By Mike Sober
In the early planning stages of yet another round of Brewery fact finding missions to San Diego the reoccurring theme in my head was that I needed to start my journey with a stop at the Pizza Port site in San Clemente. I’d been to the original Port site in Solano Beach on a couple of occasions but had yet to step my taste-buds into the San Clemente or Carlsbad locations. The three Pizza Port sites, as well as Port and Lost Abbey Brewing are under the guidance of brewing legend Tomme Arthur, who is has been director of brewing Operations since 2005; although he has been brewing at Pizza Port since 1997. We arrived in front of the 2-story white beach town building just prior to three in the afternoon and found a place to sit amongst the tall stools and benches that make up the outdoor drinking areas that are placed on either side of the entrance to the pizza parlor proper. Being rather early in the day there were only four other patrons in the place. Two at the inside bar and two in the same outside area where we sat.
I strolled up to the bar, checked the beer menu and ordered two El Camino IPA’s. Both patrons at the bar called out “Good Choice”. And indeed they were correct. The El Camino was a Golden amber to light copper color, a solid West Coast style IPA with a nice floral nose, big backbone and a lingering malt aftertaste. While my wife,Terri, was fetching our vegetarian Pizza with Sausage I made my way back to the bar and ordered a round of the Doheney Double IPA. Now this is what I’m talking about. Nice big beer with a huge sustained crown, light amber color and hopelessly balanced Hop character.
Naturally on our way out I ordered a growler which I’d like to say made it home with me to Roseville…… but that would be a lie.
In addition to the two fine IPA’s they also offered a nice assortment of their other beers.
- Sticky Stout
- Shark Bite Red
- Pig Dog Pale Ale
- Amigo Mexican style Lager (I continue to be amazed how this became a so called style)
- Way Heavy Scotch
- Badonk-A-Dunkel
Guest taps included
- Bear Republic “Hop Rod Rye”
- Russian River “Pliny the Elder
- Hop Town DUIPA (Terri reported an odd barrel aged aroma in her sample)
- Hop Town IPA
- Avery “Reverend”
- Alaska Brewing “Summer Ale”
- Rubicon Brewing Amber
- Firestone Double Barrel
- Ale Smith “Nautical Nut Brown”
- Paulaner Salvator Dopplebock
- Hofbrau Original Munich Lager
A rather impressive list of beers that under different circumstances would have had me looking for a room to spend the night. However, the new Stone Brewing facility is just an hour away from San Clemente and was beckoning me considerably. Upon leaving the facility I noticed a sign on the side of the structure that said “Additional parking on the roof”. I’m not sure exactly what I think of that idea, but I’d damn sure I’m glad I parked my butt on one of Pizza Port’s bar stools for the afternoon.
by Mike Sober, Pacific Brew News
After a hard day of NFL football watching my wife Terri and I decided, after a bike ride of course, that we really need to heed the advice of Mike. Mike is, of course, Michael Mathot General Manager of Pyramid Breweries in Sacramento Ca. On our previous Friday night trip to Vino’s in
Mike informed us that, not only did they still have the Imperial Hefeweizen on tap, but they also currently offered Pyramids first attempt at a Double, or as they preferred to call it, an Imperial IPA. It was decided right then and there… we had to go, simple as that.
After finally getting parked near Pyramid’s downtown
The beer is a golden orange color with an unfiltered cloudy hue and a white crown that dissipates rather quickly. It possesses a nice balance that I half expected to suffer in such a ramped up version of what is essentially a traditionally light beer style. Still light and drinkable while at the same time possessing a much larger, bolder body that you would expect in any beer labeled an Imperial. Naturally I ordered another….just to be sure.
Terri finished off her IPA and was eager to move up to the Imperial and I have to admit I was right behind her in curiosity. The Imperial IPA surprised me with its almost copper color that reminded me more of a Red, or more precisely an Amber, than an IPA. I soon found out it had other features of a red with its delicate roasted malt flavor that lingered in the aftertaste. After a few sips I realized, “Man, I really like this beer”. The body was a bit thinner in body than most Imp IPA’s, but the bittering hop was right there in your face with every swallow.
Tasting the Imperial and the Thunderhead side by side I came to the conclusion that the same basic bittering hop is present in both beers, the Imperial just has three times the bitterness. I didn’t really detect a lot going on in the aroma, but the pleasing lingering hop taste more than made up for it.
To no one’s surprise I purchased a growler of the IPA and took it home and I think I heard that there were 22oz bottles of the Imperial Hefeweizen available in select local stores as well. The Imperial IPA won’t be around long so I suggest a trip to Pyramid… soon.
Grass Valley, CA 25 August 2007
Written by Mike Sober
“That’s a very good question” was Celebrator Beer News magazine Editor/Publisher Tom Dalldorf’s response to my inquiry as to why his group of brewers/beer people, The Rolling Boil Blues Band, was not the featured entertainment at this year’s Sierra Brewfest. Instead music for the 18th version of this gem of a beer happening was provided by Cold Shot, as part of the Music in the Mountains benefit event.
The Sierra Brewfest is held on the Nevada County Fair grounds amongst the giant pines in picturesque Grass Valley, California. This season 36 breweries accepted the invitation to set up shop in, what over the years I have come to refer to as, Beer Meadow. There were a number of the solid industry standouts in attendance including, host brewer, Sierra Nevada, Alaskan, New Belgium, Sam Adams, Anchor, Full Sail, Lagunitas, Pyramid and Widmer Brothers.
The Nor-Cal region was represented by Hoppy, Sacramento, Anderson Valley, Sudwerks, Blue Frog, Butte Creek, Firestone Walker, Lost Coast, Mad River, Black Diamond and very noteworthy newcomers Fifty Fifty out of Truckee and Auburn Alehouse which just opened it’s doors in June in the old Shanghai building in Old Town Auburn to rave reviews. The San Diego region sent Ballast Point, Back Street and Stone Brewing.
The three and a half hour length of the event seemed a tad on the short side, but with a number of breweries bringing limited amounts of beer, or simply pouring from a few cases of bottles, beer supplies were running short well before the 6:30pm deadline.
There were a few brews that stood out. Lagunitas brought their ‘Imperial Red’ and the new Frank Zappa tribute ale, Kill Ugly Radio. Sierra Nevada broke out a case or two of Bigfoot barley wine half way through, just about the time they were running out of their Anniversary Ale. Back Street Brewing was also a hit, with their single IPA being nearly as hoppy as their double. Auburn Ale House was the last brewer standing, pouring their Pilsner and IPA to a happy crowd of repeat customers. According to the nice pink brewers information handout there were 15 wheat beers, 8 Pilsners, 12 Reds and Ambers, 15 IPA’s and 17 Golden or Pale Ales.
All in all, it was a nice, festive occasion. It clearly wasn’t the most remarkable or diverse beer festival I’ve ever visited, but well attended, seamlessly organized and a nice event to test out a lot of the typical craft brews that are available all across the California landscape.
By Mike Sober
After having seen advertisements and listening to a few personal accounts of the annual Mammoth Lakes combination Brews and Blues event for a several years now, I finally decided to see for myself if all the glowing accolades were indeed correct. Friday night, August 3rd, the event officially opened at 5pm and the Rolling Boil Blues Band kicked off the show with their renditions of popular songs whose lyrics that are, shall we say, cleverly altered to cater to the beer drinking community.
We found ourselves a nice spot 60 feet in front of the stage, set down our low back chairs and went in search of our first festival brew. Mammoth Lake Brewing Company is the host of the event and had a beer booth set up just a few meters inside the entrance. Crews of energetic beer volunteers were rapidly filling plastic cups with their Hefeweizen, Amber and IPA. At only 3 bucks a cup the beer line was growing exponentially by the minute.
The setting for the festival is just about as beautiful as it could be. The raised stage set at the bottom of a natural incline surrounded by a forest of intermittent sized pines and fir trees that were spaced just far enough apart to house a maze of paths and beer booths that were being readied for Saturdays main brew event.
The Friday night blues also included the blues and gospel stylings of the Earl Thomas Acoustic Duo and the closer was none other than The Tommy Castro Band, who just blew the meadow away in their set. In a wise bit of time scheduling the show was over by 9:30 allowing ample opportunity to return to our campsite, study the next days brewers list and finish off a few bottles of Alaskan IPA that I managed to obtain for the occasion.
On Saturday the beer festival opened up its gates to the thirsty hordes at precisely noon.
The list of Brewers was impressively displayed on the back cover of the event program which was handed out as the beer enthusiasts entered the grounds.
Northern California breweries included: Anchor, Anderson Valley, Bear Republic, Black Diamond, Blue Frog, Butte Creek, EJ Phair, Hoppy, Hoptown, Lagunitas, Lost Coast, Marin, Mendocino, Moylan’s, North Coast, Rubicon, Sierra Nevada and Trumer Brauerei.
The Southern California and San Diego area’s were also highly represented by some notable brewers such as: Ballast Point, Coronado, Green Flash, Huntington Beach, Karl Strauss, La Jolla, Newport Beach, Pacific Beach, San Diego Brewing, Santa Cruz, and of course Stone Brewing. Carlsbad Pizza Port, Alpine Brewing and Ale Smith were notable by their last minute absences.
Great Basin from Sparks Nevada, Kern River Brewing and of course the sponsor of the event Mammoth brewing also had booths that were well worth visiting. Naturally I tried to start out my day on the lighter side of things but soon found that going light was going to be difficult. It seemed that almost every brewers booth contained at least one IPA and quite a few even offered a double IPA.
So, naturally, I started out with the single IPA’s and Coronado Brewing was the first booth I came to. Coronado’s Islander IPA was a fine way to start my afternoon. Soon thereafter I found that Kern River Brewing’s Just Outstanding IPA was indeed outstanding with it’s generous amounts of Simco and Amarillo hops. The EJ Phair Hop On Board was another great find that I had just recently discovered the weekend prior, but naturally had to sample again in the forest.
Green Flash Brewing, out of San Diego, had an outstanding brew called Hop Head Red that tasted as good as the name. Shall I go on?
Oh…Ok then….sure…uh ….next I made my way to the Ballast Point booth and discovered that they had their Dorado available. I really hated (wink wink) to make my fifth beer of the day a Double IPA but figured any beer that has topped Pliny The Elder in a Double IPA contest (Bistro in Hayward 2006) might be worth breaking the rules for. Indeed it was and that set my palate for a quick trip to the Lagunitas pouring station for some Hop Stoopid, which is definitely in the running for best new beer of 2007.
Along the way I stumbled across a few names that I couldn’t ignore and ended up sampling some IPA’s from Newport Beach, Pacific Beach, Huntington Beach and Great Basin. Obviously I was in heaven, and naturally some IPA’s were more to my liking than others but I didn’t have a single sample all day that I wanted to pour out or couldn’t enjoy.
All good things have to come to an end and our day in Beer Heaven wound down with sprints between the Moylan’s Hopsickle, Lagunitas Hop Stoopid and EJ Phair’s Hop on Board before the 5pm festival closing. I don’t think the fine people at the Kern River Brewing table will forget me anytime soon either as they were pouring to the very end.
Our evening was far from over at that point because one of my blues hero’s Charlie Musselwhite was just taking the stage and the Mammoth Brewing beer bar was just opening up.
In case you’re wondering if I’d recommend the Mammoth Festival of Beers “Bluesapalooza”… Well, I’ve already made my plans to attend in 2008.
