This has to be the coolest birthday gift ever – a carved sign for the tiny pub in my garden.

I made my last post in the hope & expectation that it would propel me back into the habit of updating the blog. It’s been a busy couple of weeks or so since then. I’ll attempt to give the edited highlights for now & explicate later.

I started this compact journey of the soul drinking beer in Boston & commenting how English it tasted. IPA’s based on East Kent Golding & Fuggles rather than Cascade, Chinook & Centennial. Of course the irony of this is my well known love for the citrusy Pacific hops in these situations. Not that I won’t make an exception for 60 Minutes whenever the opportunity presents itself.

And then I arrived back in Britain. Where serving a pint involves a bit of elbow grease, or those of you Atlantically-challenged, the operation of a beer engine. At which point the beer in Boston tasted just like the beer in California. There is just some special about the way we serve beer in the British Isles, but especially the North. A hand pump is without doubt a better way of serving beer but it only fulfils it’s true potential when operated with a skilled hand & more contentiously a sprinkler. That little gadget on the end of a northern hand pump may look like the most miserly water-saving showerhead but it’s impact is closer to that of gravy on roast potatoes – it bring the flavour out.

I guess I still haven’t told you anymore of what I’ve drunk over the last few weeks or how it was but I think I’ve given you the ambience. And that first pint of Bushys was like finding an oasis after an eternity in the desert.

21st Amendment is a cool brewpub\restaurant in San Francisco, a stones through from the PacBell Park (or whatever they’re calling it this week). It is named after the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution which famously (and thankfully) repealed prohibition. That is definitely something that deserves commemoration.

By the time BART had delivered Nathan, Andy & I across the bay to the city we were all well ready for a pint along with some meat based sustenance. I had skipped the 21A IPA at the IPA festival as I thought I’d get one from the source but unfortunately they were out of it, along with their highly reputed Watermelon Wheat. Instead they had the excellent Russian River Blind Pig IPA which I has sampled at our previous stop. I did feel that I should try one of the 21A brews so after a glance at best designed beer menu ever seen I opted for the Amendment Pale Ale. I can’t rave about their beer board enough; a good description of the beer and it’s ABV is highly valuable but telling you how many IBU’s it has is the dog’s bollocks.

I’d given up on taking notes at this point so all I can tell you about the Amendment Pale Ale or the South Park Blonde that followed is that I enjoyed them both, as I did the nice big burger. Mmm, mmm, mmm, tasty.

It was quite quiet (I thing that is the typing equivalent of a tongue-twister) as we were there mid-afternoon but if my first visit is anything to go by, it’s a great place with tasty beer & food. Well worth a visit.

On August 12th, I made it to The Bistro 9th Annual IPA Festival along with a couple of good buddies of mine, Andy & Nathan. The Bistro isn’t a big space so they commandeered half the street to fit in the 50+ IPA’s they had on tap. Even then it was pretty crowded as you can see.

It’s popularity was entirely deserved though as they had a hella lot of tasty beer. Teaming up the three of us made about half way through the list of beers, each of them a new favourite. Even though every beer was an IPA there was remarkable diversity of flavours. It must have been difficult work for the judges attempting to clear the palettes after every hop-bomb was dropped on their taste buds. Not that I feel bad for them of course.

After roughly 25 different IPA’s we took a look at the queue to buy more tickets in order to keep going and decided what we really wanted was to sit down somewhere & drink beers by the pint, not the 6oz taster. So off we headed to our next destination…

The folks at The Bistro in Hayward, CA are holding their 9th annual IPA festival this coming Saturday. I’ve not been before but the place has a good reputation as a beer bar & I’m a huge IPA fan so it should be fun. The 50+ IPAs on tap should certainly keep me busy.

With the Bay Area sweltering in 100 degree heat at the weekend, Ealish (official PlanetSeth wife) and I headed to the coast to cool down. We hoped to find a quiet spot with some shade where we could sit & read but fortunately it was so busy that we ended up at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company.

My first pint was their current brewer’s special Summit Special IPA. This is brewed with the trendy hop of the moment, the Summit. It’s good, very good. It’s enticing copper appearance shouts drink me (well this one did at least) and the closer to your lips it gets the better it is. The rich floral hop aroma smacks you with a plethora of citrus notes and then the taste hits you. Gorgeous grapefruity, tangeriney hoppiness. I think I like the summit hop. A lot.

Feeling I should sample a range my second and unfortunately last pint was their regular IPA, the Pillar Point IPA. It was lighter both in colour and aroma than the Summit Special. It seemed closer to a Burton style IPA than to the American version. The hop character was more muted and though some citrus zing was noticeable some was the traditional Burton character. A tasty beer without a doubt but a bit of a come down from the peak of the Summit.

If you can get along to HMB Brewing before the Summit Special runs out I highly recommend you do. Highway 1 from San Francisco is still closed at Devil’s Slide but it is due to reopen August 4th. If you’re in the city it’s worth the extra effort you’ll have to make to get their.

Time to wean myself back on to my old friend the Cascade hop.

Ealish (the official PlanetSeth wife) & I called into Vino Locale last night for a drink before deciding where to eat. Vino Locale (which for the language challenged means local wine) may sound a unconventional place to talk about in a beer blog but it is certainly worth a visit. When Ealish & I first started going to Vino Locale they were sticking closely to their aim for serving local wines and local foods, where local means about a 50 mile radius. They also exhibit local artists. Once we got to know the owners I began to suggest that they should also stock local beers. Whether or not my efforts were a factor I don’t know but they now stock a range of high quality local beers.

I forgot to note down their entire beer menu but managed to sample two different ales on this occasion. Both were from the Farmhouse Brewing Company in Gilroy. I had the Two Tractor Ale & Ealish had the Saison 7. Two Tractor (I love the name) is an American style pale. It is coppery in colour with a hoppy aroma with hints of citrus that suggests Cascade hops. It’s flavour is hoppy without reaching IPA levels though the bitterness of the hops stands out more the aroma. I enjoyed it but Ealish found it a little too bitter for her tastes. Saison 7 as you may guess from the name is a saison; a Belgian summer ale. It had a floral smell, almost like a Belgian wheat beer such a Hoegaarden. Light and indeed summery it had a nutty rather than hoppy finish. Very refreshing.

Vino Locale is well worth experiencing whether for the beer or for the wine which is also excellent and well priced. Their food is exceedingly tasty though at the nibbly end of the scale so if you have a real hunger you may need to order several items. The place has a great ambience with a lovely patio to the rear which is just perfect for relaxing on a summer evening. To top it all off, the owners Randy & Harry are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, their staff being just as equally amenable & efficient.

I guess I’ll have to pop back to record the remainder of their beer menu. I suppose I can have one whilst I am there.

So I’ve just got back from Gordon Biersch (the original one in Palo Alto, CA). I only live four blocks so I go every couple of weeks or so. I used to go more often but that’s another story that I’ll save for later.

I started with their current seasonal beer, the Sommerfest. It is billed as a Kolsch style ale though most would think it a lager. Light golden in colour it has a faint but sweet malt fragrance. Flavourwise it is light with a little fruitiness but no discernable hop character. There are faint elements of the banana character often found in a wheat beer. There’s not a lot of body to the beer nor much carbonation. Overall, refreshing and easy to drink but neither particularly distinctive or tasty.

Next up was Gordon Biersch’s flagship beer, the Marzen. It’s rich mahogany colour raises expectations of a rich flavourful beer but it’s toffeeish malty aroma is lacking any complexity in flavour to back it up. It has little body or effervescence. The Marzen was never my favourite style of beer but I’m sure it used to be better than this.

Onto the Schwarzbier. Like the name suggests it is black (or really, really dark brown) but that’s pretty much it as far as this beer goes. It has negligible aroma, a thin roasted malt flavour and watery mouth feel.

Last up on this particular evening was the Hefeweizen. Like all hefeweizens it is an wheat beer left unfiltered so that the yeast remains. The yeast gives a haze to it’s yellowy brown colour. The GB hefe exhibits the classic citrusy banana aroma that characterises the style. A taste of the beer delivers citrus with some vanilla, a little clove and a wallop of banana. It has a pleasant palette with a slight tingle on the tongue. Definitely the best beer of the night.

It is true to say that Gordon Biersch has never been my favourite brewery as their beers tend to be dominated by a malty character whilst my taste run to the hoppier end of the scale. This withstanding I still believe that their beers have dropped in quality of the last couple of years. They seem much thinner and less characterful than they used to. Whether this was an intentional move to make them more accessible to the average beer drinker or just a drop in standards it is hard to say.

So why do I still go to Gordon Biersch ? I go because the staff are friendly & helpful and the places with better beer in Palo Alto are either dives or more expensive for the food. There is no perfect bar in Palo Alto so compromises have to be made and unfortunately sometimes it is the quality of the beer that has to be compromised.

Anyway, now that I’m home I can have an IPA to add the hops that were missing from the GB beers.