SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION.

I'm so stoked to be in this month's issue of Gourmet Magazine. I've subscribed to this magazine since I was 12, so I'm thrilled beyond words. I hope that you will pick it up if you see it and check it out! I'm on page 56. Right after a really great story on old (in business for six decades or more) bars! They included two of my very favorites, The Green Mill in Chicago, IL. and Tujague's (pronounced "Two Jacks") in New Orleans, LA. Woo hoo! Nice chops huh?

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BEERDAY IN SAN FRANCISCO !!

After all that's happened this year, I decided to treat myself for my birthday. So I asked myself, ...I said, "Self, if you could do anything on your birthday this year, what would it be?" And myself said, "I'd be sitting in San Francisco at the Toronado bar, drinking some yummy beers." So that's what I did. I jumped in Clover (my Land Rover) and headed North, to the land of the Golden Gate and beers-a-plenty: to the heart of the microbrew revolution and the home of Anchor Brewing Company and my friends and fellow beer chick Kasey.

The Toronado was rockin, as it ended up being Lagunitas (nice brewery from Petaluma, CA) Night, which was cool. Their draught and bottle lists were amazing. We definitely got some looks when we walked in as there weren't too many beer chicks in there, but as soon as the bartender heard us order some great beers (instead of asking for something "light") we were in. And I always like the odds when the ratio is more men to women. The place is a bit of a dive, but has so much character that you'll love it if you're cool.

Here are the awesome beers we had there!

Elysian Avatar Jasmine IPA - Seattle, WA - draught
Elysian Night at the Toronado happened to be happening the next night and I met someone from the brewery at the bar when I went to order my first beer. I told him about Beer for Chicks and he suggested that I try their Jasmine IPA, which I did. It was good. Its the kind of beer I'm into, an experimental American IPA. This means the beer is big, with nice floral and herbaceous jasmine notes. This beer's not too flowery or fruity or "dumbed down" though. Mouthfeel is creamy followed by good bittering hop dryness and perfumey finish. 5.6% ABV

Russian River Happy Hop - Santa Rosa, CA - draught
Its a must for me to always try any beer from Russian River that I haven't had. The only one on the list that I hadn't tried was called Happy Hop, which I thought was going to be HUGELY hoppy like their Hop 2 It ale, but this was more of an American Blonde Ale, which means that it was more mellow. Reminiscent of an English IPA, this beer had nice mellow hops and a woody stalky finish. Very drinkable. 5.0% ABV

Moonlight Brewing Company Reality Czeck - Fulton, CA - draught
I usually tell people never to order a beer by its name alone, but as you know, I also don't like rules very much. So I ordered Reality Czeck specifically because of its name - and because Kasey said that she didn't want anything too "ale-y" (which is a slappable offense, but I was in a good mood.) This beer is delish. Fresh, crisp, light with notes of biscuits and pancakes. Bright mouthfeel with and clean finish. Could have had about 20 of these! 4.8% ABV

Lagunitas Farmhouse Saison - Petaluma, CA - draught
I was stoked to see this beer on tap. Lately, Saison has been one of my very favorite beer styles (I'm going to write about them next!) and this one did not dissapoint. Spicy and yeasty (in a good way), this beer had interesting tart citrus notes a wheaty full mouthfeel, and spicy, tingly notes of pepper. Right on Lagunitas. Thanks for the memories! 6% ABV.

De Struise Witte - De Panne, Belgium - bottle
This beer is the BOMB. I'm crazy about another beer that this brewery makes called Pannepot Old Fisherman's Ale, and this one is just as good. Its a White Ale or a Witbier and it's deliciously and suprisingly nutty, with orange rind and hints of coriander. Big carbonation, but I liked it. 5.0% ABV

Dubuisson Scaldis Noel 2004 - Pipaix, Belgium - bottle
This beer was a sentimental pick. This is a super rare winter seasonal ale, so to see that they had the 2004 was amazing! I actually had this Belgian Strong Ale when it was first released so I wanted to see the effects of 4 years of aging on this bad boy. It was awesome. This beer is like drinking a wonderful port or cognac. Definite whisky-like qualities. Sweet, malty and spicy with a vinous mouthfeel and some serious heat in the exhaust. 12% ABV

The Toronado Pub is located in the Lower Haight neighborhood of San Francisco at:
547 Haight St
(between Fillmore St & Steiner St)
San Francisco, CA 94117 (415) 863-2276

www.toronado.com

Written by The Beer Chick, September 18, 2008

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FOR THE NEWLY HATCHED BEER CHICK

During a very interesting 3 hour discussion with one of my best friends today, the topic of beer came up. Imagine that. Kind of like that conversation you have with your friends about the first time you did it, we started discussing the first time we ever had a craft brew, and why we started drinking it in the first place.

The first microbrew my friend remembers drinking was Fat Tire from New Belgium. (This was several years ago!) He said that he started drinking it, not so much for the taste, but more for the fact that it made him seem different, like he wasn't just going along with what the commercials aimed at his demographic told him that he should be drinking. The first artisanal beer that I loved was Lost Coast Great White. I drank that one, because, at the time I hated bitter beers (My, how things change.)

We came up with a list of five American craft beers that we thought would make great starter beers for those of you who are new to the world of craft beer. These are baby steps into the world of great beer that you can safely take when you feel like differentiating yourself but not getting too extreme.


Lost Coast Great White, Eureka, CA:
I mentioned before that this was my first starter beer! This is a Belgian style white ale. It's a wheat beer that is fermented with lemongrass. I've talked about this beer before, because it's delicious, refreshing and will introduce your palate to new flavors in beer. Light and bright mouthfeel, this beer is the bees knees.
4.8% ABV.

Victory Prima Pils, Downingtown, PA:
This is an effing great beer. Light in color and body, crisp and dry. This beer has good hops, but has a good balance. Just the right amount of bitterness with some herbaceous notes. Its a totally drinkable, clean beer. You'll be starting on a high note with this one.
5.3% ABV.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Newport, OR:
This beer sounds scarier than it is. If you are looking for something that may be a little bit on the sweeter side, this is your starter beer. This is a delicious dopplebock style beer with hints of caramel and toffee. Still light-bodied enough to avoid being cloying, I've turned several women on to beer with this recommendation!
6.5% ABV

Deschutes Mirror Pond, Bend, OR: This beer is a nice, decent American Pale Ale. Its got a bit of grapefruit rind citrus on the nose that's balanced out by some woody, toasty dryness. This actually reminds me more of an ESB and finished with a touch of honey. It's a simple, well-balanced, easy to drink beer.
5.5% ABV.

Allagash White Portland, ME:
This is a complex beer - but the neophyte can get it too. Like the Great White, this beer is a Belgian style white ale or witbier brewed with wheat. But this one sticks to tradition brewing with coriander and curacao bitter orange peel. This beer is delicious and has a beginning, a distinct middle and a fabulous finish.
5.0% ABV.

Written by The Beer Chick, September 7, 2008

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Pink Boots Were Made For Walkin

I have a tendency to catch on to things a little late sometimes. I believe that I've already mentioned that. But after having exchanged a couple of emails, I just discovered that Teri Fahrendorf, founder of The Pink Boots Society (for professional women brewers and women in the beer industry) might just be the raddest beer chick out there.

After 19 years of being a professional brewer, 17 of those as Brewmaster at Steelhead Brewing Company, Teri quit her job and set out on a 5 month "epic beer adventure." How awesome is that? I think that I just discovered a new dream.

You have to check out the extensive blog that she kept called Road Brewer that followed her journey as she camped in a 15 foot trailer that she called "Big Buddy" as she visited and BREWED with professional brewers all across these United States. And she went to some awesome breweries: Dogfishhead, Allagash, Brooklyn Brewery, Jolly Pumpkin ... she even went to Bloomington, IN and visited Upland (GO HOOSIERS!) If you ever want to put together a little beer road trip, her blog is the place to start.

Here are some of her stats:

Number of US states through: 30
Number of breweries visited : 71
Number of days on the road: 139
Number of miles: 12,656

Teri writes, "Now it's your turn. Take the torch and drive with it, as far as you can afford to go. Map out your own road trip. Make your connections, put on your "big boots," and go. And try to write, so we can enjoy the journey too!

I might just take you up on that Terri.
I just might.


Oh, BTW - these are the pink boots that I want for when I brew next time! They're Wellingtons and I love them and somebody's got a birthday coming up!

Written by The Beer Chick, September 3, 2008

Stone 12 Anniversary Celebration

I had an awesome time this weekend at the Stone Brewing Company's 12th Anniversary Celebration. This year it was at a new venue in San Marcos. The grass was cool under my feet, the sun was shining, a light breeze was blowing. In short, it was the perfect day for a beer festival.

As soon as I walked in I went directly to the Stone tent to try their 12th Anniversary Ale. Every year, Stone brews a Special Release (a phrase that always makes me giggle) for their birthday. This year it was a Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, and it's awesome. This is a nice soft well-balanced stout. Like most Stone beers, this one is not shy on the flavor. They use bitter cocoa from Carlsbad jewel Chuao Chocolatier, which gives it a deliciously chocolate flavor, but no cloying sweetness that this style is sometimes guilty of. Secondary flavors are hints of coffee and anise. The beer finishes with a chalky dryness that balances out the creamy velvet mouthfeel provided by the Oats and the 9.2% ABV! I risked killing my palate by trying a deep black stout as my first beer, but the risk payed off. This is a great beer.

As I mentioned in the previous post, part of the reason I went to this event was to try other Bruery beers. I really loved Trade Winds Tripel, which is their Summer seasonal beer. Its a Belgian-style Golden Ale, but in The Bruery's practice, they mixed it up a little bit. Instead of using candi sugar like most Belgian Goldens, they used rice as a malt source/ This actually lightened the body of the beer while still providing enough fermentable sugars for some high gravity. And here's the kicker, the beer is then flavored with Thai Basil. How much do you love that? This is a delightful beer, that harkens to my other favorite asian flavor inspired beer Great White. ABV: 8%. I also got to meet Bruery owners Patrick and Rachel Rue and their very talented brewer Tyler. They are cool people and Patrick had even read this little old blog. I'll definitely be bringing you more news from them!

So as I was standing in the incredibly long line for Victory (never got there), a middle-aged guy with a big sunburn kept holding out a beer to me... "Here!" he said, "I don't like it," and handed the glass to me. A couple of things ran through my mind. My immediate reaction was to not accept this beer, for obvious reasons, but since he assured me that he hadn't drunk from the glass, I decided to risk getting ruffied. (Don't do this.) I took a sip, and I loved it! What was this wonderful beer, and how was it that someone could not like it?

When I turned around to ask him, he was gone. Was he just a good samaritan, or was he the elusive beer fairy that I've been hearing about my whole life? I don't know, but he gave me a great beer from Pizza Port in Carlsbad, the taste was something familiar, I was able to lean my head around the crowd and see that it was a sage beer. Interesting, since Craftsman Triple White Sage is the only beer I've had with sage and its one of my favorites! Anyway, I didn't really get the name of this one, but I loved it. I don't think that you can get it in bottles, so if you are ever at Pizza Port and you see a sage beer - get it. Its good.

I also met the owner of Wandering Aengus Ciderworks from Oregon. I love and have recommended their Medium Sweet 100% heirloom apple cider. This time I tried their dry cider. It was super dry and had a definite champagne quality. This cider is also made with heirloom apple varieties that have big tannins, then the cider is fermented and aged in untoasted Oregon white oak barrels. It was nice, tart, spicy, woody and dry - PLUS its 8% ABV. Delish.

The last beer of the day I had was a surprise big favorite. I had the Oaked Arrogant Bastard ale from Stone Brewing company on CASK. Oh happy day. I like Arrogant Bastard, but I really have to be in the mood for it, you know? However, I was so pleasantly surprised by this beer on cask, I couldn't believe it. I thought that without sharp carbonation in this beer, it would be super malty and sticky, but the combination of the dry oak barrels used and the soft cask creaminess, this beer was amazing. It was woody and dry, toasty and nutty, it had a wonderful piney hop presence and a perfectly balanced 7.2% ABV maltiness. I totally geeked out on this one. If I ever have a bar with beers on cask - I'll have this one on tap for shizzle.

And that's my recap for the 12th Anniversary Celebration! The only bummer was that Craftsman wasn't there this year. (They are a little busy over at the brewery!) I can't wait until next year...only 363 days left.

The Bruery

No, I didn't spell it wrong - The Bruery is an awesome new Belgian-style craft brewing company from Orange County, California. Its spelled "Bruery" because the brewer's last name is Rue. So clev-ah. I hadn't heard of them when I saw a big beautiful 750ml bottle of The Bruery Saison Rue, sitting all alone on a shelf. Well, Saison being one of my very favorite styles, I had to buy the bottle and check it out.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this beer. First off, when I poured it into my crystal tulip-shaped glass, it was a deep rich amber - much darker than any Saison I've ever had before. It was also much heartier than the others I've had, which I didn't think I'd like - but the toasty notes were a nice addition to the peppery spice, the tart brett and notes of hmmmm...what is that?...I have to look at the bottle to see. Oh its RYE! Now I get it! Yum. The finish was nice and dry with some citrus rind in the exhaust. (ABV is 8.5% 0 IBU is 30)

The Bruery never filters or pasteurizes their beers and all of their beers are 100% bottle conditioned, which means that there's no forced carbonation - the beer is ready in its own sweet time. They say that they "strive to use unconventional ingredients." And I'm excited that I'll get to try some more of their interesting beers tomorrow when I attend the Stone Brewing Company's 12th Anniversary Party in San Diego.

I'll update you when I return!

Click here to check them out online.

P.S. How are you liking my beer-tography?

This Beer is Turning Me Green

So, I love the environment as much as anyone else, but I'm generally not the hugest fan of organic beer. It's not that some of it isn't good, its just that "Green" and "Organic" are sometimes turned into marketing terms to sell beer to the Inconvenient Truth fans of the world. To me, the real environmental impact of beer comes from the shipping and distribution. So, its never made much sense to me to buy an organic beer for environmental reasons and then have it shipped from the UK, you know?

That being said, I loved this new beer from Deschutes Brewery out of Bend, Oregon called Green Lakes Organic Ale. Do I like it because its organic? No, I like it because it's a damn good beer.

It pours a pretty orange / amber with some citrus on the nose with touches of rose petal and plum. The first taste is tart with toasty pecans in the middle followed by a nice hop bitterness and dry finish. My first thought was that I liked this beer better than their flagship beer Mirror Pond, and my second thought was that this was a great session beer. At 5.2% abv, I could drink a lot of these!

Now for the organic part. After working with Oregon Tilth, a nonprofit research and education membership organization dedicated to biologically sound and socially equitable agriculture, Deschutes received organic certification for its 50 barrel brew house and can now brew organic ales year-round.

This award winning beer (Gold Medal at the 2008 World Beer Championships) was brewed with five types of 100% organic malted barley and balanced with Liberty and Salmon-Safe Sterling hops. The way these flavorful, rich hops are grown makes sure that streams are shaded and there is not runoff to nearby waterways. That way the rivers stay cool and clean for migrating salmon.

That's pretty cool. Its good to be kind to the fishies. Am I becoming green? This beer is definitely helping me get there.