WombatNation

Linden Street Brewery in Oakland has been throwing open houses on every Friday for the last 6 months or so, with free beer (two beers, usually their Common Lager and a beer from Drake’s), free food (contributions to the basket by the taps help buy next week’s food), and a shared gas grill (my friends and I have used it for bratwurst and tri-tip). It’s gotten to be too much, so William Brand reports on his blog that Adam says they are scaling back to just the first Friday.

Although being able to go there on any Friday was great, I had been wondering how long they could keep it up. I usually made it only once a month anyway due to other plans, so I’ll just have to plan farther in advance.

While I am thrilled they have finished brewing a batch of Black Bottom Lager, I’m even more excited that the city will be inspecting their equipment very soon, possibly this coming week. Hopefully, that will lead to PG&E hooking them up with gas to run the brewery.

Love this cartoon by Ben Sargent on the InBev acquisition of Anheuser-Busch. Over the last few months I’ve turned on quite a few friends to the rich and varied aroma and flavors of Belgian beers. Although it’s just a cartoon, I agree with William that you obviously shouldn’t stereotype the palette of a person based on their appearance. I’ve met plenty of people whose appearance belies their appreciation for food and drink of complex flavors. And, of course, many highly sophisticated people who are content with rarely straying from the bland likes of fast food, Coke, Pepsi, Bud and Corona.

Via William Brand’s blog via Jay Brook’s blog.

Last Friday my wife and I celebrated our 15th anniversary by going to Linden Street Brewery for their Friday afternoon open house and then the Oakland Museum of California for the Best of the East Bay party. Both were excellent. Some of our friends brought a penne pasta salad with fresh-grated parmesan and grilled tri-tip on the Linden Street grill.

The Best of the East Bay party blew me away. It’s estimated that over 4,000 people attended. There were four stages with live bands playing all night. Lots of delicious foods and drinks (I enjoyed a very nice macchiato from Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden) were available. The whole museum, except the parts they are refurbishing, was open. There was a mini skateboard park with ramps just below the sculpture gardens. Splash Circus was there with a roughly 35-feet tall tripod from which girls were performing acrobatics on ropes and fabric, a la Cirque du Soleil. Kid’s band performances, a guy typing out poems on an old typewriter, film screenings, bands like The Uptones and Flipper, and much more.

And most amazingly, we didn’t see a single security guard or policeman the entire time, and we also didn’t see a single sign of trouble anywhere. Everyone was in a great mood. So forget what you think you know about Oakland.

Saturday night we opened up a 1993 Boony Doon Le Cigare Volant. Lately I have had bad luck with some of my older wines being corked, but this wine was in great shape. It was very smooth and had a delicate cherry taste.

We had a huge harvest from our Blenheim apricot tree four years ago, and this year the tree is bearing a similar amount of fruit. Rogue backyard animals got 30 or so, we’ve picked about 60 and I think there are another 75 apricots on what is now a very old tree. It had been on a three year cycle in previous years, but this was by far the biggest harvest since 2004.

As the trunk continues to deteriorate rapidly, I’ve had to prune the limbs back severely to keep the tree from leaning over too much. Maybe I unknowingly did a great pruning job last fall. If so, it was complete luck.

I have fond memories of Shiner Bock from when I lived in Austin, and I always have a bottle or two when I go back to visit my brother. I agree with Stan at Appellation Beer that while Shiner doesn’t make the greatest of beers, they are better than a lot of people give them credit for. I didn’t see the Helles anywhere when I was in Austin a few weeks ago. I’ll have to look for it next time.

The Bohemian Black Lager, which I had had before, was available at Artz Rib House. I developed an appreciation for Schwarzbiers during a couple of trips to Germany. The Bohemian Black has a very nice malty flavor, but lacks somewhat the intense roasted coffee flavor of the Schwarzbiers I tried in Germany.

This Shiner ad that Stan linked to is also pretty great.

I also went to the Independence Brewing brewery when I was in Austin. The 1st Saturday of each month they give out free beer samples at the brewery. $5 gets you a logo pint glass, which then gets you free refills. They make very nice amber and brown ales, as well as a pale ale that sounds like it would be very similar to Sierra Nevada. I tried the Southside Special Ale and really wanted to like it, but just couldn’t get excited about it. Perhaps it was the “hint of cardamom” that was throwing me.

The tour was excellent and very educational, as you get to walk up close to all the brewery equipment and owner Rob will answer just about any question about how they brew their beer. Go to El Meson for lunch and then show up at Independence at about 1:15. The initial crush of people will have already gotten in and started on their first beer.

We went up to Sonoma County today for the 30th annual Russian River Barrel Tasting. This time, we visited Christopher Creek, Trentadue, Coffaro, Michel-Schlumberger, Wilson, Mazocco, Hawkes, Stryker and Murphy-Goode.

The Barrel Tasting event has really grown over the last few years. When we first went about five years ago, the event was just one weekend, it cost $5 and the crowds were relatively small, except at the largest wineries. Last year they expanded it to two weekends. This year the charge was $20 per weekend. Also, the crowds are now quite large, even at the smaller wineries. It’s still a lot of fun, though, and we had a great time.

After the official barrel tasting event, we headed up to Sandra’s relatives’ house for a tasting of their first bottling under the name Munselle Vineyards. The grapes come from the Wasson and Munselle Vineyards. The Chardonnay was delicious. It had a delicate flavor with a nice acidity and not overly oaky. They were also tasting two Cabernets from the 2006 harvest that are still in the barrel. I’ll definitely be posting more about these wines in the future.

A good friend had a birthday dinner this weekend in the sake tasting room at Ozumo in San Francisco. The sushi was wonderfully fresh and delicious. We also ordered a few items from the Robata grill that were fantastic. The real standout for me was the seared Dayboat scallops on shimeji mushroom risotto. I could eat that every night.

I’m not a sake expert, but my recent interest in lambics (a type of beer brewed in Belgium that is fermented via wild yeast) led me to more carefully read a recent article in the SF Chronicle about yamahai, or sake fermented with wild yeast. Although the article compares sake to wine, sake is technically a beer because it is made from a grain. Wines are made from fruit.

After asking our waiter about yamahai, he recommended I try a glass of Masumi Nanango. It’s a little expensive at $19/glass (or $135 a bottle), but it was by far the best sake I’ve ever had. The flavor was extremely complex and rich, but with a very delicate, acidic dryness that wonderfully complemented the food. So I had to have another glass.

And if that weren’t enough, every visit to the bathroom includes Japanese lessons.

If it wasn’t enough that a great new bar serving Belgian beers opened recently in downtown Oakland near where I work, Linden Street Brewery recently (well, in the last six months or so) started up near Jack London Square. In fact, you can try a Linden Street Common, which is a steam beer like the famous Anchor Steam, at Oakland Tribune article on the brewery, they have Friday happy hours with a potluck outdoor BBQ. William Brand has also written about Linden Street Brewery. I am so there.

A fantastic new bar has opened in the Old Oakland section of downtown Oakland. The Trappist has an absolutely amazing selection of Belgian beers. I went there last Friday and again tonight. Friday I had a Gouden Carolus Carolus D’Or Grand Cru and a Christoffel Bokbier, both on tap. Tonight I had a Rochefort 8 from a bottle. Not quite as amazing as the Rochefort 10 I had in Bruges (and of which I brought back a bottle from that trip), but still deeply, deeply satisfying.

The interior of the Trappist is almost perfect, though it would be nice if it were a little larger on crowded nights. The old brickwork walls, Belgian and Dutch posters, wood paneling and all the bottles definitely remind me of the better Belgian pubs we visited. The atmosphere is great and the people working there are knowledgeable and friendly.

On top of having a great selection of Belgian and Dutch beers on tap, The Trappist also has several US brewed Belgian-style beers. Then, of course, there’s the huge selection of bottled Belgian, Dutch, and US brewed Belgian-style ales, lambics, and geuezes that are listed in a nicely bound book with plenty of detail on each beer. Of course, they also have an extensive selection of glassware (chalices, tulips, goblets, etc.) for serving each beer in the glass best suited to enhancing its aroma, appearance and flavor.

Given the recent report from George Mitchell alleging widespread use of steroids in baseball, the logos on these produce boxes at Farmer Joe’s near my house struck me as a bit out of place.