Beer Evangelists

5 Day IPA is another one of my Missouri favorites. It is an American style IPA that is dry-hopped in the finishing tank for 5 days.  It pours a nice dark amber with a creamy head that dissipates to a thin film leaving light lacing on the glass as consumed.

The nose is almost all citrusy hops. It isn’t overpowering, but it is definitely present from the time the bottle is opened.

The hops are present and the beer is bitter through the finish, but it doesn’t linger. It has a pleasant mouthfeel with a moderate amount of carbonation.

This beer pours a nice, dark, reddish brown. The head is light cream, and fads quickly leaving a thin ring around the glass. It was poured into a standard pint glass, and is about 50°.

It does not have a strong nose, but I did catch a hint of malt and almost a coffee smell. I’m not noticing some of the other more subtle scents others are.

The beer has a nice malty flavor. I’m also picking up the belgian sugars and just a hint of sourness. The finish is smooth. Mouthfeel may be a little weak, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it watery.

I actually enjoyed this beer more than I thought I would, and would definitely drink it again if available.

Sycamore in Columbia, MO is having another beer dinner! Here are the details:

Monday, June 9, 6pm — Boulevard Beer Dinner featuring the Smokestack series.

Beer dinners are $50.00 a person (includes tax and tip). You can purchase tickets at Sycamore (800 E. Broadway) or call Sanford at 874-8090.

For more details, or to get the beer list and menu when it is posted, visit the Sycamore website.

I guess I got busy, or tired, the last couple of days in San Jose. I’ll just close out the week with a final update.

Thursday I went into San Francisco to catch the Giants-Astros game at AT&T Park. Since I didn’t get into the city until about 2 hours before game time, I decided to grab a quick lunch at 21A before heading to the park. Even on vacation I become a creature of habit.

21A was just as good as the last time. I had the Classic 21A Chicken Sandwich and fries. The chicken on this sandwich had been marinated in a soy-ginger sauce.

Since I knew I would be spending a lot of time outside that afternoon, I chose to go easy on the beer, sticking with the Bitter American, an APA with lower alcohol content, making it a good session beer. It had a strong hop profile. Just what I Iike.

The baseball game was a nice experience. AT&T Park is a new state of the art park with all the amenities. The staff were friendly and attentive. The fans were rowdy and everyone was getting involved in cheering.

After I left the game I met up with Myra at the hotel and we headed back to San Francisco for dinner at the Stinking Rose, a garlic themed restaurant. While the food was pretty good, the service and atmosphere were not. It was very hot in the restaurant which was probably not their fault considering the unseasonably warm temperatures in the bay area last week. The waiter was not attentive, and the wait for food was too long. Had we not ordered our appetizer with our drinks I don’t know how long the meal would have taken. We did get done in time to catch the 9:30pm CalTrain back to San Jose.

Friday we stayed in San Jose. I started the day with lunch at Gordon Biersch. I started off with the Maibock. It was a good, light, slightly sweet beer with a bit of the burnt maltiness of a bock. Then I had a build-your-own pizza for lunch followed by a Märzen. The Märzen was also good. Both beers were a bit muddled, for lack of a better word. It was hard to pick out the different flavors. The atmosphere at the restaurant was great, and the bartender was friendly and knowledgeable about Gordon Biersch beers.

In the afternoon we visited the San Jose Museum of Art and the Intel Museum. We finished our day at the Great Mall of the Bay Area. I visited the BevMo located at the mall. While the selection was okay, they didn’t have one of the beer brands I was specifically looking for, Russian River. I ended up with 4 bombers (Stone Ruination IPA, Santa Cruz Ale Works IPA, Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale, and Marin Brewing Point Reyes Porter) packed in a wine box. It traveled fine packed in a suitcase.

While I didn’t visit some of the locations I had intended to on the trip (Toronado and Magnolia) I did enjoy most of the places I did visit. I would highly recommend the Thirsty Bear and the 21st Amendment. Both are great brewpubs. I would recommend against both Firehouse in Sunnyvale and the Tied House in San Jose. I was underwhelmed with the food/beer at both locations.

Tonight we met up with a friend from Columbia that now lives in California. We went out for sushi at Ariake. It is a casual sushi bar with a twist: the sushi is served on plates placed on boats that float in front of guests seated at the bar. The plates are color coded to indicate pricing. Guests may select a plate buffet style or choose a specific sushi roll from the menu. We did both. Besides the rolls on the boats which were mostly standard styles, we ordered a shanghai roll and a clinton roll. Both were very good, as was all the sushi we tried from the boats. We were all filled up by the time we left, and the grand total was still under $50 with tip.

After a quick stop at the mothership we went to BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse for some dessert. We had a couple of Pizookies, which is basically a pizza-cookie. We had the chocolate chip and the Oreo. The chocolate chip was fresh and warm and tasty, like a big chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven, with two scoops of ice cream on top. The Oreo was good too.

I did actually have a beer as well. I tried the Piranha Pale Ale. I mistakenly assumed it was an IPA based on the hop profile. It was bitter, with a citrusy nose. A well balanced and very tasty pale ale.

The thirsty bear is much more trendy than 21A. The staff is friendly and attentive. My first beer is the Howard Street IPA. It is dark amber with a creamy colored head. It is leaving a fair amount of lacing. This is a bitter beer, but not really citrusy. The malt is present at the finish. The beer has a great mouthfeel, lingering but pleasant. If time weren’t so short I would definitely have another.

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On the way back to San Jose from San Francisco, I decided to get off at the Sunnyvale CalTrain stop and look for Firehouse Brewery. I had seen it mentioned, I believe on beersbybart.com. It is extremely close to the Sunnyvale CalTrain station; across the street from the parking lot. I stopped in during happy hour. The place was busy but not packed. Several large screen televisions showing three different baseball games and a hockey game made it clear that Firehouse is also a sports bar.

The food was expensive for a pub. I had a cheeseburger and fries: $11. I wouldn’t have minded, but it wasn’t a terribly large or tasty cheeseburger; I’ve had much better for much less.

As far as the beer goes, I had the Firehouse Pale Ale. It had a distinct hop bitterness and was very drinkable. While not terribly memorable, it was a good standard pale ale that was better than anything I had at Tied House in downtown San Jose.

Overall, I’m glad I stopped, but I probably won’t go back unless I have a reason to be in Sunnyvale.

I went on the Anchor Brewery Tour this afternoon, and aside from a few interesting tidbits about Anchor, it was like any other brewery tour I’ve been on. At least it was until we hit the tap room. We sampled each of the 6 beers they are currently producing. Without going into more detail, I will just say it was well worth the trip.

An interesting side note to the tour: the Thirsty Bear staff went on the tour today as well. I am planning to get back to San Francisco later this week and will make a stop at the Thirsty Bear if I do.

The watermelon wheat looks like any unfiltered wheat beer: amber and cloudy. It has a white bubbly head that thins quickly. The nose is almost all wheat grain. It isn’t until the first drink that you get a hint of watermelon. It is subtle, but noticeable, and adds a bit of sweetness to the beer. The closest I can get to describing the flavor is watermelon Jolly Rancher, but it not nearly that sweet. More like someone near you is eating a watermelon Jolly Rancher and you occasionally get a whiff. I was surprised to find that the watermelon is a nice complement to the wheatiness. Not a beer I would drink every day, but very good; much better than I expected.

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Eating lunch at 21A in downtown San Francisco. Nice atmosphere and great food and beer. I’m having the Friday IPA first. It nice and hoppy. Golden in color with lacing all the way down the glass. Citrus nose, with a hint of malt on finish.

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