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December 12, 2011

It’s a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood

Relax, grillin’, and chillin’. Three separate words that go great with beer. But put Relax! Grillin & Chillin all together with it and you create a friendly neighborhood bar with an amazing beer selection.

Relax! Grillin & Chillin is conveniently located on Highway 156 between San Juan Bautista and Hollister. You’ve probably even passed it without even considering to stop and check it out. Admittedly, from the outside it appears to be just another roadhouse that one would assume is selling crap beer (it is in the heart of biker country after all). Heck, we must have passed it dozens of times before hearing through the hopvine that they had a great craft beer selection. They’ve even had Pliny The Elder on tap, which is absolutely unheard of in the area!

Relax! Grillin & Chillin is so much more than a bar with good beer, though. It’s a gathering spot for the community. It’s child/family friendly, the staff and clientele are welcoming, they have multiple TVs for the sports lover, and the food is terrific. They even have weekly Brewery Nights and a mug club for the die-hard beer geeks. I’d say that there’s something for everyone at Grillin & Chillin.

On a recent visit, Chris and I enjoyed Drake’s Aroma Coma (draft) and Tap It’s Pale Ale (bottle) with our starter of chicken sliders (fried chicken on small rolls with pickle and BBQ sauce). They have another slider option of drunk burgers with Guinness sauce, as well as other appetizers they call “kickers.” The menu includes the usual pub grub of calamari, chicken strips, hot dogs, burgers and zucchini fries, but there is so much more, including the apricot turkey sandwich with Monterey jack cheese and an apricot spread and a ham and cheese pretzel sandwich.

On a previous visit, a regular insisted that I have the street tacos because the dill sauce on them was amazing. “It goes on everything,” he told me. So this time, I took his advice and had the grilled shrimp street tacos. He was right. The sauce was light and had just the right tang. In fact, owner Chuck Frowein told me that it was after making a batch of his special sauce that he realized he had what it took to open a restaurant. From that, Grillin & Chillin was born. How lucky we are!

We’re even luckier that Chuck has good taste in beer. The tap list on the night we were there included the aforementioned Aroma Coma, Deschutes Black Butte XXIII, and New Belgium’s Lips of Faith Kick, to name a few. And if you can’t decide on one draft beer, you can order a flight of 5 samples for $10. The bottle list was also impressive with Brew Dog’s Sink the Bismarck and Tactical Nuclear Penguin, The Bruery’s Autumn Maple and 4 Calling Birds, plus Firestone Walker’s XV and Batch 23 and Damnation from Russian River.

Years ago, when we moved back to the Monterey Peninsula from the Bay Area, we used to travel forty minutes to Hollister to visit San Andreas Brewing. It was an easy way to get our fill of good craft beer without going all the way to Oakland. Relax! Grillin & Chillin harkens back to those days by bringing craft beer back to San Benito County. Judging by the crowds there every night, the place has obviously filled a niche left vacant when San Andreas closed. With the Monterey Peninsula’s improving beer scene we don’t necessarily have to go as far as Hollister to get good beer anymore, but going to Grillin & Chillin isn’t just about the beer, it’s about embracing everything that’s good about a neighborhood watering hole, whether your from the neighborhood or not.

View all the images from Grillin & Chillin…

December 3, 2011

My Firkin Tapping Debut

It’s good to have friends in the right places. Thursday night I had the honor of tapping the second firkin at Peter B’s Brewpub (Thanks, Kevin!). Chris was beer-tending at Post No Bills, so I had Corrie Clark (wife of Peter B’s brewer Kevin) video my firkin tapping debut so Chris could see it.

The beer was the Organic Belly Up Blonde and I was a bit nervous. The mallet seemed heavy, the tap I had to hit small, the angle of the swing awkward. You name it, I worried about it. I was most concerned, however, that I wouldn’t hit it hard enough and I’d end up getting showered with beer. Brewer Kevin assured me that I’d be fine, but I didn’t really believe him. Sure enough, though, he was right. You can see the whole thing on video.

The beer was delicious! I can’t wait for the Hazelnut Brown firkin later this month!

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December 1, 2011December 3, 2011

Within Sight of 700

As the 700 brewery milestone began to appear on the horizon, Merideth and I starting thinking about where we’d like the magical moment to happen. With a trip to Australia in February already scheduled, it was a pretty easy decision. That simple decision had consequences, however. In order to make it possible for us to meet that goal Down Under, we needed to be in the 675 range by the time we left. Hence, the six-hour journey on Thanksgiving weekend to add just two breweries to The List.

Merideth and I unsuccessfully visited our first destination, Blue Frog Grog & Grill in Fairfield, years ago. Returning from a trip visiting friends in Northern California, we unfortunately arrived well before the pub opened. We decided to wait but thinking about the long drive home, my impatience got the best of me. We ended up continuing on our way before opening time.

On this drive up, I began to worry that impatience could get the better of me again. Being Thanksgiving weekend, I had visions of Blue Frog’s mall location being a hub of gridlock for miles around. But failure a second time just wasn’t an option. Thankfully, the beer gods looked on us favorably this day and the mall seemed deserted when we arrived late morning.

Taking our customary seat at the bar, we ordered the taster set. Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed to learn that their IPA and well-known DIPA were not available. Being a complete professional, however, I sucked it up and moved on to the five beers offered to us.

Ranging from a light-colored Hefeweizen and Blond Ale to the seasonal Oktoberfest and Irish-style Stout, it was a familiar brewpub lineup. The two standouts were the Blond and Red Ales. The unexpected assertiveness of both these brews, while not satisfying my IPA craving, was a pleasant surprise. Both were hopped well beyond what we expected from the usually mild styles.

My lunch was delicious. The thick cut ham on my sandwich had the comforting feel of eating Thanksgiving leftovers. Merideth also enjoyed her pulled pork sandwich.

We’d like to thank Brewmaster Nick Campbell for the gift bottles of the DIPA and 10th Anniversary beer. We look forward to trying them soon.

A short 20-minute drive away on the outskirts of Napa was our second and final stop of the day. Located in a business park, Napa Smith Brewery’s brand new tasting room shares a building with Bourassa Winery. We bucked the trend of most entering and chose beer over wine.

I thought I was very familiar with the Napa Smith lineup as their bottled beers are quite prevalent in Northern California. Much to my surprise, however, there were eight beers to try in the sample tray. Besides their standards, including the GABF silver medal winning IPA, the samples included a Wheat, Amber Lager, Red Ale and Imperial Porter.

The star of the show was the unique Hopageddon. The Imperial IPA, weighed in at 9.2% ABV and 144 IBUs. It’s distinct flavor came from a combination of being wet hopped and aged in Chardonnay and Cabernet barrels. Its hop character was conversely pungent and subtle. There was a hint of Chardonnay and a slight tannic quality. Certainly one of the most interesting brews I have tried in a long time.

Finished at Napa Smith, it was time for the three-hour drive home. We only spent a little over an hour total at both breweries, but adding two breweries brought us closer to our 675 target. Stay tuned as we begin the countdown to 700…

View all the images from our day…

November 24, 2011November 24, 2011

Hoppy Thanksgiving

This past weekend, Chris and I attended the 3rd annual BevMo! Holiday Beer Fest at Fort Mason in San Francisco. I was supposed to write a blog about the fest, but as Thanksgiving Day approached, I became more introspective and thankful. The fest and giving thanks may seem like two completely different subjects. However, as I started thinking about what I was most thankful for, I realized what made the Holiday Beer Fest so special to me this year.

I could say that I am thankful for the mothers of brewers or for the brewers who make good craft beer. Heck, I could even say I am just plain thankful for having craft beer in my life. But what I am really thankful for is the wonderful craft beer people I know. Starting my craft beer life in the Bay Area, events up there are often like old home week. This year’s Holiday Beer Fest was no exception.

At the fest I clunked plastic cups of Almanac’s latest offering, Autumn 2011 Farmhouse Pale, with friends like Bruce “the Beer Chef” Paton. We first met Bruce close to 20 years ago when Barclay’s was our local and he has been a special person in our life ever since. I also received a big hug and a kiss from Betsey Hensley, beer woman extraordinaire and the wife of Marin Brewing Company brewer, Arne Johnson. She also gave me a bottle of Underberg, something I was especially thankful to have at the end of the festival!

Monterey Bay represents at the Holiday Beer Fest

Running my beer crafts table I didn’t have a whole lot of opportunity to walk around the fest and taste beers, so I was grateful to be next to our friend Kevin Clark, brewer at Peter B’s in Monterey. Kevin has done an amazing job revamping Peter B’s line-up and I was all too happy to drink his Sundown Hazelnut Brown for most of the night. I appreciate counting Kevin and his wife Corrie as good friends, as well as Kevin’s contribution to boosting our local beer scene down on the Monterey Peninsula. So I guess, I actually am thanking a brewer for making great craft beer. I’ll stop short of thanking his mother for giving birth to him.

I can think of numerous others who I saw during the fest that helped me realize how grateful I am to be part of the craft beer community, but I don’t want to bore you all with an endless list of thanks reminiscent of an Academy Award acceptance speech.

At the risk of being totally mushy, Chris and I would like to say how much we appreciate all our friends with whom we have shared some very special times and beers with, as well as all thebeergeek.com supporters that we may not know personally. You have all enriched our (beer) life in some way and for that, we thank you. We hope you have a very Hoppy Thanksgiving!

View all the images from the 2011 Holiday Beer Fest…

November 18, 2011

Central Coast Family Outing

It has become a November tradition for us to travel down to the southern part of the Central Coast to explore what is new in their beer scene. This year, we took the opportunity of Merideth being off work on Veteran’s Day to make the journey to San Luis Obispo County to visit two new breweries.

On a rainy morning, we piled Porter and Stout into the car and headed south. Wanting to make the day a family outing, our first stop was a park in Pismo Beach to walk the dogs. Unfortunately, my research turned out to be faulty. What I thought was an off-leash park, turned out to be a leash-only park. My mistake was compounded by a light rain beginning to fall. After a short on-leash walk, Porter and Stout looked very disappointed as we bundled them back into the car.

It was a short ride from the park to downtown Pismo Beach. This was our first time in the city center of this well-visited tourist community. Pismo Beach Brewing is conveniently located on a side street a block from the main drag.

The cozy tasting room was sparsely populated. Merideth and I grabbed a seat at the granite-topped bar in front of the TV so I could watch the USA v France soccer match.

There were six beers to sample in their taster set. From several sources, we had heard Pismo was having brewing “issues” and this came out as a distinct “house”flavor in the beers. Both Merideth and I found this flavor to be a bit odd, especially in the lighter-bodied beers. For me, the IPA was the most drinkable, as the nice hop bite overtook the house flavor.

I certainly hope Pismo works out their brewing issues because I took a liking to the place. We’ll give them more time and make another visit in the future.

Tap It Brewing, located next to the San Luis Obispo airport, was the second stop on our outing. Walking into the small tasting room, we were greeted by the friendly bartender. Explaining that we wanted to watch the soccer match, she led us from the front room to a much larger orange-colored space that included the brewery and a bevy of orange-colored tables. Merideth and I found a seat in front of the big TV and set down to watch the second half of the USA v France match.

Tap It had two beers on, a Pale Ale and an IPA. They were very enjoyable with a similar citrus hop character. Of course, the IPA was my beer of choice.

Hope Porter and Stout don't see this picture

The star of our Tap It visit was the very friendly brewery cat. As soon as we sat down, the cat jumped up on our table to check out our beers. Within a minute, the cat was purring on my lap. I felt bad for Porter and Stout, who were sitting out in the cold car.

At the end of the match, we finished our beers and bade farewell to our new kitty friend. It was time to begin the journey home. Our trip to San Luis Obispo County was short but it is always a fun experience seeing what our Central Coast brethren are up to.

View all the images from our Central Coast outing…