Pacific Coast Brewing Company

- Written by Mike Sober (AKA The Hop Hunter)

During the Holiday season I spent a few days in the East Bay area and had the opportunity to finally visit Pacific Coast Brewing in downtown Oakland. As is somewhat evident in the photo, the Brewery is housed in a historic Oakland building dating from 1876 that is partially furnished with artifacts obtained from the Oakland Museum.

Despite the fact that we were drawn to the site strictly as a beer destination I found myself studying my surroundings for several minutes before I even looked for the beer menu. The Bar itself looks to be well over 100 years old and was reportedly an original piece from someplace called the Cox Saloon from Old Town Oakland. When I finally got to the beer menu I found it to be pretty impressive in it's own right. The PC brewery offered seven of their own beers as well as no less than sixteen guest taps, including Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special 30 Reserve from Scotland. A treat I would save until just prior to last call.

The house offerings included a Pale Ale, a couple of IPA's as well as a killer (Killer Whale they call it) Stout, Holiday Belgian Double and a Barleywine. Our group of seven ordered a couple of full samplers and found the beers to be solid with perhaps a slight bit of sameness to them that I suspected was a result of the pale malt extract that brewer Don Gortemiller uses as a base in all his beers. I particularly enjoyed the Blue Whale Ale which drinks like an Imperial IPA and according to the menu won a Silver Medal at the GABF way back in 1989. I have to assume that to have been in the strong Ale category. The Gray Whale Pale Ale seemed to be the most popular house beer at the table as I noticed several were being ordered after the sampler was dissected and turned back into mere glassware .

The Guest Menu was where I found a couple of gems that I just couldn't resist at all. Luckily since we rode BART to downtown Oakland ... resisting was just not something I was concerning myself with at that time. I obviously didn't try them all but I did my best to dent the list.....

Anchor Christmas Ale
Bear Republic Racer 5
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Full Sail Wreck the Halls
Pizza Port Belgian Style Quadruppel
Pyramid Apricot Ale
Russian River Blind Pig
Schmaltz Jewbelation Twelve
Sierra Nevada Chico Estate Harvest
Sierra Nevada Ruthless Weiss
Stone 12th Anniversary Biter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Trumer Pils

The lineup also included Stella Artois, Lindeman's Framboise, Samichlaus Helles Bier 2007 and Houblon Chouffe.

At 14% alcohol the Samichlaus is reportedly the strongest Lager in the world and I would like to say I got around to trying some....but that would be stretching the truth a bit much.

However, it wouldn't be expanding the truth at all to say I'm putting PCBCo on my list of return destinations for 2009.

Perhaps I should mention that they also have a pool table, Internet access and a couple of dart boards for entertainment. Dart boards that were in little danger of being worn out by us late in the evening. I learned that one should never combine Belgian Style Quads and darts after midnight. Nope...don't recommend it at all.

What I do whole-heartedly recommend is making the effort to visit and hoist a few pints at Pacific Coast Brewing in Oakland.

Check out Mike's blog at www.thehophunter.blogspot.com

A New Column: Cheese! St. Andre

Yes, this is Pacific BREW News, but given that many of us who like a good brew also have the capacity to take a moment to enjoy better food, I figured you wouldn't mind a diversion now and then. With that in mind we'll start doing some foodie items from time to time, with cheese reviews based on items sold by our local cheese monger - the thought is to cover one cheese a week until they've all been covered. Hopefully we'll be able to tie in a beer suggestion with each cheese and if you like the sounds of something, please try it and let us know what you think. Onto the cheese!

Saint-AndréThis is not a new cheese to us, having been introduced to it a while back with good friends of ours. The cheese has a pale, buttery appearance that is wrapped with a papery, grayish-white rind.The first taste is as sensuous as it is pungent, with grassy and mossy flavors that complement the tangy, bright tastes on the sides of the mouth. You cannot escape the buttery qualities of this cheese, from the look to the flavors and even the texture - this is fantastic smothered on crusty bread. Allowing this cheese to warm to room temperature changes the cheese substantially. As it softens the acidic and zesty notes become more pronounced. I'd go as far as to say the cheese vastly improves as it softens and warms, the aromas becoming more obvious.Now, we all know that pairing a good cheese with a good beer is divine, but choosing the right beer to go with the right cheese is challenging. Trying this made me long for a Belgian dubbel or even an aged barleywine. Oh, and I doubt you'd be unhappy with a bier de garde.
Finally, I just have to put this somewhere. In our tasting tonight Tracy mentioned that this cheese was the "duck of cheeses". She was talking about the fatty texture and overall richness of flavors and the more I thought about it, the more I agreed.

About the Cheese
Made in France
Uses cows milk with 75% butter fat

BJ's Winter Warmer Beer Dinner

I made a quick stop in this past weekend to our local BJs brewery and restaurant for dinner and drinks with Tracy. While there I saw adverts for a Winter Welcome Beer Dinner coming up soon and I wanted to pass along the details for you.

Date: January 20, 2009
Cost: $30
Location: BJs in Roseville (Galleria/E. Roseville Pkwy)
What is it: Dinner with winter beers from Germany, England and the US.
Reservations: 916.580.2100

Sacramento's Newest Beer Joint?

It's been just over a year since Manderes in Folsom opened with an impressive selection of taps, bottles and grub to satisfy an eager beer-loving population. Brent and David have, since then, won many honors and awards in the region. Given they were the only game in town for good beer, it wasn't a surprise. On Tuesday, however, they're going to get some serious competition from one of the region's old players - Sacrament Brewing Company.

Spear-headed by it's brewmaster Peter Hoey, SacBrew is starting a new program that involves doubling the taps and bringing in fantastic brews from around the world. To give you an idea of what you can expect, check out the list of brews you can find on Tuesday when their 12 new taps start pouring.

• Anchor Brewing - Christmas Ale
• Bear Republic - Racer 5 IPA
• Bear Republic - Jack London ESB
• Brasserie d' Achouffe - Houblon Doubbelen IPA Tripel
• Deschutes - The Dissident
• Green Flash - Tripple Belgian Style Ale
• Rubicon Brewing Company - Monkey Knife Fight
• Russian River Brewing Company - Pliny the Elder
• Sierra Nevada - Celebration Ale
• Unibroue - Maudite

Keep in mind, this is in ADDITION TO the award-winning lineup of SBC brews:

• IPA (7%)
  
• Red Horse Amber
  
• 2006 Babylon Barleywine (10.8%)
• Abbey Extra (5.0%)
• Barristers Bitter (4.0%)
• Bock (6.5%)
• Brewhouse Lager (4.5%)
• Hefeweizen (4.5%)
• Old Pappy Bourbon Barrel-aged Wheat Wine (13.0%)
  
• Russian Imperial Stout (8.0%)
• Smokey's Imperial Red Ale (8.6%)

As if this weren't enough, Peter is also diligently working on a killer series of Pint Nights and Brewer Specials, the first will kick off on January 21st with Firestone Walker night where SBC will pour:

• Double Barrel Ale
• Pale 31
• Union Jack IPA
• Walker's Reserve
• Nectar IPA - Cask

Following Firestone Walker Night will be evenings that feature 21st Amendment, Deschutes, Rubicon and some others that will likely be mentioned as they're announced.

With SacBrew's new face-lift to complement the great lineup at Manderes, we're certain to see a whole lot of great beer in 2009.

Sacramento: Oasis Closed

I won't make this a very long post, but yesterday (Jan. 4, 2009) was the last day The Oasis was open to the public. They are working now on transferring beer and equipment to Sacramento Brewing's primary location in Sacramento, on the corner of Fulton and Marconi. While the writing has been on the walls for some time (it didn't take a genius to see there just weren't a lot of seats filled recently) it is still a sad day for me, due to the fact I'd made this a favorite local brewery over the last couple years.

So long Oasis, you served us well for some time.

To the locals: This is a warning shot for us I figure, time now to support our local brewers a bit more (remember, we just lost Elk Grove Brewing, too). Fill a growler, buy a pint, do what you can to get the freshest, high-quality beers you can. Of course, we have more than SacBrew to support, with breweries like Rubicon, Hoppy, Auburn Alehouse, Beermann's and more. We've got great beer in the region, easily worth our support.

Happy New Year!

It was a fast-paced 2008 for us at PBN - and in the second half of the year that really impacted our ability to blog, record shows and update our website. I'm actually pretty bummed about the neglect I've shown you all, and this sight that I have been awfully partial to. I'm not the biggest fan of New Year's resolutions, but I do have a few goals for 2009 that I figured I'd share with everyone.

1. A weekly blog post worth reading: Often when short on time I've been known to throw up a press release or something pretty lame. This year I'm hoping that we at PBN can pool our collective mental resources to post one good, meaty blog a week. That would allow us to still put up the silly and off-hand posts we like to do while also giving you something worth following.
   
2. Increased homebrew coverage: I have a whole lot of homebrew ideas that I'd like to pass on - tips for equipment, ingredients and whatever else comes to mind. Realistically I think I could put one homebrew post a month up that would be of interest to you.
   
3. More Podcasts: Mark and Mike are pushing for it, so are many of you. I think I'll have to work with them to plot out the next few months worth of shows. I may even have to get The Beer Geek set up to record shows without me - in case I find myself overly busy.
4. More Regional Beer News & Spotlights: Between the three of us we go to a whole lot of bars, breweries and events. We have a whole lot of stories to share and I think I'll have to make sure to share some of these with you.
5. More Videos: Yes, I have a backlog of videos from brewery tours, events and homebrew adventures. It's long past due for me to put some of these up - likely in their raw, unedited form.

Feel free to keep us on our toes on this. I hope you all had a great 2008 and we all hope for the best for all of you in this new year. Cheers!

Summing up Pacific Brew News

OK, this is seriously cool! This is a "wordle" that is made up of PBN's most frequently used words on Twitter. Also of note - the top five words I use on twitter are:

1. Beer
2. Good
3. Great
4. Day
5. IPA

I just love that I say IPA more frequently that, say, "dude" or "loser".