With Wes in town for the weekend, we had to make sure he had a chance to experience the Santa Rosa beer scene, and the best way to do that was to do my Santa Rosa beer walk.
We started the afternoon with lunch at Flavor where we could grab a couple Moonlight brews. I started with the Bombay by Boat IPA while Wes has the Twist of Fate. Both are very good beers, heavy on hops. We ordered small pours which allowed us to squeeze in a second round before departing. When the food arrived I got my own Twist of Fate and Wes ordered the Lunatic Lager. Both of these went well with the conditions as we were sitting outside and even at noon, the temperature was already up over 90.
With much more beer to drink, we headed to the next stop, the Sweet Spot. Unfortunately, the Sweet Spot wasn’t open for another hour. So we continued down the street to Russian River. We both grabbed sampler trays and my wife had a Supplication, the sour brown aged in french Pinot Noir barrels with cherries for 14 months. She got her beer right away but Wes and I had to wait as all the sample trays were being used. In the meantime I had a Pliny the Elder and Wes had the Happy Hops, a hopped up blonde ale. Shortly after, the sampler trays came and my wife finished my Pliny.
While working through the sample tray we wondered why there were two IPA, Blind Pig and Russian River. The Blind Pig recipe came with Vinnie from Southern California, so I guessed he had moved on to a new recipe and may actually prefer Russian River IPA to Blind Pig, but Blind Pig had such a big following that he continued to brew it. This was my guess at least. We asked the server about this and were told that the Russian River IPA was for “regular” people. After this explanation, a family comes and sits at the table behind us and the man points at my wife’s Supplication and says he wants what she’s drinking. The server convinces him to try a sample before a full glass and he begrudgingly agrees. His response to this incredibly sour beer must have beer great as my wife couldn’t help but laugh. We asked the server about it and had a good chuckle. He ended up with a Russian River IPA. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad beer, Blind Pig is just a more aggressively hopped, more complex beer that might be a little too much for the Budweiser crowd.
With the sampler trays finished, we saw my wife was still working on her Supplication. To keep myself busy I ordered a Perdition. Wes also ordered another beer but at this point, we were a little inebriated, and I have no idea what he ordered.
On our way back to the car we saw the Sweet Spot was now open and ducked in to get some Lagunitas. I was hoping they would have the Lucky 13 on tap, as this is one of my all time favorite beers, but no luck there. The seasonal tap had been changed 2 days earlier to the Sirius. No problem, we ordered two Sirius’ and headed to the Shuffleboard table. It’s a nice table, a little slow, but that makes for more fun. And in case anyone is interested, I kicked Wes’ ass. The Sirius was nice and malty, and definitely strong.
Sufficiently drunk, it was time to head home. Thankfully the wife was there to take care of us two lushes and make sure we got home safe. As always, make sure you have a sober driver when planning an afternoon like this.
But Mario, you missed Third Street Ale House…Wow, Santa Rosa is amzaing these days.