Sample Sacramento - Bike Dog

I have teamed up with Beers In Sac again for a series of articles called Sample Sacramento.  I will be visiting all of the Sacramento area breweries and sharing my experience and tasting notes. This week I visited Bike Dog Brewing Company, check back soon for my visits to Yolo Brewing and Jackrabbit Brewing.

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Beer Week Geekery

Perfect weather for Capitol Beer Fest 

Sacramento beer culture is booming, we are quickly becoming a beer city and I am excited to watch us grow.  In the 6 short years since the inception of Sacramento Beer Week, we have grown from 8 to 38 area breweries within a 50 mile radius of our city.  Beer Week is a celebration of all things beer in Sacramento and it wouldn't have happened without all of the fine folk in and behind the scenes.  They are deserving of our thanks and a toast.  Here's to Sacramento, cheers!

Sacramento Beer Week is now a far enough behind me that I can see it without the haze of a beer glass.  There were a myriad of events that I wanted to go to, but I can't be at more than one place at a time.  Also, I was battling a cold and had to limit myself.  However, I soldiered through and had the best Beer Week that I could.  Below you'll find some highlights from my Beer Week excursions.

The festivities were kicked off at the CA Auto Museum with the Brewer's Showcase
Mraz Brewing Company Morning Star was my favorite of the night

New Glory's Wild, Wild West 100% Brett IPA has a subtle tartness that is balanced
by a cracker sweetness and tropical fruit.  This is one of the best beers I had all week

San Diego invaded Midtown with the Sacramento Beer Enthusiasts, a Facebook
group that organized a beer crawl that consisted of San Diego brewery tap take overs
Pictured are samples from Green Flash and Alpine 

Hanging with the brew club during the 21st Amendment Capitol City Brewer's Battle
The homebrew competition was held and Capitol Beer and Taproom

Another of my favorite local beers Bike Dog Brewing's Milk Stout
It is now available in bottles as is their San Dog IPA

The coveted Delirium Tremens glass, I got the fourth to last glass from Streets
They went through 10 cases of glasses in a hurry

I had an amazing evening at the Blackbird Beer Pairing dinner.
 Oysters, crab cake and lamb sausage paired with beers from Mraz Brewing,
  Bike Dog Brewing and Device Brewing.  

Barrel tasting at Track 7, Sour Blonde on the left and BBA Belgian Stout on the left

Capitol Beer Fest brought Sacramento's beer lovers together for the last official
event of Beer Week.  I had a great time and sampled oh so many great beers

Sample Sacramento - Device

I have teamed up with Beers In Sac again for a series of articles called Sample Sacramento.  I will be visiting all of the Sacramento area breweries and sharing my experience and tasting notes. This week I visited Device Brewing Company, check back often for more.

Art by Beerded Designs

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Art of Beer Invitational 2015

The wife and I had an incredible evening Friday, January 30th at The Art of Beer Invitational.  The event gathered 40 plus breweries, artists and food vendors in support of Ales for Autism.  Ales for Autism is a beer-centric organization with the goal of raising money for and promoting autism awareness.  Art made by local area artists and brewers was auctioned off with the proceeds going to Ales for Autism.  They hold many beer-centric happenings, with the Black & White Beer Ball coming to San Francisco Beer Week, February 13th; clink the link for tickets.

These oysters were shucking fantastic

Music played as the event kicked off with a VIP hour. Special beers were brought out by the brewers to be paired with food selections from Mikuni, ThePasta Queen, Blackbird Kitchen + Beer Gallery, Passione Pizza, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.  I did not have a bad beer the entire night and the food was all fantastic. There were a few options that really stood out, in both the food and the beer.  The food choice that really excited me were the oysters from Blackbird Kitchen.  The list of delightful beers that I tasted that evening are far too numerous to account for in this post.  I couldn't taste them all and I'm sure that I missed a few great beers.  Out of the many beers that I did taste, I managed to narrow it down to my top 14.  In no particular order:

I love their Milk Stout,
 with or without espresso

• Monk's Cellar Brewery - West Coast Tripel - Dry Hopped Belgian DIPA
• Monk's Cellar Brewery - St. Arnold Ale - Belgian Style Quadruple
• Sierra Nevada Brewing Company - Barrel Aged Bigfoot - Barleywine
• Firestone Walker Brewing Company - Velvet Mocha Merlin - Coffee Infused Oatmeal Stout
• Drakes Brewing Compnay - Batch 5000 - Belgian Strong Pale
• New Glory Craft Brewery - Wild, Wild West IPA - 100% Brett IPA
• Speakeasy Ales & Lagers - The Cover Up - Belgian White IPA
• Speakeasy Ales & Lagers - Cement Shoes - Dry Hopped American Strong Ale
• Bike Dog Brewing Company Espresso Milk Stout
• High Water Brewing - Sugaree - Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie Ale
• Almanac Beer Company - IPA
• Almanac Beer Company - Imperial Chocolate Stout
• Saint Archer Brewing Company - DIPA
• Calicraft Brewing Company - Buzzerkly - Sparkling Ale 

I eagerly await the day that they open a taproom

BA Bigfoot, awesome got awesomer 

I trust Firestone with my taste buds

This was the first of many servings of New
Glory's Wild, Wild West IPA.  It was hands
down my favorite beer of the night

I loved the Wild, Wild West IPA so much
that I never tried the Fear Itself.  The other
two beers are standards at the brewery

This is my second year attending The Art of Beer and I certainly look forward to next year.  The beers were as great last year as they were this year; the same goes for the food.  The venue changed since last year, but the new venue is better suited for an event of this size. The Art of Beer Invitational is just far enough ahead of Sacramento Beer Week to get me excited and to have enough time for a little bit of liver repair.  Check back with me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram often during SacBeerWeek for a peek into my beerventures.

Cheers!

Collabrewation

It was a damp, foggy winter morning in Oak Park when a portion of the UnderGround BrewSquad (my homebrew club) met for a demonstration brew day at Brew Ferment Distill.  On any ordinary group brew day, one can expect to find a melange of brewers brewing a variety of recipes on differing brew systems; this was no ordinary brew day.  This day we would collaborate.


I have only ever brewed alone, so it was a little strange, but also refreshing to share the duties.  I paired with my brewther Calvin.  Last year both of us placed in a homebrew competition called Go For The Glory.  With that in mind, we decided to use our award winning recipes as a base for our collabrewation Pale Ale.  We have dubbed it "Went For The Glory".  The other pairing was Calvin's usual co-brewer Peter, AKA Hobbs, and Mike, AKA Professor Vorlauf.  They brewed a Dusseldorf Altbier that they have named "Oh Meine Leber", which translates to, "Oh My Liver"

Calvin, The Prof., Hobbs and Me.  I'm stirring water that I allowed to get hotter
than I wanted.  I seem to do that nearly every time I brew.  Maybe I should install
a thermometer in my kettle, or I can just plan on extra stirring; either way.

Cal & I doughing in.  Doughing in is the process of  adding hot water to the
grain in stages.  Some grain, some hot water, then some more grain and then
some more hot water, etc... until all of the grain and the calculated water
volume has been added to the mash tun (that would be the cooler)

Kelfie (kettle selfie).  This was taken after
the collection of the first runnings which went
much faster than the second, but not as fast
as Cool Runnings

Hobbs is very excited about this hop addition.
That mesh is there to keep ash from the pallet
fire, err I mean fire pit out of the kettle

The brew day lasted a bit longer than I had anticipated, but it went well.  We were a little low in the temperature of our mash due to my guesstimations, but that was simple to correct with a small amount of boiling water. We hit the targeted original gravity and have a lovely active fermentation going as I type.  In a few weeks Cal and I will bottle our batch of beer and then after a few weeks of bottle conditioning, we get to say that we "Went For The Glory".



Cheers!

Sample Sacramento - Track 7

I have teamed up with Beers In Sac again for a series of articles called Sample Sacramento.  I will be visiting all of the Sacramento area breweries and sharing my experience and tasting notes. This week I visited Track 7, check back often for more.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter or like my Facebook page for sneak peeks into upcoming posts.


Cheers! 

Ritual Summons

In mid-October, the wife and I took a short vacation with a couple of friends to sunny Palm Springs, CA.  The wife suggested that we hit up a brewery on the way down (I'm a great influence) and found a couple that were on the way.  After a small amount of deliberation, we decided that we would make just one beer related stop as we certainly were not going to pass up stopping to see the Cabazon Dinosaurs.

Au revoir Pee-Wee

In an industrial park in Redlands, CA is a warehouse brewery that summons beer lovers to enjoy a pint or two, or in my case a sampler or two.  Ritual Brewing Company opened its taproom in November of 2012.  The cavernous space is fitted with the brew house on one side, a long bar and tables to the right of that and a couple of Cornhole Courts near the two large roll-up doors.  The long bar and communal tables are made from reclaimed bowling lanes and fill the space near a wall of barrels; barrels full of delicious beer I might add.

The brew house...shiny!

Barrels and t-shirts and beer! Oh my!

 We arrived shortly after they opened that day and found an empty brewery, which accentuated the spaciousness of the brewery/taproom.  This gave me free reign to geek out on the shiny stuff and snap a few photos prior to ordering our beers.  Our being possibly the first customers of the day allowed us the opportunity to chat with the well-informed beertender about the beers that we would sample.  We were able to do this without feeling as if we were holding up a line.  This was fortunate for me as I can be a bit indecisive when choosing beer.  They had a few pre-selected flights which made the delicious decision a little easier.

Beer Here, indeed!

I choose the 'Big Flavors' sampler which consisted of
 Hellion, Barrel Aged Hop-O-Matic, Fat Hog and Big Deluxe

 Tasting Notes:

-Hellion is a Belgian Golden Ale with an aroma reminiscent of peach preserves spread thinly on a cracker.  This paired with a subtle spicy hop character make for an inviting aroma.  It is a golden, straw color with a bone white head that is thin in the sample but leaves a patchwork of lace on the glass.  The flavor emphasizes the cracker like sweetness noted in the aroma and is balanced against the peach flavors and subtle spicy hop bitterness.  Hellion's effervescence aids in carrying the aromas to my nose and palate.  The medium body and spritzy carbonation make for a refreshing beverage that I would love to drink much more of.  If only I had bought more than the one bottle to take home with me. 

-Barrel Aged Hop-O-Matic is a barrel aged IPA.  The bready, sweet malt aroma plays well against the citrusy hop character and the vanillin from the oak barrel.  It is a deep copper, bordering on brown with a thin crown of white foam that is persistent.  I notice a faint phenolic flavor (slightly solvent like) that, though noticeable, was not distracting.  The flavor of the bready, sweet malts and grapefruit like hop flavors are balanced well with the oak character.  The medium body and moderately low carbonation make for a smooth mouthfeel that gives way to a slight astringency that lingers with the hop bitterness. 

-Fat Hog is an awesome American Barleywine.  This is where the flavors get big in my opinion.  The aroma of this barleywine reminds me of cherry pie and plum.  Its brick red hue is topped with an off-white head that dissipated quickly.  The sweetness and fruit character noted in the aroma come through beautifully in the flavor and are balanced with a mild hop bitterness and subtle, nearly smoky quality.  This beer warmed my chest and that warmth made its way back to my cheeks after a few sips.  I'd love to sip on this beer fire side, maybe while roasting marshmallows.

-Big Deluxe is Ritual's take on a Russian Imperial Stout.  This beer is certainly big, as the name implies, and is most deserving of the 'Big Flavor' sampler.  The aroma is reminiscent of a hearty bowl of oatmeal paired with a strong mocha.  The dark, opaque brown color of this beer is similar to a cup of rich coffee and has a thin beige head formed of fine bubbles.  The flavor follows the aroma with coffee and chocolate being prevalent and as the sample warms I am reminded of a cherry cordial, delicious.  The low carbonation and velvety texture of this beer paired with the high alcohol content are warming and comforting.  I often find that I want to pair beers like this with a good vanilla ice cream and this is no exception.

Photo Credit: The Wife

If I make my way down to Redlands, CA again I will certainly stop off to try more of Ritual's offerings and will definitely bring home more Hellion and will pick up some Big Deluxe as well (stout floats are amazing).  The staff was friendly and knowledgeable and the long communal tables invite conversation.  This is a place I would like to come back to and spend more time enjoying the beer and company of good friends.

Cheers!