The Thirsty Hopster

Hi Everyone reading The Thirsty Hopster,  

I’d like to invite you to my 3rd monthly beer tasting event. 

I hold themed beer tastings once a month at my apartment.  The March event was a “Beer: 101″ course, covering one or two beers in each of about 10 different styles.  The April event was a Belgian sour ale tasting.   

The tastings generally cover about 10 beers.  No one is expected or encouraged to drink a full bottle of each beer, usually to we try to work it out so that everyone gets about a 4 oz pour of each beer, and so that there’s some left over for those who want seconds of a particular beer.  Those who were at the first tasting know we had tons of extra beer, at the second tasting we were a little short, but I’m learning from these expereinces and I think I’ll get it right this time.     

This event will be a tasting of saisons, which are a Belgian style of beer traditionally brewed in the winter and drunk in the spring and summer.  Saisons are light beers that tend to have fruity aromas, with earthy, spicy, and moderately hoppy (bitter, aromatic) flavors.  They are not very sweet, and may be a bit sour, but not on the level of the sour ales we tasted last month.    For a great discussion of saisons, check out’s Rob’s recent post. 

I will also throw in some biere de garde style beers, as I can find them.  This is a style very similar to saisons, but it has less tartness and spiciness, and greater sweetness and malt flavors. At the end of this post, you can find a list of the beers I think I will be most likely to be able to find and include in this tasting.  

The tasting will be 7:00pm - 10:00pm on Saturday, May 31st.  It is fine to come late or leaver early, but you may miss some of the beers if you do.  Usually there is also a group that goes out together afterwards to one of the bars that is walkable from my apartment (and I’m jsut around the corner from the Toronado…), but this is optional and up to others to organize if they want to make it happen. 

The tasting will be at my apartment in San Francisco.  I’ll send out the address to those who RSVP.  If there is interest from far more than 15 people, I may try to secure a larger location for us. 

The tasting will cost between $10 - $20, which I charge to cover the cost of the beer.  I aim to keep it at $15, but sometimes I go a little overboard when I see what my local beer stores have on their shelves.  I promise it won’t go over $20 though, and that I will give you an update on the actual price once I’ve bought the beers and know what my costs are.  

The tasting is limited to 15 people because that is all that my apartment can fit.  We’ve learned this the hard way in the past and 15 is the absolute maximum I can do without having people sitting on the floor.  I’m really going to stick to 15 this time around.   

You are welcome and encouraged to bring other people as long as you RSVP them.  One of the great things about these events is that often people bring friends, roommates, significant others, etc., so we all get to meet new people.   

Please RSVP by emailing thethirstyhopster@gmail.com.  Hope to see you there!

- JJ    

List of potential beers in the tasting:  

Saisons

• Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere
• Lagunitas Sonoma Farmhouse Ale
• The Lost Abbey Red Barn Ale
• Ommegang Hennepin Farmhouse Ale
• Saison Dupont Farmhouse Ale
• Firestone Walker Lil’ Opal - may only be available on tap
• Russian River Erudition - may only be available on tap
• Brookley Brewery Saison De Brooklyn - may not be available anymore
• New Belgium Saison Belgian Style Farmhouse Ale - may not be available anymore  

Biere de Gardes

• Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza
• The Lost Abbey Avant Garde
• Flying Dog Garde Dog
• Russian River Perdition - may only be available on tap

This beer dinner came at the tail end of a marathon week of beer events, so it’s no wonder that by the time the week was over I had been lulled into a near-comatose state of blogging laziness by all the good beer and good food.  But, this Bar Crudo beer dinner was too great to skip over, even if it is now two weeks later. 

I arrived on my own, which was my M.O. of the week since I couldn’t find anyone else to go to so many beer events with me, and it’s also how I prefer to eat at Bar Crudo.  Seriously, you know a restaurant/bar is a truly welcoming, social place when you not only feel able to go alone, but prefer to go alone so that you can meet new people. 

The restaurant was surprisingly calm considering that they were serving a five-course meal to everyone in the place.  If you sit at the bar, the chefs are working right in front of you and there was none of the chaos I expected.  I couldn’t believe how collected Mike and the rest of the crew seemed.  I was of course sitting at the bar, which I was about to say is my favorite place to sit, when I realized that I’ve never actually sat upstairs in their restaurant before.  Oh well, just another good sign of a great bar: it’s actually more enjoyable and in-demand than the sit-down tables. 

Most people were there in pairs, but I sat with Jenn, a friend of Mike & Tim’s, who used to be a wine sales rep selling to Bar Crudo, and then later a Bar Crudo employee.  She was incredibly sweet, going as far to share her oysters (menu below) with me after I had already gobbled mine down because she wanted to tell me what to look for in the taste.  We talked about the time she had spent in Thailand, and what it’s like traveling around the globe on your own if you’re a woman, and the ups and downs of being a wine or beer sales rep (something much on my mind of late).  Later, after her boyfriend arrived, I wanted to give them a chance to catch up, and ended up talking to the couple on the other side of me.  Unfortunately, their names have escaped me, but they were a really fun pair from Bernal Heights.  The guy half of the couple was the architect for Bar Crudo, and also the architect for Mike & Tim’s new restaurant going in on Divisadero (more on this below). 

But enough about the atmosphere because, great as it is, the real story is the food & drink.  The food was a ‘French Bistro’ menu, while the theme for the beers was American extreme ales.  Here’s the menu:

• Hood Canal Oysters
•      Banyuls spring leek and pink peppercorn mignonette, caviar, lemon zest
•      Pairing: La Roja, Jolly Pumpkin, Dexter, Michigan, American Wild Ale, 7.2%

• Asparagus & Dungeness Crab Salad
•      Egg mimosas, icicle radish, flowering arugula, champagne vinaigrette, black truffle salt
•      Pairing: Bam Biere, Jolly Pumpkin, Dexter, Michigan, Saison, 4.5%

• Cod Brandade
•      Marinated olives, garlic toast
•      Pairing: Starbrew, Marin Brewing, Larkspur, California, Wheat Wine, 10%

• Bouillabaisse of Monkfish, Shellfish, and Spring Vegetables
• Rouille, pernod
• Pairing: Musette, Allagash, Portland, Maine, Scotch Ale, 10%

• Artisan Cheese Plate
• Pairing: Curieux, Allagash, Portland, Maine, Oak Aged Tripel, 11%

There was not one dish I didn’t finish in its entirety and I wish I could say the same about the beer.  However, they were full-glass pours and you’ll notice that there were five of them, three of them at 10+% ABV, and there’s no way I could drink the equivalent of eight glasses of beer in the course of one dinner, no matter how much I liked them.  

I’ve never been a huge fan shellfish, or more accurately of mollusks (I love crustaceans: shrimp, crab, lobster), but mostly for lack of giving them a try.  We never ate them growing up and I’ve never felt compelled to develop an appreciation for these pricey undersea critters.  However, I approached this dinner with the attitude of, “you never know, it’s all worth a try,” and believe me it was.  I think the oysters were my favorite dish of the night.  They were salty and tart, and though I had feared their texture, I actually liked it.  I tried to make them last as long as possible.  This is great news to me, since now that I’m open to eating oysters it about doubles the options available on a regular night at Bar Crudo.  

My other favorite was the cod brandade.  It was a creamy, fluffy little dish of warm baked cod that was a nice alternative to the only other seafood comfort food I can think of, clam chowder in a bread bowl.  

Every one of the beers was delicious, but I think my two favorites of the night were the Jolly Pumpkin La Roja and the Allagash Musette.  I love the Curieux, but I’ve had a run of it recently, about 5 times in a week and a half, and appreciated the novelty of these other two beers. 

Flemish-style sour ales have been high on my radar recently, but I had yet to try an American-made Flanders-style red ale.  This was deliciously tart and at least as good as the Rodenbach and other sour red ales I’ve drunk recently.  It really made me want to try more of their beers, and luckily it was followed by the Bam Biere, and a couple weeks later by an Oro de Calabaza I purchased.  I think the La Roja was my favorite of the three, for the boldness of it’s taste profile, but the Bam and the Oro contained the same layered complexity of flavors.  

Scotch ales are a style I’m just starting to get really excited about.  These beers are dark, sweet, and malty, with a low hop profile.  They are boiled longer in the kettle than most beers to caramelize the wort.  This creates a large amount of unfermentable sugars that remain in the beer instead of being consumed by yeast and turned into alcohol.  This gives these beers flavors of raisins, figs, dates, or other sweet dried fruit flavors.  Their second major characteristic is the smoky, peat-y flavor sometimes present if the malt has been dried over peat.  I love the flavor parallels this creates between scotch ales and single malt scotches, and the complexity of flavor it adds, keeping these from being simply one-note sugary-sweet concoctions.  The third major characteristic of these beers is the mouthfeel.  Because of the high levels of sugar, they can feel heavy, viscous, or ‘chewy’, which is where their nickname the ‘Wee Heavy’ comes from, I think.  Not necessarily the greatest choice for a hot summer day, but awesome in the winter, with dessert, or pretty much any time in San Francisco, where it never seems to be over 55 F.  Finally, these are high alcohol beers, in the 6.5 - 10.0% range.  This also adds to the warming, comfort-beer feeling that goes with the sweetness and the mouthfeel.  

Again, I know I’ve harped on this recently, but I think a wave of low hop beers coming and these have great potential to stand in the forefront of this movement - they’re underappreciated and haven’t had their moment in the limelight yet.  From the substantial yet sweet yet smoky malt flavor taste, to the caramel aroma, to the satisfying mouthfeel, to the high alcohol content, every facet of these beers is interesting and fun to explore.  

As if that weren’t enough, what I love about the Musette is that it takes a style that’s already so unique and puts their own twist on it, creating a whole new idea of beer and staying true to their Belgian-style credo.  The Musette is brewed with Belgian yeast, instead of British yeasts, and aged in bourbon oak barrels.  Yes, yes, everything is being barrel aged nowadays, but I think this is a particularly brilliant stroke, as it will emphasize the already whiskey-like character of this style.  It’s a great example of taking a trend and using it to enhance an existing style, rather than trying to force fit it to just any old beer you have in your kettle.  I loved the Musette for all the complexity of flavors described above and also for its restraint.  Though the alcohol was very high, 10%, the sugary malt levels weren’t over the top, and managed to avoid syrupy sweet territory, letting the flavor of the malt, not just the sugar of the malt, shine through.  

If I were going to change anything about the dinner it would be just this: of the five beers we had two from Jolly Pumpkin and two from Allagash, and I would have liked to try beers from five different brewers.  However, I can’t really complain considering that I liked ever beer we had and I trust Tim’s judgment as to what goes belongs in one of these dinners.  

I am definitely looking forward to the next Bar Crudo event and hope they announce it soon.

Though I still owe the world a write up on the Bar Crudo beer dinner from a couple weeks ago (short version: awesome beer [La Roja is a new fave], and awesome food [first time I've ever loved oysters], awesome people [I always make new friends there]), I want to write about the Boonville Beer Festival while it’s still fresh in my mind.

Unlike many of the pourers and tasters who drive in on Friday and camp overnight at the fairgrounds, I had the benefit of sleeping in my own bed the night before and getting a ride in on Saturday morning.  I had gone to the Presidio Brewing Club event (review coming soon!) at Brewcraft on Friday evening and then turned in early to get a jump start on the drive up to Boonville. 

Jordan, Nick, Sarah, and I hit a few roadblocks on our way up there, the first being our inability to procure breakfast burritos, which we decided were an essential start to our morning.  But, we were on the road before 9am and up at the fairgrounds by 11am.  Once in Boonville, we almost accidentally parked at the brewers’ campground before some helpful hangabouts informed us that “civilians” belonged a half mile further down the road.  Man… it was a bummer to be separated from the brewers, but understandable.  And by this time next year, barring a disaster, I’ll be one of gang and won’t have to resort to tactics described later in the post in order to camp in the brewers’ section. 

First, we strolled in to town.  You may note Justin’s “B is for Brewski” shirt, the same shirt that later prompted a festival-goer to tell to him, “Hey, awesome shirt, dude.  Last year, I saw this guy who had a shirt that said ‘tell your boobs to stop staring at my eyes.’” Um, ok, thanks for sharing that with us. 

We had some lunch at the general store, which was mostly just a deli, but a pretty good deli at that.  And then it was time to go stand in line.  The line must have been over a mile long, easily.  And we were about 5 storefronts away from the entrance when we lined up 45 minutes prior to the opening of the gates. 

Once inside, it was the usual mad free for all, as everyone scrambled to see what was on offer.  But before I stopped to taste, I had to check out this musical duo.  It was a father-son team of minstrels playing railroad songs, in which the father played guitar and the son played the flute.  I really just loved the son’s hat, and actually if I’m being completely honest, his whole outfit. 

I have notes from my first 8 tastes (roughly the first hour’s worth of beer), but after that both my drinking and note taking ran at a significantly reduced rate.  Here are my thoughts on the first batch, listed in the order I tried them:

• Russian River Brewing Company’s La Fleurette: A Belgian-style pale ale brewed with rose and violet petals, black pepper, honey, and elderberries. The flavor of the flowers really came through in the taste, but it was a ‘perfume-y’ floral smell. I don’t know if this will mean anything to anyone else, but it was much more of a “Persian rosewater ice cream” rose flavor than a “my grandma’s after-shower rose talcum powder” rose flavor. And yes, as a kid I used to douse myself in that rose powder at my grandma’s house, mostly because it came a big poofy puff for application. But back to the La Fleurette…it was light on the hops and alcohol, and very refreshing, a great choice for the fabulously sunny festival day.
• Elysian’s Avatar Jasmine IPA: Flowers must be the new hops! The Avatar had a much more noticeable floral aroma, with the jasmine just wafting out of the glass. It was very different from the La Fleurette, given that it was a whole different style of beer with a whole different type of flower added. I enjoyed it and would order it again, but didn’t prefer it for a festival beer as much because it had a creamy mouthfeel that made it feel moderately heavy, despite the light color and low-moderate malt profile.
• Pizza Port’s Attenuation: A Belgian-style strong pale ale. I tasted sweet pears and honey cider-like flavors. Can’t say how I’d compare it to comparable brews without tasting it head to head, but I think it was just a touch sweeter than I like my strong pales. Also, I’m not a fan of servers who think they’ve got your number before they’ve even spoken to you. I asked what he recommended at the table, and he said the Attenuation. I asked why and he said “because you’re a girl.” Ughh. First of all, the correct answer of any bartender worth his or her malt to the request for a recommendation is, “well, what kind of beers do you normally like?” This way they can figure out your tastes, preferences, and familiarity with beer in general and their beer in particular, and use this information in making a targeted recommendation. An alternative answer is, “my favorite is…” But don’t pour me your sweet, light, fruity stuff just because I have no nuts, and certainly don’t tell me that’s why. Especially since the beer I ended up liking better at the table was…
• Pizza Port’s Black IPA: I really liked the floral/citric hop taste of this one, and it hits you several seconds after you take a sip. It’s like a mash-up of a porter and an IPA, and I think it does better for it. But then, we know I’m not the biggest fan of porters on their own.
• Sacramento Brewing Company’s Red Horse Ale: I thought this was a very solid, classic ale. Nothing fancy or special, no flowers or high alcohol or mixed up styling, but fun to drink all the same. I thought there was plenty of fresh hop bitterness with a good, but not great, amber malt profile.
• Six Rivers’ Kona Moon Porter: This is not a beer. End of story. I’m not sure what it could be besides a coffee-flavored alcopop and not a beer. Where was the malt? The hops? I tasted coffee, lots of it, and carbonation. I could hook a CO2 tank up to a vat of coffee, admittedly pretty good coffee, and this is what you would get. I’m all for flavored beer, but this was so overpowering it killed the beer.
• Firestone Walker’s Lil Opal Saison: This was quite possibly the most delicious session beer ever created. I’m sure that will get some hackles up since ‘session’ is often thrown around as an insult, or with confusing intent. As in, my friends sent me to the grocery store to buy post-festival beers to drink back at the campsite and asked for “some session beers, you know, like PBR.” Sorry, I’m not going to chase a glorious beer festival with PBR. I came back with BridgePort IPA, Deschutes Mirror Pond, and Lost Coast’s Great White for non-hop fans. Still, the Lil Opal was better than these three combined. It had great fruity esters in a light body and was like drinking sunshine. It was also the only beer I had twice yesterday. I can’t say what the actual ABV was since Firestone only ever lists their year-round beers on their website (BTW - what’s up with that? Your fans want to know more…), but I’m hoping it was low enough that I can stand by my session designation. It felt low enough.
• Rubicon’s Monkey Knife Fight Pale Ale: I knew I shouldn’t do it, but I went and did it anyway. The pale ales are never my faves, and probably never going to stand out in a festival full of great beer, but with the name ‘Monkey Knife Fight,’ how could I not? It was decent, not bad, with a slight bitter kick at the end that wasn’t the aftertaste I would have hoped for.

At this point, I was half-way to sloshed and just about due at the Blogtastic Meet-Up, so I made my way over to the gazebo.  I was met by Peter from BetterBeerBlog (to my left), Jay from Hedonist Beer Jive (far right), and Jay from the Brookston Beer Bulletin (to my immediate right).  Add in myself, JJ, and that’s a lot of J’s.  We managed to get past the confusion and get down to some beer talk.  Peter had just taken the BJCP test and had some pointers on studying.  Jay from HBJ had just gotten into the festival but was eager to catch up, and Jay from BBB told us some stories about his upcoming trip to New Zealand.  We took a quick picture to commemorate the moment and I hope this is just the first of many more to come.  With that in mind, the blogging crew will definitely be invited to my next tasting event. 

The time at the festival post-meet up was much less focused than pre-meet up.  Between waiting for bathrooms and waiting for food, I must have wasted over half an hour. 

I dodged a dude trying to pick up women in line for the restroom.  I guess he figured (correctly) that he had a captive audience.  He had the uniquely bad strategy of trying to work two women at once and after the woman in front of me flashed her wedding ring at the guy, and I wasn’t quick enough to spin up a story about a 6′8″ biker boyfriend, I became the primary target.  Luckily, the bathroom lines weren’t too bad, and I escaped.  However, the food lines were out of control! 

Note to festival organizers: You want people to be able to order food.  (A) It is not included in the ticket price, so that’s extra money for you.  (B) It keeps your customers happy and this side of blackout.  I managed to keep an even keel all day, but suspect the dearth of food led to some of the incidents described further along in this post.

The one stand-out beer post-meet up that’s worth a mention is the Moonlight Working For Tips.  The other bloggers wanted me to taste it and guess what was in it, but someone spilled the secret before I could get there: redwood tips, no hops.  I’ve heard of spruce tips, and the traditional gruit combo, but never redwood tips before.  It definitely had an herbal bent that made sense once the secret was out, but it was relatively subtle and not the spice packed punch of exotic herbs that I’ve tasted in gruits.  I liked it better this way, more like regular beer.  This could be the beginning of the wave of low-hop beers that I bet is coming our way. 

I went back for my second tasting of Lil Opal around the end of the festival and ended up talking to several of the guys from Firestone.  They were really friendly and started pouring some of the ‘behind the table’ beers like Abacus that they had been saving up.  When closing time rolled around, I can’t say I was much help packing up, but I guess enough so to earn an invite back to the brewers’ compound. 

After a detour for hot dogs, during which time we saw police break up a fight between drunken locals, we headed back to the AVBC fields to eat, drink, and chat.  However, since I lacked the ‘elite’ orange brewers’ wristband, this involved a small act of subterfuge.  Propped up on either side by Justin and Brandon, I hung my head and pretended to be on the verge of vomiting.  As we stumbled past I heard the security guards say, “If she pukes on the trail, it’s a party foul!”  Luckily, I was not even drunk, much less in the neighborhood of puking, so after we rounded the corner I could amble along under my own firepower again.  We cooked some hot dogs and drank some DBA, but unfortunately I couldn’t stay past sundown because (A) while my shorts and tank might have been appropriate festivalwear, the temperature was dropping quickly, and (B) I had to be able to find my way back through tent town to my friends. 

Before leaving though, my favorite moment was finding out that Brandon and I had crossed paths once before at City Beer Store.  They day I had gone to pick up my sour ales, Brandon had been there talking to Craig, the owner.  Craig had helped suggest some beers and ring me up, and apparently had repeated to Brandon that I was hosting a sour ale tasting.  I had noticed guys in Firestone shirts that looked more like employees than fans, but had been driving and so I didn’t stick around to have a beer and find out what was going on.  So, upon mentioning yesterday that I had hosted a sour ale night, Brandon asked, “was that you that Craig was talking about?”  I can’t tell you how cool it still is when I meet someone who knows about my blog or my events that’s not someone I know personally on some level.  I love hearing that it’s appreciated by people who know beer and don’t have to have any obligation to me to pretend to like it. 

Unfortunately, every great day must end and this one went downhill pretty fast.  Going from the quiet, calm brewers’ campground back to the drinkers’ campground was somewhat like gradually descending to the ninth circle of hell.  At first, all seemed good.  Benson the Volvo was full of enthusiastic friends having an in-car dance party.  The cornhole boards were up.  And, the neighboring campers had an abundance of glowsticks that I aimed to get in on.  However, it quickly became apparent that one of our friends was not in good shape.  Very not good shape.  And it was only 7:00pm.  And it only got worse over the course of the night and eventually involved: coaxing him to please drink some Vitamin Water, please don’t vom so close to the camp circle, no, no, please don’t vom inside the tent, ok, you already did, good thing only nine of us are sleeping in that tent tonight.  At 3:00am after the 3^rd round of being woken up by heaving in the tent and begging paper towels off strangers to clean up the mess, I was exhausted and at a loss for what to do.  I hadn’t had a drink since 6:00pm and was thus the one of the few capable of addressing this disaster.  This was when the shouter started up.  She must have been a football field away but her every thought was broadcast at full volume and mostly just consisted of endlessly repeating “Where’s my f*ing beer?!?!?!” which she alternated every once in a while with “Where’s my f*ing boytoy?!?!?!”  I don’t know, and I don’t care.  It’s 3:00am, time for you to call it quits.

When we all woke up at 6:30am as the first car had to leave, the rest of us decided to hightail it out of there too, to escape what became known as the vomitorium (my 9-person tent) and to beat the caravan of cars that would inevitably back up down route 128. 

The morning was capped off by breakfast at a diner in Healdsburg where I was greeted by the hostess with a white carnation and a “Happy Mother’s Day!”  Really?!?!?  I’m 24, and here with two hungover 24 year old guys, do I look like their mother??  I’m 5 days younger than one of them and two months older than the other, I hope not.  Also, I’m mildly hungover, got less than 3 hours of sleep, have bags under my eyes the size of pillowcases and smell not-so-mildly of stale beer and other people’s vomit.  Do I look like a suitable mother?  I think the angry look I gave her said all this and she backed away and led us to our table.