I just spoke with Peter Hoey, brewmaster at Sacramento Brewing Company, and have a few nuggets I think you’ll find interesting – even if you’re not from the region.
First, the sale is still pending TTB approval. Estimates for this to go through range from days to months – typical of the feds, right?
(Pictured: Left – Peter Salmond, head brewer at SBC’s Oasis; Right – Peter Hoey, SBC Brewmaster)
In the Tanks
Peter has two very interesting projects going on right now.
His most complete project is a tank-conditioned Tripel/Strong Blond. Peter has a fondness for bottle conditioned Belgian beers, when compared to the tap versions. He feels they have more character, especially styles like Saison, which he is well familiar with. So, with that in mind, and given he has an empty tank for the winter slow months, he’s decided to condition an entire batch in a tank! He capped off the tank last night, went home and wondered if his hair-brained idea would work, or if he’d come in to find nothing happening. Overnight, the pressure of the tank rose to 4 PSI! That is a very promising result. This beer is very lightly filtered (6 microns) to allow a hazy appearance without being thick. In addition to the base ingredients, Peter has added Turbonado Sugar – or sugar in the raw. With the way it’s looking now, patrons can expect to see this beer in early February.
The other project is one closer to the heart, Rory’s Ale (I guessed on the spelling, that could be really wrong). This beer is being made to celebrate the birth of his first baby, due any day now – and his wife, Britney, looks fantastic, ready to deliver! This beer is due a couple months after the baby, with an expected delivery of March. It is also a Belgian inspired beer, with pomegranate and sour cherry juice additions. From everything I’ve heard, from before it was ever brewed till now, this beer is going to kick ass.
Finally, something a bit more ‘regular’. Peter’s just finished brewing an English Style Porter. This will be ready soon and is intended to get the locals through the rest of our cool months here. I believe this is their first ’straight’ porter. In the past they’ve made “Double Shot”, a porter made with coffee additions – which is currently on tap too, very drinkable with coffee notes that are not overpowering or long lingering.
Till they are complete, locals and regulars can go and enjoy Sac Brew’s regular offerings – the Red Horse and Sacsquatch are exceptional these days, with minor tweaks by Peter proving to have serious impact on the beers’ overall flavor. Red Horse is again dry-hopped, with slight changes in the varieties used. The Sacsquatch has less smoked malt and is incredibly drinkable (oh, it did win the Best of Show honors at the 2007 California Brewers Fest). Of course, you could also enjoy the Russian Imperial Stout that took bronze at this years GABF, great this time of year. What’s great about these beers, they’re bottled and distributed in a number of Northern California markets. I believe I also heard they are making their way into San Diego these days too, but I don’t know many details there.
For dinner last night Tracy and I decided to see how things were going at Folsom’s new beer haven, Manderes. We arrived to a place bustling with activity, with what appeared to be an office party, couples enjoying dinner and a bar full of regulars watching sports and drinking good beer. I was happy to see people here, on a random Thursday evening. I spoke with Brent, owner, and he said business was good. Sure, he had the off day, but this time of year you’d expect that from even the most established restaurants.
We knew the beer here was good, but what we weren’t fully aware of was the food. On our first visit we shared a salad and a burger for lunch. While our first meal was good, it’s pretty hard to really gauge a place on the quality of their burger. Last night’s meal included the Beef Kabob’s, served atop mashed potatoes, and Lobster Ravioli’s served in a cream sauce. Both were excellent, satisfying meals, well beyond standard pub fare. The beef on the kabob was tender, cooked to order, and generous in portions – a great deal for under 15 dollars. Tracy’s ravioli’s were equally impressive. She was hesitant to order them, fearing they’d be bland and hard to enjoy. To her surprise they were bursting with flavors, savory and filling. Each meal came with a generous portion of salad with house-made dressing. I wouldn’t normally mention a salad, by the way, but it really set the tone for the meal – fresh lettuce, a wonderful dressing… yeah, it was good.
In addition to the meals we enjoyed, Manderes offers aged steak, pork chops I’ve heard wonderful reports on, glazed and grilled chicken and beautiful salads and soups. The price ranges from 8 bucks (for a soup) to 25 bucks (surf-n-turf). Add to that a beer menu that is best in the region, and you’ve got yourself a hell of a dinner. And, as if this weren’t enough, for dessert they offer a cheesecake, wrapped in a tortilla, fried, topped with ice cream, caramel and cinnamon. Yeah, it looked pretty freaking good.
As a side note, I was able to talk with one of Manderes’ chefs, Earnest, last night. He was hired straight out of a major casino in Vegas. The guy’s got a great personality, warm and friendly – very easy to talk to if he’s not too busy. Talking with him and Brent, it sounds as if we can expect special menu items in the future, once they get a handle on the business side of things – including staffing, orders and all that fun stuff small business owners do on their own. Manderes also has a chef named Warren, who apparently has been on from the beginning. Brent feels lucky to have both, so much that he can’t help but look like the cat that ate the canary, with a sheepish grin that only serves to prove his genuine appreciation for the work they do.
What to do Before Dinner in Folsom
If you’re thinking about going to Manderes, but aren’t from Folsom, there are a handful of great activities you can enjoy to work up an appetite.
- Historic Folsom is just blocks away, has a number of unique ma-n-pop shops, as well as swanky stops.
- The American River is just down the hill. If you’re looking for a work-out, you can ride your bike along the trail there. It’s been a few years since Tracy and I have done that, but on a cool clear day, there’s nothing better.
- Folsom’s Brewmeister is at the edge of the historic area. If you’re a homebrewer, you can pick up your ingredients or equipment, talk it up with Eric or Kevin, then head just up the hill for great beer.
Manderes | Folsom, Ca from Rick on Vimeo.
Last night my wife, Tracy, had a “social” with her classmates at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, which seems to be a quarterly event for the school and typically features pretty drinks and well mannered establishments. This night saw us arrive, for my first time, to Sacramento’s Hangar 17, a hip industrial place in mid-town that features dimly lit tables, a long-ass bar, good finger foods and lots of flat-screen TVs. Sadly, the place had an awful beer selection, so I chose to enjoy the only decent offering of the 20+ bottles offered – Black Butte Porter. Luckily, I had been beer shopping earlier in the day so there was a Hopsickle that came in handy shortly after the BBP was consumed.
Not shockingly the management wasn’t pleased with me bringing in a beer of my own and for a few minutes there was some tension until I finally convinced him I’d be ‘more than happy’ to pay a ‘corkage’ fee for the opportunity to drink a beer I would enjoy while there. I guess I don’t get this, never have. I don’t want to be a dick, but I also know my tastes and would rather have a good time with friends and a beer I love – rather than settling for something different. Wine folks seem to have a free pass on this, they frequently bring wine in to establishments and pay the nominal corkage fee while nobody bats an eye, and it is frustrating to have to justify this same practice with better beer.
What is more frustrating to me, however, is the fact that far too many ‘up-scale’ places skimp out on beer options. I honestly can’t comprehend this! I’ve been to good beer bars and paid the price for a really good bottle of beer, just like I have done with wine or a well made mixed drink. I’m going out, after all. If I was all that worried about a few bucks, I’d stay home. Mark the beer up, I am not going to worry about it in a place and situation like this. Sell me a Belgian Dubbel or American IPA for 8 bucks, or provide a Lambic for 20 – that won’t hurt or offend me and it may just encourage me to come back again. But to offer a vast selection of high-end booze and fine wines to compliment a horrid beer selection (no, quantity doesn’t impress me when all your imports and American lagers all taste the same) is absurd. By the way, I blame the distributors and reps for this one. Case sales drive the reps business and they’re focus is, perhaps rightfully, on the grocers and markets of the community. There is nobody going to a proprietor of fine dining and selling them on the value of better beer. Want to talk margins? I don’t think offering a top-notch beer selection will hurt you in that area. Sorry.
Anyway, the place was nice (really, it was a great time) and we were there for several hours enjoying the Kings game (they lost to the Clippers), a seemingly endless supply of appetizers (all good) and good company. I eventually moved from my beer obsession to a top shelf margarita and the night never sucked.
From here a group of students decided to go and check out the ‘new bar’ in town, Whiskey Wild on Q and 21st. This is where life got interesting. Walking in to this swank 20-something hangout you’re immediately impressed by the line of ladies on the bar in some odd and awkward attempt to relive Coyote Ugly. Immediately feeling sad for them and their obvious unease at this part of their job, I wasn’t sure this place and me would work too well together – it was crowded, it was loud and I just wasn’t convinced they’d have a drink for me. I was wrong.
Turns out there’s three sections to this bar, thankfully. The front features ladies with low-cut shirts and men with low hanging pants, each trying to act as if nobody notices anybody and nobody cares (man, I’m so happy not to be in that life anymore). The back bar is quieter, seemingly made for the 30-something crowd I am now part of, with couples and groups of friends all gathered around enjoying conversations and good drinks (more on that soon). Finally, there’s an outdoor patio that was underutilized on this cold night in Sacramento, a place of solace for me as I regained some hearing in my blasted ears.
Then, there’s the drinks. Turns out this place has some pretty high end whiskey and tequila and a very impressive offering of bottled beer. Now, I know I don’t know what constitutes a good whiskey or a fine tequila, so my assumptions are based on price and my own limited experience. For whiskey, it was a bit of a surprise to see Bookers available for sipping or adding to top shelf drinks, and that wasn’t cheap. However, at this point my interest was back to beer – which surprised no one.
A bottle of Full Sail Session? Good start. Alaskan IPA on tap? Even better. Green Flash’s West Coast IPA in a bottle, better yet. Now, I only ordered the West Coast IPA, mainly because I didn’t want to overdo a fun night with friends, but it was good to know that a place like this didn’t forget about the good beers of the world. Oh, just so you know, there was a lot more beer and many more good options to choose from.
How was the night? For my tastes, I don’t plan on hitting Hangar 17 anytime soon, but Whiskey Wild could be a good place to meet friends on nights when quiet and calm are not on the menu, but good times and good drinks are.
In today’s Sacramento Bee, the mega newspaper of the Sacramento region, Mike Dunn, Food Editor, has put out FOUR stories on our region’s craft beer scene. What’s more, he’s done a good job on these pieces too! Now, as much as I’d like to copy/paste these stories for your reading pleasure, you know I just can’t do that. So, here are some excerpts for you, hopefully enough to tease you into looking up the stories in their entirety.
From the Bee’s “Hopping on the Bandwagon” piece:
“There’s tremendous diversity in beers these days, among the small guys and the big guys alike. They’re all looking for new openings,” says Charles Bamforth, chair of the department of food science and technology at the University of California, Davis… Beers are being brewed with such exotic ingredients as chili peppers, wasabi and ginger. They’re being aged in used wine barrels. They’re being inoculated with a strain of yeast that gives them a pungent horsy or barnyard character, repulsive to some, savored by others. There are gluten-free beers and smoke-flavored beers.
From their “Where to Find a Fresh Pint” piece, which highlights nine or our city’s breweries:
[Elk Grove Brewing's] Blonde, flavorful but light-style ale with 3.8 percent alcohol; Diamondback wheat (4.8 percent alcohol); and Otis ale, a German-style amber ale with 5.3 percent alcohol Most unusual: Freedom Double IPA, a strong summer ale brewed with three times as many hops as ordinarily used in beers, yielding a brew with 9.7 percent alcohol Summer beer: The light and mild Pony Express summer ale is brewed with a little rye malt to give it a delicate sweetness while preserving a dry finish. What sets it apart: The brewpub, in old-town Elk Grove, occupies a structure built in 1885 to house a harness shop and later a general store.
The Bee also has a “A linguistic guide for what ales you“, doing a good job a defining several common beer styles, and the saddest piece of the bunch, which highlights only two of our region’s beer fests.
I whole heartedly applaud any major newspaper, and the SacBee is just that, who dares to do new things, and for SacBee, covering beer so extensively is certainly a step in the right direction. I hope to see more in the future, would actually love to see a bi-weekly beer column – clearly, with 9 breweries in the region, this would seem sustainable.
If you want to read the stories, you may have to sign in. I think that’s a relatively painless operation though. Thank you to Mike Dunne. If you like what you read, be sure to let Mike know – he’s at mdunne -at- sacbee -dot- com
Updated: Link for Where to Find a Fresh Pint
