, this brew caught me off guard. I guess that’s what I get for ordering it by saying, “I’ll justhave the Pilsner.” I had immediately scolded myself for feeling like my choice of a (usually) subtle, lighter style of beer needed qualifying. One sip of the bold brew hit home the lesson that lighter styles do not necessarily equate to pale, flavorless beverages. Chris characterized his IPA and Glacier single hop IPA choices as “wonderfully well-crafted hoppy beers.”

After a quick stop, we were on to the beer highlight of the day: Chuckanut Brewery and Kitchen. A short drive from Boundary Bay, Chuckanut is surrounded by a motorcycle shop and boat works. We drove in between the brewery and the pub (connected by an awning up above) to the convenient off-street parking lot. Like Boundary Bay, Chuckanut had a quaint outdoor seating area. The weather remained the same, however, so we opted for the cozy cafe-style inside.

Chuckanut was a highly anticipated stop. We had tried their beers at GABF last year and thoroughly enjoyed them. More importantly to me, however, was that they specialize in German-style beers. Our sample set included a Blonde, Kolsch, British IPA, Pilsner, Alt, and Vienna Lager. In a rare agreement of what beer to have a pint of, both Chris and I chose the Kolsch. In fact, as I was to see later on the menu, Tuesday is Kolsch day where later that evening stanges of Kolsch could be had for only $1.50 each. We weren’t going to be around later that evening, but it was okay because we enjoyed our full pint of the deliciously refreshing brew.

Chuckanut has a full kitchen with menu offerings listing the use of fresh, local ingredients. My perfectly-sized individual pizza with shallot sauce, peaches, and thick-sliced bacon was quite light and paired well with my beer. Also not one to pass up bacon, Chris enjoyed a BLT with the tastiest yam tater tots I’ve ever had. (Okay, the only ones I’ve ever had, but you get the idea…)

Besides the excellent beer and food, we found the staff to be friendly. It was nice to be in like-minded company as I discovered that the bartender, Dillon was also a German beer-style fan. Toward the end of our visit, co-owner Mari Kemper took the time to chat with us. The tales of her and her husband Will’s brewing history was captivating. Not only was Will a partner in the original Thomas Kemper Brewery, this brewing couple has assisted with the establishment of craft breweries in the unlikely locations of Mexico and Turkey. Mari’s story about the many years of putting in hard work before finally opening Chuckanut made our beer travel look positively glamorous. It goes to show that it’s slow and steady hard work and not instant recognition that creates longevity in this business.

We left Bellingham with a bit of giddiness; quite possibly due to the lack of sleep or perhaps because the town is a fun beer stop. Most likely, however, it was because we were headed into Canadia to visit family. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with my brother and his family, including a quick stop at Mission Springs Brewing in Mission, BC. The best part of the evening, however, was that even with telling the U.S. border agent that we’d walked into Canada, had nothing to declare, and had only been there a few hours, he let us back in. I giggled as we crossed the street to our rental car parked next to the discount gas station. Such is the glamorous life of a beer traveler…

View all the images from our first day…

July 5, 2011July 7, 2011

Saving the ta tas one beer at a time

Everyone loves a three-day weekend. They’re perfect for gathering with friends and drinking beer, especially when the weather is beautiful. Add contributing to a worthy cause and it just might be the perfect weekend.

This past Saturday, Chris and I attended our first-ever Breast Fest, a fundraiser for the Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic. We didn’t just go to the festival, though, we made an adventure out of it. Knowing that parking would be crazy, we drove to the Fremont BART station and took a one-hour train ride into the City. No trip to San Francisco would be complete without a visit to City Beer, so we made that our first stop.

This visit to City Beer felt different for several reasons. First, owners and new parents Craig and Beth weren’t there. We are so used to seeing one or both of them in the shop that it felt a little odd. Big congratulations go out to them not only for the arrival of their future brewstress, Olivia, but also for their success and planned expansion. They’ve earned a well-deserved break. (Although I’m not sure that taking care of a newborn is much of a break.)

Second, our fellow beer geek and San Francisco resident Renee was not in town to meet us. She always meets us there. And third, because we didn’t have our car, we wouldn’t be making any take home purchases. That meant we actually had a fighting chance to walk out of there with a bill of less than $100. While that’s a good thing in this era of scrimping and saving, it also made us feel like we had to drink everything in sight.

Chris was happy to see Blind Pig on tap. For many in the Bay Area, Blind Pig is not an unusual offering, but when you live in a beer backwater like we do, that beer is like a gift from God. I, on the other hand, started out with a bang and opened a bottle of Auburn Alehouse’s Fool’s Gold for myself. Mistaking it for one of their lighter beers, this 7.8% brew sure made a fool out of me. I should have known then that it was going to be a long night.

The beer Chris was most anxious to get his hands on was the newly released “Summer 2010” from Almanac Beer Company. With the slogan of “Farm to Barrel,” the brewery partners with local farmers for the ingredients in their barrel-aged brews. Almanac’s inaugural brew was a Belgian-Style Golden Ale made with four varieties of Sonoma County blackberries.

City Beer didn’t have any bottles chilled, so we made the best of it and had them put one in the fridge for us. (Remember, we didn’t have a car or backpacks to take it to go.) Thirty minutes really wasn’t enough chilling time, but it was still an amazing beer. Summer 2010 had a citrusy taste from the late addition of Citra hops and the flavor from the berries was delicate, not overly sweet. My only gripe with our visit to City Beer was that Chris drinks faster than I do and kept refilling his glass with the Summer 2010. I think he ended up with most of the bottle.

A beautiful day in San Francisco for an Urban Beer Hike

Soon the time came for us to leave for the main event–Breast Fest. In preparation for our Seattle urban beer hike in a few weeks, we mapped our own three-mile hike to Fort Mason, the site of the festival. The weather was perfect, especially for a San Francisco summer. The sun was shining. The wind was mild and not too cool. We arrived to find that a line had already formed, but in no time it was moving and we were on our way into our first go at the festival that aims to “save the ta tas.”

The good thing about beer events at Fort Mason is that there is lots of space and you never feel crowded. And the good thing about purchasing tickets to the Breast Fest VIP session is that there is plenty of food. Good food. After grabbing our first beers (a Linden Street Urban People’s Common Lager for me and a Triple Rock IPAX for Chris), we headed straight for the table serving grilled chicken marinated in red wine. The guy served me a large chunk and I was more than grateful for the generous portion. This was the same chicken we were lucky enough to try at the Boonville Beer Festival in May and it was just as tasty. That was only the beginning, though. From there we tried some pulled pork, a white bean chili with chicken, and snacked on some yummy chips and salsa.

But, of course we were there for the beer. And the boobs. I had the pleasure of sipping on Needs More Dog Pale Lager from Oakland Brewing Company while I filled out my raffle tickets, the proceeds of which went to the Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic, serving low income women with cancer. The highlight beers included Russian River Supplication, Triple Rock JBB Bitter, Moonlight Reality Czeck and Marin Brewing Tripel.

As the VIP session ended and the crowds grew, we retreated behind the Moylan’s/Marin Brewing table to chat with Fraggle from Beer Revolution, Mike Pitzker from the Celebrator Beer News and his wife Lisa, and Jeff Botz from BJ’s. My hat tips an extra special nod to Jack van Stone from Lost Coast. He came prepared to plunder all the beer at the fest in his pink ribbon pirate outfit. But instead of stealing all the treasure, he gave away pink ribbon bottle cap earrings to several very lucky wenches.

As all good things must come to an end, so did our time at Breast Fest 2011. We headed back to the East Bay with Fraggle, stopping at La Trappe for a quick Russian River Damnation and a package of 4505 Meats Chicharrones before heading to Beer Revolution for our final nightcap. It was nice to spend time with Fraggle, as he’s usually behind the bar and way too busy to have more than a tw0-minute conversation. I’m pretty sure I talked his ear off, though, so hopefully he won’t run away next time he sees me walk in the door at Beer Rev.

It’s days like these that make me really miss living in the Bay Area–seeing good friends, drinking amazing beer, enjoying beautiful weather in San Francisco. And to top it off, we supported a good cause. Remember…in the fight against breast cancer, it doesn’t matter if they’re big or small, the goal is to save them all!

View all the images from the 2011 Breast Fest