William Brand talked a bit ago how the Silicon Valley beer scene wasn't very impressive and while I only had a limited exposure on a work trip the last few days I am inclined to agree.

I stayed at the Domain an upscale boutique hotel. It was generally a pleasant experience, great wifi, stylish rooms, and they even had a local wine happy hour for samples at the bar. That said for being in California the beer selection was rather disappointing.

Besides the generic list of mass produced domestics they had Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and Gordon Biersch Marzen. These are all very fine beers, but frankly very safe choices. If I had a hotel bar that had travelers from all over the country and probably the world. Why not expose these travelers to some of the best beers in the Bay area?

Start off with Speakeasy. They makes some amazing ales and lagers while they are starting to be seen in Arizona I don't think they are much known outside of California. Bootleg Black Lager is a favorite and the Big Daddy IPA and Double Daddy are great examples of the California brewing.

Or how about some bottles of Russian Rivers Belgian style ales Vinnie Curlizo just won the “Russell Schehrer Award For Innovation In Craft Brewing” award at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego. I don't know that Pliny the Elder is sold yet in bottles, but I would offer that or I am sure they can find a few unique things to offer.

The 21st Amendment is also not far and they sell beer their beer in cans, why not talk to Shaun and Nico about getting cans at your hotel, change people's perceptions about beer.

Or looking to the greater California Firestone Walker is one of my favorite breweries. I have been a fan ever since a buddy brought back a six pack of Double Barrel ale from California. I can now find it it down in the Phoenix area and I can't wait until it makes it to Flagstaff.

These are just a few examples that come to mind but there is a great opportunity to introduce people to something special and unique in a boutique hotel. From the Domain's use of local wines I suspect they see that, they just need to open their eyes that beer can function that way as well.

Big Brew turned out great. Zach, John, Jim, and the brewery were great hosts. I suspect they enjoyed seeing the individual homebrewer rigs as much as we enjoyed coming down to Oak Creek to brew.

We were able to sample their Imperial Porter and Rare Earth, a Saison that was aged in Oak Wine barrels from Page Springs winery. I had Rare Earth at this year's Strong Ale festival in Mesa so I was looking forward to trying it again as soon as Zach mentioned it would be there. The wood aging clarifies and added an interesting red color to the brew. The wine character is apparent in both the aroma and flavor so it was great to get to enjoy again.

The brew day went well for me I ended up coming up with my own partial mash recipe based on some scraps at the shop and a few things offered by Oak Creek. Among them was some of hops they had won in the Sam Adams raffle, so it seemed rather appropriate that Jim Koch's generosity was further passed along.

The brews went well for myself and everyone else, we look forward to sharing the finished beers with the guys at the brewery in the future. It was a great opportunity to teach some of the breweries customers that you can brew at home.

John, a brewer at Oak Creek, was the day's archivists with his photos and he has just started blogging so check them both out.

Uerige Alt is a Dusseldorf Alt beer. While the website states the alcohol at 4.7% my bottle listed at 4.5%. It has a reddish coppery color with good clarity. White foam with good head retention and a mix of small and medium sized bubbles. There was a slight alcoholic aroma with caramel notes apparent in it's malty aroma. Malty character dominant with bitterness to balance but no other obvious hop character present. The beer had a medium body with moderate carbonation.

On the website they mention they use umbel hops a variety I am not familiar with, but seems to be more a term about the way they are raised than specific variety.

The malt character definitely fits what I would consider to be a session beer because more than one seems to be the perfect idea as you finish your first glass. My only disappointment in buying three bottles I suppose is that I sent the other two off so that my BJCP classmates could enjoy a sample as well. I suppose I'll have to find more in Phoenix this weekend, I know just the place to find more.

A quick reminder that today is National Homebrew day aka Big Brew. I'll be celebrating with Northern Arizona Homebrewers at Oak Creek Brewery in Sedona. For those of you who aren't in the area check the AHA site and you can find where folks are participating in your area. It's a great way to learn how to brew for yourself.

Postscript: I forgot to say thanks to Boak and Bailey's UK beer blog for hosting this month.

It all started for me in college. I never liked beer really but all I saw was typical mass produced light American lager. I was in the middle of struggling with German as a foriegn language, I had walked past the foreign study section and noticed language classes in Germany. I had the thought how much easier it would be to learn German studying there. That week I got a postcard from my Father saying he was in Germany and that he thought it would be much easier to learn German if I was there.

So we made it happen.

Fast forward a few months and I am in Tuebingen about to start NAU's Spring Intensive Program. The first night before classes even started our group met for dinner in the Greek Restaurant near the dorms. My Father suggested I try the Dunkleweizen before my departure describing it's dark color and bready character. I had to give it a try. I scanned the menu closely looking for the beer and once I found it I had one of the class tudor confirm I was reading it correctly.

The flavor was wonderful, powerful and lingers in my memory. It hooked me on Hefeweizen as a style and the malty side of beers in general.

It's not to say I didn't in time develop a taste for hoppy beers, I do drink them fairly often, but malt beers will be my first love always. The majority of my homebrew the last 14 or so years has been the malty beer, I only brewed an American Pale Ale for the first time last Fall. For our BJCP class a few weeks ago we had Bock beers and they called to me immediately. So while I may wander to the hoppy side, it was that first taste of malt that hooked me for life.