Luke's 2010 USA Trip - Part 1 - San Francisco

I needed a place to record my recent trip to the USA to answer all those questions people have asked me about it.


The main reason for my trip was to judge at the 2010 World Beer Cup, then attend the Craft Brewers Conference. I thought I would take the time before the event to check out the beer scene in the US since it had been two years since I had been there.

So this first part is my few days in San Francisco.

Living in New Zealand and flying to California I have found the SFO is a far more user friendly airport to get through. If you get a good run you can clear immigration, pick up your bags and be through customs in 20 to 30 minutes. I think it might be the fact that the Air NZ flight is the only the seems to be clearing immigration at that time of the day. LAX is horrible.

Any way off the plane and in a taxi before noon is always good. Gives you a chance to drop off your bags and have a quick shower to freshen up, before hitting the Zeitgeist (referred to as a Dive Bar) for a couple of pints then some lunch.


At this time of year it is spring, but then again it is California, so you can expect it to be sunny and warm in the afternoon, how very nice it was.

On the wall right behind this camera taking the photo is a sign saying " NO PHOTOS OR VIDEO" (you have to know California and this bar to guess what might go on here to justify a sign like that ;-)

My first beer was Racer 5, initial thoughts were either this beer wasn't in the best condition, wasn't as hoppy, or my palate had changed from drinking Epic Armageddon IPA for the last 9 months. A pint of Elysian ESB from Seattle plus tried a Trumer Pils from Berkely brewery, very good beer. And a burger, and BBQ'ed potatoes.

Next stop was the Kilowatt, a local hangout of my brothers (who I was staying with), as it is right round the corner from where he lives.


Next was a 10 minute walk to the main destination for the evening, Toronado. I had mentioned to a few people I'd be there around 7pm. So just as I arrived so did my new friend Mr Gould (FNM). So we decided to have a Pliney the Elder together.

The evening rolled along nicely with good conversation and great beer.

Anderson Valley 20th Anniversary IPA - as good, actually better than the bottle I had at Christmas, which my brother brought home.

DAY 2


Heading up to Russian River Brewing Company. Had to get back because last time I was there we only had an hour or so to try everything. It felt a bit rushed so wanted to spend an evening there.

On the way there I stopped of to see the TWiT cottage.


As a bit of a geek and listening to Leo Laporte and his podcasts for the last 4 years, It was a bit of fun to stop in at Petaluma (on the way to Santa Rosa) to drop by and say hi to Leo and give him a bottle of Epic Armageddon.

On to Russian River Brewing Company. What a great place to spend an afternoon, and evening. Start with a sampler try and there is your first hour or so as you work your way through 14 different beers, including hop monsters, and the crazy funky barrel beers

So much choice so many awesome beers to chose from. A surprise for me was the IPA (not Pliney or Blind Pig) just the Russian River IPA, very fresh nearly minty hops.

Needed a little food to go with the beers. You gotta try the Pliney Bites. Basically pizza bread covered in mozzarella and jalapeno's with a side of marinara sauce. The hot/burn from the peppers, makes you want to drink more Pliney. Not a good selection for the sampler tray. Best you get these once you have worked out the beers you want a pint of from the sampler.

One of the cool things I noticed on my travels is the beers not only listed the ABV but also the IBU, and style. This makes it a little easier when trying to decide on the next beer.

There was a guest beer on tap which was the Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Imperial Stout at 9.2%, which was so well balanced. I undersatand it was a brew done with Fritz Maytag (need to confirm this)


At about 8pm Vinnie rocked into the pub and he remembered that I was coming by this day. Only after a few minutes this guy rolls up and rudely interrupts and starts talking to Vinnie. After a minute Vinnie introduces this guy as Joe Tucker from Ratebeer.com which made it alright as we have known each other for for over 10 years, via email but never met.

What a great night, awesome beers, awesome company, and the music worked for me, was surprising how rocky and heavy it was. Asked Vinnie who selects the play list he said is was the public and most of it was driven by people feeding the jukebox.

So after a couple of hours and some more pints of Pliney and Sierra 30th Imperial Stout, Vinnie had to go (actually he was just stopping into the pub to pick up a salad for Natalie's dinner, oops), and Jo had been telling us about a new small brewery called Moonlight Brewing Company and the beer was on tap just around the corner at
Flavour , So at about 10.30pm we get a sample tray of six Moonlight beers, all very good. Shame we got there so late and they were closing up. But I guess I had had enough beer by this stage.


DAY 3


Back to San Francisco, and off to 21st Ammendment for lunch and a catch up with some friends. Feeling a little slow this morning so not ripping into a sample tray.

After lunch and a pint of Bitter American, with tastes of all the others that people had brought, we decided to head out to the park across from the baseball stadium to drink some beers that I had brought and Mark Silva - RealBeer.com had bought for us to try.

So we tried some Epic Armageddon, and Epic Thornbridge Stout. The a few beers Silva had got in Seattle on Friday night. The best and most interesting of the bunch had to be the Smokestack Series Saison-Brett beer from Boulevard Brewing.

After drinking in the park needed a couple hours off.

A couple of beers at the Kilowatt with my brother and his friends - Black Butte Porter (a little, no quiet disappointed with this beer, not a shade on its former self)


Monk's Kettle is right across the road from the Kilowatt on 16th Street, and was on my list of things to do. The place was pack, on a Sunday night at 8pm. Everyone in the place looked like they were all the same age, 30-ish, and white and lived local and probably worked in IT.

The tap list is impressive, the bottle list is even more impressive. Wish I had an unlimited budget and capacity to drink away more than I can in one night. So many great beers I would have loved to try. I decided on the North Coast Old Rasputin on Nitro. Now that was an awesome experience. That had to be the tightest head I have ever had on a beer.

With a wait of 45 minutes to get a table, let alone the wait to get served and get our food at Monk's Kettle, the decision was made to head around the corner and get a burrito.

So Sunday night with a fantastic Mexican burrito and a bottle of Angle Share, from Lost Abbey brewery (care of Mark Silva - RealBeer.com) it was a great way to finish my few days in SF. It was obvious that the Angel Share was for desert as it was just too big for the burrito. Angle Share, was a big porty, marmitey, raisiny alcohol beverage. Definitely a sipping beer. Perfect.

At this point I thought I was so satisfied I could have headed home to New Zealand. Well there was so much more to come...

One awesome thing about SF was everywhere I went there was free WIFI.

Part 2 : Portland