On this trip up north, we’ve visited different purveyors of food, wine and beer.  I thought I’d break up the recap by category…in this post I’ll tell about the breweries we’ve visited.  So far, anyway.

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MOONLIGHT BREWING

The very first brewery we visited, Moonlight Brewing, has turned out to be by far the highlight, both in quality and spirit.  Moonlight is located several miles outside of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, on a large spread of agricultural land, basically a farm.

Brian Hunt is the owner/brewer at Moonlight, and he was exceptionally gracious and fun.  He explained that, as part of the regulations governing the use of agricultural land in Sonoma County, he grows many of his own hops and is limited to 1000 sq. ft of brewery space.  I have never seen a brewing operation which made such an efficient use of space!  It’s just a little cabin on the middle of this farm, but it’s chock full of equipment, tools, and, um, beer.

Apparently, growing his own hops allows Moonlight a lot of different options in wet-hopping beer, and Brian can use the same hops several times over, each time resulting in a different character for the resulting brew.

One of the most interesting and impressive things about Moonlight was the very wide variety of beer types Brian makes, all of which were frankly of world-class quality.  We’re accustomed to the potent ales that are the hallmark of San Diego brewing, so it was a real treat to taste lagers and milder ales that were rich in flavor and well balanced.  Moonlight’s stronger brews are excellent as well.

We sampled about 7 different beers, and here are descriptions of 4 that stood out.

* Lunatic Lager.  We’ve been on a quest to find a tasty, easy drinking lager that doesn’t have a lot of alcohol BUT has a rich flavor with good balance and a delicious finish.  (Pizza Port’s tasty Amigo Lager is the closest I’ve had, but my understanding is that, sadly, it’s not going to be available on a regular basis.)  We we had a taste of Lunatic, Michael said simply, “this is the lager I’ve been looking for.”  What an excellent beer.

* Death and Taxes.  This is, I believe, a “black beer” or Schwarzbier, a lager which is very dark in color, with some of the richness characteristics associated with dark beer — such as chocolate and coffee overtones – but with very light body and little bitterness or burtn caramel tastes.  Black beer is a really nice kind of beer in that it combines the richness of dark beer with the drinkability of lager.  Black beer is a fairly rare style – I’ve only had two others – and Death and Taxes is now my favorite of that style.

* Moonlight IPA (I don’t think it had another name, but I could be wrong).  Moonlight’s IPA is really rich in floral hop character without a lot of bitterness or alcohol.  It is a wet-hopped beer, and the flavor set to me is not unlike Hop Trip by Deschutes.  I thought this could become a real go-to kind of IPA, particularly because with its lower alcohol and bitterness, it is something a person can drink two or three of and still walk back to the bar.

* Old Toast (slightly burned) 2005.  When we were there, Brian was just finishing the 2006 Old Toast, his “New Year’s” beer.  He also had some of last year’s Old Toast, so we tasted them vertically.  The 2006 was a very good beer.  The 2005 was phenomenal.  The extra year of aging had changed the texture of the beer substantially, making it more like a cask-conditioned ale with tiny bubbles composing a sticky head and increased viscosity in the beer.  The resulting pour brought forth the intensity of the aromas and allowed us to fully savor the flavors and balance. 

We left with a little bit of each of these beers for us to serve at the Linkery over the next couple weeks.  More importantly, we are excited about building a relationship with Moonlight so we can regularly carry its beer, which is consistently of great quality, and is in the independent spirit which makes hand made food and drinks so different and enjoyable.

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RUSSIAN RIVER BREWING

After visiting Moonlight and Fulton Valley Farms (to be discussed in another post), we had lunch in Santa Rosa at Russian River Brewing. 

Russian River makes dependably great beers and our visit was no exception.  I particularly enjoyed the OVL Stout and Temptation on draft. 

Our server talked a little bit with us about who we were and what we were doing in the area, and then went back to the brewing part of the business to see if anyone wanted to chat with us.  We didn’t have an appointment so we didn’t really expect to meet anybody from the brewing side.  We did hope to buy some seasonal beer to serve at the Linkery, but that was a nonstarter.  We were just given the business card of their regional sales rep, which we called over the next couple days but never heard back from them. 

We did get a case of Temptation for road trip refreshments.  It’s just about gone now; there’s certainly no chance of any of it making it back to San Diego.

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BEAR REPUBLIC

Bear Republic has a good brewpub in downtown Healdsburg, with an excellent lineup of beers and tasty food.  Their staff was super friendly, as well.  Unlike Russian River, they were interested in selling us beer, however, they were out for the weekend and wouldn’t have any extra until after Christmas.  Which didn’t meet our travel schedule, but was appreciated nonetheless.

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MENDOCINO BREWING

We were driving up 101, north of Hopland and entering Ukiah, when we saw a big industrial building with “Mendocino Brewing” painted on its side.  That seemed to us like an invitation to come in and visit!

It wasn’t.

After a few minutes of wandering through their brewery and bottling line, searching to no avail for a reception area or tasting room, we stumbled into an office where a gentleman was working on a computer.  We soon established that they didn’t taste beers or sell beer from the brewery, and weren’t really set up to accept guests.  They explained that they meant to set up a tasting area but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.  They had been in the building for 8 years, but we are definitely sympathetic to how these things go.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.

We headed back to the freeway, stopping at the liquor store to pick up a six pack of Mendocino’s bottle conditioned ale, which is pretty good.

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FEATHER RIVER BREWING

Feather River Brewing Company is located about 30 minutes east of Chico, in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  The brewery is on the property of brewmaster Roger Preecs, and it’s really remote…5 minutes on gravel roads, off the road off of the main road which is outside of the town of Paradise.  It’s also beautiful, but cold.  I was glad it wasn’t snowing while were there, it would have been difficult to get off the mountain.

Feather River is mostly a one-man show, and they have three beers which reflect Roger’s taste for light-bodied session beers that are low in bitterness and run only about 4% alcohol.  These beers definitely stand out in the California craft beer world for their focus on drinkability instead of strong flavor.  Our favorite was his seasonal “Dark Canyon Ale” which incorporates the flavors of roast and sweetness of winter ales while still maintaining the session beer characteristics of his other beers. 

In keeping with the Great Northern Calfornia Beer Shortage, Feather River didn’t have enough beer to sell us a keg, but we did leave with a case of the Dark Canyon Ale.

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SIERRA NEVADA BREWING COMPANY

Sierra Nevada is a huge brewery and pub.  It was nice, the food and beer was good, but the scale was so big that a visit for lunch wasn’t going to provide much insight into the brewery or its beers.  Also, we don’t really carry their products because they’re so widely available and as a result maybe less interesting than their harder-to-find counterparts.

That said, it’s a nice brewpub and a great place to go for lunch — we enjoyed ourselves.

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BUTTE CREEK BREWING COMPANY

Was closed because it was Saturday!  Bummed us out, we were really looking forward to trying their beers.