The 2010 FBB California Beer Tour

CALIFORNIA has some great breweries. we've decided to go visit them. this next week the four of us from FBB are going to hit the road (8 days, over 1800 miles, 30 hours of driving, and 13 breweries) to take in much of what california craft and microbrew has to offer. our schedule is below.

our tour will also be featured on theperfectlyhappyman.com. check it out. we'll try to post some content here as well.

Saturday, March 27

The Bruery

715 Dunn Way

Placentia CA 92870

Telephone: +1 714-996-6258

Hours: Friday 2:00pm-8:00pm, Saturday noon-6:00pm.

Brewer: Patrick Rue

Telegraph Brewing

416 North Salsipuedes Street

Santa Barbara CA 93103

Telephone: +1 805-963-5018

Hours: Thursday-Friday 4:00pm-6:00pm, Saturday 1:00pm-4:00pm.

Brewer: Brian Thompson

Sunday, March 28

Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

1400 Ramada Drive

Paso Robles CA 93446

Telephone: +1 805-238-2556

Hours: Open daily noon-7:00pm. Tours Saturday 3:00pm.

Brewer: Matt Brynildson

Monday, March 29

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing

402 Ingalls Street Suite 27

Santa Cruz CA 95060

Telephone: +1 831-425-4900

Hours: Tasting room open daily noon-10:00pm or so.

Brewer: Chad Brill, Nick Thomas, Tim Huxley, Tom Perozzi, Dan Sattherthwaite

Anchor Brewing

1705 Mariposa Street

San Francisco CA 94107

Telephone: +1 415-863-8350

Hours: Call two weeks in advance for tours.

Brewer: Mike Lee

Tuesday, March 30

Lagunitas Brewing

1280 North McDowell Boulevard

Petaluma CA 94954

Telephone: +1 707-769-4495

Hours: Wednesday-Friday 3:00pm-9:00pm, Saturday-Sunday 1:00pm-9:00pm.

Brewer: Jeremy Marshall

Russian River Brewing

725 Fourth Street

Santa Rosa CA 95404

Telephone: +1 707-545-2337

Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11:00am-midnight, Friday-Saturday 11:00am-1:00am.

Happy Hour is M-F from 4-6:30

Brewer: Vinnie Cilurzo

Wednesday, March 31

Mad River Brewing

195 Taylor Way

PO Box 767

Blue Lake CA 95525

Telephone: +1 707-668-4151

Hours: Monday-Saturday noon-9:00pm.

Brewer: Dylan Schotz

Eel River Brewing

1777 Alamar Way

Fortuna CA 95540

Telephone: +1 707-725-2739

Hours: Open daily 11:00am-11:00pm.

Brewer: Bruce Gehrke, Ted Vivatson

North Coast Brewing

444 North Main Street

Fort Bragg CA 95437

Telephone: +1 707-964-2739

Hours: Open daily at noon.

Brewer: Mark Ruedrich

Thursday, April 1

Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery

1398 Haight Street

San Francisco CA 94117

Telephone: +1 415-864-7468

Hours: Monday-Thursday noon-midnight, Friday noon-1:00am, Saturday 10:00am-1:00am, Sunday 10:00am-midnight.

Brewer: Dave McLean

Friday, April 2

Sudwerk Restaurant & Brewery

2001 Second Street

Davis CA 95618

Telephone: +1 530-758-8700

Hours: Sunday-Tuesday 11:30am-9:30pm, Wednesday-Thursday 11:30am-12:30am, Friday-Saturday 11:30am-10:30pm.

Brewer: Jay Prahl

Auburn Ale House

289 Washington Street

Auburn CA 95603

Telephone: +1 530-885-2537

Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11:00am-10:00pm, Friday-Saturday 11:00am-midnight.

Brewer: Brian Ford

Saturday, April 3

Eagle Rock Brewery

3056 Roswell Street

Los Angeles CA 90065

Telephone: +1 323-257-7866

Hours: Friday-Saturday 4:00pm-10:00pm, Sunday noon-6:00pm. Reservations are required.

Brewer: Jeremy Raub, Steve Raub

Sunday, April 4

LA to SD

Back to Brewing

We have gone back to the basics and brewed a simple pale ale again. Plain liquid malt extract, three hops (amarillo, spalt, sterling), English Ale yeast, and water. Here's a shot of it at two weeks in primary. We bottled it at that point and siphoned 1 gallon into a small growler and dry hopped it with Sterling leaf hops. -nhc

Christmas Eve Bottling

I spent a good few hours yesterday finally bottling our first porter. It had been in primary fermentation for almost a month which is longer than I would have liked, but it's a busy time of year and was hard to find time to transfer to secondary. So, I passed on the secondary feeling that most of the fermentation was complete. Our stout was only in primary for three weeks, went straight to the bottle, and turned out well. I think this one will be fine.

Yield: 38 twelve ounce bottles and 4 twenty two ounce bottles.

-nhc

Christmas Never Came

As has been documented recently, FBB has moved to a new locale and is now settled at "The Villa" in North Park, San Diego, home of nhc and gp. While we took only a short break from the brewing process during our move, we have nothing to show for our most recent efforts in our new location.

The idea was that we'd brew an awesome holiday ale that we'd call Ghost of Christmas Future. This was actually the first beer we ever named when FBB was just a good idea. Unfortunately, after 2 attempts, we have nothing to share.

So what happened? We don't know, but we've got some ideas. A couple nights ago we chatted with Lee, brewmaster at Blind Lady Ale House, who we've blogged about before here. He confirmed our most likely suspicion. In our attempts to make a heavy, hoppy seasonal ale we were overzealous with our boiling hops, creating a beer so bitter it is barely drinkable. Our first attempt, Red Ale III, was bottled but never enjoyed. Our Red Ale IV, a very similar recipe to Red Ale III, remains in secondary. We are unsure if the uncarbed and unpromising taste is worth any more effort.

In short we've got 10 gallons of extremely bitter beer. Perhaps Ghost of Christmas Future is an all too appropriate name.

We move on. Tomorrow we will brew our first porter, hoping for better days. It is unclear when we will venture back into the red ale world. Experience tells me it won't be long.

-jkr

North Coast Night

North Coast flights at Blind Lady Ale House in Normal Heights. Red Seal on cask. Great pizza. Friends.

In other FBB news: This week there will be bottling of Red Ale #4 and the brewing of our first Porter. Looking forward to it. -nhc