“Scarves Up” is the latest episode of One Pint at a Time.
Since our last visit during the Year in Beer in 2008, we’ve been meaning to get back to Seattle. The chance to see the Seattle Sounders play one of the world’s great soccer clubs, Manchester United, was the push we needed to make the return journey to the Pacific Northwest. Getting to experience the Seattle beer scene again was an added bonus.
So enjoy our latest adventures in the Pacific Northwest…
For all the episodes of One Pint at a Time go to beergeekTV.
Since our last visit during the Year in Beer in 2008, we have been meaning to get back to Seattle. The chance to see the Seattle Sounders playing one of the world’s great soccer clubs, Manchester United was the push we needed to make the trip. Getting to experience the Seattle beer scene again was an added bonus.
On October 19, 1991, Chris and I walked up College Ave in Rockridge headed to the Cal football game against Washington. We spied a tall blond woman handing beer mats through the windows to passengers on the buses headed to Memorial Stadium. As we passed on foot, she handed us a couple of coasters. One said, “If Cal kicks a field goal, win a free appetizer.” This one moment led to who we are as beer travelers today.
We were much younger then...
Although we lost the game 24-17, Cal did kick a field goal. Beer mat in hand, we walked back down College Ave and made our first visit to Barclay’s Pub.
With good beer flowing out of each of the 28 taps, Barclay’s quickly became our local. There was much more to Barclay’s than just the beer, though. It was a place where you truly knew everyone.
Within a few years of opening, I started working at Barclay’s as a waitress. Little did I know that it would change our lives forever. Wanting to be a knowledgeable server, I needed a way to better acquaint myself with the beers I was serving. The solution we came up with was going directly to the source, the breweries. Two decades and hundreds of brewery visits later, here we are.
If Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco, we left ours in Barclay’s. Even after we moved away, Barclay’s has remained a special part of our lives, especially during Cal football season. Before every Cal home game (this season excluded), we have lunch and a few beers before walking up to the stadium.
The 2011 version of us...
As I wrote in a recent post, our pre-game Cal football ritual has been disrupted this year because Memorial Stadium is being remodeled. But this past weekend, twenty years and three days after that very first visit, we were back at Barclays before Cal’s game versus Utah.
The staff has changed and we rarely see the old familiar faces, but Barclay’s is still Barclay’s to us. It’s just as comfortable and homey as it was when we lived in the neighborhood. We’ve made new friends and there’s never a shortage of people to chat with at the bar. Chris and I have decided that if we ever opened a pub, we’d want it to be as neighborly as Barclay’s has always been.
We want to thank our friends at Barclay’s who made the twenty years special for us: Gene, Rowdy, Bill, Chef Bruce, Harry, Jack, Phil, Frannie, and all my regular customers, including Ted and the ultimate frisbee guys who came in every Sunday. Cheers!
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A smoldering Oakland a day after the fire
I can’t mention our first visit to Barclay’s without also mentioning the tragedy that befell our neighborhood the following day. The Oakland Hills fire swept across the hills above our neighborhood on October 20, 1991. Like many Rockridge residents we were evacuated. Our friend Jon helped us evacuate, birds and all. At my in-laws house, we watched with horror as the news ran non-stop coverage of the hills engulfed in flames.
We were some of the lucky ones. The fire stopped several hundred yards from our apartment building. Others weren’t so lucky. We raise our glasses to all the firefighters who worked tirelessly to put the fire out. We also want to remember those who lost their lives that terrible day. You are not forgotten.
In three days on our short North Carolina visit, we visited almost a dozen breweries. But we still had a few more to go to complete our journey. On our last day with our fellow beer travelers, Matt and Michelle, we tackled the last remaining targets in Asheville and just beyond.
French Broad
Since none of the breweries opened until the afternoon, we had a relaxing start to the day in downtown Asheville. After a leisurely lunch, we were ready to finish our important work.
French Broad Brewing was located across the street and around a corner from the Asheville’s famous tourist landmark, the Biltmore Estate. It seemed like a nice day to sit outside in their beer garden but the blazing sun forced us to retreat into the tiny but cool tasting room. To the sounds of Appalachian music, we went through the French Broad lineup.
The beers at French Broad
There were six beers in the French Broad sampler including another excellent IPA. But instead of talking about another West Coast-style hop bomb that I really liked, I’ll mention two of their other brews.
Much to Merideth’s pleasure (and mine as well) French Broad had a Kölsch-style beer. Gateway Kölsch was an excellent American example of the style, light-bodied and refreshing.
French Broad Zepptemberfest was a Zeppelin-style Märzen brewed with a Kölsch yeast. Merideth and I argued about whether or not “Zeppelin” was a style of beer. I kept insisting there wasn’t, but apparently I was wrong. Zeppelin-style, from what I can gather is another way of saying Kellerbier. Despite the confusion, Zepptemberfest was a nice brew with the caramel maltiness that I enjoy in the style.
Members only at Southern Appalachian Brewery
Merideth and I don’t have the opportunity for too many “firsts” these days in our beer travels. But our next stop, Southern Appalachian Brewery in quiet Hendersonville thirty minutes south of Asheville, was a first for us. Due to a local ordinance, one had to be a member to drink the beer. We have never encountered this before, especially since we haven’t beer traveled in Utah.
Actually, only one of us needed to fill out the application form – the other one could be their guest. Since I’m a liberated guy, I had Merideth fill out the membership form and pay the $1 fee. Luckily, I was approved as her guest. We found this quirk to be quite entertaining and great fodder for video. In chatting with owner/brewer Andy Cubbin, the membership requirement, unfortunately, has also been a hindrance to business. They’re working on it and hopefully, the law will get changed.
Membership and guest issues taken care of, we settled in to try the beer at what was my favorite brewery of the trip. Served in a really cute, had-to-be hand-made wooden tray, the four beer sampler was comprised of an Amber, IPA, Stout and Belgian-style Blonde Ale.
I loved the beers, especially the Belgian-style Blonde Ale and the IPA, both 6.5% ABV. The IPA, a 95 IBU hop bomb. was triple hopped in the kettle and dry-hopped with five varieties. My kind of beer!
Yes, we were...
Southern Applachachian appeared to be a really locals hangout. While we enjoyed our beers, a group of parents were having a few beers before the Friday night football game (at least that was the story I created in my head). Meanwhile, an older gentleman, who I gathered was the local sand bag toss champion, drank a beer and practiced his sport, waiting for someone to challenge him to a game. Great atmosphere, great beer and nice people, Southern Appalachian had the winning formula.
Highland Brewing
The last brewery stop of the day and trip, Highland Brewing was only a few minutes from French Broad, but seemed worlds away. Nestled in the woods, the brewery’s tasting room was already bustling when we arrived in the early evening. It was quite an eclectic crowd ranging from the young hipsters that we had seen all over town to parents with their kids. While Mom and Dad had a beer or two, the kids used the large outdoor seating area as a giant playground.
Highland's tasting "room"
The massive scale of the tasting room was something I hadn’t expected. Not only was there was the huge deck, but the interior was equally massive, looking like the live music venue that it was. Slowly spinning on the ceiling was the largest fan I think I have ever seen. Quite the contrast,the bar was tucked along the side wall, dwarfed by it’s surroundings.
Merideth at Highland Brewing
It was too crazy to order a taster set so I ordered pints for Merideth and myself. While Merideth started off with their Gaelic Ale, I began with the 60 IBU Kashmir IPA. Both beers were well-made, but lacked the “Wow” factor that we got from beer at some of the other North Carolina breweries.
Beer travel is best done with friends...
We finished up our North Carolina brewery tour sharing a pint of Areola Ale, a beer that Merideth was too embarrassed to order. Made for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the pinkish hue was achieved with beet juice.
We visited fifteen breweries, learned about a new beer style and joined our first beer club during our abbreviated trip to Asheville. We also took a hike on a Cherokee reservation, visited our 650th brewery and ate loads of hummus. Asheville was good to us and we had a great time. Hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity to return someday.
It’s been a busy six months for new parents Craig and Beth Wathen, proprietors of San Francisco’s beloved City Beer Store. Their latest milestone was the store expansion, taking over the space next door. Prior to the Cal football game yesterday, Merideth and I had the pleasure of taking a quick visit to the new and improved City Beer.
The Pliny Fridge
The new City Beer Store isn’t quite complete, but it’s already a stunning place to drink beer. Fortunately, the expansion has maintained the intimacy of the original, especially with the throng of beer geeks who were there for the soft re-opening. The expanded draft offerings (15 taps!) and beautiful wooden bar are located in the new space. Bottles, refrigerated and shelved, occupy what was the old City Beer, with the focal point definitely being the “Pliny Fridge.” Just as the name implies, it is a fridge full of Pliny!
Congrats once again to Craig and Beth! Merideth and I look forward to being able to spend more than 20 minutes on our next visit to the new City Beer Store.
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.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
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.
Merideth crossing the Bradley Fork
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.
The large quonset hut was easy to spot
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.
Winner of tap handle of the trip
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.
