Adios San Diego!

This weekend marks the kickoff of the 2012 Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego. This is the second time in only 5 years that the conference has chosen the self titled "America's Finest City" for the premier gathering of all of craft brewers large and small. I am sure many could argue that it is because its "America's Finest (Craft Beer) City". With just one more day left in San Diego, before it was time to head north and back to the mountains, I thought what better time to check back in with some classics: Stone Brewing Co. and San Diego Brewing Co.

Up up and away... running out of room for more tanks at Stone,
America's 11th largest craft brewery in 2011

I first visited Stone's Escondido location 6 years ago while attending my friend Jason's wedding in La Jolla. It was my last stop in San Diego County before getting dropped off at the airport. It was to be my second to last stop this time! "This is becoming a tradition", said Jay as we walked up to the doors.

Last time we had planned ahead and were able to meet up with Mitch Steele, the head of brewing operations at Stone. He is genuinely regarded as one of the friendliest, most welcoming people in an industry filled with good-natured people, and he definitely lived up to that reputation. Last visit included a tour around the brewery and trading of beer goodies in the lab cooler, followed by a few pints in Stone's World Bistro and Gardens. This time Mitch was out of town (but kindly returned my call with his condolences) and I was out of beer to trade anyway so we ended up taking the regular tour followed by the obligatory pints at the pub.

Our knowledgeable guide (who I unfortunately forgot to write down his name) showed us around Southern California's largest brewery. Lots had changed in six years as Stone has been growing at or ahead of the craft brew pace. The 120 barrel brewhouse was the same but there was a lot more of everything else; fermenters, cold storage and packaging equipment. I also learned they use a hop back instead of dry hopping to get extra hop aroma in their beers. It was nice to see all the expansion that had taken place and the tasting room folks were very friendly. We tried all kinds of Stone offerings. Stone is available in 36 states and it's not hard to get many of their beers.  I had no objection to trying them again, always better when fresh at the brewery, along with some more limited releases.

In addition to their own large selection Stone features many other
beer selections from various breweries

Stone Pale Ale - 5.4% A hoppy Pale and my favorite year round beer from them

Smoked Porter - 5.9% Very dark and smoky and also a favorite of mine

IPA - 6.9% very hoppy IPA... they are not ashamed of using a lot of hops here

Arrogant Bastard - 7.2% A bit bigger, a bit darker, and a bit hoppier, and a rounder flavor than the IPA and a classic favorite in beer circles, the name doesn't hurt either

Oaked Bastard - 7.7% Just a hint of oak cuts through all the other flavors, nice balancing act

Levitation Ale - 4.4% I love this flavorful session beer, I can drink it all night. 

Brown? Red? You decide!

Self Righteous Black IPA - 8.7% Very hoppy with a little of the roasty flavor coming through

15th Anniversary Black IPA 10.8% ...just a bit bigger, why not, its your birthday!

TBA - Bear Republic/Firestone Walker/Stone Collaboration brew

Cali-Belgique IPA - Fruity from the yeast, hoppy as Stone likes it

Keep and eye out for their Point Loma brewhouse opening soon, which will feature a 10 barrel brewhouse.  I would not be surprised to see a lot more innovations coming out of Stone once its up and going.

Tucked into a strip mall, my last San Diego County stop

Determined to cross one more brewery off my list I made a quick stop into San Diego Brewing Company on my drive out of town. It was close to where one of my New York friends, Victoria was staying at her brother's, so a nice place to meet for a pint, or sample paddle in this case. The brewery was struggling to keep up with the demand from two restaurants that had been busy and unfortunately just a couple of their 40 taps featured their own beers but I heard they are in the middle of an off site expansion that will allow them to keep up with demand and get more creative with their own brews. I tried what they had on tap though and look forward to stopping in on my next trip to see how the new brewery shapes up.

Nicole guided us through the beers available at San Diego Brewing Co.

El Hefe - Hefeweizen - 4.5%, light golden wheat beer

Grantville Gold - 4.5% Another light beer for those not ready for bigger flavors

San Diego Amber - 4.5%  

80 Shilling Scotch Ale - 5.5% and my favorite

Choco Latte Porter on Nitro - 7% hint of chocolate, med body, sweet boozy porter

Callahan's (sister restaurant) Blueberry Wheat - Light and spritzy, a touch sweet and quite fruity

Driving north was sad and exciting. Goodbyes to a great brew scene, friends and sunny beaches to see some family, more breweries, the sunny mountains and more friends... ok that does not sound that bad, here we go!

Update from the road

So I am sitting here in Christchurch, New Zealand at Pomeroy's Old Brewery Inn enjoying my after work beer and getting geared up to do some writing and I know I am really far behind chronologically with the blog.  I only intended to do an entry or two per week but I have over a dozen entries in the pipeline and basically the website is 4-5 weeks behind real time. The idea here is to just give a little update on where I am at the moment and where I have been as a bit of a teaser of whats to come on the blog.

Last meal in San Francisco before catching my plane!

After a month of driving across America, visiting over 40 breweries, including countless beer samples, I flew to New Zealand and continued on my beer tour's feverish pace.  In the next couple of weeks my writings will drive us up the west coast of the states, fly across the Pacific and introduce us to the beer scene in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch, which filled up my first 3 weeks in Aotearoa, land of the long white cloud, the Maori name for New Zealand. Highlights include the New Zealand Beer Festival and Marchfest in Nelson, which I caught at the tail end of the hop harvest.

Founders Brewery was ready for Marchfest with
their "Envy of the Empire" IPA

Marchfest in Nelson, land of NZ Hops

My initial goal was to get a job as an assistant brewer here, roll up my sleeves and get dirty in the brew house. Brewery work is not as glamorous as it sounds from the outside, it generally involves long hot sweaty days and nights, mostly cleaning. I met a lot of craft beer folks the first few weeks in New Zealand. At first look the craft beer scene here is a good 10-15 years behind the States but it's on fire as we speak and it won't take more than a couple more years until its just as diverse and exciting. Most of the craft breweries, in this country of just over four million, are one or two homebrewers that "go pro" in their garage or contract brew. Hence, there aren't a bunch of medium to large craft breweries that have jobs to fill. The number of craft breweries over 10,000 barrels a year (Harpoon is 200K BBLs and Sierra Nevada almost one million barrels) is probably less than a dozen.

Huge turnout for the NZ Beer Festival in Auckland

 In total there are about 60 breweries at this time and a lot of them contract brew.  In the end I went to plan B, or I'll call it B+, beer bar work, and got a job at Pomeroy's in Christchurch. Its one of the most respected craft beer bars in New Zealand.  Almost all beers and special releases come through here.  Its a great spot to keep my finger on the pulse of the New Zealand beer scene.  I'll try to go to as many as I can but the rest will naturally come to me, or really to Pomeroy's.  There are other great beer bars in New Zealand and more opening all the time but from what I have seen and heard this is one of the top 5 in the country. Now the plus I mention is because as we speak there is a brewery on a boat headed for Pomeroy's and I'll be here for the install and the subsequent batches of beer that come out of it. B plus indeed!

Cafe culture in NZ. Kiwi's love it
And I need it to keep going!

Its not all beer 24-7

Hot springs, cold Kiwi beer

One of the few cheap foods in NZ:
Green lipped mussels, nom!

Brew day at Harrington's... sunrise in the shadows of the damaged Ami Stadium

Christchurch isn't the epicenter (terrible earthquake reference, I know) of New Zealand craft beer but they are home to Harrington's Brewery which is one of the oldest craft breweries in kiwiland. Newcomers Three Boys Brewery and Cassels & Sons Brewery are also putting out great beers, and out at an old airfield Wigram Brewing is part of the craft beer party too. As the second busiest airport in the country Christchurch will be a good launch pad to other beer destinations in the country... and maybe Australia and beyond. I hear they are opening a new craft brewery in Fiji soon, wink wink!



This is also last call to submit you home pub photos for the Beer SWAG From the Road contest. Feel free to leave comments or send me feeback at beerlesstraveled@gmail.com. You can also stay up to date with my travels at beerlesstraveld on Twitter (drop the last "E", ran out of characters) and for more beer eyecandy there are extra photos on The Beer Less Traveled facebook fanpage. I've gotta run and help nail up the new ceiling in the pub before they open in 8 hours. That's a long time to think about what my shift pint will be... Cheers!

San Diego - Challenging my Craft Brew Biases

Cramming my surfboard and snowboard into my car...
ready to take on the California Coast!

The world of craft brewing is growing fast and that is what makes it extremely exciting although noisy. I've said before there is never a lack of material, its choosing what to write about that is difficult.  Everyday new breweries are opening up and existing breweries are putting out new beers.  No one person can keep up with it all.  Another thing I realize as I talk to craft brew fans and producers around the world is all the different opinions on what craft beer is and how it should be made.  The conversations often get heated, though a good beer usually calms everyone down. Some of it is semantics, some of it process or political. One thing is for sure some opinions are strong in favor of one philosophy or another.  As I travel around absorbing differing view points in the beer world, I find myself questioning some of my craft brew biases.

If I had to sum up my preferences for craft brew: I would drink something that was high quality (good balance, not oxidized, no diacetyl butter bombs), fresh (best buy/bottled on dates?), honest about what is in it (ingredients, ABV, IBUs, additives), open about how it was made (organic? pasteurized?) and who makes it (contract brewed? big corporations pretending to be small brewers?). I also prefer access to the brewery and the people crafting it, either through tours, tasting rooms, social media or brewery events. I want the people making my beer to be as excited about making and drinking it as I am. I want to know their story. It will be interesting to watch how my priorities evolve as my travels unfold.

Best seat in the house is one of the bar
stools overlooking the downstairs brewhouse

One bias I held before the trip was against brewpub chains. I would shy away from these back home and when I traveled. Its hard to pinpoint why, maybe lower quality perceptions, perhaps I assumed profit driven motives were driving expansion up and quality down. I might have assumed if they were offering wine and mixed drink features their number one priority wasn't beer. Maybe I had one bad experience 10 years ago. Trying to open up my mind and pallet, I threw aside my preconceived notions of  brewpub chain quality and intentions, and ventured into a few Southern California staples.

Solana Beach is one of the quiet beach towns dotting the Southern Californian Coast as you drive north on Highway 101. Pizza Port Brewing Co, now sporting five locations, has won a ton of awards and has been a staple on the west coast for decades. In fact this coming Sunday is the 25th Anniversary of their first location, which started here. They do two things really well, beer and pizza.  Aileen and I walked in on what we thought was a quiet Sunday evening, just after catching the sunset down at the beach, and were surprised how busy it was. All kinds of people are attracted to the brewpub and they have

Two flights didn't even cover all the beers offered!

something to offer everyone, craft brews, great pizzas, arcade games. We met a mix of families, groups of teenagers and older beer drinkers alike.  The picnic table seating also makes you get to know your neighbors, something that isn't for everyone but I like. We ordered a "make your own" pizza with a mix of veggies and then proceeded to the taps to see what was being poured. There were a lot of beers on tap. Erica, one of the managers walked us through the selection and let us try a few tastes. She also hooked me up with some stickers. (which you can still enter to win, see contest here) Per usual going with flights lets you try more beers than with pints. The advantage of having an "assistant" is you have a little help to finish the beers so you can get two flights! We were halfway through the beers when the pie came out, perfect timing just as we were getting to the heartier beers.

California Honey Ale - 5% Gold color, pretty sweet and light 

Old Bones Barleywine - 9% Semi hoppy dark brown and full bodied 

Pronto West Coast Pale - 6.4% Medium bitterness, dry and balanced

The Road West Coast IPA - 7.8% Medium bitterness, very citrusy

Poor Vato Imperial IPA - 10.3% A maltier Double IPA

Tubby's Robust Porter - 5.9% Roasty Dark and Dry, my favorite

T Grins American IPA - 7.2% Hoppy "West Coast" IPA

Jules Winfield American Stout - 8% A touch sweet and dark

Surfing takes a lot of energy out of you and I had no problem finishing up all the pizza that was put in front of me.  The beers were tasty and had a lot of variety. We grabbed pints of our favorites and a roll of quarters to round out the evening with some arcade games. I then found I am better at real soccer than video soccer! I could get used to this brewpub chain thing. Brewery chains: 1 - Ed: 0 Tomorrow we would try another.

Pizza Port - Quality pints and quality pies!

Brew Kettle

Karl Strauss Brewing Company, named for Karl Martin Strauss a German American brewer who fled Nazi Germany in 1939, is another of Southern California's brewing pioneers. Started in 1989 and now boasting six locations in the region. We went to the original location in downtown San Diego. I had to drop Aileen at the airport and what better way to finish off her trip than another brewpub!

It was busy as we caught the tail end of the business lunch crowd.  Luckily there were a couple of seats at the end of the bar right next to the taps.  Jeff was our bartender and fittingly for SoCal a surfing, wakeboarding laid back local. He was excited to show us the line up and with seven years under his belt at the brewery he knew more than we could take in.  Again going with tastes and small pours to help get through the line up I tried everything I could! It was a short stop but Jeff did very well to squeeze every last beer drop into our San Diego beer adventure.

Amber Munich Lager - 4.2% A touch hopper than the German versions, my favorite

Oat Stout - 5%, Pretty dry, roasty, porter like 

Full Suit Belgian Brown Ale - 6.3% Semi sweet, estery, brown ale

Off the Rail - 8.5%, 40 IBU, Imperial Red Trolley Red

Tower 10 IPA - 7% 70 IBU Grapefruity West Coast IPA

Windansea Wheat - 5.1% Cloudy Wheat, Lots of banana, Aileen's Favorite

10th Tap Black's Beach Extra Dk Lager - 4.7% Limited rotating tap, awesome roast flavor, lighter dark

Red Trolley Red - 5.8% 17 IBU Nice Malty, touch of roasty malt flavor, GABF Gold 2012

Lots of variety on tap at Karl Strauss

Brewery Chains: 2 Ed: 0. At the end of the day I would say I was very happy with both of San Diego's established brewpub chains.  They have paved the way for me to visit Rock Bottom, BJs and the other brewpub chains that now dot the American landscape. At the end of the day if your making good beer, we'll drink it. Cheers!

I'm having trouble remembering to
photograph samples BEFORE Idrink them!

First Contest!

SWAG From the Road Contest!

Just a fraction of the beer SWAG up for grabs

My bag of beer SWAG is weighing me down on the road!  I want it to go to a good home so please send a photo of your home bar that needs decorating and one sentence describing why you should win, to beerlesstraveled@gmail.com. I'll post them and the one that gets the most votes wins. I'll send you my collection of coasters, stickers, buttons, etc from my drive west and New Zealand! Good luck!

San Diego - Last Rays of Sunshine

When talking about traveling around the world it’s easy to overlook how big America is and how many treasures there are to discover close to home.  My extended Santa Fe stay (see previous post) left me skipping Flagstaff, Phoenix and Arizona Beer Week (my apologies AZ… next year maybe!) and bee-lining it straight to one of the United States’ most visited and cherished vistas; The Grand Canyon.  I drove to within 2 hours of the park and pulled over for some sleep. After a 4 hour snooze I continued my drive in the early pre-dawn morning. The goal: Sunrise over the south rim.  The clouds were just turning dark purple as I arrived at the National Park gate.  I parked the car and walked along a path in the darkness with eager anticipation. The place is massive and I was the first one to the observation deck. For the next hour I endured the freezing winds while the sun slowly painted the clouds every color of the rainbow.  I probably took over a hundred photos but its just something you can’t fully capture on film. Like a great beer you just have to try it yourself. After another hour hiking along the rim, peaking out from each precarious viewpoint and listening to awed whispers in every language imaginable, I heard the ocean calling me.  Back on the road, craft beer heaven awaits!

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon before heading to San Diego, ahhhh...

San Diego has become one of the hotbeds of the American Craft Beer scene.  I’m not exactly sure why… maybe it’s the laid-back surfing and beach culture or perhaps the large military presence bringing back world beer culture and flavors. Usually places with warm weather beckon only light refreshing styles of beer but San Diego is awash with hoppy beers, dark coffee brews, high alcohol abbey beers and any other combination of things you can throw in a beer. Possibly it’s because a few beer pioneers pushed the flavor envelope so long it just does not seem weird to have super flavorful beers around, regardless of the weather. Whatever it is I knew at best I could only visit a third of the 30-plus San Diego County breweries, but I would do my best.  With the mountains behind me and the ocean calling I started to descend towards sea level to the land of fish tacos and crafty brews. Did I mention yet how much I love fish tacos?

Not just a one trick pony, Ballast Point has
entered the craft distilling movement as well.

Another 8 hours in the car across the desert and Northern Arizona and Southern California… I barely missed reaching the Pacific Ocean for sunset.  You can’t have it perfect every day! I met up with fellow travel buddy Jason Falco and his family at his favorite neighborhood soccer pub. Shakespeare's is an English style pub and basically does Fish and Chips and English Ales as you would expect but they still had some Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA on tap, satisfying my need for a regional craft beer. They also have a craft bottle feature each month. One pint was enough to calm my enthusiasm. After such a long, road weary couple of days, I slept very soundly that night. The sun, sand and hoppy suds of San Diego awaited and I needed all my energy to pursue all its flavors the next few days.

It was good to trade in the mountains and snow for the surf and sand for a few days. I'm always torn when I think about whether I'd rather settle near the ocean or in the mountains.  Some lucky places have it both ways, maybe that's where

If you wait a few more years those aged whiskey
barrels will probably be home to some
barrel aged beers as well

you'll find me someday. I was excited for the San Diego beer scene, stoked to trade my snowboard for a surfboard, and lucky that my girlfriend Aileen had flown out to join me for a long weekend on the beer road. She likes beer enough but tends to let wine and
spirits into the mix more than I do. This made our first stop very fitting as Ballast Point Brewing Co. not only makes great beer but has recently entered into the craft distillation world, a growing trend.

Ballast Point's brewery is not quite in the top 50 but is growing quickly and I wouldn't be surprised to see them sneak in there when 2011's numbers are released later this month. We were lucky that the Friday noon tour was empty when we walked in 5 minutes late for it. We ended up with a sweet personal tour that showed us all the expansion projects going on. We also got a close up look at the distilling options.  We followed up the tour with a pretty complete sampling of what was available in the tasting room.

Wahoo Wheat - 4% Belgian Wit with orange peel and coriander, hazy yellow and 

full of fruity esters, just how I like it! 

Ballast Point Pale - 5.2% Modeled after a Kolsh but with more hops, kind of light, dry and balanced

Fathom Indian Pale Lager - 7% 70 IBUs, another hoppy version of a traditional style, light but bitter

Sculpin IPA - 7% 70 IBUs Not the hoppiest but the driest of the India Pale series and my favorite

BigEye IPA - 7% 75 IBUs The hops come out more on this one

Piper Down Scottish Ale - 5.2%, Aileen's favorite but probably b/c she likes puns

Black Marlin Porter - 6% 45 IBUs Nice roasty lighter bodied porter, mix with Big Eye to make a delicious Black Eye!

Sea Monster Imperial Stout - 10% Big and chocolaty 
Its funny how your notes get shorter as you work through the beer list

Rule number one: Take notes, because you WILL forget

Rule number two: Don't lose your notebook

A huge thank you to Alex and Justin for showing us around the brewery and Julia for walking us through the beers and sharing their favorite San Diego beer bars. If you can do it get to the early tour. As we were leaving the line up for the Friday afternoon tour was backing up. It would be a shame to have to wait too long for your samples! Next stop Coronado.

Sad but true... a few bottles of deliciousness
leapt to their demise; no fear they will make more

Ah the memories of long days on the bottling line!

Another sunny day shines on Coronado Brewing Co.

One thing Aileen and I had in common was that we had both been to San Diego once before, though
we had been to different parts than each other.  She had never been to La Jolla and I'd never been to Coronado.  The good news is both have breweries! Coronado is known for its sparkly mica infused
beaches, quaint streets, the Sand Diego Coronado Bridge and the Hotel del Coronado.  So famous is the hotel that the tap handles from Coronado Brewing Co. bears a miniature likeness of it on top. I suppose a bridge would be harder to fit. We did stop by the hotel and took in the view and the scene which was nice, especially for Mojitos or sunsets, but if you want a good craft beer on the peninsula (frequently called an island, just a small strip of sand prevents this misnomer from ringing true) you go to the brewery.  The tasting room was lively and served a good mix of pub food with some true to San Diego seafood mixed in. We ordered a sampler tray, some mussels, and the cajun seared ahi on coleslaw, rolled up our sleeves and got into it.

Coronado Golden - 5.4% Light with a touch of Saaz Hops, like a Czech Pilsner 

Orange Ave Wit - 5.2% Hazy wheat with orange peel and coriander 
plus some sweetness from  local orange blossom honey

Mermaids Red - 5.7% A nice roasty red, a great break from the hoppy reds I'd been finding

Islander IPA - 7% A nice balanced IPA

Sweet Charlotte Cream Stout - 6.2% Smooth, roasty stout
Hoppy Daze Belgian IPA - 7.6% Missed this style from back east, Fantastic! Fruity from the Belgian yeast, with medium hop bitterness 

A beautiful copper clad brewhouse pumps
out craft suds for thirsty servicemen,
locals and tourists alike!

They also sport a few guest taps, which while we were there included West Coast favorites, Anchor Steam and Deschutes plus German import Paulaner. Other regional beers such as Sierra Nevada, Stone and our recent friends Ballast Point also make the list from time to time.

If you have time to rent bikes, maybe before too many beers, its a great way to see the rest of what sun soaked Coronado has to offer. Happy from from good eats and suds we headed back to the mainland to plan the next day's activities. Jogging down beaches, surfing and obviously more breweries lay in the future. Oh did I mention fish tacos? Time to check out some of those craft beer bars we heard about, I'm sure they will satisfy both needs! See you soon... Cheers!

A big selection of house beers with a few local and regional craft beers mixed in

Apres Brewski: Take Three - Santa Fe, NM

The thought of New Mexico often conjures up images of deserts, cacti, adobe houses, burritos, and red clay landscapes baked in the hot sun. That's what I thought of, even though I had heard they skied there. It's not that they aren't know for snow or skiing. Taos Resort is a very well known ski mountain and until recently was infamous as one of the last few areas that prohibited snowboarding, depending on your point of view of course.  So I wouldn't say I was surprised to drive into snowy landscapes on my first trip to the southwestern corner of America, but it still makes you stop, think for a minute and scratch your head. My friends Katie and Talee moved there years ago so I have heard enough about New Mexico to have some idea of what I was going to see. I was just glad that I had made a little extra time in my itinerary to stop by and check the place out, even if it was only 24 hours. By the time I crossed the northern border from Colorado it was dark, adding to the mystery of the place. From what I could tell the road had patches of black ice and blood red clay across it from time to time. "Caution Elk Crossing" signs dotted the side of the road. Out of nowhere a pair jumped out of the brush on the side of the road and I slammed on my brakes.  Luckily they didn't even cross the road but for the last hour of my drive I was extra alert, half hoping not to see one, afraid of the damage it would do to my car, half hoping to fully catch another glimpse of these majestic creatures.  I did get to see two more, a big fella standing in the shadows on the side of the road and a dead one a few miles later that was obviously on the losing end of a collision with some unlucky driver. 

El Paseo Lunch, Tacos and green chili 

I arrived safely, just a few hours behind schedule and Talee and Katie received me happily.  Talee cracked some Marble Brewery IPAs and we got up to speed on my travels and their careers. Katie works for Los Alamos National Laboratory, Talee runs his own web development company (check out his killer side project: Gear Institute) Katie was joking that Talee was just skiing all the time. Which was mostly true, he had been several times the last week, taking full advantage of the good snow they had been getting, much more than all the dried up areas to the north. I hadn't planned on it but when he looked across the table and said with a sly smile,"want to hit the mountain tomorrow?" I hesitated just a second, worried about my budget and falling behind on my trip, and my legs giving out after three straight days on the mountain, and said,"Sure! Where would we go?" "Santa Fe Skibowl, our hidden gem..." he replied with an even bigger smile. That was that, the plan was set, off to bed, early to the mountain and then some breweries in the afternoon. Definitely my kind of day! 
 

The next morning, the sun rose and quickly melted the frost that had formed overnight. Katie went off to work and Talee and I drove a few miles into town and filled our bellies with massive breakfast burritos smothered in green salsa at Tia Sophia's. The skibowl is a half hour out of downtown and Talee gave me the quick tour as we left town.  Plenty of adobe buildings dot the small city, sufficient to satisfy my preconceptions. It's a nice place filled with a lot of art galleries, bars and restaurants.  There are some cool festivals throughout the year. It was also quiet being winter time.  "The Texas don't come this time of year", Talee said. Santa Fe fits one of my travel mantras, stick to the shoulder seasons.  Prices are lower, you avoid the crowds and most places are still very enjoyable.  If you didn't care about skiing I'd say late Spring or Early Fall would be ideal times to visit.  We wound up the road out of town into the National Forest and started climbing.  The base of the ski area is almost 3000 feet above Santa Fe, which is no slouch, settling in at 7,200 feet about sealevel itself! As we climbed the snowbanks grew and grew.  I was getting giddy.  Being midweek there was no one at the mountain are we did lap after lap up and down the mountain never waiting in line. Cutting fresh lines through the trees.  After several runs we took a break and hit up the little snack shack restaurant at the lodge.  I couldn't ask for anything more, they had local craft beer and tamales on the menu. I had Santa Fe Brewing Co's Pale Ale and Talee had their Brown Ale. Both were delicious, but considering the scenery and the company, anything would have tasted good that day! We snuck in a few more runs before calling it quits and heading back into town.
   

  

Our first stop was Talee's favorite local, El Paseo, for some tacos. You could tell he was a regular by the banter he encountered the moment he walked in, from the old barfly at the door, to the couple at the bar to the owner Matt seated under the skylight reading the paper and eating his own plate of tacos. A regular Southwestern version of "Cheers!"  Not exactly a craft beer bar, though Matt says they want to add some taps, they still had a few good bottles. I had a Rogue Dead Guy, which I didn't realize only came in 22oz bottles in New Mexico... good thing Talee was driving! Refueled it was time to check out the local beer scene. 

Marble Brewery's facility is in Albuquerque, an hour southeast of Santa Fe, but they have a tasting room overlooking Santa Fe's town square. Emily was our enthusiastic bartender and walked us through their beers. They also own Blue Corn, a brewpub across town and they had one of their beers on tap as well. In warmer weather Marble's deck is definitively a prime spot to have a beer in town!

Amber - 5.3% Mild and balanced light brown

Red Ale - 6.5% garnet and hoppy with Simcoe and Cascade hops, my favorite!

IPA - 6.2% Super citrsy aroma, but not too bitter, Columbus, Amarillo and Centennial hops

Oatmeal Stout - 5% a touch sweet, roasty and creamy

Blue Corn Decadent Porter - dry and roasty

Second Street Flight

Next stop was the Second Street Brewery. They have a nice clean 10 barrel copper brewhouse at Second St. and another location at The Railyard. They are a creative bunch with different beer themes each month.  It was "The Parade of Pales" the month I was there.  Half a dozen single hopped pale ales were being offered so you could pick out the nuances of each style of hop.  Talee and I got a quick look into the brewery as well as the pub.  Rod the brewmaster was finishing up some tax paperwork and apologized he couldn't hang out... pesky taxes!  But his friendly assistant brewer, John, showed us around and even let us sample some Apollo hopped Pale Ale off the conditioning tank. Can't beat super fresh beer!

Kolsch - Light, balanced, touch of hops, dry finish

Bitter - Tasty English style

ESB - A touch hoppier, English style

IPA - Might have been end of keg, a bit oxidized

Second St Parade of Pales: All mellow but balanced

Chinook Pale (Chinook means wind or snow eating wind in PacNW)

Cascade Pale - My Pub Favorite

Bravo Pale

Centennial Pale

Apollo Pale - My overall favorite

Santa Fe was really making me feel welcome and making it even harder to leave. After so many different samples I really needed to take a break and eat a bit before leaving so I decided to extend my short stay a few hours longer so I could let Katie finish work and say goodbye. OK! ...and have some more great Mexican food. FINE! ...I admit it, and see one more brewery too, why not!

Zythos Pale - 6.6% IPA really, Zythos is a new blend of hops that many brewers are playing with now

Oatmeal Stout - 5.7% GABF GOld Medal '07

Russian Imperial Stout - 10%, sweet and strong

End of Trail Brown - 5.5%

We went to Blue Corn Brewery to grab some dinner. (Read: More burritos!) The food was great and so were the beers.  I got to see a nice sunset, fill my belly and share some more beer with some great friends.  Now I could leave fulfilled... but only for a little while.  I will have to return to New Mexico some day, but for now, the road! The Grand Canyon was waiting...

Blue Corn Flight

Blue Corn Brewhouse and Adobe Fireplace

Farewell Santa Fe!

Apres Brewski: Take two, Summit County, Colorado

First off... if you have more than a week in Summit County get an Epic Local Pass and enjoy all 5 resorts there. You break even at 5 days. And if you are lucky enough to quit your job and travel across the country hitting breweries and ski resorts you can cash in at 3 resorts in Lake Tahoe too! This was my second trip to Summit County and it was even better than the first time... which is saying a lot!

Brewhouse at Backcountry

My first day was at Breckenridge. Not the best day on the mountain as it was cold, windy and firm but the new edge on my board helped me enjoy a full bluebird sky. On the way back to the highway I stopped off at Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, CO which I also checked out 7 years ago with my family. The memory of my experience from that trip has faded significantly, but I can say for certain that this trip was a pleasurable one! The cellar guys from New Belgium (see Ft Collins post) also had hit "Breck" that day and we got to sample all the beers and chat with the brewers Alan and Wes as well and try a few up and coming beers they had out back. If you're really nice they will let on where the good powder is... or maybe not!

Ptarmigan Pils - Simple, well made, good starter

Wheeler Wheat - Orange peel and coriander

Switchback Amber - Pretty mild, a good session beer or stepping stone beer for new craft drinkers

Telemark IPA - Really nice, hoppy, dry and balanced, my pick!

Peak One Porter - Also quite good, very roasty dark brew

Doppelbock - Seasonal, nice beer, tastes like Germany!

Barleywine - A bit lighter body than what I've had but tasted great

Bourbon Aged Barleywine - A good thing made even better, nice bourbon flavor compliment 

Saison w/ Brettanomyces - Sour and a refreshing change up at the end of the session

ESB - Great balanced, not too much of any one thing, as it should be

Breakfast Stout - Made with Breck Coffee, LOTS of coffee

Apres Hike Beers in Oct...
close enough!

Seven years back we also went to Dillon Dam Brewery but like I said there isn't much I can recall at this point.  They get good reviews though. Also in town is the Breckenridge Brewery. You can also hit their production brewery/restaurant in Denver. Also if you headed back to Denver from Summit, Tommy Knocker Brewery is in Idaho Springs, only a couple minutes off the highway.  I checked those guys out in October after hiking the hut trails near Vail. I DO remember getting a mix pack of Tommy Knocker 5 years ago and their Maple Porter is the one that stuck in my memory.  Fellow Harpooner John Baker also has had this beer and it partially influenced his home brew recipes that eventually became 100 BBL #35 Catamount Maple Wheat . Ideally you don't have to fight the traffic on I-80 and can stay close to the mountains, there is enough good beer to get you through until the next day on the slopes!

Cheers Mark! 

 Last but not least was Vail. There are a lot of people that rank it as their number one mountain.  I took two days to see for myself and could have used a few more.  With such a dry year I felt lucky that I got a little snow each day, even if it was only a few inches. I was worried the holiday week would make for crowded slopes.  However, the terrain was fantastic and honestly this place is so big it spread everyone out making even the President's Week masses seem small. In the spirit of craft brewing camaraderie I stayed with Mark Freytag who used to be a competing brewery rep for Saranac/FX Matt/Lake Placid Brewery before moving out west to commit to more ski days a year.  Not a bad life as he gets dozens more days in the snow than I do and has a mug on the rack at Garfinkel's, a great Apres ski bar if you want something a little less fancy than Vail's other offerings. He was happy to help lighten the load of beers I had picked up throughout the past week touring breweries. I also thanked him with my last bottle of Harpoon Leviathan Baltic Porter that had aged a year in my cellar. With all the craft brews I brought along we didn't really have time to check out the local brewpub Crazy Mountain Brewing Co. I suppose we'll have to come back again... that would be a pity!

Early Bird gets the Powder! ...even if it was just a little

Lionshead Village from Vail Gondola

Tavern on the Square: Apres ski fuel! Southwest Chopp'd Salad and Brussels sprouts with Chorizo and Manchego.
The beer list is pretty good too!