Hopmonk…and the high school sweethearts of industry folk

So following the beer festival, several amazing feats were achieved:

(A) Dan got up at 5:00am and made it to his college geology field trip on time

(B) Allie, Melissa, and I got up and kept drinking beer

We were actually heading to Ace Cideryfor Melissa, who’s a reluctant beer fan, to make up for the overabundance of beer last night, relative to cider.  However, as we were driving through Sebastopol, we saw that Hopmonk had opened. I had been waiting for this and I have to say, we picked the it was the absolutely perfect place for Sunday lunch.  

First, they have a giant outdoor patio space with lots of large tables and plenty of space.  It’s really pretty and pleasant without being overly done up, i.e., there’s a fountain and umbrellas over the tables but the floor is dirt.  We sat out in the sunshine and were barely able to keep from proclaiming every few minutes how happy we were to have stopped in.

Second, the beer list is AWESOME.  Online, I had only been able to scope out their on-tap beers, but they have a bunch more in bottles as well.  And my favorite part was the physical beer list itself, which is even better than the Rogue beer list which I’ve been mourning since they did away with it.  It lists everything about their on tap beers, including which food to pair it with, other similar beers on their list, which glass with will be served in, and what flavors you might taste in it.  Dude, I would come here just to curl up on their comfy patio sofas by the fountain for a beer list reading session.  The Draft beers:

  • Hopmonk Kellerbier (unfiltered pilsner)
  • Hopmonk Tavern Ale (California-style pale ale)
  • Hopmonk Dunkelweizen
  • Anchor Liberty
  • Belhaven Scottish Ale
  • Duchesse de Bourgogne (is this EVERYWHERE now? Jesus!)
  • Eel River Organic Porter
  • Fuller’s London Pride
  • Gordon Biersch Maerzen
  • Mendocino Spring Bock
  • Moonlight Death & Taxes
  • New Belgium Mothership Wit
  • Rogue Dead Guy Ale
  • Sonoma Farmhouse Saison
  • Stone Brewing Smoked Porter
  • Ace Perry

By the way, this is just the regular draft list.  They also have cask conditioned and bottled.  

I especially like that they went with some of the more unusual selections from the local breweries (Mothership Wit from New Belgium instead of Fat Tire, Maierbock from Rogue instead of Dead Guy Ale, Liberty Ale from Anchor instead of Steam, Harvest EPA from Sierra instead of the classic IPA, etc.).  I also noticed that the DID make a big effort to feature LOCAL, Northern California breweries wherever possible.  

The food was delicious.  I had a pulled pork sandwich with mole sauce that was a nice twist on a beer joint favorite and my sister got one of the best grilled cheeses I’ve ever tasted.  

If I were going to nitpick one thing, and it’s no big deal considering how great the rest of the beer list is, it’s that I only thought their house dunkelweizen was good, not great.  It leaned towards a Bavarian flavor profile, but wasn’t quite as ester-y as I might have hoped.  I’ll go back and try the restaurant and the house brews again for sure, but if you only have one chance to try this place, I might recommend one of the non-house beers from their list.

One last funny thought: So, I have to admit I didn’t have the highest expectations going into Hopmonk because I had heard they are owned by Gordon Biersch and I an NOT a fan of Gordon Biersch.  Actually, I’m much less than a fan, I am an active detractor since both times I’ve gone there I’ve gotten sick from the food, one time severely, and the beer is mediocre at best. 

However, I discovered a couple of things on Sunday:

(1) Hopmonk is nothing like Gordon Biersch.  Instead of asshole bankers headed to the baseball game it’s full of 50+ year old Sonoma County residents.  Instead of bad beer, they have good beer.  Instead of mass quantities of stale garlic fries, they have delicious sausage corn puppies. 

(2) The original owners of Gordon Biersch sold a while ago (had heard this but thought they might still be running the place) and were looking for a chance to start over with a new & improved concept.  We found this out in a funny way:

A man who looks like he is probably the owner is checking on tables and chatting with the customers, many of whom seem to know their beer (a table across from us is drinking the Cantillon Gueuze and discussing lambics). 

We stop him as he comes to our table and tell him how much we like his place.  We’re about out of compliments and questions when I decided to spring what I realize may be a loaded question on him, “So, I hear you guys are owned by Gordon Biersch, is that true?”  The answer, “No, but I started Gordon Biersch.”  Me again, “Oh, are you a member of the Biersch family?”  Him, “I’m Dean Biersch.”

Now, you’ll only understand what joy this spread at our table if you know this backstory: Allie’s boss had noticed her checking the blog several times and asked what was up.  When my sister explained that I wrote a beer blog, her boss’ reaction was, “Oh, does she like Gordon Biersch?  Because I went to high school with the Biersch brothers.  Dean and I dated for a while.”

So,upon meeting the fabled Dean Biersch, my sister had to pop the question that was on all of our minds, “So, do you know…” and threw out her boss’ maiden name.  His reaction was priceless.  “Oh man, I haven’t heard that name in forever.  How do you know her?  Good times, man. ”  We explained the situation and he seemed to clearly be rerunning high school hijinks in his head.  He offered to send over some samples, which was very kind but we had paid our bill and were on our way out the door at this point.  However, I’ll keep this in mind for the future.  Mental note: make my current bosses date more beer folk. 

2 comments May 9, 2008

Blog-tastic meet-up in Boonville

What started as a simple plan to take in a few brews in the sunshine this weekend has morphed into something even better: A meet-up for Bay Area beer bloggers at the Boonville Beer Festival.

Sure, there will be lots of fun beer drinkers there to talk to, but given that I’ve had enough virtual conversations with some of you that I know more about your thoughts and tastes than I do about many of the people in the cubicles around me, it would be grade to raise a pint together in person.

So here’s the plan, idea courtesy of Peter at BetterBeerBlog, and specifics courtesy of Jay from Hedonist Beer Jive:

2:00pm, Saturday, May 10th, at the “small wooden gazebo in front of the right-hand side of the band stage” on the Anderson Valley Brewing Company site in Boonville, CA. 

So far it is just the three of us, but if you are coming to the Boonville Beer Festival and write a beer blog, or read one of our blogs, please join us!

If you want to make sure you don’t miss us, drop me an email at thethirstyhopster@gmail.com and we can trade cell phone numbers. 

Rob - c’mon, I know you said you couldn’t make it, but I know you’re reading this, and I hope it’s convincing you to show up!

2 comments May 8, 2008

The bittersweet fruits of bringing craft beer mainstream

[Read to end for pictures]

I think it’s safe to say that almost all of us who love craft beer want to see it succeed and thrive as an industry.  We’re not really proud parents, unless we’re brewers ourselves, so maybe we’re proud aunts and uncles, but all the same, there’s a happy glow that we all share when good beer gets its due. 

There are a lot of reasons for this warm fuzzy feeling.  First, a selfish and obvious one: when good beer goes mainstream, it’s available more places, and we can have beer we like more of the time.  For example, while other stadiums may just have their Bud or Miller or Coors, at Giants Stadium we not only have Sierra Nevada, but we also have Lagunitas IPA!  I can now go to baseball games and avoid shilling out $8-ish for a watery macro-brew I never actually wanted, and pay the only slightly more outlandish price of $8.50-ish for Lagunitas.  I’d say the 50 cent upgrade is 100% worth it.

On a more altruistic note though, I think we also all want to see craft brew succeed because American’s love an underdog story.  Craft brews are clearly the underdogs, considering that the American beer industry is incredibly concentrated into just 3 large players (Bud, Miller, Coors) and that domestic craft brews are only 3.8% of American beer production and only 5.9% of American retail sales, according to the Brewers Association.  But it’s about more than just our perpetual love of underdogs, it’s also about that fact that we often know these particular underdogs personally.  Because craft brew is so often sold at mom-and-pop style brewpubs, and because beer is such a catalyst for conversation, it’s not unusual for craft beer drinkers to meet, chat with, and befriend their local brewer.  How could you not want these guys to succeed once they’ve shared a pint with you and pressed samples of their new stuff into your hands waiting to see your reaction?

I bring this all up because the San Francisco International Beer Festival, which I attended last Saturday, had a distinctly non-beer-geek crowd, and I am having an inner struggle over how to feel about this. 

On one hand, it was great because, hey, this was my demographic.  The average age in the room was probably more like 28 than the usual 55 (note: no math went into choosing these numbers, these are a gut-level guess), and though men still composed the majority of the attendees, most every group had one or more women with them. 

On the other hand, though the Nielsen ratings and the primary pollsters may throw us all in the same bucket, I felt like I had much less in common with these people that the usual beer geek crowd, most of whom could easily be mistaken for my dad.  It took me a few minutes of thinking here to try to pin down the reason why, and I think this is it: They were all trying so hard to seem impressive and what I like most about the usual beer crowd is that there is usually little pretense.  Maybe that’s because if you’re 55 and married there is no particular reason to dress up to drink beer, but if you’re 25 and unmarried you better put on your mating attire.  Ugh.  I think the couple in front of me in line best exemplifies this phenomenon.  They were a mid- to late-20s guy and girl.  The girl has on Ferragamo sunglasses with the logo printed in giant letters on the earpieces.  She’s also wearing a strapless, bejeweled top that keeps slipping down so precariously that every two minutes she has to yank it back up over her boobs.  The outfit was completed by strappy, open-toe, open-heel, expensive leather sandals.  At a beer fest in a giant concrete-floored pavilion at night?  I would not want to be those sticky, grimy toes at the end of the night, nor would I want to be the guy who has to grab her elbow to keep her from slipping every five minutes.  The guy was no better, outfitted with equally expensive sunglasses, $200+ jeans, and a Blackberry he checked every few minutes.  I felt like asking, did they think they were at Slide or Vessel?  And who were they hoping would notice their trendiness?  I also internally berated myself for being so judgmental on the basis of their appearance.  But then, the conversations and behaviors of this crown played into this gut-sinking feeling almost as much as appearances.  This was a “we must always be touching” couple and I don’t think either of their hands came out of the other’s back pocket for the duration of the wait in line, no matter how awkward it got to shuffle towards the entrance like conjoined twins.  As their friends joined them and we could hear their conversation, it could not have played more closely to stereotypes: 

Guy1: Dude, this is so awesome, there are like 100 beers in there, I am going to get so f*ed up.

Guy2: Yeah, I know, last year we did a power hour, where each shot had to be from a different table. I was so f*ing wasted, I can’t wait!

Girl1: I had to take him home, but it was ok because I was pretty sober.  I don’t really like beer, but they had some cider tables so it was ok. 

Girl2: I love cider!  Do you think they’ll have Blue Moon? 

So, this is where I have to admit that I have a categorical dislike of fitting stereotypes, even if I naturally just happen to fit them, so this whole event grates against my own personal biases. 

With all this said though, this was really a long prelude to the thought that I had while starting this write up: I think this crowd may be a good sign for craft beer and I need to cut the whining.  Sure, they may not be my best friends, but they will ensure the survival of my favorite hobby. They’re a sign that craft beer is moving mainstream, that it’s given the respect of something to be tasted rather than chugged, and that it can continue to command the higher price point necessary to support the higher quality ingredients and higher labor intensity that goes into it.  So, hurrah for fair-weather beer fans!  Because they keep the craft beer movement afloat and crowd the Shiner tables instead of the Ommegang ones!  Yeah, sometimes there’s a sense of sense of loss at seeing something you love slip from your fingers, out of your control, and into the rough-and-tumble mass market.  And sometimes the mass consumers aren’t going to support the niche, harder-love-but-all-the-more-lovely-for-it beers that you may like, but I still think that through supporting the craft segment, they indirectly support those beers as well.  

I think our story is one best told in pictures with minimal narration, so let us begin:

(and a big thanks to Dan the Cameraman who took all kinds of photos we had no idea he was taking)

We arrived at the Pavilion and were a little overwhelmed by the sheer size of the space.

 Allie and Melissa were in town for the weekend (specifically for the beer festival!) and as usual served as my partners in crime

 

However this time we had a new squadmate as well: Brother Dan.  Nope, not a monk, though that would have been more awesome, just our actual little brother.

 

We sampled some beer, in orthodox and unorthodox fashion…

 

Ate some pretzels…

 

Recorded what we tasted…

 

…and occasionally suffered a truly absent-minded mishap as a result of my determination to record each beer we tasted. 

 

But nevertheless, we were generally very happy about the night!

 

 My favorite of the 23 beers I tried that night was the Ommegang Three Philosophers (Thanks, Jay, for the birthday bottle that turned me onto this beer!).  That’s a beer that’s hard to top under any circumstances, but especially in this room where, by my count, 59 of the 135 beers (that’s ~40%) were macro-brews (Bud Light Lime anyone?), or craft arms of macrobrews (you can’t fool me, Landshark Lager…), or craft brews that have been beaten into submission since being co-opted by being bought out by macrobreweries (I’m looking at you, Shiner).  

I spent some time last night analyzing the list of breweries present, and I’ll paste my full data list below, but here are a few summaries of the findings:

  • 75 domestic brewers (44 from California)
  • 60 imports

 

  • 19 brewpubs
  • 60 microbreweries
  • 13 hybrids (owned by macros with aspirations or memories of being a craft)
  • 43 macros

 

  • 82 independent breweries
  • 11 brands owned by Heineken
  • 6 brands owned by InBev
  • 5 brands owned by Anheuser-Busch
  • 4 publicly traded brands
  • 4 SABMiller brands
  • 25 other brands

 

  • 125 beers
  • 6 ciders
  • 3 soft drinks
  • 1 mead

Beers I tried:

Full list of participants:

Name City State Country Drink
21st Amendment San Francisco CA USA Beer
Ace Sebastopol CA USA Cider
Affligem N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Alaskan Juneau AK USA Beer
Allagash Portland ME USA Beer
Anchor San Francisco CA USA Beer
Anderson Valley Boonville CA USA Beer
Avery Boulder CO USA Beer
Ballast Point San Diego CA USA Beer
Bass N/A N/A England Beer
Beach Chalet San Francisco CA USA Beer
Bear Republic Healdsburg CA USA Beer
Beck’s N/A N/A Germany Beer
Belhaven N/A N/A Scotland Beer
Biere du Demon N/A N/A France Beer
Bison Berkeley CA USA Beer
Blue Frog Fairfield CA USA Beer
Blue Moon Denver CO USA Beer
Brasserie D’Achouffe N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Bridgeport Portland OR USA Beer
Bud Light Lime St. Louis MO USA Beer
Butte Creek Chico CA USA Beer
Carlsberg N/A N/A Denmark Beer
Chang N/A N/A Thailand Beer
Chimay N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Czechvar N/A N/A Czech Republic Beer
De Koninck N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Deschutes Bend OR USA Beer
Devil’s Canyon Belmont CA USA Beer
Dinkel Acker N/A N/A Germany Beer
Dogfish Head Milton DE USA Beer
Drakes San Leandro CA USA Beer
Duvel N/A N/A Belgium Beer
E.J. Phair Pittsburg CA USA Beer
Eel River Fortuna CA USA Beer
Elephant N/A N/A Denmark Beer
Estrella Galicia N/A N/A Spain Beer
Firestone Walker Paso Robles CA USA Beer
Fischer Brasserie N/A N/A France Beer
Fox Barrel Sacramento CA USA Cider
Franziskaner N/A N/A Germany Beer
Full Sail Hood River OR USA Beer
Fuller’s N/A N/A England Beer
Golden Pheasant N/A N/A Slovak Republic Beer
Gordon Biersch San Francisco CA USA Beer
Green Flash San Diego CA USA Beer
Grolsch N/A N/A Denmark Beer
Guinness N/A N/A Ireland Beer
Hacker-Pschor N/A N/A Germany Beer
Hair of the Dog Portland OR USA Beer
Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay CA USA Beer
He’Brew New York City NY USA Beer
Heineken N/A N/A Netherlands Beer
Heineken Premium Light N/A N/A Netherlands Beer
High Falls New York City NY USA Beer
Hoegaarden N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Hofbrau N/A N/A Germany Beer
Hornsby’s Modesto CA USA Cider
Humboldt Arcata CA USA Beer
Izze Juice Boulder CO USA Soft Drink
J. Boag & Son N/A N/A Tasmania Beer
Karlovacko N/A N/A Croatia Beer
Kirin N/A N/A Japan Beer
Kona Kailua-Kona HI USA Beer
Konig N/A N/A Germany Beer
Kronenbourg N/A N/A France Beer
Lagunitas Petaluma CA USA Beer
Lammsbrau N/A N/A Germany Beer
Landshark Lager Jacksonville FL USA Beer
Lefebvre N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Leffe N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Leinenkugel Chippewa Falls WI USA Beer
Lost Coast Eureka CA USA Beer
Mad River Blue Lake CA USA Beer
Magners N/A N/A Ireland Cider
Magnolia San Francisco CA USA Beer
Malheur N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Maredsous N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Marin Larkspur CA USA Beer
MateVeza Chico CA USA Beer
Mendocino Hopland CA USA Beer
Meteor N/A N/A France Beer
Mike’s Hard Lemonade Seattle WA USA Alcopop
Miller Chill Milwaukee WI USA Beer
Miller MGD Milwaukee WI USA Beer
Modelo Especial N/A N/A Mexico Beer
Moosehead N/A N/A Canada Beer
Moretti N/A N/A Italy Beer
Mountain Meadows Mead Westwood CA USA Mead
Moylan’s Novato CA USA Beer
Murphy’s N/A N/A Ireland Beer
Napa Smith Napa CA USA Beer
Negra Modelo N/A N/A Mexico Beer
New Belgium Fort Collins CO USA Beer
Newcastle N/A N/A England Beer
North Coast Fort Bragg CA USA Beer
North Star Shasta Lake CA USA Beer
Ommegang Cooperstown NY USA Beer
Orgasmica San Francisco CA USA Beer
Paulaner N/A N/A Germany Beer
Pete’s San Antonio TX USA Beer
Phuket N/A N/A Thailand Beer
Pilsner Urquell N/A N/A Czech Republic Beer
Pyramid Seattle WA USA Beer
Radeberger N/A N/A Germany Beer
Red Hook Seattle WA USA Beer
Rubicon Sacramento CA USA Beer
Sacramento Sacramento CA USA Beer
Sam Adams Boston MA USA Beer
San Francisco San Francisco CA USA Beer
San Miguel N/A N/A Philippines Beer
Sapporo N/A N/A Japan Beer
Schwelmer N/A N/A Austria Beer
Shiner Shiner TX USA Beer
Shipyard Portland ME USA Beer
Shock Top N/A N/A Belgium Beer
Sierra Nevada Chico CA USA Beer
Smithwicks N/A N/A Ireland Beer
Spaten N/A N/A Germany Beer
Speakeasy San Francisco CA USA Beer
Stone San Diego CA USA Beer
Sudwerk Davis CA USA Beer
Tetley’s N/A CA England Beer
Thirsty Bear San Francisco CA USA Beer
Thomas Kemper Seattle WA USA Soft Drink
Tiger Beer N/A N/A Singapore Beer
Toohey’s N/A N/A Australia Beer
Trumer Berkeley CA USA Beer
Weihenstephaner N/A N/A Germany Beer
Widmer Portland OR USA Beer
Wolaver’s Middlebury VT USA Beer
Woodchuck Springfield VT USA Cider
Wunder San Francisco CA USA Beer
Wyder’s N/A N/A Canada Cider
Young’s N/A N/A England Beer

3 comments May 7, 2008