A day off from work. Took my daughter around a bit. Had some In&Out for dinner (brokeass dad). Dropped her off and started a drinking session at local beer bar, Out Of The Barrel (again).
First was the “Sticky Bear” from Moonraker Brewing. A WCIPA. Enjoyed it:
Now I moved on to “West Coast Offense” from Cellarmaker Brewing (pic at top). As you might have guessed, it’s a WCIPA. It’s drinking really “hot” but it’s only a 6.3%…still good though.
Currently battling my beer budget to see if I can get myself one more beer.
Brought my daughter out to Clovis to meet a friend of hers and since I am forced to be in this town, I took the opportunity to have lunch at House Of Pendragon Brewing.
Great smash burger and a nice Cold IPA. Glad someone is keeping the CIPA style around.
These kind of places may be over. The 80s 90s era. When brewpubs and breweries were a small underrated community.
Friend and Marinite, Paul has some words about it:
It’s bad enough that Iron Springs had to go down, but the ‘Brew Co’ – as all the locals referred to it – was iconic; one of California’s original pioneering brew pubs. I blame the haze craze more than anything. I’m sure the pandemic didn’t help, not to mention the a-hole landlord that kept jacking their rent. But ultimately I think it’s the fact that people’s taste in beer has changed, and it is getting harder and harder for these old school establishments to survive. I am in the minority. I am getting old and stodgy, and I long for dark and cozy brew pubs where you can get a stout and a side of mashed potatoes all for under 10 bucks on your lunch break. Sadly, those days are long gone. Please take a moment of silence to mourn this loss with me.
Thanks, Paul. It’s the ‘dark & cozy’ that gets me. There is not a lot of cozy left. Being a beer nerd used to be that: a small cozy community.
Find a malty pale (if you can) and pour one out for all the brewpubs and coziness we have lost.
When I make a run to a brewery I usually have an ice-chest with me. My fridge doesn’t crank out enough ice to make a relevant amount so after I pick up my beers from the brewery, I then have to stop at a store and buy ice.
One too many stops for me – I’m lazy.
Why don’t taprooms have bags of ice for sale? I supposet there must be some but I have not seen nor heard of this. Not even in bottle shops.
Matt on the show pointed out he would give you some ice from their machine at Tioga Sequoia Brewing if you asked but I don’t want to do that. I want to buy it right then and there with my beers.
Sure, I will totally forget to buy the bags of ice at a brewery that started carrying ice, just like how I walk out of a grocery store forgetting the ice. But it would be nice to know I could have gotten the ice at the taproom.
Normalize bags of ice at breweries!
ICY SIDE NOTE:
(Photo by: Hip2save.com)
There have been times (maybe now still) when you could buy the perfect-for-drinking, Sonic Ice, in bags from your local Sonic joint. It would feel like a misuse to put them in an ice-chest but it might work for the road trip with a brewery stop attached.
