My work duties, doing what I do to make money, brought me to the northwest corner of California, to Eureka. Why? Because it's there and I have one solitary customer that needs to be seen once in a blue moon. (Which as you know occurs when the Moon is full twice in a calender month, but I ain't into that hippy tree-hugging Zodiac loving crap)
And when in Eureka, you must drink beer because there is nothing else to do. Well, that is, if you are a conservative Republican Hummer driving, IKEA shopping, Capitalist, like me. Afterall it is Humboldt Country, I am sure if I were a liberal, I'd identify with the locals at some soup kitchen line, feeding the poor, on my spare time, that is if I wasn't smoking pot in my dorm room, as a career student. OK... enough liberal bashing and back to the beer...
When you go to Eureka, you have to stop at the Lost Coast Brewery downtown. It is a cool little brewery with some outstanding beer. They are well known in Northern California for their Downtown Brown Ale as it can be found around various bars and taverns.
I entered the brewery after getting to town and situated in my hotel room. It was packed and I was hungry and unfortunately I was by myself, so I had to get a table for "just one?". I sat down, I scoped the room to see what people were drinking and my waitress comes and asks which beer I wanted. "All of them." I said, "including the Seasonal brews." She goes, "The sampler?" Yeah... lay it on me.
So here I am thinking I am gonna get 5 or 6 tastes. Out comes 10, 6 ounce glasses in a little Sushi-like wooden tray. I also got a tasting map. Great... I then motioned to the waitress for one of those big pretzels with all the mustards, using my best "deaf" hands motion. And well.. I got to drinking. I went light to dark instead of following the map. So here's the review, numbers correalate to the map, the order here is how I drunk them:
1. Lost Coast Wheat, a typical Hefeweissen brew. Pretty delicate. Not too much of a"beer" taste. Good if it ever got warm in Eureka. It's foggy 360 days a year. Today was one of the five it wasn't foggy... it was windy!!!
8. Great White, from the map "made with two-row malted barley, unmalted wheat, a secret blend of Humboldt Herbs and Ale Yeast". Humboldt Herbs? I picture in my mind some dudes in a faded orange 1979 Toyota 4X4 pickup, who look like the dudes from Phish, "farming" in the middle of the Redwoods. Whatever. Great White is tasty and refreshing. Nice set up to drink the Wheat beer first and go to this. Had a lager type taste. Good stuff.
2. Pale Ale, a slight hoppy finish but well balanced. I enjoyed it but at this point, I noticed I am sitting in the middle of this brewery, all by myself, with a tray beers everyone in the place wished they ordered instead. Way to mark myself, just sitting here with my tray of beers... I couldn't tell if people were feeling sorry for me but I explained enough times that I was from out of town, walked to the brewery and yes, I had been there before. Good times...
10. Tangerine Wheat, at this point I noticed I went "out of order" in my light to dark route I was taking to the mighty stout. This beer was the lightest!! Tangerine Wheat... hmmm... at first taste, I swear I felt like I was at my Grandmother's old house in San Jose with the huge Tangerine tree in front. Tasted like that that front yard smelled, which to me... a guy who hates "foo foo" beer, pretty damn good. I could conceivably drink that all night and still be proud of my manhood (liking women still too). Good times...
5. Apricot Wheat, total chick "foo foo" beer. Avoid if you want to escape with your manhood or if you are guy who likes women that doesn't want to be mistaken for liking men. ... not that there is anything wrong with it.
9. Indica IPA, finally... the one I wanted to taste when I saw the list. I am an IPA man, after the stouts of course. Well, after the whiskey, then the wine, the stouts and then comes the IPA. I liked this one because it was an IPA-taste without a, "Hello, I am trying to be a hoppy tasting beer". About here is where the buzz is coming on nice. I avoid beef when I order and go Vegetarian for dinner, which for me, is a Caesar's Salad. About the IPA, on the map it says "Highly Hopped Strong Ale in the style of the early 9th Century beers making the sea voyage from Great Britain to India." I became puzzled because that is such a miss print. In the 9th Century Britain, surely wasn't great, after coming out of rule from the Romans, Celts and Gauls. I think they meant the 19th Century when the Brits were on the roll, setting the middle east up for us here in the 21st Century. Yeah, colonialism brings great beer. Can't wait to taste Baghdad Ale or Kurdistan "Black Gold" Stout.
3. Alley Cat Amber, a decent red beer. I think... I was almost fully buzzed because I hadn't eaten all day and had just digested the pretzel and was gnawing on the Caesar's Salad still. I bought the T-Shirt for this beer for my sister in law because she reminds me of a Cat.
4. Downtown Brown, the world's best brown ale. Kicks the living hell out of Newcastle. Taste this beer and you'll say, "Newcastle Beer sucks!" Smooth, on smooth, brown ale. Tastes like Guinness, goes down like a pale ale. Nice.
6. Raspberry Brown, apparently the geniuses that run Lost Coast had a few too many Downtowns the night they decided to dump raspberries into the world's best brown ale. Or maybe it was the "Secret Humboldt Herb" or something. Fully-hated this beer, I wanted to yack so bad but I manned up and finished it. Ordered the Bread Pudding for desert at this point because I was buzzed. Not good... because...
7. 8-Ball Stout, so here I was at 54 ounces of beer in less than say, oh 45 minutes and I am holding "Big Papi". The Oatmeal Stout. I called it "Big Papi" because ESPN was showing highlights of David Ortiz's 51st and 52nd homers. Not because the beer was dark. Oh no! This beer is robust! Full... creamy. Loaded with roasted malt goodness every 30 something needs. Ordered a pint when I downed this sucker, forgetting I had orded Bread Pudding. I became full because the Caesar's salad was expanding at an ever growing pace in my gut. Good times...
So there you have it. The Fall Selection of beers from the Lost Coast Brewery, in Eureka, California.
I wrote this post to get my street cred back with Tom, since he dropped the whole port fiasco in the comment section in my wine post! Irishmen...
No comments:
Post a Comment