Destinations: Oakland Beer Tour (Trappist - Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins des Rouge and Beer Revolution - Moonlight Twist of Fate)

Two pretty recent additions to downtown Oakland have suddenly made Oakland a hugely desirable beer destination!

Destination #1 – The Trappist
Very classy, downtown Oakland spot specializing in Belgian beers with Americans and others mixed in. One Woman visited this place with KALX DJ, The Native Disinformant (she rocks--tune in to KALX 90.7 FM!). Super nice and knowledgeable bar staff, this place is a great establishment. See you there everyday. Ever on a mission to explore more Flemish Red Ales, One Woman encountered the lovely Bockor Cuveé des Jacobins des Rouge. It's by Bockor Brewery in Belgium, and the word cuveé, which comes from wine language, refers both to the process and formula of blending (of different kinds of beers), and to the container vats (from the French, cuve). A pretty, red mahogany, fizzy, fresh, and tart, it's the perfect lovely beer for cherry season. Think, Sunday afternoon in the park (like George Seurat) if you were part of the nineteenth century Parisian bourgeois scene.

Destination #2 – Beer Revolution
With its blotchy concrete floor, biker / punk aesthetic, and Ramones on the sound system, Beer Revolution has a totally different vibe from The Trappist. The Revolution specializes in local and American beers with Belgians and mixed in. Beer Revolution has a lot of love, and a lot to love, including the friendly biker dude bouncer, and the awesome patio/deck facing West for full, glorious afternoon sun.  Twist of Fate by Moonlight Brewery in Santa Rosa was the beer of this Sunday afternoon. It's a brick colored ESB, which is the British way of saying extra special (bitter) ale. Not all ESBs are that bitter, but this had a good hoppy bite to it, but not so much that it overwhelmed the nice challah bread smell. Hey! Ho! Let's go!

Alright class! The answer to the question on drinking and driving that was on an earlier post, based on 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%

The answer is c) 0.08%

As you may know, One Woman is learning to drive a car. Cars and American culture seems like an obvious point, but where else has a national infrastructure been built on the premise of the availability of car ownership, and at the same time, mobility both the meaning of freedom (why are highways in California called freeways anyway??) and a huge pain in the ass? Driving might get me on the freeway to the ancient hot springs in the distant mountains, but it doesn't really make getting to and from the beer bar easier. Thank god for local beer institutions. Walk, ride the bus, take BART, bike but don't operate heavy machinery (and your bike may count as that).

Oakland has ended up being One Woman's number one post driving lesson destination.

(Los Angeles, CA – Gorgeous sunsets, beautiful geometric arrays of automobiles, or, traffic jam hell)

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Musical Pairings:
Listen to the sound of freedom and feel better that the good ol' days weren't always better. Fahrenheit 104 with the "Highway to Freedom."

Hmm. Since that was kind of disturbing, here's a bonus pairing, probably more in tune with the punk rock rockabilly vibe of Beer Revolution. "Hot Rod Gang" by the 1980s rockabilly group, the Stray Cats.