Monterey Beer Week finished Sunday and I am happy to report we survived.
While in Belgium in December, we received an email from Jeff Moses asking us to host the 2009 Monterey Beer Festival. We really didn’t know what being the host meant, but we saw it as an opportunity to promote the Monterey Peninsula, our home, as a beer destination. It also seemed like a great way to continue getting the word out about thebeergeek.com. Without hesitation, we said yes.
Over subsequent months, we, as well as others, planned a few events to coincide with the festival. We half-jokingly dubbed the collective events as ‘Monterey Beer Week.’ If other beer weeks could be over ten days, Monterey’s surely could be only four.
The first event was the showing of the cult classic Strange Brew at the Forest Theater in Carmel, the oldest outdoor community theater west of the Rockies. Every summer they have a movie series and together with the Monterey Beer Festival, we sponsored this particular night. Prior to the movie, we hosted a beer reception. Unfortunate circumstances caused me to miss most of the pre-movie celebration and Merideth had to go it alone as hostess.
Joining us that evening were our good friends Matt and Michelle. They were supposed to get in at 11am in San Jose. But their travel day from hell included two canceled flights on two different airlines. I finally picked them up almost nine hours late, luckily just down the road in Monterey. I still missed most of the reception, but got the three of us there in time for the movie. Thanks to Carlo from thebeerchannel.net for helping Merideth out.
On a pleasant evening in Carmel, over 100 people gathered to watch Bob and Doug McKenzie save the world from the evil brewmeister. Strange Brew, loosely based on Hamlet is one of those classic movies that is enhanced by a good crowd enjoying a few beers. The laughs were plentiful and the evening enjoyable.
The next evening’s activity was a Belgian beer dinner at the Ol’ Factory Cafe. Beginning with DeuS and ending with Duchess of Bourgogne, six courses were each paired with a different Belgian beer. The charge for the dinner even included a limo ride home. Merideth and her girlfriends enjoyed taking pictures in the limo, but only Amber took advantage of the complementary limo ride home.
Beer dinners are still a novel concept on the Peninsula, so it was nice to see a good crowd turn out for the event.
Of the six courses, the last two stood out for me. Course number five was a pork tenderloin with a mole sauce paired with Cantillion’s Lou Pepe Kriek. The final course was a beignet with raspberry sauce accompanied by the Duchess.
Like all beer weeks, there is no rest for the weary and on Friday night, we did it all again. To make it even better, we started with a big German meal at Stammtisch before the real festivities began.
One of the reasons, we wanted to get involved with the Monterey Beer Festival was to help promote good beer on the Monterey Peninsula. This desire gave us the idea to have a beer festival reception on Friday night at the Ol’ Factory Cafe.
The concept was to invite the out of town brewers and beer reps to OFC to hang out with our beer community and also showcase our flagship establishment. Great idea except for that most people didn’t come to town until Saturday. Despite the theoretical flaw, Friday night was a great evening. The crowd was large and fun was had by all. Special thanks go out to Dean from Carmel Valley Brewing, Shaun and Gabby from 21A, Matt from Belukus Imports and the Brewing Network crew. Their presence made the evening that much better.
With the preliminaries over, it was time for the main event: the Monterey Beer Festival.
Every now and then, we get a hankering for some good German food which for us means pork and beer. While our first choice would be to hop on the next flight to Munich, that is not always an option. Luckily we have a German restaurant right here on the Monterey Peninsula, Stammtisch in Seaside. Mention Stammtisch to a knowing local and their face will start instantly beaming as they reminisce about a previous meal there.
Merideth invariably ends up with one of the Schweinebraten (Roast Pork) dishes with Kartoffelknodel, a potato dumpling. I gravitate towards the Pork Loin with my main course last night being over Spaetzle with a Mushroom Gravy. True comfort food!
Our event was one of six Beer Week events on the Monterey Bay opening weekend. I’ll admit I was a bit worried because this was our first event at Rosie’s and it was their first ever beer event. I was unsure of the turnout and the overall success of the event.
In the craziness, we forgot about the news crew who were there to do a news piece on us and SF Beer Week. It was arranged in the car while driving home from San Francisco that morning. With all the activity of the tasting, it completely slipped our minds until someone said, “Oh, a news truck just arrived.” The camera guy squeezed in and Merideth acted as spokesperson for the event. She offered some quotable statements and pulled off a very good 
Sunday, we were beering it up again with an “Around the World in 8 Beers” dinner at Ol’ Factory Cafe. The dinner was six beer-paired courses. Two other beers used in preparing some of the fantastic delectibles rounded out the eight. Kudos to Kevin Fisher for creating such an outstanding and enjoyable menu. You know it’s going to be a good meal when it starts off with deep fried cheese curds and pork scratchings.
The Big Sur coast is the crown jewel of Monterey County. This rugged stretch of coastline south of Carmel is home to some of the most beautiful scenery in all of California. In past years, we would make the drive down the coast probably once a month to hike at Andrew Molera State Park and then enjoy an afternoon of beer. But a few years ago, Andrew Molera stopped allowing dogs off the leash so we stopped going down the coast.
The Maiden had a nice selection of beer. Five taps were complimented by a unknown number of bottle selections. I say unknown because I don’t think they really had an updated beer list and our friends kept coming out with beers I didn’t know they had. Drakes IPA, all manner of Speakeasy beers, Mad River, Flying Dog, North Coast to name a few.