Some of you may have been keeping up with my travels on Facebook, but it's been nearly 3 weeks since my last proper blog, so here goes again. Most of that time was spent on the West Coast of USA, of course - we just got back on Monday.
After we got back from the Willamette Blues & Brews Festival, we paid a return visit to the Standing Stones brewpub in Ashland, Southern Oregon - a regular annual stop-off for us. Nothing much had changed since last year, but, despite that, we still went through our usual sampler tray routine. They did have one seasonal special on, consisting of entirely local ingredients apparently:
Another return visit was to the relatively new Southern Oregon Brewery in Medford. We had done a brewery tour there not long after it opened, and we remembered it had a Tap Room - but what we didn't appreciate was that it didn't open until 3pm - and, of course, there's nothing to eat - it's beer only. They've found an interesting, and typically innovative American, solution to that problem, however:
The last week of our vacation was spent 800 miles further south, down in coastal Southern California, where the temperatures are a lot cooler. We were staying at Newport Coast, just south of Huntington Beach (aka Surf City, USA). We had been there in March last year and had visited most of the local brewpubs, including the 2 adjacent ones in Main St., Huntington Beach, but this time, we tried elsewhere and I recalled that Steelhead Brewery (http://www.steelheadbrewery.com/), who used to have a terrific outlet at Fishermen's Wharf, San Francisco, which unfortunately shut down several years ago, had one of their remaining 3 brewpubs at nearby Irvine, a University town just inland. These were the beers available:
The Guava-Licious IPA really did have a strong taste of guava, whilst somehow still maintaining the typical IPA hoppy, bitter flavour.
No trip to this area with the grandchildren would be complete without a visit to Disneyland - naturally, an alcohol-free park. However, its adjacent sister park, California Adventure has no such restriction and we came across the Karl Strauss (http://www.karlstrauss.com/) stand:
Within walking distance of where we stayed was an English style gastropub, complete with external red phone box, which had a fairly upmarket restaurant and a Side Door pub, with an interesting selection of beers:
Note the Old Speckled Hen tap. I asked whether they had any cask conditioned ales, but I experienced a good demonstration of the old adage about us being two nations divided by a common language - they didn't seem to appreciate what I was asking. The barman decided that I should try a sample of Old Stock Ale (in the middle of the gantry above) from California's http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/. This is described in www.ratebeer.com as:
As a continuation of North Coast Brewing Co.’s commitment to quality, our Old Stock Ale is crafted in the tradition of our critically acclaimed Pranqster Belgian Style Golden Ale and Old Rasputin Imperial Stout. It’s brewed with classic floor-malted Maris Otter Pale Malt and Fuggles Hops imported from England, so it’s a beer to be served proudly. Like a fine wine, North Coast’s Old Stock Ale is intended to be laid down. With an original gravity of over 1100 and a generous hopping rate, Old Stock Ale is well-designed to round-out and mellow with age. North Coast Brewing Co. Old Stock Ale is a vintage dated ale. We produce a small quantity each year and it remains available from release date until our stock is depleted.
The small sample was very nice - but definitely not a session beer!
We had planned to spend the last day before we flew home (last Saturday) at the beer festival at Long Beach - http://www.tasteofbrews.com/ but we discovered that there was no kids zone there, and perhaps another day in the surf instead would be better for our health anyway.
The BA lounge at LAX unexpectedly had 3 draft craft beers:
The 7.2% Coulter IPA is a good start to a 10 hour flight!
No comments:
Post a Comment