Step 2: The Manual Labor

Last Monday was the time for our batch of homebrew to come out of the carboy and go into the bottles. Eventually I'd like to get into kegging the beer, but at this point that requires some additional gear that is not conducive to our current unsettled lifestyle. Anywho, back to our bottling. Lucas and Debbi came by to put in some time pouring and capping. The process is not all that exciting, but finishing means you're one step closer to drinking your beer. I'll let the pictures below document the process (plus they're more interesting than any words I could come up with to describe it).

Now that it's in the bottle the countdown clock starts to mean something. I am crossing my fingers a little bit on this batch only because of the ridiculously hot weather that we had last week and weekend. It was stored in a relatively safe part of our apartment, but you're never really sure until you take the cap off that first bottle.

Cheers,

Alex

A Little Domestic Beer Traveling

I wouldn't dare take the mantle of Beer Traveler away from our own foreign correspondent, but this last weekend I was in San Diego for a family reunion. While down there I found myself with several hours of free time and a perfect opportunity to hit the streets in search of beer. I took my brother, Barrett, along for the ride and we hitched a ride to the trolley station at Old Town San Diego. The trolley is an excellent way to get around San Diego, but Barrett and I managed to make it difficult in our own way. After barely missing the trolley when we got there we had to wait fifteen minutes for the next one. We sat patiently and watched as a trolley came from the direction of downtown and we watched as people got off and on completely secure in the knowledge that this trolley would be continuing on to the Mission Valley area of San Diego. It was until after the indecipherable "all aboard" call that I had one of those "hey wait a minute" moments and I turned to Barrett just in time to watch the trolley start on its way back downtown. Oh well, another fifteen minutes of lively conversation between Barrett and I.

We finally caught the third trolley and were off to the beer. We hopped off at the Civic Center stop and I got out my phone, complete with google maps, so that we didn't waste any time wandering around the streets of San Diego. I found the route to our intended destination, the Karl Strauss Brew Pub, and after we had been walking a while I thought to myself, "wow this seems like quite a ways". It wasn't until I saw the American Plaza trolley stop a half a block from our intended destination that I decided we had gotten off the trolley one stop to late (more time wasted).

Long story short, we did eventually make it to the beer. Needless to say the ambiance left a bit to be desired unless you like the idea of a brewery trying to look like a trendy night hotspot. But we weren't there for atmosphere, we were there for beer. I tried their typical Scottish Ale while Barrett had a seasonal Scottish. I've always thought that Karl Strauss made a serviceable beer and their Scottish confirmed my earlier beliefs. I've had better beers, but this was a nice way to start the afternoon. I finished the Karl Strauss experience with their Woodie Gold, which was very refreshing given how warm it was outside. But two beers was it and we were off to our second location.

Another, decidedly more successful, trolley ride put us right at the Princess Pub in the Little Italy section of San Diego. This is my favorite place to grab a beer in San Diego and any time I'm America's Finest City I try to make some time to head down there, it is by far the best British pub in the city. The decor on the inside is unmistakably English, almost to the level of kitsch, but they have an amazing selection of European beer. I began with a classic, Boddington's, and Barrett started off with a Stella. For the next round I went with something I hadn't tried before a Belhaven Scottish Ale, I thought it would be a nice comparison to the Scottish I had at Karl Strauss. Well it was no comparison; the Belhaven was much smoother and had a nice crisp finish.

All in all I would say it was a successful tour of a couple of San Diego's better beer establishments. If you made it to the end of this tale, I'm sure you could use a pint yourself, but I'd love to have everyone post a comment about their favorite place to get a drink (beer or otherwise) when they're out of town. Perhaps if we get enough submissions we can compile a little travel guide for when we're away from home.

Cheers,

Alex

Steelhead Brewery

This afternoon we found ourselves down in Eugene for a bi-weekly trip to Trader Joe's. We figured that since we were already down there we would hit up one of our favorite restaurants and take in an afternoon pint. I chose Steelhead Brewing, although it's not a purely Northwest brewery (locations in Burlingame and Irvine, CA) everything we were drinking today was brewed locally. I wouldn't say that Steelhead has the best atmosphere, there are a lot of tourists wandering over from the 5th Street Market. However, if you take a seat at the bar or grab one of the small tables surrounded by arm chairs you'll enjoy yourself and the service has always been good. Today was an IPA day, I first tried their seasonal Farver (sp?) IPA, which is an unfiltered IPA and had a citrus flavor. It was decent, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Second, I tried their appropriately named Bombay IPA on a cask pour. It was very satisfying on a warm afternoon. A general rule of thumb that I try to follow is if you can find a pub pouring from a cask try it. Have you had a good/bad trip to a pub recently? Let's hear about it.