What did we drink:

1. Rogue American Amber Ale – fuck'n rocks @brewrank 16 (on tap! – the bottle version you can get in Europe, btw)
2. Firestone Double Barrel – a hoppy light ale @brewrank14
3. Eugene Triple Jump Pale – another hoppy light pale ale @brewrank14
4. Rogue Mogul Madness – a DARK hoppy winter ale at 8%abv – wow!!!! @brewrank 17

This pub is insane for craft brew! Very laid back. Great space and prefect location. Here's a map:

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My advice is if you are ever in SF, CA and have time go here (ever just 1 hour). Otherwise you will be sad and we migth call you a loser.

Posted via email from beerviking’s posterous

Posted via email from beerviking’s posterous

photo credit: 123 look at me

Updated original post with scores and notes on the Red River Belgians (See Beers)

Some of the BeerViking ( mostly Doc D but Hunter as well) crew are heading to Northern California on a serious pillage mission.

They will be filing field reports via Twitter and at HQ we’ll try to pull these together into semi-coherent summaries.

First up, some hippy music with the Grateful Dead. Key lines here are:

California, I’ll be knocking on the golden door

Which when it comes to craft beer, most people have to agree that California is exactly that.

Breweries/Pubs

Stop 1:  Beach Chalet

17 @pubrank for the Beach Chalet in San Francisco, CA. http://www.beachchalet.com/

Stop 2:  Marin Brewing Company

http://twitpic.com/aq8xo – NorCal Micro Brewery Raid – stop No 2: Marin BrewCo, Larkspur. Tasty!

Stop 3:  Russian River

http://twitpic.com/aq998 – Russian River – beer menu. So many and so good. Like ‘wine; and fine women.

View Nor Cal in a larger map

The Beers

All of these have been brewranked, here’s a Search on Twitter where you can find more details.

The Belgian Style Brews @ Russian River

Doc D filed the following update into HQ.

• Perdition – Biere de Sanoma: very lgith, sublte hints of dry white
  wine, good summer or session beer. 12
• Damnation – Strong Golden Ale: Fuck amazing want more. 17
• Salvation – Dark Strong Ale: fine for winter wrong time of year. Not
  going to finish it. 14
• Temptation: this reminds me of Orval but even more refined. Super
  graphfruity notes. 15
• Sanctification – 100% Brettanomyces, 6.25%ABV: ‘lambic’ style to my
  taste. Really smooth. 17
• Consercration – dark sour aged in oak barrels. 10% abv: ouch can’t
  rate too complex. like a whisky.
• Publication – Saison 8% abv best of the belgians in this line up today. 18!

Summary

By hitting Russian River and knocking back Pliney the Elder, arguably the prototype American Pale Ale, the guys have started the raid with impeccable standards.  As I’m living a vicarious dream from HQ, I for one can’t wait to see what the next couple of days holds.

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a week of holiday on Tresco – one of the 5 main the islands in the Isles of Scilly – which are off the coast of Cornwall in the Atlantic. As a long time American resident in the UK – in my humble opinion -  this is one of the best (if not they best) places to go on holiday in the UK. But I am not going to bore you with holiday bragging and snaps. Instead I am going to do a quick summary of the beers (real ales, of course) and pubs I managed to visit on 3 of the 5 inhabited islands – Tresco, St Martins and Bryher.

Each of these 3 islands has a single pub. Which makes it very simple and that I don’t need to really show a detailed map for each pubs location. If you happen to find yourself here and need to find the pub just ask anyone for directions –everyone is friendly. Some one once to me “the Scilly Isles are really a bunch of rocks out in the middle of the ocean with 2000 drunks hanging on!” Well the locals are not really a bunch of drunks but they do know how to have good time and keep themselves well supplied with real ales.

Each island is small enough to be easily crossed in less than an hour. Each island has its own unique character and well worth a visit.

Here are the 3 pubs:

Tresco: The New Inn – 4 stars (out of 5), good pub grub with 3-4 real ales on tap at one time. St Austells, Skinners & Ales of Scilly feature. We managed well over 7 different brews in a week’s time, including both Scuppered and Firebrand from the very local Ales of Scilly. They also have beer festival in May. Great outdoor area of eating, Internet connection and often live music. Kids welcome.

St Martins: The Seven Stones – 3.5 stars, good food and regional beers. Amazing views. On a sunny day one could stay here for ever. We had St Austell’s.

Bryher: Fraggle Rock – 3.5 stars, food and west country ales. We had Sharp’s Doom Bar on this visit. Also serves as a decent cafe. The real gem on this island is of course The Hell Bay Hotel and the wild western shore, but that’s a post for another day.

The breweries that featured on this trip – all are from Cornwall:

• Sharp’s – Doom Bar every time.
• Skinners – be sure to try the Betty Stogs Bitter
• St Austell – we particularly like the Proper Job IPA
• Ales of Scilly – the Firebrand was sweet and the Scupper was decent. Probably a hard one to tick off outside of Cornwall. Next year we will try to get a tour of the brewery which is on the largest island of St Mary’s.

Happy Hunting!

I will come back later to add more details but wanted to capture initial thoughts:

If this is the plan these guys have for pubs, sign me up as a licensee.

Great to see six casks on pull, all local from Sussex

• Dark Star Hophead
• Dark Star American Pale Ale
• 1648 Winter Warrent
• 1648 Signature
• Harveys Old
• Haveys Best

How many pub loo’s do you know with marble and fittings from Crapper. Actually how many pub loo’s do you know where you want to take a crap.

This isn’t a boozer, a bit sanitised but I know my wife would come here ( a good thing) – now if only they get some country one’s with awesome children’s playgrounds.

The beer is served in tankards – Cool!

The beer is actually a bit warm.  And by that, don’t worry. I might be from Canada but appreciate my beer at cellar temperature but I reckon we’re pushing 15C here.

The interior is a bit odd.  On one hand big brass look, with lots of wood (nothing wrong there) but why the wallpaper that has faux bricks peeking through.

The barkeep couldn’t tell me where 1648 was from.

Surprisingly small collection of bottles (ok, maybe I’ve been spoiled by the White Horse, Rake and Evening Star) but I would have expected some more.

What, a fake fire.

Forthright and free with letting one try samples.

Very yummy food.

End result on first glance. Would visit again and look forward to the development of the concept but there’s a lot of room for improvement. Still, love the tankards and local focus.