Fresno Craft Beer for Bicyclers - Spokeasy Public House

Spokeasy Public House, Fresno, CA

1465 N Van Ness Ave

Atmosphere - Divey

Staff - Freindly, Bearded, Hipster

Food- NA

Beer - Short Draft list, but when combined with bottles pretty strong.  Drafts rotate pretty often so you can expect something new each visit.

WMIS* - Old School arcade games and ski ball, bicicle friendly

Located in an interesting neighboorhood that lies somewhere between quaint and dangerous, Spokeasy is a quiet, locals bar geared towards bike riders that want to pat themselves on the back after a long days ride with a good beer.  I can't argue with that.  Even though I'm not a big bicycler, nor am I a big hipster fan (although I am not hipster hostile), I found it a relaxing place to toss back acouple good beers.

I started the night with North Coasts 38 Stout.  Not to heavy, crisp for a stout with a bit of bitterness, it was a good place to start.  My second beer was the Dogfish Head....Porter.  Heavy, thick, bitter and strong.  In otherwords, fantastic, and a great beer to end the night.  I watched the  end of the giants, they lost, hurray, checked my phone, the padres won, hurray.  Bummer there was no food so i had to grab the new Jalapeno burger from McDonalds on my way back to the hotel...gross.

*What Makes It Special (WMIS)

LXB 1 Year Anniversary

A little over a year ago, a few friends and I began an experiment called the League of Extraordinary Beers.  In that time, I’ve sampled a lot of good beers, and if the club has done anything, it has extended the reach of my friends and me, and allowed us to try a lot of beers we otherwise would have never been exposed too.  It’s not that they beers are hard to come by, but when I am shopping, I tend to stick with beer or breweries I am familiar with.  Below are some of the best and worst beers I’ve had in the last year because of this beer swap group.

WINNERS

     Stone Sublimely Self Righteous – Jeremy Dwork (anything goes round)

     Firestone Wookie Jack – Vu Pham (Nor Cal Beers)

     Allagash White – Brent Cole (“Light” Beers)

     Ballast Point Victory at Sea – Shaun Healey (Porters and Stouts)

     Alpine Nelson – Shaun Healey (San Diego Beers and one of the best beers of the year!)

     Mission Brewery Carrack – Richard Heath (Religious Themed beers, another outstanding one)

LOSERS (Many of which are still good beers, the competition was tough in a few rounds)

     Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale – Jin Sunk (anything goes round…Jin is no longer in the group)

     Anchor Brewing Anchor Christmas – Ryan Dawley (Nor Cal Beers…also no longer in the group)

     Dr. Fritz Berliner Weisse – Vu Pham (“Light Beers”, very interesting beer…but a tough category)

     Anchor Porter – Dave Edquilang (“Porters and Stouts…this group just doesn’t like Anchor beer)

     Karl Strauss Pintail Pale Ale – Rody Gallo (San Diego Beers)

     Avery Karma – Will Carreras ( Religious Themed beers)

The locations

Half the fun is checking out new bars and breweries with your friends, and introducing places you already love to them.  Here is a quick list of the locations in San Diego we’ve held meetings at.

     Mission Brewery – Great atmosphere and good beer, this was a great place to kick off the club.

     The Regal Beagle – One of San Diego’s many good beer bars. They even provided the beagle.

     Counterpoint – This place proves that size does not matter. It’s small, and has a moderate amount of beers, but all of them are solid and the food is awesome.

     High Dive – This place was new to me and it was Ballast Point night.

     Monkey Paw – One of my favorite bars/breweries down town.  Just divey enough, good food and big beer selection.

    Blind Lady Ale House -  Arguably one of the best and definitely one of the most popular bars in SD.

I want to write about the places to buy beer in SD, but I think I will save it for my next post.

The club started out as a group of people I personally know, but out of the 10-12 core members, 5 of them were recruited outside of my inner circle…yes… I made a few new friends.  Most of us aren’t experts, but we have a member that brews his own beer, and it’s excellent, and a few members who really know there stuff and submit great beers every time.  It took 6 months to weed out the scrubs, but it’s amazing how competitive it’s become. 

The change we made in the group that I think will have the most impact in year two is moving the selections out two months so we have more time to find the right beers. So we announce the winners of the last round at the meeting, and they select a location and theme for the round two months later.  We are also having “Mid Month” events  like tastings, white elephant gift exchanges, and in March, we plan on doing a growler bracket that should be a hoot.

Next month is “English Style”, and I’m hoping my Samuel Smith Imperial Stout will show nicely.

Drink Responsibly

To Age Beer,Or Not To Age Beer,That Is the...oh who gives a shit

Some call it aging, some call it cellaring, and some call it a waste of time.  The bottom line is, you have to know about your beer before you age it.  Light, temperature, moisture, and container can all affect your beer in good or bad ways as it ages.  I used to take some of my beer and hide it from myself in the back of my kitchen cabinets.  Months, or even years later, I would come across it and it was like finding a $20 in a pair of pants you haven’t worn in awhile.  But aside from creating a long term easter egg hunt for myself, it yealded little to no resulsts.  Should I be worried that I am able to hide things from myself?

In the recent Beer Advocate issue #80, they warn against cellaring beers.  It’s akin to a “crap shoot”, according to the Alstrom brothers, and me being far from an expert, I’m done with it. They do give a few tips if you decide to cellar your beers anyway.

1.      Don’t buy beers off of warm shelves

2.      Only cellar high-ABV or bottle-conditioned

3.      Store your beers around 45 degrees

4.      Cellar multiple bottle of the same brew.  (try it at different times)

5.      Hops fade, so don’t expect much success from cellaring hop-centric beers.

www.Beeradvocate.com/beer/101/store

One tip that goes without saying, store your beer upright!

Unless I hear about a specific beer, and how exactly to store it, I’m drinking my beer fresh from now on.  A beer enthusiast friend of mine had the opportunity to try 6 Stone beers that had been aged in a cellar for a year, and the same 6 that had been sitting in a fridge for a year.  He said that everyone that tried them agreed that all but one of the refrigerated beers tasted better.  This can be due to a lot of things, but supports my decision to drink fresh, or at least keep my beer cold.

So if you are sitting on a stockpile of good beer, set aside the next few days to drink them down before they go bad, but first, give me a call so that I can help!
 

Neighborhood San Diego

The ONLY thing I don’t like about Neighborhood in down town San Diego, is that it is too popular.  I’m the type of guy that walks down the street, sees a crowded bar and thinks “Yuck…people”.  I like the abandoned bars, with great atmosphere, good beer, and a few well mannered people with great life experience.  Don’t get me wrong, I like people one at a time, but I get uncomfortable in large a group, that’s why I like drinking at 2 in the afternoon.

Any who…Neighborhood has been an important part of San Diego's East Village for the last five years.   They have a great beer selection, excellent food, an attractive staff, and a big secret in the back behind the Keg Wall.  In the last few months I’ve been there four times. It’s a good place to go with family, friends and even colleagues. 

Food Recommendations:

The burgers are fantastic, but if you are looking for ketchup for your burger, head down the street, they have unique sauces that will definitely satisfy.  However, the one item I always get there are the Chorizo Corn Dogs.

Drink Recommendations:

They always have Pliney the Elder, so end your night with one of these if you aren’t driving home.  Every Thursday they have a cask beer on tap.  When I went last week it was Stone Vertical Epic 12.12.12 and was excellent (AND is the last release in the Vertical Epic Series!!!!).  I also had a Stone Double Bastard last week and was reminded how smooth the double was compared to the original Arrogant Bastard, or the Oaked Bastard.  The DB’s flavor has the beginnings of a Barley Wine…yum.  You will find something new everytime you go, so go often.

If you are into liquor, there are two really cool things to know about Neighborhood. First, they have a great Whisky selection, and you can get flights in the main bar.  Second, take a look at The Noble Experiment, reserve a spot and take a trip behind the Keg wall into a room wallpapered with bronze skulls.  Tell the bartender what your liquor of choice is and let them make you something awesome.

Happy Holidays and Good Drinking!

The League of Extraordinary Beers

 

 

Two months ago, seven of my friends and I met at Mission Brewery  in downtown San Diego for the first session of the League of Extraordinary Beers (LXB).  Here is how it’s run; a group of beer enthusiasts meet every two months, and each member chooses a beer to submit to the group and purchases enough of that beer to share with the rest of the members at the meeting.  So if there are six members, you bring six of your favorite beers, give out five of them, and you get a beer from the other five members to take home with you.  Over the next two months, you drink and rate those beers.  We decided to keep it simple, so we rank the beers by personal preference from 1 to 8 (or however many beers there are).  Ratings are submitted to the league administrator to tally up.  The beer with the lowest total score wins, the beer with the highest score loses.  The winner gets to choose the location of the next meeting and the theme of beers that will be swapped.  The loser has to buy a round at the next meeting.  This concept is evolving to potentially include a “Stanley Cup” trophy that is handed over every two months. And we are working on a good way to buddy up and share larger volume beers so we don’t have to purchase a 22oz beer for every member of the group.

Below is a list of the beers that were submitted in the first meeting and how they stacked up.  I came in the top 3, not bad, and I have to admit the first place winner has been one of my favorites for a long time.

1st place - StoneSublimely Self-Righteous - 16 points (Jeremy)

 2nd place - Green Flash Double Stout - 20 points (Yun)

 3rd place - Green Flash Hop Head Read - 23 points (Greg)

 4th place - Ballast Point Sculpin IPA - 29 points (Shaun)

 5th place - Dogfish Head My Antonia - 30 points (Dawley)

 6th place - Coronado Idiot IPA - 38 points (Dan)

 7th place - Spaten Oktoberfest - 44 points (Vu)

8th place - BuffaloBill Pumpkin Ale - 53 points (Jin)

                   

Our second meeting was a few weeks ago at the Regal Beagle in San Diego.  The theme chosen by last month’s winner Jeremy was “Nor Cal” beers, and the quality has been kicked up a notch this time around.  No beer submitted can be criticized as harshly as we hammered Buffalo Bill Pumpkin Ale last month.  Below is a list of the beers submitted. How do you think they are going to stack up when the votes are cast?

Red Rocket Ale - BearRepublic - Jin

Double Barrell Ale -Firestone - Dan

 Wookie Jack Black IPA - Firestone - Vu

San Quentin'sBreakout Stout - Marin Brewing Co. – Jeremy

 Old Stock Ale - North Coast - Yun

 John Barley Corn Barleywine Ale - Mad River - Greg

 Old Rasputin Imperial Stout - North Coast - Shaun

Anchor Christmas -Anchor Brewing - Ryan

 Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale - Lagunitas Brewing Co. – Brent

I’ve already downed 6 of these and was pleasantly surprised by a few of them, and extremely disappointed by one…I’ll let you know after the voting is done. 

If you live in SD and want to be a part of the LXB, please let me know.  If you don’t live in SD, I encourage you to begin a group like this in your home town.   I’ve learned a lot about beer just from the first two meetings.  It also never hurts to have an excuse to grab a beer with friends on a weekday night…not that we need one.

Good Drinkin!

Widmer Brothers Barrell Aged Brrrbon '11

Quick shout out to this beer I drank the other day. It's so good I gargled it in front of my disapproving wife.  Strong Ale type flavor, with a bunch of bourbony goodness. I'm a bourbon and scotch drinker and this is one of the best beers I've had in awhile.  Drink one soon. Check out Beer Advocates rating or the Widmer Brothers website.

Beer - There's An App For That

Have you ever had a craving for on specific beer but don't know where that it is being served?  Or have you ever been at a restaraunt, not recognized the odd beers on the menu and wanted to know more about what you are getting yourself into?  Or are you looking for something new - a beer that you haven't tried before?  With all the huge flavors being created by craft breweries these days, the world of beer drinking can often be a frightening and intimidating place.  Fear no more, there are mobile apps and websites galore that can help you navigate through the vast and tasty ocean of incredible, and sometimes horrible ales, lagers, bitters, and brews.

Tap Hunter - "Helping you find awesome beer at local bars, bottle shops and tasting rooms"

Tap Hunter allows you to search your city by bar, or by beer. So if I'm looking for a place that is serving Pliny the Elder, I can search all my local bars. Or, if I'm in an unfamiliar city, I can bring up a list of bars that will have a solid choice of beers on tap. Created a few years ago by my neighbor, Flash Gordon (not kidding), Tap Hunter has expanded its coverage from San Diego to Austin, Chicago, Denver, LA, Orange County, Portland Oregon, Philly, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver.  I travel a ton, and Tap Hunter covers all the major cities that I go to.  They will also give you a heads up on any events coming to town, like the "Great American Beer Festival" happening in Denver next week.  If it isn't in your town yet, bug your local beer bars to reach out to Tap Hunter.  To my friends in Leesburg, VA, sorry to add to the bad news after the Nats took a dump last night, but I don't think Tap Hunter is coming to your town anytime soon. It's FREE too.

Beeradvocate - "Respect Beer"

These guys have done their homework and pretty much put my critiques to shame.  If you're looking for something new to try, or sitting at a bar considering going off book, take a quick look at these reviews. They are pretty spot on.  While a good review from Beeradvocate certainly won't gaurantee that you will like a beer, it's better than shooting from the hip.  For example, Dogfish Head My Antonia was a beer presented to me at my beer swap group, The League of Extraordinary Beers.  It's rated really high, and I am sure it's a quality beer.  Dogfish Head has some of my favorites, but My Antonia is not my cup o' tea.

Today's Beer

Think daily pinup, but with beer instead of ladies. I'm still trying to figure out the practical use of this app, but the presentation is wonderful.  Each day, there is a different beer that you can ogle in a bottle, or as a draft.  The 3D tool alows you to rotate around the image and see it from all sides - hubba hubba.  BONUS, you can also look at yesterday's beer!  It's a fun app, and if you have trouble setting goals for yourself, you can use this app to decide what beer you are going to drink today.

I hope you feel a little less overwhelmed after reading this and if you have other apps or websites you want to suggest, let me know.