The New Face of Pizza and Beer in Anaheim

In the past couple years I have been overjoyed to watch the gastropub flourish here in Orange County. What, however, is happening with the evolution of our beloved American institution called the sports bar? Well I am extremely excited to post that exciting beer-things are indeed happening! An excellent example of this long overdue trend is open for your craft-beer-geek enjoyment.Out of the Park Pizza in Anaheim is a sublime blend of everything that makes a family oriented sports bar the place you always want to be at, combined with a strict zero-tolerance for mediocre beer and food policy. Out of the Park Pizza is bringing Game Day excitement and Little League Pizza Socials to a new place that everyone will love. With over 30 beers on tap and a diverse bottle list that's growing by the tens, owners Donna and Dan Smith have put a lot of love and culinary know-how into this place. There's a chill outdoor eating area,complete with fire pit and heat lamps, an arcade for the kids that combines 80's classics like Pacman and Galaga along with all the best ultra modern shooters, sports simulators, and ticket games! My favorite space is the VIP all leather "Living Room" for you and your friends to reserve for special Game Day shows and TV Premieres! While the menu is still growing the pizza is "kick you in the face" awesome, especially with amazing Dan-original offerings like the Chuck Norris-- a bomb of wing sauce, avocado, and chicken. This place is honestly a play ground for everyone: For the boys: beer, boobs, blondes, sports on over 30(!) big screens and great food. For the kids: a room full of arcade games, and for us women there's the friendly staff who are more than willing to pair the perfect beer with your sophisticated pallet while you relax by the bonfire in the cool night breeze, and perhaps most important of all: for us beer aficionados--seriously, go check this place out.  Dan and Donna Smith's dedication to offering not only the broadest, but also the deepest possible beer selection is almost unprecedented in a joint like this.

Dan and Donna Smith, Owners

I am really excited about the future of this place simply because with all the great food and the fun activities that the place has to offer, including Karaoke, Dan has stayed true to his love for craft beer. The taps are on continuous rotation so don't be afraid to ask for a splash of something you may have never seen before.  It's new places like this that continue to give me hope that the up and coming generations will usher in a new era of beer-soaked awesome.


Out of the Park Pizza is located at
3635 E. La Palma in Anaheim and you can always call ahead at (714)777-4992 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (714)777-4992      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Oh, and rumor has it that it's the hottest place in Anaheim to spot your favorite Angel, so be sure to bring your favorite ball and a sharpie!
Xo Xo, Anaheim.

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Karl Strauss San Diego Beer Week Snippet

After a fun filled weekend in Colorado I managed to recuperate in time to take in some of the festivities in San Diego, of which there were many! At the Bloggers Conference there was one local brewery from San Diego that had truly piqued my interests and they had for a couple days leading up to the conference, and that was Karl Strauss.

A few days before the conference I was speaking to Steve Goto, a brewery rep, regarding his ideas of the three tier system (Brewer, Distributor, Retailer) and he had mentioned that Karl Strauss was indeed a mini-micro brewery. While I had through that Karl Strauss was reaching the size of Samuel Adams they have been building their fan base in San Diego, Orange, and LA counties almost exclusively.

I took a tour of their original brewery where I learned all about their “fast fermentation techniques” of using oxygen stones and medical grade oxygen to make the little yeast ferment at warp speed! After the tour of their “down town” brewery I got a chance to speak with Chris Cramer the CEO of Karl Strauss. He passionately discussed Uncle Karl's influence in the making of Karl Strauss beer, especially the origin of the Red Trolly recipe which was one of Uncle Karl's own. Uncle Karl had bases in Germany as a brewer and brought much of that influence into the recipes.

The greatest thing that interested me about Karl Strauss was the size. They seemed so big from an outside standpoint and yet were so small. In Disney's California Adventure, Karl Strauss is the only beer that is served! I was curious as to how that effected demand? Cramer calmly said they have looked into distributing farther but they're very comfortable with their size and exclusivity that they have now and maybe might look into distributing to northern California in the near future.

I participated in their Cask Night as they popped open a special San Diego Beer Week special Stout, which was fantastic. I truly recommend that if you are in the San Diego area to visit their down town location, they have so many more beers there than they distribute and the food is simply outstanding!

Karl Strauss

1157 Colombia St.

San Diego, CA 92101

(619) 234-2739 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (619) 234-2739      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

@Karl_Strauss

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Atlanta, Georgia- Beer Law Injustice and Bar Tender Freedom Fighters

This has been one hell of a summer and I send my sincerest apologies to any readers out there who have wondered where the heck I've been. In short I have been taking a little time off of beer, those carbs and calories add up like WHOAH and can sneak up on an unsuspecting female in her 20's. Anyways the wheel in the sky keeps on turning and my best friend who is in the military just had a beautiful baby boy! With the news I decided I was going to fly to Georgia and spend a few days with her and the little baby creature then catch a ride with some friends headed home after their service in the USMC.

I would like to start off saying that I am VERY glad to live in California. Aside from the fact that the south feels like you're walking through an Armageddon war field complete with the flooding, fire and locusts the laws about alcohol are twisted. My first and only true brewery stop was in Atlanta Georgia where I discovered the craziness of the land.

Our little caravan pulls into SweetWater Brewery- all excited that I'm going to taste some beer for the first time in weeks if not months. We find a place to park our massive uhaul trailers and run up the stairs like children arriving at FAO Schwartz on their birthday only to see that the bar looks totally empty and the chairs are all stacked up.It's the middle of the week they have to be open. I walk in and I ask the girl at the front desk if I can get a sampler of their beer. They told me that they can't sell beer on Tuesday “as per Georgia State Law”- WHAT? ITS TUESDAY! What the frack is wrong with Tuesday's? She explains to me that there are rules for the days that a brewery can sell beer at the brewery. So I take a moment to absorb this injustice then brighten up and ask her if they have a brewpub in the city- “As per Georgia State Law a brewery is not allowed to have their own pub.” OUTRAGE!!!!!

I walk outside to stomp around in the parking lot for a couple minutes and try to figure out a way to reword my questions into resulting beer. I walk back inside and ask her if there are any “pubs in town not affiliated with the brewery that I might be able to get some SweetWater beer at?” She looks at me shakes her head and refers me to a place called Taco Mac. So we set off towards down town Atlanta to find a Taco Mac.

I didn't realize when I walked into this super large sports lounge that I was about to meet the East Coasts answer to the West Coasts Yard House. Taco Mac meets and raises the bar for tap rooms. With 140 beers on draught and 223 beers in the bottle there was almost every thing I've tried plus mini-micros from all up and down the east coast. Sweaty (as per usual on this trip) and very very worried that the people at Taco Mac are going to tell me “bugger off you alchy” for wanting beer on a Tuesday afternoon (heaven forbid) I sit at the bar and explain my situation to the bartender and finish it with “Am I allowed to get beer here?” Anthony, probably the raddest barkeep I have ever met, laughs and says of COURSE you can get beer here and loads me up with a flight of SweetWater beers.

They didn't have all of the beers but they did have the majority of them:

Sch'Wheat(4.7%) was in my opinion more bitter than most wheat beers (like the taste of a lemon rind with a hint of banana). It was very very bubbly out of the tap. I felt that it was nothing special.

The BLUE(4.8%) is a blueberry beer with an intoxicating strong smell of blueberries, however I feel that it's bark was worse than it's bite because I found it overly sugary and yet somehow lacking in the blueberry flavor department. Compared to Abita's Purple Haze or other more popular blueberry beers I found it relatively bland. I will say though that on a ridiculously hot day it felt good!

420 Extra Pale Ale(5.4%) was flavorful with a quick clean piney finish. My favorite part of the beer was the aftertaste, it was lightly fruity and fresh. I would definitely have this beer again, especially since I don't drink EPA's very often!

Georgia Brown(5.1%) had a very thin espresso tone to it and slightly sour. I liked it. It was definitely a session beer, it had everything I love in a brown ale just slightly muted.

The IPA(5.9%) was good, I liked it almost as much as Dank Tank(9%)- it had a fair amount bready/citrusy malt flavors, but my only complaint was that I felt it was too passive and felt more like a Pale Ale than an IPA. However before I get booed off the stage for saying that I'd like to mention that between the three of us Dank Tank was the best. It had the wonderful fruity Belgian yeast flavor but with the robustness of an IPA.

Talking to the barmaster he realizes we haven't heard or seen half the beers that were on tap mostly being from the East Coast, so he sets us up with important landmark beers of the east. He served up a small flight of the Terrapin Brewery's finest of which Terrapin Gama Ray (10%) was my favorite. It had a tasty appley/fruity/clove/nutmeg flavor all resting on a strong hop and malt mantle of awesome. This was quite a big beer for such a little glass. I would like to add this to my wishlist of things to find in the near future (don't shoot the messenger but I've been hard pressed to find any of these beers since I've been home).

Anthony also set me up with some Southern Tier beers from New York. Southern Tier Iniquity (9%) A Black Ale or an Imperial IPA as it was described to me, is a black oil from the devils harvest. It wasn't as hoppy as I had expected for an IIPA however it had a tasty caramel nut flavor to it. It also had a slight aftertaste of apricots which I enjoyed very much. Again- it's a fairly big beer but Southern Tier apparently likes BIG because their Mokah(11%) and Crème Brulee Stout(10%) packed a serious punch as well. The Mokah hits just like a shot of espresso, if Starbucks brewed beer this would be it. It was somehow blacker than black with a light but bitter carmel flavor hidden in the brew. There was some chocolate and a light boozy finish.

The Southern Tier Crème Brulee Stout almost made me cry. I know many of you out there are chocolate fans, and that's awesome, Im a bit of chocolate snob and normally don't eat it unless I know it's going to be dark and sexy. With this in consideration, Im even more of a vanilla snob. I looove vanilla and what better way to get your vanilla than in a crème brulee or a frozen custard of somesort? Well now there's a Crème Brulee Stout which they call an Imperial Milk Stout. If you can picture the queen of cows being fed nothing but Old Rasputin and Vanilla Beans- milked and served cool, this is what your crystal goblets would be filled with! It was blacker than the black or the Mohak with a nice film of a typical stout's head and you could smell the burnt caramel and vanilla from across the bar. I was looking for a spoon to crack the head with it smelled so authentic. It was buttery, milky, vanilla-y, with flavors of burnt coffee and caramel dancing on your tongue. This is truly one of my favorite beers and definitely a dessert beer. I want some now.... again, I haven't been able to find it and this hurts my soul.

After the darling bartender shattered my beer drinking heart and turned my flavor world upside down he recommended we stop at a divish bar with a good selection up the street called the Vortex. Beer aside this place had a very fun and hip atmosphere and the most amazing fried cheddar balls I had ever tasted! We had a Laughing Skull Amber by Red Brick Brewing Co, in Atlanta. This was a nice palate cleanser- crisp, sweet and bready! After a nice little snack there, we jumped back into our vehicles and pulled forward- New Orleans Or Bust!

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An Afternoon of Fates Perfection: Tustin Brewing Co.

Living behind the Orange Curtain often makes it difficult for one to look past the peroxide and silicone, which is why it came to such a surprise to me that there is a brewery in Tustin, CA. At the 14th Annual Boonville Beerfest, situated by Pizza Port's booth, was a sign that read “Tustin”. I looked at the gentlemen running the booth, who happened to be the owner, and said something along the lines of "No way! Tustin?!" Yes, Tustin. So I decided to go seek them out, little did I know I was soon to be standing in the presence of a true artisan and the creator of the one of the most unique beers in the world.

Located in possibly the cutest shopping center I've laid my eyes on, full of towers and cute shops, lies one of Orange County's best kept secrets. You walk in and there is an eating area to your right and to your left is a very long bar facing all the brewing equipment where on any given day you will find Tustin's brewmaster, John Porter, working away at his craft. As usual my husband and I asked what was being brewed and the bar tender told us “6 beers” and brought out a 5 taster board with an extra taster on the side. Included in this taster were the following: Golden Spike Light Ale, Lemon Heights Hefeweizen, American Pale Ale(5.6%), Old Town IPA(6.4%) and Red Hill Red. The extra taster was their Thunder Horse Nitro Stout. I was definitely not prepared for the slow play they were throwing me and the sand bag that came following the taster.

I worked through the taster as planned, starting with the Golden Spike Light Ale. I thought it was like a hayride in August minus the hay fever. It was very wheaty, pleasantly so, with a quick finish.

Lemon Heights Hefe (served with a lemon) was next I didn't feel that this was their strongest beer tasted rather bitter and yeasty but after I squeezed some lemon into it the bitterness turned to a slight citrus rind flavor, again pleasant but not their best.

Third up was the American Pale Ale. It was light with a slight nutty flavor and the bitterness was fair definitely not as bitter as their Old Town IPA which was next in line, that had a burnt malt, crisp hops and I thought a bit of a java flavor to it but Glenn disagreed with me on that point. The thing that I thought most enjoyable about the Pale Ale and the IPA was how pure it tasted, I didn't feel the same way about the Hefe or the Light Ale.

I like the Red Hill Red, very malty brown and sugary, but it finished dry.

Then the Thunder Horse Nitro Stout I felt at this point was my favorite, it tasted like a smoky porter but much more fluid, it wasn't as thick as you would assume by looking at it.

You're probably leaning back in your chair and yawning right now at my review, wondering why I sped through those so quickly- well I'll tell you: Im far from done! I am definitely far too excited about what happened next to delay it any longer.

Glenn and I had our noses stuck in our iPhones typing furiously about the beers when the brewmaster walked by and said “Well aren't you guys the most antisocial couple at the bar! What did you think of the beer?” We discussed the 6 beers that we had tasted and apparently they had more that the bartender hadn't mentioned. So Mr. Porter handed us a couple splashes of the Happy Pillz and Jason Four-Oh and essentially told us to stick that in our pipe and smoke it- and we did.

Happy Pillz was such an awesome mix of Mexican Yeast, Czech Hops and Rice- I was blown away by this fun with a slightly sweet after taste Pils. It was pure early summer joy in a glass! I could see this going well with fish or shrimp (and it went quite nicely with the Tabbouleh that was on the side of my Sausage Sampler).

The Jason Four-Oh blew me right off my stool. Forty different kinds of malts!!!!! It smelled like scotch and tasted like love, pure—yet without any booziness. It had notes of Passion Fruit, Lychee nut and did I say love? Forty different kinds of malts, and no tipping out an ounce for your fallen homies required! I know, you must try it to believe me!!! At this point I hate to say it but I had completely forgotten about the original tasters. Why weren't these on the taster? I was very impressed with these last two highly creative beers.

Jotting down notes about these last two and enjoying them thoroughly, the brewmaster returned with what must have been a 2cc splash of this amber liquid in a shot glass and asked, “Tell me what you think of this?”

I closed my eyes and took the scent in, it smelled of warm honey dripping off the hot buttery comb, or a maple tree bleeding in the dusky sunshine of a primordial forest in June. I slowly took a sip, and I was transported to the top of Mount Olympus drinking ambrosia with the gods. It was akin to a liquid Belgian waffle! It was all the greatest things in the world—liquified in a glass! It was John Porter's personal project, a 3.5 year old Barleywine. Now as I mentioned in the Boonville post, I had heard about their Blizzard of Oz Barleywine, but had not tasted it, I just want you to know that this amber perfection I am raving about is not Blizzard of Oz. Apparently BoO was made by their previous brewmaster. My husband looked at me and said “I think almost every architect in the world has locked away somewhere in their bottom desk drawer plans to the tallest building in the world. It is their master piece. It is their secret desire. It is all their creativity and passion channeled into one vision and joyously unleashed from the restrictions of the mundane world.” That day we tasted a brewers' masterpiece. Mr. Porter then did me and my husband the unequivocal honor of pouring out a half pint of this near religious nectar. As I write this I hope and pray with everything I have that he is able to replicate this wonderful piece of art because there is not enough left to release publicly. I know, shoot me now for building it up and dropping that one on you faster than an Warner Brothers ACME Piano.

Tustin Brewery thus far is my favorite brewery in Orange County. I think they are very lucky to have such a talented and hard working brewer such as John Porter and I can't wait to see what kind of beers he will be creating this year. I truly hope that he will be able to replicate his Barleywine of ambrosial epicness, but until then every one needs to discover their Happy Pillz and Jason Four-Oh. Thank you for giving me a peek into your deepest barrel, and allowing me a sip of such other-worldly perfection!

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Every Week is Craft Beer Week At Stone

In my attempt to recover from the amount of wonderful craft brews I consumed in the last week, I have been taking it easy on the brew and working out a lot lately. Imagine my dismay when I learned it was American Craft Brew Week! I had to make a decision and quickly.  I was going to allow myself one brewery (other than my evening at BJ's (which to be honest I don't feel counts)). My current location made that decision fairly easy! I will admit I was strongly considering Lost Abby, which I regret to announce I have yet to visit, however, after my last visit to Stone Brewing Co., I am pleased to announce that Stone has never not surprises me and exceed my expectations.

The Stone Brewery pleases every sense upon arrival. You can smell the sweet malts that seem to instantly get your mouth watering before you even see the art form that is the brewery. With its award winning design entry into the stone brewery is like stepping into a post modern cave full of mystery and wonder. The beast himself lives in this seamless, awe-inspiring instalation!!! The gardens are full of croaking frogs and bubbling brooks and bowls filled with fire! I could talk for hours on how amazing (OMG you should see the bathrooms!) this place looks.  This is one instance where one might consider allowing oneself to judge something "by its cover" because the the exhilarating exterior is every bit equal to the task of housing the awesomeness contained within.

If you're there on a normal day they have tours of the brewery that you can take and on these tours you can answer questions for beer rewards. *evil giggle inserted here* However I was here on very important beer tasting business. I started out with a pour of their Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale (8.7%) and Glenn had their Oaked Arrogant Bastard (7.2%). Both of these I've had before but I can scarce tell you enough how much more amazing the beer (seems?) while you are physically at a brewery. The carbonation is perfect as is the temperature--and maybe it's just me but it just tastes different, and is in general full of win!

For their guest beers on draft they featured beers from AleSmith, Alpine, Ballast Point, BJ's (yeah they had the BJ's Grand Cru which is awesome...BJ's doesn't even carry it anymore!) Bootlegger, Coronado, Craftsman, Green Flash, Mother Earth, Port Brewing and The Bruery Brewing Companies. Of these we tasted Alpine Beer Company's Duet (7%), Green Flash Le Freak Belgian Style IPA (9%) and Port Brewing's Old Viscosity. I also tried Stone's IRS 2010 at a heavy hitting 10.8% and their 09.09.09 Vertical Epic Ale (8.5%). We ordered their Mac N' Beer Cheese, Mushroom Pillows and their Cheese Plate and the tasting began.

The Cheese plate was amazing and I am very sad that I didn't get the name of the cheeses featured because all the beers really played well off the flavors. Interestingly enough there was a small chunk of honey comb and something that I was totally surprised at: Ate-a Mexican jam of sorts made with guava! The first beer I tried was the Alpine Duet, I enjoyed the tones of crisp apple flavors on the pleasant hoppy canvas and paired it with a slice of apple and honey. The honey brought out sweeter tones in the beer and a slight waxiness that you taste on the back of your throat when you eat honey, but it was from the beer instead of the honey.

Green Flash Le Freak Belgian Style IPA was a surprise and a half. I had expected it to be bitter like a standard IPA, but I didn't find that. Instead, it was almost like a mead without the sticky sweetness or that waxy bitterness I was describing earlier when you eat honey. I paired this with a barley cracker and some honey comb and boy was it tasty!

The Stone Vertical Epic Ale was my delicious surprise of the evening. It's poured like black magic and  had a very molasses/chocolaty flavor. However when paired with the Ate (pronounced ah-teh) it brings out a soft chewy cherry flavor! Talk about a secret surprise! Ate is a sugar paste made of Guava also called Ate de Guayaba and you can buy it at almost any Mexican market. It is either sold as a block or in a roll. This flavor pairing honestly blew my mind and was my favorite beer and food pairing all evening. Talk about hitting home in a surprising way.

The Stone Imperial Russian Stout is a very classic flavored IRS, classic coffee with a slight acidic hue. I felt that this went best with the Gorgonzola (at least I think it was Gorgonzola I never actually found out what cheese they gave us.)

The Old Viscosity from Port Brewing Co was appropriately last on my mini flight of awesomeness and poured appropriately to it's name. It is a black oil of vanilla and burnt caramel, it went well with the mild Parmesan/Asiago cheese that was on our cheese plate. I think this would have also gone well with vanilla ice cream, honey, and mildly sweet desserts.

According to Stone's Menu it was "Lambic Sunday" where you get a discount off lambics and other sour beers. I have had and enjoyed many fruity lambics but never a "sour beer" so to speak so I did have to have one and I went with the Girardin Gueuze sour ale. This beer was like a lambic with no fruit and as weird as it sounds it was like a banana and a sour apple made a love child and it was beer. Even with no fruit it was easy to see why they had started adding fruit to this wonderfully crisp and sour beer. I finished off the left over apple on my plate with this beer. And even if sweet fruity or even sour flavors are not your thing, you should try this beer.This sour ale was quite the trip for my taste buds...

I really enjoy Stone's beer and their dedication to bringing you the best foods without compromise. While Stone may be one of the largest and definitely more popular microbreweries, their dedication to community is outstanding! They always  have other local craft brews on tap and support their community through other projects as well. Even though Craft Beer Week is gone for this year, you haven't' missed out- Every week is American Craft Beer Week at the Stone Brewery.

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BJ's Un-brewpub and A Heart Stopping Meal

Last night was one of those nights where I wasn't really hungry and I didn't feel like cooking, but I still wanted a little something before I went to bed. We pushed the trip to Escondido to today, since Glenn didn't get out of work till late last night. But I had myself all amped up for a beer and (insert tasty pairing here). I remember looking at the American Craft Beer Week(ACBW) website and saw that BJ's was doing something...after weighing the options we decided that since BJ's is less than a 3 minute drive from our house it wouldn't hurt.

BJ's was pretty packed at 10:30PM I had though people had something better to do on a Saturday night but I was mistaken. Trying to take advantage of the last two days of ACBW, I asked the bar tender if we could get one order of tonight's pairing... he had no clue what it was so with my trusty iPhone in hand I showed him the website-- it was the Chicken Fried Steak and their PM Porter. We also ordered a Nutty Brewnett. I don't know about you, but I honestly don't think chicken fried steak is very popular with California or Californian's in general. I had never had it and judging by the looks and comments when our food came out neither have many other people. If you can believe it, they take a very thin steak, batter it with a very crunchy chicken batter and yes... fry it! It is actually a true gastronomical nightmare. Looking at the plate of beige food in front of us my husband says "I can't put those two things inside me, you're going to have to help!" I took a bite of the steak/batter/oil crisp and it was very peppery and while not very tasty alone it actually went very well with the PM Porter. If I could have mixed and matched to accommodate the PM Porter, which is a nice beer on it's own, I would have had a pepper crusted burger from the Yard House with Gorgonzola. I think that would have been an amazing pairing, however I was at BJ's and not the Yard House. My Nutty Brewnet had a strange skunky taste in it but I think it was just the batch because I have enjoyed the nutty brewnet previously.

I am very disappointed that BJ's is tearing out just under a million dollars worth of brewing equipment from each of their restaurants. The big brewing vats that you see in the back? Just a facade now! I think it's an outrage! There used to be a time when you would walk in and enjoy the smell of pizza and malt, sadly that day is through due to the call for uniformity (I know, right? WHAT CALL?! Who's calling for it and what's their address?). Im sure some large brewer is making a buck off brewing a uniform batch to distribute to all the BJ's restaurants... but then it's not a brewpub anymore now is it? *sigh* I've seen enough people go there and order piss-beer though to see that actually brewing beer on location is not enough to grab anyone's attention. I would find it 100% impossible to walk into a restaurant and even with my favorite beer on the menu not ask what they were brewing in house...or "what do those shiny silos do?" I mean question things people... that that fizz you call beer-- Question that!

Enough on ranting. I do like most of the food at BJ's I especially like their Great White Pizza, and their most popular beer is their Jeremiah Red, which is a damn good red! I'm sad to see that their Grand Cru is discontinued, happily I noted people order it in the past so I continue to ask for it.. maybe they'll get the picture? Oh well, not all is lost I suppose or maybe it is and I just don't see it... Chicken Fried Steak is indeed not for everyone (and the fat kid in me really wanted to dunk the giant steaks into a tub of Ranch Dressing O_o which would have been very bad), their PM Porter is a light smokey porter with a tasty nutty bite, I do recommend you try it with lots of pepper (I also recommend you go to the Yard House and try their Pepper Crust Burger!!! Nom nom nom...). Anyways, tonight is something to look forward to: ACBW at The Stone Brewing Co.! Tell me what you think of BJ's beer in the comment section below, and don't forget to follow/subscribe/RSS! <3

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Caught in the eye of the storm where the only calm is my own individual thoughts....

Imagine the dark ominous masses of shitty beer and shitty music colliding into the perfect storm disguised as fair-weather sailing and you will indeed have painted the mural of yesterday's experience. Beware of false profits and false dive bars my fellow pub crawlers! So you walk into a dive bar. It looks deliciously trashy with the tattooed bouncer at the door with his little messenger hat...collecting a cover?! okay... so a $3 cover... Im ready to go at this point... I wasn't aware that there was a band or something exciting happening within...well before I know it my cover was paid for me and I was inside much to my chagrin. I look around and there are some very beautiful people ones that look interesting we can sit down and discuss whiskey musings and music and how one beer is better than the next or about their next survival adventure abroad, hot long hairs, odd hipsters, punkers and beatniks... Well that would be all fine and dandy if they weren't playing "Im a trashy bastard with syphilis and ho's." I sit at the bar already irritated that money (be it mine or someone else) was wasted. I look at the taps and my little heart takes it's final plunge to its death as I see bud light, coors light, triangle hef, and Bud. I've lost it. I am a fucking terrorist. I look to my right and there is this man with anti-christian patches hand sewed to his military jacket and a misfits patch to the left of that one... I look to my left and there is a long hair (he was totally cute) with a pink floyd t-shirt on and they were both drinking cranberry vodkas and appearing to be having the dog's bullocks of a good time- then this terrible panic comes over me. My entire body has run cold. All of my favorite things in my life are all right here, but in their worst form! I realize that I must have done something very bad either in this life or a previous one, for I have indeed died and gone to hell. I sat there in hells pit for 20 agonizing minutes forcing my apparently brain-dead husband and the friend that dragged me there in the first place to finish their well drinks. Am I alone in this? This "pulse of a nation" that is indeed a clusterfuck of ignorance and filth? You may shop your thrift stores, you may eat organic but you're indeed no better than the people you are trying not to be! I wish I had a camera of all the posers in there to expose the "gangsta" within to all their little indie friends. And you ask me why I would rather be off in the woods alone. You ask me why I choose to sit up in my tree-house for hours at a time alone? My company is the best purest company that I have ever experienced. Sure I love having friends but if someone can't be alone with themselves they can't be themselves with others, do you not think?

"Good People Drink Good Beer, No Shit" -Hunter S. Thompson

After this sticky flystrip of a bar we went to a previous location called the Iron Mule, which any bar that uses Iron Maiden's font for their logo is rockin' to me. And I realized the social labels were gone! Glenn saved me with a 22oz Stone IPA and we took over the jukebox with Pelican, Led Zeppelin, Steve Miller and Ozzy and to hell with anyone who didn't like it... Alas! it was the people's choice to listen to what they wanted to, drink the water of the gods and play pool...hell you can even smoke in there, for those of you who partake. The people in there were "down." Down to drink and have a good time and not pollute their souls with the mindless swill of Clearchannel's Megateat of torment. Down to hang out and be alive.

At this moment I'm perched on the edge of humanity like the little lemming at the back of the pack watching everyone fall and realizing that there's indeed a cliff there that I do not wish to explore, but the devil in me still wants to sit back and watch the masses fall to their deaths no matter how much it hurts to see it feels good to know I am not as much as a tool as them. On that note. I don't plan on leaving the house for a couple days, at least until I get this nasty tick of wanting to throw the heaviest object at the next tool I see. Once that is under control we shall see....

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There's No Place Like Home

As with all things in this world there is a definite starting point. From the big bang to an apple hitting Newton on his head there is always the definitive "ah ha!" point in history that all great things have grown from. For me it was a typical summer day hanging out with friends on the beautiful headlands of Mendocino, in Northern California. The usual run had been made to the local market for the normal supplies of beer and munchies by the kids who were "of age" and the goods had safely made it to the Big Log over looking the mouth of Big River. Maybe it was what we were smoking, maybe it was the way the sun had hit me in the face at that moment. What ever it was, I was not prepared for the quantum leap my pallet was about to make that day.
I popped open my beer on the log and notice that light release of spirit (co2) waft off the mouth of the bottle, put the bottle to my lips and time had stopped. It was not that it was my first sip of beer, it was not that it was my first sip of North Coast Brewery Scrimshaw either- No. It was something much greater than that. During that moment I had an epitome that my 17-year-old self could not account for. I remember jumping up and exclaiming how absolutely wonderful this godly nectar was! How perfectly crisp and light, yet full and robust this elixir of life tasted, felt, smelled! Beer was alive to me, and I was in love. The older kids laughed and patted me on the back with the usual “aww how cute!” remarks and went back to the usual business. I still dream about that beautiful fateful day, which is why, in homage to my home town and to my youth, I am starting with the North Coast Brewing Company, in Fort Bragg, California.

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North Coast Brewing Company
455 North Main St.

Fort Bragg, CA 95437

(707) 964-2739 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (707) 964-2739      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Located on the north end of this small town where I grew up is a Mecca for beer lovers and food lovers alike. Considered one of the top ten breweries in the world by the Beverage Testing Institute, this brewery boasts 10 core beers, and recently added a new Belgian ale, two organic beers. They currently have a special edition of their multi-gold winning beer Old Rasputin, with anniversary ale soon to come. Across the street they have their tap room (a beer garden should be completed before summer this year on the brewery side). The tap room has wonderful food including their pub burger with bleu cheese, or their fish and chips made with Scrimshaw batter. And for dessert you can indulge in their wonderful Old Rasputin chocolate cake drizzled with syrup made from condensed old stock ale- it is simply to die for!

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