Four our four year wedding Anniversary, the wife and I planned a trip to Seattle and Vancouver. We flew into Seattle, but immediately hopped on a rental and drove to Vancouver where we stayed the first two days of our trip and where we’ll start this post.

We went to Granville Island to walk around and be tourists.  I lucked out as they had a brewery on the island and they had just reopened their tasting room a few days earlier after some remodeling.  I tried four of the beers (list below) and none were special, but they sure were refreshing.  I later learned that they were bought out by a Canadian macro brew and was told that they felt their product had gone down since.  Those sentiments are common among craft beer drinkers these days, regardless of the company they buy out.

Granville Island Brewery:
Winter Ale – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Brockton IPA – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
English Bay Pale Ale – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Island Lager – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Irish Red (Limited Release) – Review Coming Soon

My wife bought me this glass and two bottles of the Red

While in the island, I walked into The Backstage Lounge, where I met Rex. He turned out to be a beer guy and self taught chef. We talked a great deal about beers and cooking with beer; he recommended a few beer locations and the brewery in the city.  When I first walked in I asked for a Sea Dog Amber, not really knowing much about the Canadian craft scene, besides Howe Sound and Unibroue.  After learning Rex was a beer guy I asked him to pour me something he would drink himself out of all the taps.  The beer he served me was called Red Racer India Pale Ale by Central City Brewing Co, this was one of the best beers I had while up in Vancouver; it was right up my alley, hoppy and bitter.  Rex loves beer and cooking, he has a channel on YouTube called BrewsChef where he posts his food recipes, all of which include a common ingredient, BEER!  I’m already planning on making a pork belly po’boy he made.  Check out the YouTube channel and save the link!

Sea Dog Amber – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Red Racer India Pale Ale – 3 out of 5 Beer Caps

Here I am walking the streets of Vancouver with a six of Corne du Diable by Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel.

Steamworks Brewing Company was a place Rex recommended I visit if I had time, and luckily the wife agreed to make the stop.  Out of all the beers I had there, only their seasonal beers impressed me, but the rest of the ones I tried were pretty good.  Wish I had more time and had shown up with an appetite as this place was serving great food, we ordered the nachos just to munch on something while we drank, and they turned out to be the best nachos I ever had!! The wife even said, “I can’t believe I had to cross the border to have the best nachos ever, the northern one at that!”

Steamworks Brewing Company:
Signature Pale Ale – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Lions Gate Lager – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Empressa IPA – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Nirvana Nut Brown Ale – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Coal Porter – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps
Purists’ Saison – 3 out of 5 Beer Caps
Newlywed Belgian Amber Ale – 3 out of 5 Beer Caps
North by Northwest – 3 out of 5 Beer Caps

We are in Seattle now for the rest of this post and this was the view of our Hotel after our late night check in. We stayed at the Sheraton Four Points near the Space Needle, just behind the Bill Gates Foundation building, a nice view. Although I didn’t have a beer at our hotel, it was great to know that they had them available in case of an emergency. This emphasizes the point of how far behind we are in Los Angeles at embracing beer, we’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.

Near Pikes Place Fish Market we walked into this small placed tucked behind a row of businesses, it’s called Emmet Watson’s Oyster Bar. One thing I liked about Seattle, they have great beer even at the shittiest places. It’s the Northwest! Here I had a half dozen oysters which were really good and I had two beers from Hale’s Ales, the Supergoose IPA and the Troll Porter. I had a third one from Hale’s at the airport, Red Menace.

Hale’s Ales:
Hales Supergoose IPA – 3 out of 5 Beer Caps
Hale’s Troll Porter – 3 out of 5 Beer Caps
Hale’s Red Menace Big Amber – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps

Before the Underground Tour of Seattle, I had a very tasty beer by Elyssian Brewing Co called Avatar Jasmine IPA; I enjoyed it and I recommend this IPA, so pick one up. 3 out of 5 Beer Caps

Scuttlebutt Brewing Co
Anthony’s Pale Ale – 2 out of 5 Beer Caps

The last beers of my trip was at the airport, two beers of the size you see above made me nearly miss my trip. I had to run to the head to break the seal and that’s when I heard my name being called over the PA, “last call for Cerveza Please, Virgin flight to Los Angeles…” I had to run through the aiport like OJ Simpson. I drank a beer called Anthony’s Pale Ale by Scuttlebutt Brewing Co; I think Scuttlebutt makes this for the Anthony chain of restaurants of the area. This is where I drank the third beer by Hale’s Pale, the Red Menace.

If I tell you that I probably drank two bottles of water during the entire trip, I’m not exaggerating, my liquid of choice to hydrate as you might imagine was beer and after five days of being on holiday, I drank a total of 19 beers that I tallied, but I might be missing two or three, that’s a 3.8 beers per day; a nice batting average if you do the math. I brought back a six pack of IPA’s you saw pictured above and two 22oz bottles of Granville Island’s Irish Red (limited release), I’ll have future reviews for those. My trip was never scheduled with the intention of making it about beer, but was really surprised and glad that both cities had such great choices of beer whenever we stopped to get a bite.  This will be one trip I’ll never forget, I had a great companion and experienced great spots along the way.  The follow up post will have tons of pictures I took of both cities.

With the crew ready to start drinking, @hecs14, @norwalkphil, @diskedo & @cervezaplease

Here’s a pictorial of the event.

I always make sure I visit Ladyface’s Booth

Streets of New York

Lederhosen!

I’m on empty

Which beer is next?!

@norwalkphil

Too much to drink?!

Long lines as always to break the seal

Finito!

I got this beer in a trade after I sent a few bottles to the city of Chicago. It’s a very peculiar name for a brewery and I had to go online and read the reason for it and luckily, it was on their website and this is what it read… “Clown Shoes? Very long story, but to condense it a group of us submitted the name to the Beer Advocate contest that resulted in The Wrath of Pecant. Our submission didn’t crack the top 5. This burned me up inside. While driving one day the epiphany came: I could make my own Clown Shoes beer.“

What’s with the odd brewery name and now a 1.5 in the beer name?! They might not have liked the first batch, upgraded the software, and the new release worked out a few bugs and worked. All joking aside, this was a good beer.

Turns out Hoppy Feet is available year round, but for their anniversary they decided to dry hop this beer twice and thus they present to you, Clown Shoes 1.5. This is a Double Black India Pale Ale with an aroma of malt, lots of hop, alcohol, and I caught a bit of roasted coffee. The beer was creamy, a really nice feel on the tongue. Almost all beers you find out there have a dominant flavor, but not with this beer. Each sip was very enjoyable as it gave me a balanced combination of hop and malt; I haven’t had this in a beer. You’ll find sweet notes of malt and toffee and will have a hop bitter finish.

This is a very solid beer and I’d say that it’s one of the best Black IPA’s I’ve had. Black anything seemed to be the thing that everyone was doing during 2011 in the beer world here in the States, it’s caught on and with this beer Clown Shoes has really nailed it. I had this beer with some chicken tika masala (a spicy tomato sauce); it was a good combination as the spiciness from the dish went really well with the malt/hop flavor in the beer. This is an IPA I truly enjoyed and will rate Five Beer Caps out of Five. I was surprised by the beer, especially when the label has a clown on it and I couldn’t take it seriously. I’ve done this before where I’ll skip the beer and won’t buy it based on the label, but lesson learned, again, don’t judge by the label or name! Sadly we don’t get any beers from Clown Shoes in the Los Angeles area and can only hope to get some more when and if I trade. Thanks RVD for sending this one my way.

Throw one back for me ~ cheers!

The long lines that accompany this beer.

I got my A ticket… that’s for the older generation, to remember Disneyland.

I find myself at home now writing this Younger experience and I have to say, damn, it’s been too much bullshit just to get a drink of it.  I’m going on a few years now trying to get a drink of Pliny The Younger; last year being the one that left me disappointed the most.  For years I wouldn’t go out of my way to get a taste of Younger, but last year I said OK, I need to put an effort into it, if I’m not taking a drive to Santa Rosa California, I need to find it here in Los Angeles.  I would try to go get in line after work somewhere only to find out the line had an hour wait and my chances were slim to none at getting a taste; after two attempts, I gave up.  This year, I tried going to a few places and I missed it just by a few hours, I’d read about it on twitter or facebook and by the time I got there, they were tapped out.  I had a few places near me that I was going to try to make it to after work, but I just knew it would be impossible to get some if I weren’t in line like a Twihard camping, waiting for the midnight showing.  This is where 38˚ Ale House and Grill come into play.  It was a location away from the West Side and Los Hipstaland Angeles, and I knew, my chances would be greater at this event.

I was scheduled to visit Eureka Burgers in Claremont this past Thursday for a tasting of Younger, but family responsibilities forced me to cancel and had me searching for another place that would be serving Pliny The Younger this late in February.  Luckily I found out that 38˚ Ale House and Grill in Alhambra, would have it as of 11:30 a.m. this Saturday morning, I was all over it.  They were going to be selling flights of Russian River beers and one of them would be Younger.  The flight consisted of Damnation, Blind Pig, Pliny The Elder, and Pliny The Younger; people on my Facebook post were calling it, the Holy Grail of Beer.

Needed some grub for the tasty beer.

Based on my previous experience of long lines and it tapping out early, I asked my buddy Rich to be at my place at 7:30 a.m. as I didn’t want to take any chances.  Had an issue with my phone and my alarm not going off and the wife woke me up at 7:40 a.m.  Luckily we got there and there was no one in line and had time to go across the street for some coffee.  We let the line grow a bit and crossed the street, at this point we were about 15th or so in line.  We had a chance to meet Joel and Norm in line and chatted about beers as the clock ticked to 11:30 a.m. and how they heard of Pliny on the radio and this was their first attempt at trying to have it.  This pissed me off a bit as I wanted a back story of how they traveled through the Mojave on foot for two days without a guide and water to get here, but no, it was their first attempt and they were in; it’s all about luck I tell ya!  They turned out to be great guys; we sat next to them at the bar and had a celebratory cheer when we had our first sip.  I hope I see them again as I mentioned I’d go visit them at Verdugo Bar, a place I haven’t been to, but it’s been on my radar.

Norm & Joel

So here we are, the moment of truth when I get a chance to sip the beer and say to myself, OK so what do you think Omar?  Well Internet, I wasn’t let down, it was FANTASTIC!  I knew it would be, but in the back of my mind I thought, this might be like in Citizen Kane (spoiler alert) where Rosebud turns out to be a fucking sled from Kane’s childhood that’s thrown into the basement furnace at the end of the movie; all the hype for nothing, is the point I’m trying to make.  And although I think Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made, I wouldn’t go as far as calling The Younger the best beer I’ve had, I just can’t, but it’s a damn great beer and close to it.  All these years of chasing the unicorn were worth it and I’m glad this one has been marked off the bucket list.

A flight of Russian River Beers & New Belgium.

The beer had a fruity aroma where peach and grapefruit were dominant, pine citrus hop showed up and alcohol.  The aroma was deceiving as I thought I’d have a very sweet beer, especially at 11% ABV, but it turned out to be quite the opposite.  The light carbonation gives it a nice body and mouth feel, the citrus and grapefruit flavor played well off each other and it was tart enough to make you pucker and invite you to sip again.  The sip of beer warms up in your mouth and you can taste the delicious bitterness, you will have alcohol burn when it washes down.

Pour, pour, pour favor!

My second ticket.

I had two pours of it and it was enough.  I was satiated and the morning turned out to be a great one for all beer lovers in that bar.  I have to say that the staff worked their Asses off to make sure everyone had a chance to sample the beer and they were pouring the four beers of the flight non-stop for the first few hours.  I was expecting a nightmare in there to get my beer and the rest of the beer crowd; well done 38˚ Ale House.

Five Beer Caps for Pliny The Younger!

Throw one back for me ~ cheers!

Stayed home from work today as I wasn’t feeling the drive and I’ve been pissed about not finding Pliny The Younger or just missed it incidents here in Los Angeles, but that’s another tale. It turned out to be a great morning as I had my tasty oatmeal pancakes with one of the best Oatmeal Stouts I’ve ever had and it’s from Founders Brewing; a Double Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout. This is a beer I got in the birthday package, and I gotta tell ya, the pancakes and the beer tasted great and took my mind off of The Younger for a few hours.

Stout patiently waiting for the pancakes.

As soon as I opened the bottle I could smell the roasted coffee, the malt, no chocolate, but lots of alcohol and at 8.3 ABV it was definitely present. A lot of the stouts I’ve had recently have been thin, but this one had a great body to it and was creamy. Nice bitterness from the chocolate and coffee, but very little from the hop. I got a lot of roasted goodness from the coffee and chocolate; these two were the main ingredients you could taste along with the alcohol. The syrup I poured over the pancakes enhanced the malt in the beer and cut a bit of the alcohol aftertaste and burn, but even without the syrup, the flavor would’ve been great. You can taste the oatmeal in this beer, the first time I ever have in a beer of this style, but could’ve been the pancakes too.

Overall a great tasting beer, I have to agree with Beer Advocates 100 points, but here at cervezaplease, we give beer caps, and its going into the Five Beer Caps Hall of Fame. When I open my bed and breakfast, this is going to be at the top of the menu, Kalifornia Oatmeal Pancakes with a Breakfast Stout by Founders. Keep reading for an easy oatmeal pancakes recipe and you can pair with milk, coffee, or beer of course.

Oatmeal Pancake Recipe:

• Makes four pancakes.
• 2 bags of your favorite microwavable oatmeal
• 3/4 cup of pancake mix
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of milk or water (or more), add a bit at a time and stop at your desired consistency
• Mix all ingredients and you’re ready to rock and roll!

Oatmeal is ready.

Add the pancake mix.

Mix all the ingredients

One ladle of the mix for a big pancake.

Butter the pancake when you flip it.

I don’t have a sweet tooth so I prefer butter and just a bit of syrup.

Throw one back for me ~ cheers!