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.