I am in Jackson, TN and with any luck we will make it to Raleigh tonight, which means if I post to this month's Session topic “Drinking anti-seasonally” it will be later this weekend. That said go read Rob's site for what will surely be some great reading.

I am in San Francisco for the weekend to attend the BN Anniversary party and enjoy many great beers. But a change is in the winds, we'll be moving to North Carolina in a few short weeks.

The Beer Geek in me looks forward to seeing what the beer scene is like in the Raleigh-Durham area. It will certainly be a change from the cool mountains of Flagstaff, but change and new surroundings are a good thing, it gives life a fresh perspective.

I'll likely get to see some East Coast friends I have missed the last few years a little more often. Besides what fun is life without a new adventure occasionally.

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.

Everytime I wander around the Prescott Courthouse Square and visit Prescott Brewing I always have the same thought, I need to visit more often. A few weekends ago was one of those occasions when our local homebrew club visited the brewery for tour, tasting, and a lunch. We were not disappointed.

As we arrived we were escorted through the beer coaster laden walls to the back of the brewpub where the brewroom and Jan the headbrewer waited for us. You can see the brewroom from the bar with the glass door and windows allowing full access to see the brewers work down below. This first thing that strikes you is how compact their brewing operation is with the mash tun, brew kettle, and fermenter tanks in a space not much larger than some living rooms. To enter the brewroom we took the spiral staircase down to the brew room, again a space saving device.

One advantage of taking a tour of with a bunch of homebrewers is you can immediately jump into the detail aireas and skip over the brewing basics. Jan was great about answering our many and detailed questions. Being homebrewers we had no shortage of questions and nearly ran late because of it.

The cooler room was filled with a number of Grundy tanks and a few larger serving tanks. The beers only need to travel about 65 feet from tank to tap, talk about fresh beer.

The tasting was perhaps the best part of the experience so we could listen to what Jan intended as we tasted their beers. Prescott typically has 6 Flagship beers but with typically 7-11 beers on tap at any given time. Generally the beers revolve around tree based names. The Lodgepole Light is a cream ale that had light straw color and good head retention. It had a light sweet malt flavor with a slightly fruit aroma. Then we had the Liquid Amber, their best selling, which had a coppery color light malt character with light carmel notes. After that we had the Bumbleberry ale which was an interesting fruit beer. It had a ruby red color that feature a tartness with a sweet finish. It reminded me of a flavor fruit spakling water drink. Not something I would typical drink but on a hot Summer day it could be very refreshing. Next was the Prescott Pale ale, the first beer we could really detect a hop presence in the beer. It was a clear yellowside of orange with a hint of Cascade hops and very good balance. The Ponderosa IPA was a GABF award winning and it was interesting comparison to the uberhoppy beers of the Western US. Not to say it was subdued, but rather there was a very balanced hop profile to the malt which made for a very drinkable beer, so much so it was one of the pitchers we ordered later. The Dubbel-A-Thon Ale was probably my favorite beer of the day. A true Beligian Dubbel it had nice sweetness with banana estery quality with deep carmel color. While it's only the second time they have brewed it will eventually be an award winning beer I'll tell you now. The FunkenDunkel was an interesting animal, good carbonation with sweet malt character and a dark muddled brown color almost like a Spring riverbed. I prefer the clove and banana esters in my wheats, which this didn't have so it wasn't my style of beer but it was a different interpretation of what a wheat beer could be. Last was the Petrified Porter which had a roasted character to it but it was hard to say much more as by this point we had tasted many beers.

We finished the tasting with lunch I had a simple burger, but they grind the meat in house and what a difference it makes, probably the best burger I have had in years. People next to me had the pot roast and they said it was equally good in fact of the 12 of us everyone enjoyed their meal with no complaints except perhaps we couldn't get pitchers of the Dubbel.

It's been a month since the tour and all I can say is I need to get down there more often.

Pictures of the tour

Charlie the Beer Guy has been doing some great beer blogging of Northern California and Oregon, especially considering he is on a family vacation. Check it out if you get the chance as well as his podcast it's worth your time.

See previous "Man on a Mission" post here

21st Amendment was the next stop on the brew tour. Our cab ride was far more enjoyable than my first of the day. Frankly I think the guy enjoyed our company as much as we did.

The large volume of people heading to the ballpark and it being a Friday afternoon I had a feeling the bar would be packed long before we arrived at it. I wasn’t wrong. Sadly I think this made it all the more difficult to truly enjoy the bar because the crowded nature. We managed to squeeze ourselves into a corner of the Loft.

The IPA, Oyster Stout, and Watermelon Wheat were the only beers that stayed in my mind and after the good time at Speakeasy I didn’t get around to taking notes. The Watermelon Wheat had a distinctive summer taste and while I am not sure I’d want to drink one often in places like Phoenix where the temperature soars it would be very refreshing.

I look forward to going back and spending an afternoon exploring their beers and menu more thoroughly.

After one round we moved on to one of my favorite places in San Francisco Thirstybear brewery. A good friend brought me there for dinner back in the Dot Com era and I have been going back ever since. The food was excellent as usual and while we enjoyed the beer it was the third brewery of the day so without notes I won’t be getting any more detailed.

Most of our group had a very long day with very early flight from Phoenix so this was our last stop for the night.

Saturday
I was supposed to meet with an old friend down near the Piers. While I wandered about I accomplished a quick survey of the area. In my pretrip research I saw no mention of a brewery I had visited a while back, I am pretty sure it was Full Sail, but all that was left in it's place was a Hooters.

I wandered a bit further until I came across another favorite haunt of mine when I am in the city Jack's Cannery Pub. The bar is notable, because it’s cash only, classic hardwood bar and 85 taps of beer. I think it’s that last part that keeps me coming back.

On my last visit to the city three friends and I showed up a Jacks late one for a beer before heading back to the hotel. One for the road so to speak. Being the group’s resident beer snob I was ordered by one friend to pick out a beer for everyone based on my knowledge of their tastes.

I studied the taps deliberately for a few minutes before selecting a pint for each of us. We sat together at a table and I gave each of them their beer. They each loved their selection, but then the real test began. After a taste we passed the pint to our right until all four of us had a chance to sample the selections. In the end, we all loved the one we first tried and while the others were good it was the first one each person preferred. Okay except for me, I could have had any of the beers happily.

Beer Snob Uber Alles.

So on this return to the Jacks, I knew I could pass away a bit of time while I waited. The German Pilsner I had was great and it was wonderful to get the chance to enjoy another beer there, because I wasn’t sure I would get back there this trip. (Which I didn’t)

So after my friend didn’t turn up I took my friends to a tattoo shop I had noticed on my stroll towards the Piers. I have nothing against tattoos, I haven’t just found my design yet, but the thought of standing around and watching other three people get them did not sound appealing so I remembered another must visit from my research just down the street.

The Rogue Tap Room was a friendly bar and folk with 40 beers on tap while I was there, 22 of them being Rogue’s own brews. Thankfully they had a tasting bat so I was able to enjoy a number of beers without abusing my liver.

Over all their beers were well thought out and balanced beers. Among the beers I drank I had no overly aggressive hopiness that is often the approach of Western breweries. There was more structure and sophistication behind the beer.

That said I did often notice a strong carbonic character to there beers, but the bartenders mentioned they had changed the CO2 unit earlier in the day and were still adjusting the levels. So I don’t think it normal.

My first beer was their Brutal Bitter, a 6.5% ESB. Strong for the style but with the balance to pull it off. Very drinkable, in fact after two sample trays of other darker and richer beers I went back to enjoy a final pint and I wasn’t disappointed.

Next up was the Half-e-Weizen, a filtered wheat in the Belgian tradition. It was light, clear with a hint of coriander. I am more of a tradition Hefe drinker or even the occasional Wit so the light nature did not appeal to me. That said as a summer drink I am sure it would appeal to others looking for something more complex than a lawnmower beer.

After that I tried the HazelNut Brown Nectar. It was a clear dark ale with a warm chocolaty hazelnut flavor. The maltiness was the big player in this beer, but the hazelnut flavor dominates it enough that I doubt I would ever be able to have many at one sitting. Not a session beer.

The Smoke Ale was one that really amazed me. It had a copper color with rich strong malt and smoke character. While the smoke flavor is ever present it’s not over powering or overwhelming.

The Chipotle Ale was equally interesting with as well a coppery color. The smoked pepper was very subtle, to the the degree that if you paired it with too spicy a dish you might even miss it was there.

These two beers were among my favorite because they could take a unique ingredient, use it, but not let the beer be over dominated by it’s character like other beers with similar ingredients.

Next was the No Fault Ale, which a spicy malt character and was a close second for my last pint. Though I can find no mention of it on their website.

Last and not least I had two samples of Mocha Porter, one on traditional pull and the second on Handpump tap. The hand pump was very smooth with no edges to the flavor. In contrast the traditional tap had more of the mocha chocolate character to it.

All and all it was a great afternoon of beer and I look forward to going back again.

Next up Sunday...

When I visited San Francisco little over a week ago I had two missions. One was to relax and enjoy good times with friends I don’t see often enough, people while not blood are in my book family. Then there was the second mission to see as many of the San Francisco area breweries as possible. I think I accomplished both.

We arrived on Friday and immediately I could smell something in the air, beer and it smelled damn tasty. After our crew arrived we had lunch, gathered our necessities and headed off in a cab.

Well one group did, but our group had the cabby from hell. I explained where we were going he replied.

“I dunno where it was.”

'Great' was my immediate thought, the only cabbie who doesn’t know his own city. I tried to explain again and he began to shout

“I don’t know where it is” in heavily accented English.

At this point I pulled out a map and explained roughly how far south he would need to drive us from our Union Square hotel to the area of the brewery. As I explained the location he interrupted once again.

“No No No I know how to get there but don’t know what is there.” He proceeded to explain three more times, shouting.

At this point I nearly told the bastard to pull over and go in search of a less surly cabbie. I was on vacation and I didn’t need this crap, if I had been alone I know I would have done it too. But considering I was there with two friends it seemed too much a hassle to bother them with the cabbie claimed to know how to get there and so we put up with his attitude.

Eventually he dropped us off at Speakeasy Ales and Lagers a nondescript commercial building a long ways from downtown. The place was rather quiet and empty when we arrived, not the most promising sign when your looking for brewers and beer, but it was my plan and tour so I had little choice. I marched up the dock entrance like I knew exactly where it would take me. In a way I sort of did know, I was going into a brewery. I hoped.

I knew we were in the right place when I saw the pallets of two row malt and the Speakeasy eyes gazing at me. Hard guitar licks played on an echoing stereo system and the smell of malt in my nostrils proved I was in the right place.

I had called their phone line and left a message I had five for a tour on that Friday, leaving my number in case they wanted to call back with questions or confirm. I never got a reply I meant to call back and confirm but I got busy and it never happened. I knew the brewery was open on Fridays so we took our chances.

The first person we met was Big Mike, aka the brewer, I liked him immediately. He didn’t have us on the tour list, but there was only another couple for the tour so they had plenty of room for us on the tour. After a few minutes wait he poured us a few pints to keep us entertained while we waited for the start of the tour. Their beers were malty, strong, and the imperials aggressively hop. I was in heaven. They reminded me of Stone beers, but more balanced in construction.

Big Mike lead us on a tour of their facility and I suspect he realized I wasn’t your average drunk visiting the brewery. I asked about hops used, temperature control, malt, yeast and every other question a homebrewer could come up with it. Mike seemed to enjoy the questions because it allowed him to pass along more than the regular “We boil here, we age it here, we bottle it there” tour.

I was impressed by their standards and commitment to excellence, but not at the expense of enjoying life, it is beer after all.

After the tour we returned to the tasting area, where their usual Friday afternoon open house is hosted.

While there I spoke with Chris in Sales, we had a great conversation about California beers, the recent microbrewery industry move to canning, and getting their beers into Flagstaff. Also while their beer is available in seven states, it’s evidently available in Finland. A bar there some how got a supplier to bring it in and they love it. Good for them but I’d hate to pay their prices for a pint. But considering Speakeasy’s beer it’s worth the trouble.

The Beers
My first beer was an Imperial Amber which was big, bold, and hoppy. It didn’t fit my mood of what I wanted to drink, but I knew I could drink it far easier than anyone else in the group so I suffered through it. Okay I didn’t really suffer, it was beer.

From there I moved over to their Bootlegger Black Lager which I had sampled earlier and found to be excellent, well balanced and no esters, exactly like you want a Black Lager to be. I intended to find a Black Czech lager I had discovered a few years ago while in San Francisco, but this was the best I could do. That said I wasn’t in the least disappointed.

Last of the beers I have distinct memory was the Old Godfather Barley Wine-Style Ale , while not aggressively strong at 10.2%, it’s a deadly beast. It’s smooth and as balanced as any pale ale I have ever had. It was far too drinkable for something that strong. I wish I bought a growler full of it. In the end I did buy a growler, just because of their distinctive style, but having it filled with their Bootlegger Black Lager made it no trouble at all. Having to use later for my homebrews is only icing on the cake.

A short while later we piled into a cab to our next stop, 21st Amendment. (Part 2)