Roadtrip! #BeerTravel

We just completed an epic roadtrip. It wasn't epic as in we visited national parks. We didn't see majestic animals in their natural habitats. We didn't see glorious vistas the likes of which nature and travel channels are made of.

It was 3,500 miles of U.S. Interstate and nothing but car trouble. But we survived it and through it all we managed to find a lot of really great beer. (The whole story is here.)

Along the way, we passed through four states, stopping at 11 breweries, and sampling 28 beers. I would love to review them all but there were so many that a summary will have to suffice. 

We purchased several to bring home, filling the fridge once more with beers from the Pacific Northwest. If anyone is interested in a tasting party, let me know and we'll put something together. Bring your own favorite to share. In particular, I would like to try a NEIPA if someone has one that they like. I'm convinced the West Coast IPAs are the best. Please feel free to prove me wrong.

This isn't even our latest trek. We've made one more short one since we were in the Pacific Northwest and we're about to head out on another one. But that's what summers are for: roadtrips, and discovering new places and experiences.

The breweries and brews are listed alphabetically, rather than in the order of our travel, and the standouts are highlighted. Underlined breweries or brews are ones we've visited/tasted before. Everything else was a new adventure.

BREWERIES:

10 Barrel Brewing, Boise ID

• Bad Boy Pilsner
• Sinister Black

54-40, Washougal WA

• Kölsch, Washougal WA

Barbarian Brewing, Boise ID

• West Coast Pilsner 5.0%

Bellevue Brewing, Bellevue WA

• 425
• Pilsner

Boise Brewing, Boise ID

• Hip Check IPA

Brothers Cascadia Evergreen Pub, Vancouver WA

• Lowlands Lager

Common Block Brewing Company, Medford OR

(We didn't sample any of their beer! But, we had a surprisingly good Mediterranean Wrap from their food menu.)

Ghost Runner

• Last Mile Kölsch 5.0%
• Running Up Pils 5.0%
• The One Dark Lager 4.5%

Loowit, Vancouver WA

• Loowit Lager 4.2%/12 IBU
• Astromech Pale Ale 5.5%/42 IBU

Mother Earth, Boise ID

• Boo Koo West Coast IPA, 6.5%

Whipsaw Brewing, Ellensburg WA

• Pilsner
• Blonde
• Stout

BEERS:

• 3-Way IPA (collab), Fort George Brewery (Astoria OR)/Brujos Brewing (Portland OR)/Ghost Town Brewing (Oakland CA)
• Black Butte NA, Deschutes Brewery (Portland OR)
• Bodhizafa, Georgetown Brewing Company (Seattle WA)
• Columbia Kölsch, Ice Harbor Brewery (Kennewick WA)
• Morning Provision, Sockeye Brewing (Boise ID)
• NA IPA, Freemont Brewing (Seattle WA)
• No Bad Days, Barrel Mountain Brewing (Battleground WA)
• Northtown Pilsner, Larrabee Lager Company (Bellingham WA)
• Ramble West IPA 6.8% (Chico CA)
• Shadow Shinobi, Loowit Brewing (Vancouver WA)
• Summer IPA, Reuben's Brews (Seattle WA)

HONORABLE MENTION:

The Underground Taphouse (Pasco WA): Friendly service and great tap list. If you need food, order from Saag Thai, next door. It was notably good. (Jill, our bartender gave us this tip: don't order it spicy!) If you ever find yourself in Pasco getting your car repaired on a road trip and you're stuck for a couple of days, The Underground is right next to Firestone Complete Auto Care.

Mystical beer

As mentioned, we recently trekked to New England visiting a number of breweries in multiple states. A notable highlight was veteran-owned Bank & Bridge Brewing in Mystic, Connecticut, where we had a tasting flight consisting of Joker (Pilsner), Grenade Wade (pale ale), Monkee (Kolsch), and Major B (lager). We also ordered their Black Bean Burger with a side of fries.

We sat outside on a perfectly pleasant and sunny day and watched the tourists stream by. If ever in Mystic, I would recommend a stop at Bank & Bridge. It’s hard to miss, located at a main intersection next to the infamous Mystic Pizza, in a stately stone building that once housed a bank.

We enjoyed all of the beers we sampled. Hubby and I both picked the lager and the pale ale as our favorites. The lager was slightly hoppy but not disagreeably so although more than might typically be found in a lager. The pale ale was pleasant balance between an English bitter style and a light American ale - lots of flavor that wasn’t overly aggressive. Again, both beers were satisfyingly drinkable.

The other two, we disagreed on slightly. Hubby picked the Kolsch as his least favorite while I picked the Pilsner. Interestingly, those are his two favorite styles of beer yet these were his least favorite among the ones we tried. I favored the Kolsch over the Pilsner. It had a soft mouthfeel, and tasted of cracker which I found pleasant enough. For me, the Pilsner lacked a certain crispness and brightness on the tongue. But I'm not complaining. All four beers were good but we found we liked the lager and pale ale over the  Kolsch and Pilsner.

Our meal was great and now that I’m studying the menu, there’s more that I wished we tried. Besides other food items, I would like to sample the brewer’s IPAs since I’ve learned he’s from San Diego. I like the west coast beers, being from there myself, so I’d like to sample his interpretation now as an east coast brewer. All that to say there's a lot to sample and my bet is it's all good.

With any luck, we'll be back in Mystic again next year and we'll undoubtedly take the opportunity to check into Bank & Bridge Brewing. You know, just be be certain it was as good as we remember. Because we're all about quality control and accurate reporting here at Beer Here and that requires frequent sampling.

Cheers!

Just so you know, “Time for a nap” means “Time for a beer”

We probably did’t fool anyone but when we said we were ready for a nap, what we really meant was it was time to do some beer hunting. And we hunted a lot of beer.

We just spent seven days in Massachusetts with quick side trips to Connecticut and Rhode Island. During that time, we visited quite a few breweries or other establishments serving beer. The following generally outlines our trek. Favorites are indicated thusly.

Bank & Bridge Brewing - Mystic CT

• Joker (Pilsner)
• Grenade Wade (pale ale)
• Monkee (Kolsch)
• Major B (lager)

Gardner Ale House - Gardner MA

•     Park St. Porter - Moon Hill Brewing
•     Run Wild IPA - Athletic Brewing Company

Apponaug Brewing - Warwick RI 

• Marigold Witbier
• Pawtuxet Pilsner
• Cohesive NE IPA
• Overflow Munich Dunkel

Hitchcock Brewing Co - Bernardston, MA
Back Room Brewing Company - Northfield, MA
Powder Hollow Brewery - Deerfield, MA

Berkshire Brewing Company - Deerfield, MA

• Czech Style Pilsner
• Sun Love Pilsner

Red Heat Tavern - South Windsor, MA

• Fuzzy Baby Ducks IPA - New England Beer Company

Country Club at Greenfield - Greenfield, MA

• 60 Minute IPA - Dogfish Head Brewery

The tally is seven breweries, two pubs, several eating establishments (not listed) and perhaps two dozen or more beers - not all listed because that's a lot of beer to keep track of. Not all of them were full pours. A couple we had more than one - or would if we stayed in one place long enough. Some were excellent. Two (not listed) were too awful to finish. There are a couple of places we would go out of our way to go back to and others we will avoid.

The point is to have fun and try new things. We are from the other coast and prefer west coast beers. But it was good to try different things and meet some new people.

And see some old people, too.

Great trip.

#NEBeer, #BeerTravel, #BeerCareful

Seven Breweries, Six Days in Three States

Two standouts so far.

One more day to go….

Have you ever had a Nickel Beer?

If you've ever been to Julian, CA, you would know that it's a mountainside village about an hour northeast of San Diego. Driving through the area, you would easily glean the major attractions are pie, wineries, and cideries. For a small town of about 1,800 people, it attracts a good amount of tourism in its central core which is all of about four blocks long. The whole town is a historical landmark measuring roughly 8 square miles at an elevation of 4,226 feet. Amazingly, it has two breweries. One is Nickel Beer.

I'd neither heard of Julian nor of Nickel Beer until very recently. 

I was introduced to Nickel Beer after completing a half marathon earlier in the year. It was in Palm Desert, CA, and even though it was ten o'clock in the morning, by golly, I was going to have a celebratory beer as soon as I crossed the finish line. Nickel Beer was pouring. 

I remember I had the Take A Hike (extra pale ale). Hubby had the Lake Cuyamaca Lager. Even thought it was months ago, we still remember those beers.

I looked up the brewery and noted it's remote-to-us location in Julian. Nevertheless, I tucked away the idea of going to Julian and checking out the brewery. It's somewhere between where I live and San Diego but not necessarily the most direct route. (Although relatively close to San Diego, it's about two hours from where we live.)

Then, I heard a couple of neighbors say they always make it a point to drive through Julian when heading to or from San Diego and that was all I needed. That, and a couple of tickets to a San Diego Padres game.

It was well worth the stop and only added about 20 minutes to our drive. The owner, Tom Nickel, is an award winning brewer who previously brewed for Pizza Port, Oggi's, and Julian Beer Company (Julian's other brewery). If you take a look at Nickel's beer menu and search for the word "medal," you will find seven references to award winning beer. It's a small, hard-working brewery cranking out some amazing beer. In fact, looking at the beer list on their website, it's hard to imagine they could produce so many beers. And so good. I had the Hook In Mouth Chinook Wet Hop IPA (🍻) which was one such medal winner and featured hops grown in nearby Ramona, CA. Hubby had the Stonewall Stout (🍺).

Based on the total of four beers we tried and the friendly and knowledgeable beertender, Nickel Beer may forever be a stop on any future trip between to or from San Diego. It's a quaint, friendly brewery housed in a previous Sheriff's office (complete with holding cell), with a relaxed, local vibe and mostly outdoor seating (making it dog friendly). It's now one of my favorite places and I would definitely go back.

Rating: ❤️ 🔙🐕‍🦺

Is there an Anchor Sour in the future?

Anchor Brewing gets new lease on life after it finds an unexpected buyer

" Hamdi Ulukaya, the billionaire founder and CEO of yogurt maker Chobani, announced Friday on LinkedIn he has purchased the San Francisco-beer brand with plans to revive Anchor Brewing’s taprooms and beloved brews. "

BTW, yogurt + beer = sour beer. 

TCBC

This stands for Transplant City Beer Company and it's located in Litchfield Park, Arizona. We last visited in April 2024 and I'm happy to say I would go back.

I didn't take notes so I can't tell you what we tasted. We went with a group of friends and everyone chose something different. Overall, the responses were good. I remember that I enjoyed my beer (and if I had to guess, I tried their hefeweizen which I liked enough to get a refill).

To tell you the truth, I had been hesitant to visit TCBC as they are a self-described nano-brewery. While small batches give brewers the flexibility to experiment and provide a wide variety of brews, the brew drinker never really knows what she's going to get. "Experimental" doesn't always translate to "yummy." It sometimes translates to "weird." That's been my experience in the past and so I will usually pass by anything that suggest "nano" or, for that matter, "new."

New breweries are often the first professional step past the home brewer stage and sometimes there's a translation problem between the recipes brewed at home and the recipe needed to brew on a larger system. Sometimes, it's more than just math and it takes it a while for newly professional brewers to get the same results they were getting at home. If you have a beer you don't like at a new brewery, come back in about a  year. They will have likely worked out the kinks by then (or suffered the consequences).

TCBC took over the spot vacated by Peoria Artisan Brewery when they moved to their Peoria AZ location. TCBC made significant improvements to the space, updating the interior and adding seating both inside and outside on a new, adjacent patio. It has a local community vibe, which I personally prefer to a touristy vibe, and it's in a good location.

It's possible we visited TCBC in their early days. Certainly, I remember seeing their beer menu and thinking it was a little too experimental for me. That was years ago.

When we were invited to visit this past April, we couldn't resist the opportunity to be with friends, make new friends, and try some new beers. We were pleasantly surprised. 

To be fair, as I look at what's on tap today, there's still some weird stuff on the menu but weird can be good and sometimes I even seek it out. If you'd rather steer of weird, there's plenty of styles to choose from. Stick to your lane or venture from it but give TCBC a try. It's a laid back neighborhood spot where you're bound to feel welcome. It might just become your favorite local watering hole. I know I'll be back.

Rating: 🔙 👫🐕‍🦺🍻