Destinations: Cato's Ale House

Late spring in Northern California is a beautiful time. Intoxicating beauty accompanied by toxins, as Michael Pollan would say. One Woman, about to depart from this beautiful state in utter financial crisis has been taking advantage of the lovely things to do: exploring the great outdoors, bike trips and all.

Nothing is more glorious than a cold lager or pale ale after a good hike, or a steady incline on an ultra-heavy chunk of a clunker bike. And so, the recent beers in my life have been not only satisfying in a fine-art-of-beer way, but also in an oh-my-god-I-need-a-beer-now way after biking uphill for an hour, against the wind, in the blistering sun... (okay, fine, not all at once).

Cato's Ale House to the rescue. On my list of upcoming Destinations is the venerable Monk's Kettle in San Francisco. But after a sweaty hike, who wants to shower, change, and take the train and then some to go to a fancy beer bar where you want at least 15 of the beers but can only afford one? One Woman hopped on her bike instead and pedaled over to Cato's Ale House in Oakland (they also have many fine beers). 

Thanks to the long daylight hours, from the many windows of the building,  the sun was still shining on to the darkwood floor and walls of the beer themed ale house on Piedmont Avenue. Burgers and pizza for all, and happy hour pitchers and pints made for a boisterous but family friendly publick house scene. A couple of old ladies even came in to have a cuppa tea, and then left cheerfully.

Thristy from a hike and bike, I went for the extra pale ale on tap--the Steelhead from Mad River Brewing Company. Banana colored, nicely carbonated, notes of clover honey sweetness, and mild hops. That's about it. Does the job fine--I'll take it! Nothing bedazzling, but actually, it would probably make a really good fish and chips pairing with cod and a little vinegar drizzled over the whole mess.

Musical pairing: Stone Temple Pilots, "Plush." I think Steelhead is a good alternaradio beer. Cool, somewhat inspired, and catchy. Good song. Nice hair, Scott Weiland. And what's with the funny warped lens effect on the video? Quoting from a youtube commentator, 2 months ago--"i was born in 1996 but i wish i was born in the late 70s so i could have been teenage for this music along with Nirvana and Alice in Chains, Soundgarden and stuff. :( Music is crap today, with all the mainstream." But wait--1) omg. 2) check out the internet. yr only clicks away people who are still making inspired music. 3) punk's not dead!!

minipost: bay area beer news

beer revolution in oakland and the city beer store in sf featured in the new york times. heads up, they say. see you there!
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/travel/30headsup.html?hpw

more in beer news--the hearst museum of anthropology on the uc berkeley campus has an exhibit on the history of beer! stay tuned for a report from the field called 99 Bottles of Beer: Global Brewing Traditions 2500 B.C. - Present

Wit Rabbit + Eric's Ale = Best DMV Trip Ever!

Best DMV trip ever?! Have such words ever been uttered by man or womankind?

Well, now it has. One Woman, a lover of bicycles and beer, approaching her third decade of existence, has finally come to realize that life in America is just sometimes easier with a car. Especially when a place called Los Angeles is in the future. After a night of reading the DMV handbook, and learning on youtube (yes, it's now possible) and a morning of hanging out at the DMV, the application and paper test were a success! Temporary driver's license in hand after passing the 36-question paper test the first round (with flying colors), One Woman hopped across the Panhandle to her favorite pub in the Bay Area. Magnolia Brewery lies a mere 6 blocks from the San Francisco DMV. Perfect.

And wait... $3 Tuesdays at Magnolia?? Yes please.

The special beers de jour: Magnolia's house-brewed Wit Rabbit was served in a fluted pint glass. Barely carbonated, it was flaxen in color and pleasantly chilled (click link to hear "The girl with the flaxen hair"). The suspended yeast characteristic of witbier gave it a little bit of a cloud. Instead of the floral yeast and spices like coriander and citrus zest that often overpower witbier, it's much more subtle, like spring desert flowers on the coast. Wit Rabbit gives all the yummy variations of wheat -- crisp in flavor, but still moist like freshly harvested wheat after a night in the dew. There's other starchy goodness too -- fingerling potatoes freshly dug out of the earth, and maybe some crimini mushroom whiff.

Being a festive occasion (how happy were you when you got your driver's permit?), I let Jenny the waitress coax me into this second beer. Eric's Ale is another sour, which has been a kind of beer that One Woman has been particularly fascinated by in the last couple of months. The folks at New Belgium who make it call it an American Wild Ale. It's made with the addition of peach juice during the brewing process. Fruity but neither explosively sour, nor too sweet. Apple-juice colored, it's pleasantly refreshing, and very mildly carbonated. Like the Flemish sours, it's also made by combining a sour, aged beer with a another younger, stronger alcohol ale. It's tasty on its own but it really comes through paired with some good stinkin' cheese. And what a cheese: Red Hawk from Cowgirl Creamery. Talk about funk! Triple cream, washed bright orange rind, gooey, irresistible. Paired with pickled grapes (wow? yum!), this was really the power trio of beer and cheese matching. The battle of sour vs. stink becomes entangled in passionate flavor joy. Suddenly, you don't taste the sour any more, and the ale becomes some kind of heightened version of a really delicate apple cider.

Musical Pairing: Bob Dylan was playing at Magnolia, but One Woman (not a girl, not yet a fully licensed driver) was feeling more of the vibe of something like Chameleon by Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters (the ending of this youtube version is cute). It's a time for change. Get your groove on after a trip to the DMV. I'm going to dedicate this song to another girl who was also at the DMV, and theb showed up at Magnolia about 20 minutes after One Woman did. Brava. You go, girl.

Bonus Public Service Announcement Quiz, or, knowledge gained from the California DMV Driver Handbook:
It's illegal to drink, much less drink and drive if you're younger than 21, but if you're 21 years of age or older, it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol concentration of _______ or higher:
     a) 1%
     b) 0.5%
     c) 0.08%
     d) 0.01%

Answer to be announced in the forthcoming post. 

Finally, some extra pics from the trek post-DMV. Personally, I like these signs much more than the signs I learned about in the Driver Handbook:

From the Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco. That's one happy bee.

Duchesse de Bourgogne - Sour Ale #3

Actually, "sour ale" is the worst name for this super tasty Duchesse de Bourgogne. "Sour" sounds like there's something wrong with it, and it sounds kind of gross. Like the Rodenbach and the Monk's Café Flemish Sour Ale that One Woman had a while back, its real name is a Flanders/Flemish Red Ale, and sourness is only one of the many, many wonderful qualities of this beer!

A mahogany-stained walnut color, pretty dusty-pink head with a chiffon cake texture, it smells like earthy dank mushroom, and soft strawberry balsamic. The Duchesse is glamorous. Raspberries, tart cherry, oak, and some tobacco--I know, it sounds like a wine, and it is--kind of like the wise, sexy, sophisticated relative of a rosé wine. Actually, Flanders Reds are made in unlined oak vats like some wines. Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver says that dozens of wild yeast call the wood in these vats home. Since the wood cannot be sterilized, these mystery yeasts do their magic on the beer-to-be. A bit scary, but sure, why not. It tastes good.

Served mildly chilled, it pairs wonderfully with food. One Woman had this with an awesome explosive green "pasta primavera" with fresh fava beans and English peas, green garlic, zucchini, parsley all tangled up in pappardelle. It also inspires desert pairings--like the raspberry-topped lemon muffins (aka yum!!) that One Woman was moved to bake earlier in the day. The muffin recipe comes from the amazing smitten kitchen (click on the link and go make your own). I think cheese mongers could also go nuts pairing this with all sorts of fromage and food combos. The possibilities for this one are grand!

Musical pairing: Duke Ellington, "Sophisticated Lady". Crazy gorgeous Ellington harmonies. The lady is elegant, tough, smart, sexy, and yet, not what you expected. Which makes it that much more exciting. Here's another version of Sophisticated Lady with John Lamb (?) on bass? I can't decide which one is better.  Or how about this one with a solo by Harry Carney possibly holding the longest G# in the history of recorded music (by a sax player at least)? The real story of the Duchess is a sad one though. The Duchesse of Bourgogne was Mary of Burgundy, aka Mary the Rich. As the daughter of Charles the Bold, she became the heiress to his wealthy Burgundian domains, and was Duchesse for 5 years, but died in a horse-riding accident at the age of 25 in 1482. The beer is supposed to be named in her honor, maybe imagining what she what she would have become had she lived to see her duchy prosper (which it didn't--the Duchy of Burgundy pretty much fell with Charles' death in 1477). The beer clearly tells the happier success story here.

minipost: palestine's only brewery in the news

this is not the first time taybeh beer has received media attention. but maybe it's newsworthy not just because it's unique, but because the brewery, founded in 1994 by david khoury and his family who moved to the little town of tayba (pronounced tie-bay) on the west bank of palestine from brookline, massachusetts tells a story about hope and people doing things--making things, filling a niche--from a different angle from what's normally in the news. (one woman does wonder why this story was placed in the "opinion" section of the nyt. curious... though, that's just imo).

taybeh means "delicious" or "good and kind" in arabic. and the beer sounds mighty tasty. click on the link to read roger cohen's story about business on the west bank from the perspective of beer.

The Dr. T Experience: Racer 5 IPA

Dr. T-Fab's fridge always has Racer 5. Not surprisingly, her amazing post-graduation Berkeley backyard fiesta was stocked with her beer of choice. This dazzling beer, like Dr. T, kicks serious ass, and is simply over-the-top delightful. Hopped with Chinook, Cascade, Columbus and Centennial buds, and simmered with American pale and crystal malts, Racer 5 is a quintessential California IPA. With 7% ABV and 75 IBUs, it's a beer to be reckoned with. And One Woman could not have been happier lounging around at a backyard BBQ on a Saturday afternoon, Racer 5 in hand. There's something about the spring time that makes IPAs so appropriate. All this vegetation bursting green everywhere around here encourages loving the heady sensation of hops. It's in the air.

Musical pairing: Mr. T Experience--Berkeley pop punk at its poppest punkest surpassed perhaps only by that group Green Day.  Lookout Records, check. 924 Gilman Street, check. Here's a video of "Ba ba ba ba ba" from their sixth album, Love is Dead, released in 1996. There's something really endearing and disarming about the scenes shot on Claremont Avenue in the Oakland hills, and at the Rockridge BART station, followed by the band walking past a well-manicured lawn to play in a suburban home like good little boys. An ironic self-proclamation that punk's dead, or a coming to terms with the reality of punk's actual centers of production and consumption??

Bonus pic:
Friends from planet Fava agree that Racer 5 is a lovely accompaniment to their meaty tenderness. Pictured: a scrumptious fava bean, mint, pickled red onion, and torn bread salad by Dr. T's dad!

Cornucopia of Beers: Hop Stoopid and More

One Woman's alter-ego, m., has been recovering from last Friday's big event called "oral exams" – no, it's not a trip to the dentist, but what the folks in the questionably quake-proof ivory towers call a "rite of passage" for PhD students. The diversionary tactics were a success.

Disaster averted, exams passed, and there have been many, many, (*gasp*) undocumented beers between then and now. 

Here's the digest version of highlights:

Friday, May 7 – Hop Stoopid and more
A cornucopia of beers prepared by loving colleagues (thank you--!!) awaited as m. stumbled down the stairs after a 3-hour oral exam. Beers of the day: Lagunitas: Hop Stoopid (8% ABV, 102 IBUs--very hoppy, goes straight to your head. Hop stoooooopid~); Northcoast Brewery: Pranqster, a Belgian style golden ale, that has the pleasant aroma of Belgian yeasts, but the audacity of a punky Californian ale (one of my favorite California beers); and Grolsch--a personal favorite of the fantastic vodka-infusion specialist/ethnomusicologist, rb--a thirst-quenching Lager that's a Dutch classic. One Woman is really blessed to have such wonderful colleagues.

Saturday, May 8 – Indian Wells: Lobotomy Bock and Groupo Modelo: Pacifico
Perfect beers for hangin' with the dogs and watching radio DJs play softball.

Photo by mch. Model: "Bowpi"

Sunday, May 9 – Dark Horse: Boffo Brown Ale; The Livery: Karhu IPA; Shawnee: Session Mild; New Jersey Garden State Stout (first release!)
Stepping off the plane at JFK, One Woman was whisked off to the 2nd Williamsburg Cask Ale Festival by This One Guy.

There's something wonderful about the warmth of the cask ales – it's beer for sipping slowly, letting the flavors dance... The Garden Stout was a nice maiden voyage of a keg: Yummy tart cocoa, light roasted coffee, a little acidic, and has that malty fresh-baked bread taste of small-batch beers. Congrats on your new release, Jersey! I'll hold the reviews of the others for another time.

Monday, May 10 – Mikkeller's Pale Ale
One Woman snuggled into a corner on the mini porch at her favorite East Village weird beer bar temple of beer, Burp Castle, with this Mikkeller's Pale Ale. See my earlier post for details on the brewery, but wow! Once again, the Mikkeller dudes do it up right. It's a translucent mahogany color, and has a lively grapefruit taste that lingers. Head is well-crafted with bubbles of different sizes, making this beer a very pretty one to admire. There's some magic in the mix of malt and bold hops--Turkish Delight? Burnt honey? Yummy. Okay, and the crazy final word on this one: it goes really well with cookies. Always ready for the unexpected, One Woman pulled out a Momofuku Milkbar Compost Cookie--excess in legendary cookie form--from her purse (what the?!) and sampled it with the beer. The cookie itself is very complex (its ingredients include butterscotch and chocolate chips, graham crumbs, pretzels, potato chips, and coffee grinds. wow.), but the butter envelops the bitter of the beer while bringing out more of its toastyness, while the coffee grains in the cookie ad another dimension to the beer--a stoutness, if you like. Then, the salt in the cookie makes all the flavors pop. Weird, yes, but cool.

nyc al fresco chez burp castle. no, it's not a chimay.

Musical Pairing: Jem and the Holograms! (theme song). The question is, who's actually cooler, Jem, or the Misfits?! Click to listen and enjoy.

L'Histoire de Beer 101: Worlds Fairs and Beer

Course Description: This is a course on a non-telelogical study of beer and "smound." (Smound is a hybrid sense that scientists are researching as a combination of smell and sound). This course covers words about beer, songs about beer, debates around beer, as well as the techniques and technologies of beer making and distributing over history. Prerequisites: a love for learning and an open mind. Recommended: a little bit of a crush on malts or hops. Course meets sometimes. Instructor: One Woman.

Welcome to class, everyone. The history of beer as a beverage goes back pretty far (wikipedia says 6th millenium BC!). But as Shanghai's Worlds Fair opened its gates yesterday for what some have called "the worlds fair to end all worlds fairs" (though, by nature of the event, it seems like that's way someone says about a lot of worlds fairs...), it seems like a timely moment to think about a the Columbian  Exposition of 1893. The "last great fair" of the nineteenth century meets the first great fair of the twenty-first.

In this image, Anheuser-Busch flexes its brewing cultural muscle with all the opulence of a powerful brewery already at the top of its game. And what's going on with that miniature city that's part of the exhibit?? --Answer: according to beer historian Maureen Ogle, it's supposed to be a replica of Anheuser-Busch's brewery. But it looks so imposing! It's a cross between Plaza San Marco, the Kremlin, and Trafalgar Square, flanked by beer bottles larger than buildings. Is this a dream or a nightmare? Is this the Anheuser-Busch of the Bud that you know? Your homework: Write a few sentences reflecting on this image and explain your thoughts on the question. Extra credit for someone who can tell me if there is an official beer of the Shanghai expo this year.

Musical Accompaniment: Charlie Parker, "Just Friends." This performance is a sort of bizarre and uncomfortable, yet beautiful meeting between bebop jazz and a super saccharine string orchestra. And still, Bird seems to soar above the orchestra, but at the same time trapped in this strange exhibition space that's enchanted and dazzling but in a way that you can never believe it. But it's so good that you want to... you have to believe it.