Brews Cruising (California Edition): The Yogi Berra Conundrum

A decision between these two Russian River sours may not be as tough as
figuring out where else to go for craft beer in Santa Rosa

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post on one of craft beer's long time stalwarts in Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, California. One thing I noted then is that the throng of locals and out-of-towners that make getting into the brewpub a bit of a challenge, and this was no different on a my return to the brewery to pick up a couple bottles of their sour brews.

Thankfully for someone in my position, a second line strictly dedicated for bottle sales on particularly busy days makes things go a lot faster. For those dining in on these days, however, even an arrival a half-hour before opening is no guarantee that you'll get inside in short order. From where the picture was taken below, the waiting time was close to an hour.

This phenomenon may be eased a bit with Russian River's planned 15-acre brewpub facility in nearby Windsor (the current schedule slates an opening of Summer 2018, per this craftbeer.com article.) But until then, one may ponder the old Yogi Berra conundrum when seeing this queue.  Berra, long-time Hall of Fame catcher for the New York Yankees and master of contorting the English language into a confusing understandability, is often credited with saying, ""Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

So where does one go for craft beer in Santa Rosa other than Russian River? My spouse and I had been to downtown neighbor Third Street Aleworks previously and found it a decent enough place, but I was itching to try something new. Based on a tip from a Cleveland area ex-pat now enjoying the Sonoma County life craft beer loving friend, Cooperage Brewing was the place I needed to visit.

Who Needs Sam Malone? Staas Brewing Company (Delaware, OH)

Delaware, Ohio, has become a favorite day trip of ours to escape the Columbus metro for a bit, for both the old (we love moseying through its various antique stores), the fancy (the great tasting menu of Veritas Tavern), and the new (Delaware's newer of the town's craft breweries in Restoration Brew Worx.)

However, we're still finding new stuff to acquaint ourselves with in this town of 36,000. Our most recent trip gave us some new vinyl for our stack of LP's in Pat's Endangered Finds record store. Also, it brought us through the doors of Delaware's original entry into the new wave of Central Ohio craft breweries in the form of Staas Brewing, located just off the main downtown strip.

Belgians and Bluegrass: Cleophus Quealy Beer Company (San Leandro, CA)

There's not much to see with the exterior of the Cleophus Quealy Beer Company's building; a somewhat smallish sign sporting the brewery's name hovers over the entrance of the space, located a few minutes from the Oakland International Airport in an industrial area of neighboring San Leandro, CA. In many ways, the experience we had driving up to this brewery, turning our heads every which way to spot our destination, was very similar to our visits to Columbus, Ohio's Sideswipe Brewing, which also lies in an industrial area in the city's Valleyview area.

The brewery's fairly expansive almost 4,000 square foot interior isn't all that fancy either, but the touches that are there makes for an agreeable and pleasant experience,  Tables and decorative barrels, topped with succulents (a nice decorative and drought-friendly touch) are scattered throughout this seating area. This theme is continued behind the tap area, where really neat chalkboard sketch of a Buddha's Hand provides the bar's backdrop. Faded wood paneling also lines the main tap area as well as selected covey areas along the interior walls. Rearward, the brewery's production side is very evident, with barrel racks, kegs and other brewing paraphernalia. As our time inside progressed, the general vibe reminded me a bit of Clintonville's Lineage Brewing.

Crafty Colorado (Pt. 3): Funkwerks and Equinox Brewing (Fort Collins, CO)

"We had joy, we had fun, we had saisons in the sun..."

As horribly punny as that line is, it sets us up perfectly for detailing the next stop in our daylong Colorado craft beer tour.

Funkwerks: Officially incorporated in 2009, the folks at Funkwerks seem to have a wry view on life and themselves. Hints of this are found all over, from their unique twist on the "About" section on their main website (where they make their various beer and business accomplishments and failures at various failures at various non-beer competitions almost indistinguishable from one another) to the taproom chalkboard, which not only lists the  "beertender" of the day, but also contains a quote or similar (the brewery's social media pages hashtag a regular #wednesdaywordsofwisdom.") Finally, the beer menu is filled with little shots of wit, using identifiers such as "Doesn't pair well with Ryu" (their Blanka Double Wit) and "0% of proceeds will go to NLRF, the National Leprechaun Reintroduction Foundation" (Funkwerks' Belgian Stout) with more standard beer descriptors.

However, there is nothing wry or to be laughed at with their selection of beer. Similar to Lancaster, Ohio-based Rockmill, Funkwerks has carved out a reputation of brewing some of the best of the Belgian and Saison beer styles in the country.

The brewery's taproom is a fairly cozy and quietly stylish affair, marked by wood paneling and floors, a little sheet metal, and a small bar area framed by their trademark shade of green you can find on their logo. Along with other tables and chairs, the interior can probably handle up to 20-25 people comfortably. Funkwerks doesn't have any regular food operations, but does offer a cheese and crackers plate if you need a little food while sipping their brews.

Funkwerks' cozy yet stylish taproom, which included a barrel
aging room towards the back of the facility

Funkwerks offers half and full glasses of their beers as well as two series of flights in their Funkwerks Flight ($9 for 5 samplers of their regular beers) and their Specialty Flight (5 of their more limited releases) for $2 more. We had thought about grabbing a flight each, but decided to play it safe by ordering the latter flight first; this turned out to be a good thing, as we received some very nicely-sized pours of some of what turned out to be their higher ABV offerings. They were all quite unique and excellent, with different taste profiles that made picking a best-of somewhat difficult. If we had to pick just one, we would probably to their Quad, with plenty of darker-fruit notes (plums and raisins) and a bit of chocolate before its nice crisp finish.

The Specialty Flight was indeed quite special

Thanks to our brother-in-law, we got to compare that with Funkwerks' Quad they had aged in bourbon barrels, which was delicious in its right with its hints of bourbon and vanilla. Since we were taking home some of their regular Tropic King, an imperial saison, we had to grab a pint of their Tropic King aged in peach whiskey barrels before we left. It was quite easy to see why Draft Magazine named this one of their Top 25 Beers of 2014 - this was definitely one of the more uniquely refreshing beers we have ever tried, something like a very fruity wine spritzer but with much, much more going on. I could imagine this being a perfect pour on a hot summer day, reclining on a shady patio while watching the sun go down.

Funkwerks

1900 E. Lincoln Ave
Fort Collins, CO 80524
(970) 482-3865
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Equinox Brewing: In many ways, the last stop on any food or beverage tour is bound to suffer; as participants are often a little burned out by the end of the day. Equinox Brewing, which started operations in 2010 and is located somewhat off the main strip in downtown Fort Collins, actually provided a perfect atmosphere to ease down from our fairly epic beer touring day.

Equinox sports a very informal atmosphere, with distractions for the visitor such as a shuffleboard game, a little cutout board where you could make you and a friend into foxes riding a tandem bicycle, and a Biergarten patio that allows a view inside their brewing operations. The dimly lit interior of Equinox we found this night lent itself to what we exactly wanted to do before heading back home - grab a pint, find a table, and slowly wind down the evening with a little casual conversation. I spied several groups and couples that seemed to be taking that same approach as well.

With downtown Fort Collins within walking distance, plenty of lunch and dinner options are within easy walking distance; however, Equinox does have a small food menu with some mostly chip and dip style snack items.

Equinox's space is pretty informal, with geek-appealing beer names,
distractions if you need them, and space to seclude and settle
down with your group or date during the evening hours

The beers have a bit of a science and/or science-fiction factor attached their names (which appealed to our more geeky natures quite well); in some ways, the concept attached to beer was a factor as much as the beer style itself. My spouse couldn't resist getting a pint of the Space Ghost IPA, while all the stars I had seen in the night sky over Colorado made the Orion Irish Red my choice. Aftter the more complex taste profiles that Funkwerks' Belgian-style beers gave us, these more straightforward brews from Equinox were a perfect wind down.

Equinox Brewing
133 Remington St,
Fort Collins, CO 80524
(970) 484-1368
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IWD 500: Northern Michigan - Tandem Ciders; Brewery Vivant

Our recent Northern Michigan travels brought us to two destinations on somewhat opposite sides of the state that are worthy of a visit for their craft alcoholic beverages.

Tandem Ciders - This charming hard cider maker is located a bit off the beaten track in the tree-dotted rolling green hills that make up the interior of the Leelenau Peninsula. Thankfully, the large barn-like structure which houses this now six-year-old business, marked distinctly by a mounted tandem bicycle, all but ensures that visitors won't drive past.

Besides the main building, the property is marked by an apple orchard featuring the cidery's numerous apple varietals toward the rear as well as picnic tables where you can enjoy your cider outdoors.

The tasting room itself is a quaint space that maintains the barn motif, with a small bar area for customers there to sample their ciders. Bookshelves containing both apple- and bicycle-related books can be found behind the bar along with the keg system; themed art work only accentuates this heaven-like setting for cider seekers .

Tandem has a very consumer-friendly policy when it comes to sampling their ciders. Their four ciders on tap can be sampled for free; any cider that they bottle is also available for sampling for only $1 (save for their specialty Pomona; more on this later.)

We were highly impressed with all the ciders available, which ran a gamut of flavor profiles from sweet to tart, varietal oriented (i.e. their popular Smackintosh) and varying levels of dryness. Each cider had something unique that made choosing what to take back with us to Columbus a difficult decision. Eventually, we decided on the Pretty Penny (an intriguing blend of what is essentially the remnants of their 30 apple varietals used in their cider production; due to this, the taste is never the same year to year) and their Pomona (an intensely flavored Pommeau meant as an aperitif made by blending apple brandy and sweet cider and aging the mixture in oak barrels.)

Tandem Ciders
2055 N Setterbo Road (Google Maps)
Suttons Bay, MI 49682
(231) 271-0050
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Brewery Vivant - Opened in the unique setting of an abandoned funeral home chapel in December 2010, this Grand Rapids-based craft brewery has made their reputation on various takes of Belgian- and French-styled beers, accompanied by an upscale pub fare menu and anchored by a locally-focused and sustainable practices philosophy.

In this meetup with friends in the area, we opted for appetizers and two separate flights of their beers. Like the menu overall (entrees are in the $10 - $20 range), the appetizers are on the higher price point for pub fare, but you get a little more pizzazz for the money. The garlic & parsley Belgian Frites ($6) came with the requisite mayo-based dips and the Pork Belly Corn Dogs ($9) came with an intriguing rhubarb ketchup and a house-made mustard. Both items were quite tasty and had a little hint of decadence, especially the corn dogs.

Through careful planning, we were able to sample eight of their beers by ordering two separate flights (the Cambier Flight, priced slightly higher than the Vivant Flight, allows you access to most of their current higher gravity brews.) All the beer sampled was at least in the solidly good to grerat range, with the clear winner being Cemetarian (their Undertaker Belgian Dark Ale aged in oak and spiked with vanilla and coffee beans.) Their Agent á Deux, a collaboration beer with local doughnut maker Propaganda, also proved to be an intriguing taste as a dark Belgian ale brewed with currants, vanilla beans and rose petals.

Brewery Vivant
925 Cherry Street SE (Google Maps)
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
(616) 719-1604
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2019 Update: no major changes of note re: social media links.