We decided to break from our normal weekend routine and take a little road trip down to San Luis Obispo. Lately, weekends have been about Merideth writing the book and me doing yard work. We needed a little respite.
Our early beer travels mostly involved day trips to nearby cities. We were young and didn’t have money for elaborate trips. It’s interesting how things come full circle, except we’re not that young anymore.
We left Carmel Valley bright and early on Saturday morning and drove two and a half hours to our first stop, two-month old Creekside Brewing in San Luis Obispo. After Creekside, we planned to head back north, stopping at the string of breweries that were about 10 minutes apart.
Did you know there is a creek that runs through SLO city center? I certainly didn’t. Located a block off of downtown, Creekside Brewing sits right above San Luis Creek in a very pleasant, small-town California setting.
There is a cave-like bar downstairs, but on this beautiful Saturday, we sat on their quaint little deck that overlooks the creek and ordered a taster set.
Creekside had five beers available to try; Hefeweizen, Dunkelweizen, Pale Ale, Stout and a ‘Lite’ beer. Unfortunately, they were out of IPA which, as a hophead, is my benchmark beer.
All the beers, were well done; the Stout had a nice roast to it; the Hefeweizen was very Bavarian. Even the ‘Lite’ had a bit of oomph for the usually dreaded style.
Summer weather really hit California on Saturday and it was nice to relax with a Hefeweizen and watch the world go by… at least for a hour or so.
A short drive brought us to our second stop in San Luis Obispo, Central Coast Brewing. It began in 1998 as a brew on premise and, like other BOPs, Central Coast altered their business model as the craze waned.
Their new model has them brewing their own beers under the Central Coast Brewing label as well as making private label brews for local restaurants. On Saturdays, you can still brew your own batch of beer.
The couches set in front of the bar area make the tasting room cozy. There is a nice outdoor standing area, as well. Presently, CCB can only serve taster-sized beers. However, in the future they hope to serve full pints. In the time that we were there, a steady stream of customers came through ordering tasters and purchasing bottles to go.
Beers are 5 tasters for $5 from their regular beers, with specialty beer tasters costing $2 each. We had almost nine beers to choose from with the most interesting being a Chai Cream Ale. The second chai-flavored beer we have tried in the last year, I have to say that the Stout we had at Yak & Yeti was a better complimentary style to the chai. As Merideth commented, the light body of the cream ale gave it the flavor of a holiday spiced beer. The Chai Cream Ale will be great to drink in the Fall.
In the end, we weren’t able to spend a lot of time relaxing at Central Coast because our friend JJ called. She was waiting for us at Dunbar Brewing.
The newest entry on the Central Coast beer scene is Dunbar Brewing in Santa Margarita, a one road town just north of San Luis Obispo. Located in a small space behind Ancient Peak Winery’s tasting room, Dunbar could be one of the smallest breweries we have ever seen. The kit appeared to be one of those high-end homebrew set ups that I have always dreamed of having (if I ever manage to actually get back into homebrewing). Dunbar Brewing is a one-man operation and Chris was manning the bar as we entered the air-conditioned oasis.
Joining JJ and a bevy of locals at the intimate bar, we ordered our taster set. Chris had five beers available, English Ale (a Bitter), IPA, Scotch Ale, Brown Porter and a Stout. It is always a somewhat dodgy proposition visiting a very new brewery – sometimes things aren’t quite dialed in – but Chris’ beers were quite nice. The IPA and the Porter were the standouts.
It was great catching up with JJ. Unfortunately, the afternoon was progressing and we had one more stop to make.
While we have no plans of moving, if we did, it might be farther south on the Central Coast to be closer to Firestone-Walker. I am a huge fan of their beers and we just don’t get to their tasting room enough.
Besides the regular lineup of beers, there was a Hefeweizen and Lil Opal, a 3.5% session beer made from the second running of their Big Opal Wheat Wine. Both were very tasty beers. What I really stopped for was a brewery fresh pint of Union Jack, Firestone’s 2008 GABF gold medal winning IPA. Not only did I get a pint, but I was also able to hold Matt’s gold medal.
Our SLO day was over. A beautiful day, good beer and great people… another satisfying day of beer travel.
“2009 SF Beer Week” is the latest episode of One Pint at a Time.
After months of anticipation, SF Beer Week has come and gone. The last day had a mellower feeling to it since the previous day’s revelry seemed to be our apex of the 10-day celebration.
Still being in a sour phase, the highlight for me was a Norwegian Sour Red from HaandBryggeriet. Aged in oak barrels, this Sour Red rivals anything produced in Belgium. A close second was an American Strong Ale called Batch One from Amager in Denmark.
The culminating event for SF Beer Week was the Celebrator party at the Oakland Convention Center. We always look forward to this event because we are pretty much assured that a lot our friends will be there.
After the New Albion beer, it was open season. Triple Rock’s Ipax and Imax, Russian River’s Consecration, Firehouse’s Otis, 21A’s Double Tripel, Bear Republic’s Apex IPA, Firestone Walker’s Velvet Merken and Saucerful o’ Secrets were a few of the beers I can remember trying.
With the nursing of beers over, it was time to confront the beast, the Toronado Barleywine Festival. Arriving around 2pm, the tasting was in full swing. The Barleywine fest is a challenge as Toronado is the not the largest pub in the world. Negotiating the crowd and finding a spot is almost as much of a challenge as actually getting beers. Oddly enough, we ended up in the exact sample place as last year, right by the door.
Having experienced enough of Barleywine, the crew split up and we, with our friend Dave, headed to the Upper Haight and Magnolia. February is Strong Beer Month at Magnolia and 21A and this was the opportunity to try Magnolia’s powerful offerings.
Maybe it was the baby sips of Barleywine, but I finally hit my stride. Beginning with Promised Land Imperial IPA, I tried four of the six strong beers. The Imperial IPA was followed by a Tripel, a Quad and finally, my favorite, Smokestack Lightning Imperial Stout.
They turned us on to a place I never heard of before, the Church Key. Down the street from La Trappe, the Church Key is a new beer bar on the SF scene… and wow. My first beer was cult beer classic 90 Minute from Dogfish Head. But what sealed the deal on my thinking the Church Key was a great place was the fact they had one of my all time favorite beers, Aventinus, on draft. So, the day might have started slow, but finishing it with an Aventinus was the exclamation point on a great SF Beer Week day.
We last visited Speakeasy 15 years ago and it had been about half that number of years since I actually had one of their beers. With the weather being a bit iffy, we braved the big downpour and headed to Hunter’s Point.
We were joined by several friends including Chris Devlin, the Beer Retard, which was a good thing because we were being interviewed by a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle. Being surrounded by friends helped our image as fun loving beer drinkers and not loners.
The Beer and Chocolate dinner at the Cathedral Hill Hotel was our big event for the day. Chef Bruce’s Valentine’s dinner always draws a large and enthusiastic crowd. This year was no exception especially with the featured beer, Malheur. We were particularly excited as Malhuer Brut was one of the exceptional beers that we tasted on our trip to Belgium. We were eager to try more of their beers.
Bruce’s dinners are always a good place to catch up with old friends. Ken Pajak and Jim “Dr. Fermento” Roberts were down from Alaska. It was great catching up with them and learning what was new in their neck of the woods.
We probably should have called it a night at that point but being SF Beer Week, we were ready for more. We met back up with our friends Dave, Chris The Beer Retard and his friend Phillipe at Tommy’s Joynt. With our Alaskan friends, the party started anew. We ended up at another bar whose name escapes me eventually making it back to our hotel in the early hours of the morning.