Birthday boy Tony and girlfriend, Carmen

1. Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey | 155 Mata Way, Suite 104, San Marcos, CA 92069
   www.lostabbey.com | Google Maps

   This was our launch point. (10 am on a Sunday — no easy launch). We ambushed Tony here and did a little pre-drinking prior to getting on the bus and heading south.

2. Blind Lady Ale House | 3416 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116
   www.blindladyalehouse.com‎ | Google Maps

   Excellent atmosphere, tap list and food. (I had some sort of fresh olive dish and mussels; both of which were delicious. The pizza is outstanding too.) Former Stone Brewing brewer Lee Chase and wife Jen are the proprietors, so you know they’ve got lots of great local brews on tap. We had such a great time there we were able to convince Lee to grab his skateboard and hop on our bus to the next couple of stops down 30th street.

3. Hamilton’s Tavern | 1521 30th St, San Diego, CA‎ 92102
   www.hamiltonstavern.com | Google Maps

   Hamilton’s is a local legend — a great craft beer tavern with a “dive bar” atmosphere. A huge tap list of local and not-so-local craft brews, and a crowd that’s always ready for another round. We’ve been here a number of times and always enjoyed ourselves.

4. Toronado San Diego | 4026 30th St, San Diego, CA 92104-2602
   www.toronadosd.com | Google Maps

   The southern sister to San Francisco’s Toronado, this was actually a re-scheduled stop. We had intended to go to another bar (less big beer, more English stuff as a nod to the birthday boy and a couple of guests), but that got over-ruled and we ended up backtracking up 30th street to the Toronado. Naturally, it has a great tap list (and less scary restrooms than its SF sibling), so somehow we ended up hitting bottles of Cable Car and Toronado 20th in addition to all the other stuff we were drinking. (Things start getting fuzzy here.) This is also where Lee Chase parted ways with us, grabbing his skateboard and rolling back up 30th to the Blind Lady.

5. Tap Room (Pacific Beach) | 1269 Garnet Ave, San Diego, CA 92109
   www.sdtaproom.com | Google Maps
   Our final stop, the Tap Room is a couple of blocks from the beach in an are of San Diego known as Pacific Beach. Open and airy, they’ve got an outdoor bar where you can sit and watch San Diego’s beach culture ride by. (Many of them stop and have a pint too.) Again, a great tap list full of local craft brews and an atmosphere that pretty much demands you stop and enjoy at least 3 or 4 leisurely pints. (Can’t wait to get back here again.)

By the time we rolled out of the Tap Room (and I do mean some of us were rolled), it was closing on 6pm. Thankfully we were at least half an hour from our original rendezvous point back at Lost Abbey, so many were able to grab a quick nap. And the really hardcore professionals were able to grab another pint on the bus.

After drop off in the brewery parking lot (and a couple of people being shoveled into taxis), I’m happy to say that other than a phone, a backpack, and a few billion braincells, nothing else was lost on our adventure.

All-in-all, not a bad birthday party. Happy birthday, again, Tony. Hope you have 50 more. For anyone visiting from out of town, I highly recommend each one of the stop we made… Just get someone like brewery tours of San Diego to drive you.

And for those of you who’d like a visual accounting of the entire thing, here’s a photo album (I’ll get around to commenting on the photos some other time):

[View with PicLens]

1234►

PS: Thanks to Ivan Derezin of Churchills. Even though he could attend (his loss), he ponied up for a part of the cost of the bus. A very cool gesture indeed.

Steelhead Brewery

In July of ’07 we first met Teri Fahrendorf, Steelhead Brewery’s Brewmaster for 17-years, as she was “following the clouds of wort steam across the nation” in her pink boots.

Though she has moved on from Steelhead, it was beer I have wanted to taste since meeting and talking to her.  I was not disappointed.

I ordered a custom sampler tray including the Orange Wheat, Bombay Bomber IPA, Raging Rino Red, Hopasaurus Rex, Glacier Pale Ale and the Doublin Dry Stout.

Steelhead tasters

When my server was filling my samples I noticed that she added something to one of them.  She confessed that the Orange Wheat is just their Hairy Weasel with a splash of orange juice.  The Raspberry Ale is a beer brewed with raspberries and not just the blond with a splash of raspberry juice.

All were tasty, but I settled on a Glacier Pale Ale for my first pint of the day.

Photo Gallery: Steehead Brewing Beer Menus

[View with PicLens]

Thumbing through their menu I noticed the name of their seasonal winter brew.  Looks like I will need to head back up in the winter.

The Blacksmith Restaurant

I was told that they open in another hour or so, so it was off to brewery #3… Then I remembered a conversation I had with one of the patrons of Deschutes Public House.  The patron had overheard me speaking with my server of my love of IPAs and stronger beers, and he recommended I visit a bar called the Summit Saloon and get a pint of Terminal Gravity IPA.  In his words it is the best IPA he has every had, not too heavy, not too light..just right.  With time to kill I headed to Summit Saloon, located on NW Oregon Ave. between Bond and Wall.

I walked in and asked the man behind the counter for a Terminal Gravity IPA.  The man walked to the taps and yanked the stick tap, a varnished stick.

Summit Saloon - Partial Taps

That’s it snuggled between the Widmer and the Spaten…it’s a stick.  Kind of like the first tap handle I ever saw from Stone…it was a stone, or more a flat oval  smooth beach rock.  But no name, just the rock…kinda cool.

Terminal Gravity IPA

And best yet, it was a great recommended IPA.  It had a floral and citrus nose, great hop character with a good balance of malt…yummy..I had two along with my half-price happy hour burger and fries.

The Blacksmith was still not open yet, so it was time to head to brewery #3.

Deschutes Brewery & Public House

Tap List

Top to bottom and left to right, I ordered my set of six tasters.  I like the idea of putting it on a pad.

My tasters

Six Beer Samples

Though it does not show well in the picture Oregon 150 is red/pink in color and has a bright pink foamy head.   Very Interesting, but I found it too sweet for my taste at the time.   Looking at the ingredients again, I can see why.

The Dissident was the first imperial Flanders style I have had.  Usually it is a 5% beer…but 9% wow.

The Dissident

When I wrote down Obsidian Stout, I wanted the Nitro Coffee Obsidian Stout, so I order a taste of one of those as well.

Nitro Coffee Obsidian Stout

For those that like coffee beers, this may be your beer.  For those that like coffee and don’t like beer, this may be your beer.  To me it was like cold coffee, with just a hint of carbonation.  Not quite my cup of tea, or coffee…I guess.

I am way behind in my postings.  I still have two more breweries and two bars in Bend.  Now I am in Eugene and planning on visiting some places here.   I am a block away from Steelhead Brewing, as well as Eugene City Brewing (owned by Rogue Ales), and I haven’t even looked yet.

Gordie Gerski - Homeless Brewer of the Week

A Canadian-Polish mix recently re-located here from Kansas City to run Port Brewing’s new bottling line, he is friendly, housebroken and has all his shots. He likes to watch mixed-martial arts, baseball and anything with Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen in it.

He needs a home with a fenced yard, preferably in Northern San Diego county, where his furry Malamute companion, Molly, can let him romp and play without worrying about him getting out and run over by a car.

Gordie is currently staying at the Mike Rodriguez Shelter for Homeless Brewers, but with all the homeless brewers that need a place to stay, his time could be running short.

If you have a place to rent (or know of one) that would be a good home for Gordie, please contact us.

Did he think this was a good idea at the time?

Going through my mind as I look at this—

• Uh… why? Oh, wait – it’s his “six pack” abs.
• A couple more beers and he’s got room for a 12 pack
• What does this guy’s wife / girlfriend / S.O. look like?
• When are the twins due?
• If you pop one of those, will his stomach go back to normal?

I’m sure you’ve got pithy thoughts too. Feel free to add them.

Hot Rocks Stein-style Brown Lager

That “man” in the headline is me, of course.

I’m currently enjoying a cold pint of Hot Rocks, the new stein-style brown lager from Port Brewing Company.

Yes, it is delicious.

For those who don’t know the backstory on this one, Hot Rocks is a collaboration between Port Brewing’s Tomme Arthur and Bend Brewing’s Tonya Cornett. Tomme is the 2008 Word Beer Cup Champion Brewmaster in the Small Brewing Company category and Tonya is the Word Beer Cup Champion Brewmaster in the Small Brewpub category.

Late in January of this year Tonya went to Port Brewing to brew a stein beer with Tomme, which involved taking a standard German Brown Lager wort and pumping it into a hopback filled with super-heated granite rocks before sending it over to the fermenter. (Beer Molly made a photo slideshow of the process. You can see it here.)

Tomme later went up to Bend and brewed the same beer with Tonya in Bend’s brewhouse.

I’m drinking a glass pulled off of a growler-fill from Port Brewing last weekend. It’s dark, roasty and full of caramel and rich malt flavors — a result of fresh wort caramelizing on molten hot rocks no doubt. A lot of flavor for a beer that only registers around 6.5 ABV. (I’m told that the Bend version of Hot Rocks will be even more malty and caramel because of their higher proportion of hot rocks to beer.)

I saw the label proofs for this beer last weekend as well. It’s a cool illustration that’s sort of “Blue Hawaii” meets “Joe vs the Volcano”, complete with spewing volcano (reminiscent of the effect of fresh wort hitting super-heated rocks) and masked natives (reminiscent of the Port Brewing crew). The beer is already bottled and I hear it’s being labeled this week. Expect it in distribution nationwide by the end of the month.

PS: And if you’re looking for an excuse to go to Bend, OR in early April, I hear that’s about the time Tonya will be putting her version of Hot Rocks on tap.

Saturday was a long-ass day, just ask BeerSage

Though I brought my camera with me to the Carnevale Party, I failed to use it.  I prepared by deleting old pics off of my card and charging my battery, but I don’t recall taking the camera out and actually taking pictures with it.

Maybe due to the difficult access of my fancy robe, maybe due to the fact that my hands were busy holding beers (with Angel’s Share, Older Viscosity and Carnevale all on tap, who wouldn’t be) or judging breast cup sizes, heck or shear laziness; my camera rarely left my pocket.

So I was pleasantly surprised to actually find a picture on my camera from that evening.  Better yet, a picture that is a good representation of our Saturday (9am to 6pm for the Angel’s Share release prep, release and then clean-up, and then decorate for the Carnevale Masquerade party that started at 7pm until…whatever time we kick everyone out..it was an awesome, but long-ass day.

Mike taking a little time to catch up on his reading

His wife assured me that he usually does that elsewhere, but the “library” might have been occupied at the time.

And yes, those are de proef kegs. And no, they’re not going to be on tap. They had Signature Ale in them at one point, but these guys have all been cleaned and are getting palleted to make the trip back to Belgium.