Barleywine Show

Mark, Rick, Tracy and Jim the Brewer joined Terri and I on Friday the 13th to record the much overdue Pacific Brew News Barley Wine show.

The line-up....in order of consumption....... or somewhere close to it....I highly recommend listening to the show for better details.

22oz - Bitter - Jim's Homebrew we used for a starter...or...calibration beer

22oz - Lollihop IPA - Rick's IPA recipe brewed here last year....more calibration

12oz - UINTA BREWING CO - Salt Lake City Utah. XV Fifteenth Anniversary Barley Wine. 10.4%. 2009 Release.

12oz - HALES'S ALES LTD - Seattle Washington. Rudyard's Rare. 9.2%. 2008 Release

12oz - SPEAKEASY - San Francisco, CA. Old Godfather. 10.2%. 2006 Release

12oz - BREW IT UP - Sacramento CA. Sky Diver. 10.5%. 2007 Release

12oz - VALLEY BREWING - Stockton CA. Rye Based Barley wine. 2006 California Brewers Festival entry

22oz - STONE BREWING - Escondido CA. Old Guardian. 11.26%. Early 2006 Release.

22oz - LAGUNITAS BREWING - Petaluma CA. GnarlyWine. 9.7%. 2006 Release.

750ML - ROGUE BREWING - Newport OR. Old Crustacean. 11.5%. 2006 Release.

22oz - MIDNIGHT SUN BREWING - Anchorage AK. Arctic Devil. 10%. 2006 Release.

12oz - SIERRA NEVADA BREWING - Chico CA. Big Foot. 9.6%. 2006 Release.

22oz - PUBLICAN PUB & BREWERY - Pacific City OR. The Perfect Storm. 13.5%. 2008 Release

After the show choices.

22oz - TREE BREWING COMPANY - Kelowna BC. Hop Head. 8% Double IPA

Growler - RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING - Santa Rosa CA. Blind Pig IPA. 6%. 3 months in the growler and still delicious (Thanks Bob)

12oz - GREEN FLASH BREWING - Vista, CA. HopHead Red.

The Lagunitas GnarleyWine and the Midnight Sun Arctic Devil were pretty much the run away winners on the night. They were both just a pure joy to drink and what I believe we would all agree is the state of the art in West Coast style Barley Wines. Big bold sweet malt flavors backed by prodigious hops throughout. Smooth, balanced and big. Highly recommended.

The Publican Pub The Perfect Storm is bourbon barrel aged and was quite the overpowering treat as well, big time Bourbon presence. The only two entry's that I don't think really measured up to the group we sampled was the Hale's Rudyard's and the Rogue Old Crustacean.

Hop Growing

The rain has finally backed off a bit here in early March and the Hop Hunter is busy preparing (or as Terri might say) destroying our back yard.
My plan is to put in some hops before the window of opportunity closes this Spring. Of course I have no idea what I'm doing .....but with a little luck and a few gallons of sweat perhaps later this summer we may even have a little harvest of those beautiful lupulin cones to call our own.
It just seems to me that brewing at home with one's personally grown hops is something worthy to aspire to.

Bilco's Billiard's

If you find yourself in Napa and need a beer....I suggest Billco's at 1234 3rd Street. They have no less than 60 taps and the day we showed up they sported 15 IPA's as well as other assorted goodies like Chimay (White), Lagunitas Brown Shugga, Old Rasputin, Red Rocket, Three Philosophers, Affligem Noel Affligem Blond and even Babycham.
The IPA's included RR Bling Pig and Pliny the Elder, Racer 5, Firestone Walker Union Jack, Hopsickle, Green Flash West Coast IPA, Dogfish Head 90 minute and Stone IPA. The new Napa Smith brewery was also well represented with 4 tap handles.
Bilco's also have a decent assortment of bottled offerings including all three Chimay's, Duvel and Budvar. Interestingly I convinced the Bartender to recommend the Budvar to a customer that was somewhat pissed that they were out of American Budweiser. The guy eventually relented and decided to give the Budvar a shot. By the time we pulled out and headed home the guy was on his fourth one and recommending it to a late arriving buddy.
Beer education slowly but surely...man..it's a beautiful thing.

Downtown Joes

I've actually visited Downtown Joe's in Napa at least once per year for the past four cycling seasons (After the Cherry Pie event) and I must admit it is a destination worth pursuing.
The beer is more than adequate and the food has always been good.
This year we sampled the Ace High Pale Ale, the Tantric India Pale Ale, Golden Thistle Very Bitter Ale and the Double Secret Probation double IPA
The IPA is definitely the best beer I have tasted at DTJ's. The Pale is also well done but the Thistle, which is listed at 100+ IBU's just confuses me.
I have to admit we visited Joes just 26 hours or so after the Bistro's Double IPA fest (see the pacificbrewnewsblogspot) but still I just couldn't fathom even 50 IBU's in this beer despite the claim. Perhaps it's just me.
We also eventually sampled the Double Secret Probation IPA that claimed to have "An overwhelming balance of hops and malt" but in reality we felt an overwhelming urge to abandon our pints of that...concentrate on our very tasty burgers and Reuben and walk on down the road to Billco's. But then..that's another blog entry all together.
So in a nutshell I'd advise going to DTJ's for some food and decent beer and then walking three blocks to Bilco's billiards for some truly outstanding beer selections.

A long Sunday ride home

After spending the last four days of the year in San Ramon ... we left Zack's house just after 10am Sunday morning with the full intention of beating the end-of-a-long-holiday weekend traffic home to Roseville to perform some much needed chores around the Soberment household.

We made it about 15 miles out of there before taking a detour through the Delta area for a recon of possible cycling routes for the coming summers pedaling opportunities.

We figured we should stop in Concord for a quick visit to EJ Phair...or in Antioch for a much over due return to Schooners Grille & Brewery. The problem was the time.....it was just too damn early and neither establishment would be open yet.

So we wondered around the Delta area checking out Rio Vista, Isleton and highways 12 and 113. Once we were on 113 and pretty distressed about finding few cycling worthy roads I figured we'd just head north until we came to I-80. By the time we were in the Davis area it was virtually lunch time and so we decided to make a stop at the Davis Graduate....a place I had previously avoided because I figured it was just some noisy college town dive full of Bud Light and Miller products.

Well I was right about the Bud and Miller products...It seemed they had every version of those taps imaginable...But.... Luckily the place is just swamped in tap handles (they advertise 50 but by my count it was closer to 64) and we were able to find several beers to our liking.

The biggest surprise we found was Pliny the Elder. The giant black bartender's eyes lit up when we ordered one. He explained that they just got their first keg of Pliny in and he wanted to tell us just how great a beer it was.

We smiled and listened patiently as he preached to the choir. Fortunately we had started with Sierra Nevada's spectacular Torpedo and still had some in our glasses as his sermon continued on.

I asked about whether Blind Pig was also coming to town but he was unaware of that possibility. I figured once the Pig showed up he would have plenty of ammo for yet another great beer speech.

The facility itself is pretty vast, with a fairly long impressive wood bar and a lot of tables centered around a multitude of TVs, including one really huge screen in the middle.

This place is clearly a sports bar.

The food court looked pretty impressive as well with all the menu items listed across the top of the ordering windows for easy reading.

So easy in fact that we tried an appetiser (Jalapeno poppers) and a spicy Cajun hot dog. The poppers typically lacked any heat and the hot dog was less than spicy...but hey...it was all tasty enough and the beer was cold so we weren't really complaining.

After our second and final Pliny the bartender came back and tried to sell us on returning in a week to participate in 'Stone Brewing night'. He figured if we liked Pliny then we were bound to enjoy a new discovery like Stone IPA!

I really enjoyed his enthusiasm for beer, and so we thanked him for the great service and headed on out the door into the bright sunshine wondering.........should we stop at Rubicon or go straight to Sacramento Brewing?.....decisions...decisions....decisions.

A nice Barclay visit

Over the years I have been lucky enough to visit Barclay's in Oakland on several occasions. Their moniker "30 Beers on tap all the time" is very right on the money and frankly it even seems like more.
The place was jumpin on a Saturday Night, but we got lucky and a table was opening up as we entered the downstairs entrance. Not fully downstairs mind you, just kind of a half buried below street level that gives the place and interesting feel about it.
I settled down in the somewhat flimsy (for me anyway) chair and went straight for the beer menu as the rest of my cohorts scanned the food menu for some tasty treats. We both managed to come up with some nice choices. There was no less than eight IPA's on the menu including two doubles, Drakes Hopocalypse and the iconic Pliny the Elder.
I decided to start lighter and went straight to the Firestone Walker Union Jack. I know, I know...that's crazy talk but I just wasn't in the mood to start any lighter despite the presence of Racer 5, Lagunitas IPA, Rubicon IPA, and Green Flashes West Coast IPA. Anchor's Liberty Ale was the other
Curiously the menu does not mention the Brewers name...only the Beer name, the style and their Club ID designation. Naturally Guinness occupies the number 1 spot. Ballast Points Sea Monster Imperial Stout was the highest number on the list at 2031. All that means is that well over 2100 different beers have been offered at Barclay's since they opened in the mid 90's.
The kids reported that the Black Diamond Hefe was quite drinkable and rewarded their interest with proper Bavarian Hefeweizen characteristics. Good thing too since it was the only wheat beer on the menu. Not really sure why they ordered hot wings and quesadillas to go along with it but both appetizers were generous and tasty...at least with my Union Jack, Hop Rod Rye, Pliny the Elder and Hopocalypse.
I know I've said it here before .....but if you are in Oakland...or South Berkeley...stop in and check out Barclay's. I'm pretty sure they'll be something there for any beer palate. Never did get around to trying that Sea Monster though ....damn it.

Zappa plays Zappa

Oh my god!!! As Moon Unit might say. Dweezil Zappa and the band was just a pair of knickers this side of freakin nirvana. Well.....nothing similar to Kurt Cobain and the fellas....but just about as awesome a show as a Frank Zappa lovin HopHunter could hope to encounter.
The scene was the New Years Eve 8pm show at the impressively ornate War Memorial Opera House in downtown San Francisco..... but earlier that same day...........
Terri and I finished off our 2008 work year by toiling a couple of morning hours and then headed out of town to meet up with Zack at the 1st Street Ale House in Livermore for some lunch...and of course maybe a couple three hop libations. The excellent Blue Cheese burger I had was only outdone by the outstanding IPA's the 1st street people had available. I started with the IPA from Schooners in Antioch which just seems to get better every time I have it. Excellent West Coast IPA style representation ....great aroma, huge hop bite and a nice clean finish. Next, of course I HAD to have a Pliny the Elder right? I would have saved the Pliny for my last beer except the beer menu also offered the Hopocalypse Imperial IPA from Drakes Brewing in San Leandro. Oh my. What a big hop monster that sucker is......If not for the show that evening I could have just stayed on 1st street and tried to demolish that keg of 11% sweetness.
After finishing up lunch and switching my bike onto Zack's transport we rode BART from Dublin to the Civic Center station in SF and immediately grabbed a cab with instructions to proceed to 547 Haight Street. With nearly three hours to spare before showtime it seemed only prudent to use the opportunity to polish some bar stools at Toronado. The Marin brewing Cask IPA, Russian River Blind Pig and Pliny the Elder went nicely between excursions into the beauty that is Port Brewing Hop-15 .....
After cabbing back to the show we made our way to our seats.....2nd row....dead center. Yes it IS worth spending 40% more for these kinds of seats. After a forgettable and useless opening act Dweezil, Ray White and the rest of cast came out and just nailed some FZ classics like INCA ROADS, COSMIC DEBRIS, MAGIC FINGERS (a 200 Motels song? Amazing) CAROLINA HARDCORE ECSTASY which feature some killer solos by everyone in the band. The middle of the show they did BILLY the MOUNTAIN which realllly surprised me. Not one of my favorites but impressive that they could pull off that nearly 25 minute piece of FZ musical history. They also did two of my favorites from way back WILLIE the PIMP (No, no Captain Beefheart sightings) and The MUFFIN MAN.
Keyboard/Flute/Saxophone player Scheila Gonzalez was particularly impressive; but what I enjoyed the most about the show was the sheer joy that was just oozing off all the players. They obviously enjoyed the show nearly as much as I did and their performance radiated it.
Unfortunately for Les Claypool, who is an incredible bass player, he had to try to follow up the FZ crew. It couldn't be done. Somewhere Frank was grinning and enjoying being the proud Papa of such a wonderful kid. We are all the better for it.
Our train ride home was uneventful ..... fortunately......because an hour and a half after we left town there was a shooting homicide in the BART station where we departed from.