Finally trying Social

The newest, and closest, brewpub to the homestead had been difficult to try. With limited operating hours (5 pm to 10 pm), it was difficult to find a convenient time to stop in. That fortunately changed in the past week, as the Social Kitchen and Brewery can now be checked off the list of brewpubs to visit.
A week ago, I was in the area around 5:00, so I stopped in to try a beer or two. Overall, the beers have been above average, though no super standout, but I'll get into those details in a moment. We also had a chance to try their food last weekend. We happened to walk by at lunch time and saw that they were open. It turns out that it was their first day to be open for lunch, so we took advantage of our good fortune.
The food was quite good. I had a very good cheese burger - well cooked meat, slightly charred, fresh toppings, and crunchy fries - and Ginny had a Vietnamese Fish Sandwich that looked great and she agreed. We'll definitely be going back for lunch/dinner when we have the opportunity (I might sneak over there while Ginny's in labor - it's about an 8 minute walk from the hospital).
As for the beer, there are five options currently offered:

• Social Koelsch - very light (taste and color) and refreshing, though drinking it while eating their house-made mustard resulted in it being really overpowered.


• Old Time Alt - Closer to a brown or a mild ale, this smooth beer could use a little more malt to balance out the dark grain and hop flavors.


• Easy IPA - A mildly hopped IPA (for the west coast) that's easy drinking


• Rapscallion - A low alcohol Belgian-style beer, dark in color and full bodied and flavorful. This was my favorite and it paired nicely with all of the food.


• L’Enfant Terrible - A higher alcohol Belgian-style beer (sort of between a double and a triple), that's light in color and full of Belgian-funkiness. Not as drinkable as the Rapscallion, but quite good.

Overall, I'm excited to have a brewpub close by (20 minutes walking, 5 minutes by MUNI on a lucky day) and am looking forward to trying more beers in the future.

B2B weekend re-cap

The 99th running of the Bay to Breakers race was last weekend in SF and it was a crazy, busy, fun weekend that was kicked off on Thursday afternoon with a good baseball game at AT&T park. The Giants-Padres game was one of the fastest I've ever seen - just over two hours. We only had time for like one beer it was so fast. We made up for it the rest of the day and during the ensuing weekend.

Here's the beer summary for the weekend:

• Tasty beers at the 21st Amendement - a few Golden Dooms (Belgian Strong beers), Gigantes IPAs, and awesome Rammstein (strong dunkel weizen).


• Denied beer at the new Social Brewpub because they close at 10:00 pm due to a stupid provisional liquor license.


• A quick stop up in Headsburg at the Bear Republic Brewpub to down a Hop Rod Rye (great double IPA with Rye - nice subtle spice), Ryevalry (another double IPA fermented with Belgian yeast), and a small sample of Racer X (yet another big IPA).


• Half a can of Red Oval Classic Lager that cost me 50 cents and was stolen by a rouge SF cop who could have instead been doing something useful like arresting pot-smoking hippies, un-licensed food vendors, public urinators, and ugly naked people.


• Some homebrew.

Outside of the beer, we made it to a few good restaurants, too:

• Waterbar - after the baseball game, we stopped in for $1 oyster and happy hour cocktails. It was an excellent pitstop.


• Zuni Cafe - Great 'comfort' food and great service. Probably my favorite restaurant in SF


• La Mar - Awesome Peruvian food. Some of the best ceviche and the most tasty small plates I've ever had. This place is near the top of my list for seafood in SF.


• Home Cookin' - I split a pork tenderloin, stuffed it with chopped basil, garlic, dried chilies, and a couple of thick-cut pieces of bacon, and then grilled it. I done did good with it!

Bay to Breakers was full of the usual craziness. Lots of good costumes, good music, scary naked people, and the occasional really odd sight. I didn't get many decent photos. Here's a couple of the more interesting:
The Pimp-looking dude on the right side may or may not be in a costume.

Youngest drummer of the day - he looked at the oldest 5

A squadron of Star Wars X-wing pilots

Artistic Beer

We just returned from the 19th Annual Hunters Point Shipyard Artists Spring Open Studios and Sale (www.shipyardartists.com) and it was rather mind-numbing. Several hours of looking at about 70 artist's paintings, photos, and sculptures just left me wanting some beer.

There were a couple of artist that incorporated beer into their work:

• Irene Hendrick was showing a few paintings focused on old men drinking beer in pubs. One can be viewed here.
• Judy Reed had some large photographs (like 3' x 4') of crushed Budweiser cans. It was a bit odd.
  

My discerning eye always finds a few gems.

Beer, Baseball, and Tulsa

I spent last week in Tulsa working way too much and not having any fun.
Baseball
I did however take the chance to check out the brand new downtown ballpark for the AA minor league Tulsa Drillers. It was the season opener and inaugural night for the new stadium, and I couldn't get a ticket, so I just wandered around the outside of the ballpark. They were playing the Corpus Christi Hooks (Astros AA) and the only player that I recognized was Koby Clemens, son of Roger "Roidman" Clemens.
From outside the fences, one can actually see a good bit of the field and game. I've had worse views of a game inside a stadium. As an added bonus it is only a 5 minute or so walk from my hotel, so I was able to casually stroll over, watch a little baseball, then grab some food from a nearby restaurant.
Beer
In general, the beer selections in Tulsa are a little limited. The best beer bar that I have found is McNellie's in the downtown area. They have a good beer selection from around the world and the US, and they even have Racer 5 on tap. They also carry beer from a local brewery, Marshall Brewing. I tried a couple:

• Atlas IPA - A 6.5% ABV amber IPA that has a good amount of bitterness, though it was lacking in hop flavor and aroma. Just a little more hop flavor and it would rate above-average. I've had this on previous trips and I have fonder memories, so this keg might have been a bit old.


• McNellie's Pub Ale - Malty and smooth drinking, this was much more pleasing than the IPA. It paired nicely with the taco and tamale dinner that I ate that night.

Other than some Shiner Bock and a few free beers at the hotel 'Priority Club' lounge, there was not a whole lot of beer-adventuring to be had. Next visit, I hope to actually sit down in their new baseball stadium and see if Bud/Miller/Coors tastes that same there as in other baseball stadiums around the country.

Los Gatos Beer

I'm posting a whole week late, but better late than never I guess. We took an adventure down towards Santa Cruz and met friends for dinner and beers in Los Gatos. Dinner was planned at Los Gatos Brewing Company, and we had a bit of a wait, so we first stopped at the local dive bar.
The Black Watch, 141 1/2 N. Santa Cruz Ave, is a fairly basic bar, almost too clean and orderly to be called a dive bar, really. It had a small but decent selection of beers on draft, and we snagged a booth to enjoy our beverages. It was quiet while we were there and seemed to have a good crowd.
Once we made it to dinner, I managed to try three of the house brewed beers. The Cask Conditioned Porter was first, and it was smooth and very fresh. It was a bit milder than many porters, though full bodied and very drinkable. Next up was the Scottish Ale and maybe the porter whacked out my taste buds, but the Scottish Ale was very mild. I was expecting a little more malt flavors and it seemed just a little too bland. I quickly moved onto the Oktoberfest and I found my favorite of the evening. It had a good level of caramel flavor, nice hop balance, and a clean dry aftertaste. If this had been my first of the night, I would have stuck with it for the evening, but I guess for the sake of adventure, I'm glad it wasn't.

Brew Day - no rain, Yay!

With the threat of rain ever present, I took a gamble and decided to brew some beer today. All went perfectly well, and I hope that the Belgian-style Pale Ale is well on its way to tasting great. This was the first beer brewed in 2010, and hopefully I can brew one, maybe two, more before Ginny pops and we have a little poop machine that takes up all of our time. The brewing was quiet and relaxing - two descriptions that may not apply again later in the year.

Baltimore Beer

Though time for beer adventuring was limited during our few days in Baltimore, I was able to find a brewpub that had some tasty beers. We were staying in the harbor area (I highly recommend touring the sailing ship, Constellation) and the closest beer destination that I could find within walking distance was the Pratt Street Ale House. It had a large selection of cellar brewed ales under the brand Oliver Ales. I had a great burger (blackened beef with blue cheese), but the service for the large group (8+) that we brought in on Sunday was not very good. Time was limited and I was only able to try two of their offerings, but both were good beers:

Scottish Ale - Rather sweet ale with subtle smokey flavors. The 7% alcohol was evident on the trailing taste.
Irish Red Ale - Clear, red, smooth and a little malty, this one was good but very subtle. A very drinkable beer that I probably would have liked more had I not been nursing a little bit of a hangover from the big wedding party the night before.

As part of the wedding events, it was evidently required that we drink lots of Natty Boh, aka National Bohemian. This is a easy drinking lager that, I guess, is made in Baltimore and all hip people drink lots of it. It was tasty, wet, and local, so I can't really complain too much.

One last bit of beer fun: the after party for Catherine and Yann's wedding was held at a local pub that had a good selection of Flying Dog beers. It was late, and I tried a few, but heck if I can remember what they were. I've had many of their beers before, so I don't think that I tried anything new, but until I invent my time machine or under go some kind of hypnosis, those beers are lost to history.