An Afternoon at Hopmonk

Previously I wrote about the opening of Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol. It has been a long time waiting to walk through the doors of Dean Biersch’s latest venture, and what better way to experience it than with Dean himself. Along with resident sommelier Anastasy, I got a nice look around the place as well as a minute to talk with the minds behind the new tavern and even sample a couple beers.

I arrived a little early to my lunch meeting and peeked around the place. The first thing I noticed is the outside deck was gone. When you come through the doors, you are truly in a tavern. Despite a nice sunny day outside, its dim and cool inside, a perfect place to sit back and relax with friends over some beers. The place is very stylish without coming off as trendy and fickle.

After a brief introduction with Dean, ‘Stasy showed me around the place, giving me the tour of the outside patio, featuring live acoustic music on the weekends, as well as the Juke Joint Abbey, their live music venue. In the new patio is a new fountain surrounded by couches as well as outside dining. This is a huge improvement over the previous patio area under the Sebastopol Brewing Company. What was an ignored, leftover area is now the place to be.

We continued the tour around back and into the brew area. The in-house brew setup is a 10 barrel system but has not been fully installed yet. Given the early success of the tavern, I got the impression that the system may not be able to handle the demands of the thirsty consumer, so we’ll have to stay tuned to see what happens here. I was also told to expect to see cask ales coming to the tavern, which is an exciting development for sure.

From there we made our way back to the bar. I have to say, I love the taps. Very cool system. The labels are backlit and in a bubble-looking casing. ‘Stasy told me the system is made in the Netherlands and there’s still some lag time getting labels made and such, but I have to say, it’s a very cool tap, and I want one.

But a tap is only as good as the beer it serves. The taps are loaded with quality beers, lots of local representation as well as some very nice imports. Don’t know anything about beer? There is a beer bible on the table, giving descriptions of the beers, the glasses they will be served in and recommendations of other beers. The Bible also lists the bottled beers and gives you a glossary and an introduction to how to taste beer, and what to look for. ‘Stasy seems to have his eye on getting some hard to find beers onto the taps here, so keep checking back with them, as there are sure to be some surprises down the road.

When asked what I would like to drink, I looked over the selections, but knew I had to go with the house brews. The Kellerbier and Dunkleweizen are brewed by Gordon Biersch. I was very excited to hear that the Tavern Ale is brewed by Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing, but as excited as I was, I was just as disappointed to find that it was all gone. I started with the Keller, which is an unfiltered Pilsner. I liked this beer a lot. The unfiltered beer is very different from your typical filtered Pilsner; it seems more alive, more vibrant, very tasty beer. I commented on how accessible this would be to the average beer drinker.

As a sausage platter arrived, I was served up the Dunkle. This is also unfiltered and again, the beer comes to life. This one started to get me. For 2 in the afternoon, two beers in my stomach and slowly working on a late lunch, I needed to slow things down a bit. Thankfully, Dean and ‘Stasy were great conversation.

Speaking with Dean I found a guy who is as crazy about beer as anyone I’ve met. We’ve all day-dreamed about the bar we’d open, stocked with out favorite beers, and for me, flat screens with sports, a pool table and a hop lined patio. Well, Dean had his dream and opened it. Inspired by the way back when of Mendocino Brewing, where the beer was great, the food sucked, and you could mingle with bikers or J. Geils, Dean brought together his love of beer, food and music and created Hopmonk. Talking to him, you understand that none of these elements is more important than the next, it all has to be up to his standard.

I walked in expecting to ask specific questions and get specific answers, but what I ended up getting was three guys just talking about beer. The entire place has the same laid back feel. There’s a lot of work put into Hopmonk, menu recommendations, proper glassware, wide selection of fine beers, but you come away feeling like it’s just so easy. Dean and company have done a great job. Hopmonk is inviting and accessible to casual drinkers as well as “beer geeks” like me. I can tell, I’ll be spending some more time in the tavern and I’m looking forward to what Dean and ‘Stasy have in store.

Thanks to Lani for helping organize all of this. People ask me how I got to have lunch with Dean, and she’s the answer.

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