Bottoms Up

William: I enjoy reading your column in the Contra Costa Times. I read your article mentioning the Maui Brewing Company just before a buddy headed over there. Unfortunately, I told him Lahaina B.C and he wasn’t able to find it nor bring back a couple bottles of the coconut porter. Fortunately, I read your follow up article about it coming to Bev Mo and was able to pick some up there.

I recently read your article about Alaska Summer Ale. I agree with you, it is a really good ale and would like to point out that it is served on Alaska Airlines during the summer with Alaskan Amber served during the rest of the year.

Their sister carrier Horizon Air serves a Northwest microbrew on its flights as well. Finding good beer served on an airline is hard to find so you have to appreciate it when you are able. Cheers! Rob.

P.S Black Diamond (in Walnut Creek, CA.) used to have the best Pizza/Beer combination in terms of quality. Sadly, no more… SEE OUR GOOD BEER AND PIZZA PAGE HERE.

Rob: Do you know what Northwest beer Horizon serves?

Yeah, too bad about Black Diamond the brewpub. They just got tired of the restaurant biz, they said. They have a tasting room at their brewery in Concord. It’s open from 4 – 7 p.m. weekdays, only. All their beers are on tap. It’s in hell and gone in industrial Concord, but fairly easy to get to and a pleasant place for a beer and a chat.

William: Horizon is a regional airline and they change the microbrew and wine selection monthly, but they are always from the Pacific Northwest. They are complimentary by the way but we’ll see how long that lasts with high oil prices. Alaska Airlines charges $5 for the Alaskan Ambers and Summer Ales. They also serve Kona ales/lagers on their Hawaii flights (www.alaskaair.com).

It’s a great airline to fly up to the beer mecca called the Pacific Northwest. I believe the only other airline that serves a microbrew is Northwest (www.nwa.com) and they serve a microbrew from Minnesota. It used to by James Page but I think it may have changed.

In terms of other travel related companies, Four Points by Sheraton is known for offering a large variety of microbrews at their hotels and have even “hired” a chief beer officer. i You may have already talked about this in an earlier article. (Yes, read it here” At Last, a hotel chain with a chief beer officer.) Since I travel a lot, I get to know when/where I can enjoy a good beer. Texas is a terrible place to visit.

Good Luck! I’m looking forward to trying that new brewery in Oakland. (Linden Street Brewing.)

Rob: About craft beer on airlines. Hawaiian Airlines serves Maui Bikini Lager, which won a silver medal at the World Beer Cup in San Diego this year. Frontier had a deal with Oskar Blues, Lyons, CO. for Dale’s Pale Ale. Guess that’s still going. Anybody else have info in good beer on airlines? I fly Southwest frequently and they serve only light lager.

The comment below seems to fly in the face of Rob’s statement about Texas., Please keep in mind, the comments are about a visit to Austin, TX., which is an entirely different world than most of the rest of Texas. (I’m a big fan of Texas, if not a fan of the current occupant of the White House, who is a guy who happened to grow up there, but really is from Maine. Half my family hails from Texas, so how can I hate it.) wb.

Beer dudes: I visited Texas for a few days (nephew’s graduation). In Austin I visited The Draught House. Damn good place. Check out the draft beer list at www.draughthouse.com — the list is outdated but it gives you a flavor of what kind of beer that they have on tap. We had a Victory Hop Wallop DIPA — very good. We also had an Avery Cask IPA – I thought it was good, but not great (I don’t believe that I have ever had an Avery beer that I thought was great). The Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale was very good. The Bootlegger Brown Ale from local brewer Independence Brewing Co. was so-so. This place has a single-file line at the bar — it worked great. In addition to indoor seating, they also have a patio. Lastly, they allow customers to take their beer, in glasses, out to the parking lot and drink it there. I had never heard of this. People brought their own tables, food, chairs, dogs, etc. and had little picnics with good draft beer. I love the place. Road trip!

We also went to Whole Foods and they had a great bottled beer selection. I grabbed some Dogfish 90 Minute Imperial IPA and some Great Divide Titan IPA. Both good, but not great in my opinion — as you probably know, both are rated highly by both Beer Advocate and Rate Beer. I brought two bottles of the Dogfish home so I’ll reconfirm that I didn’t think it was great — maybe I’ll it try side-by-side next to Port Brewing’s Hop 15, Stone Ruination, or something else that I really like. But, it might have been a bad batch too. I also brought home a bomber bottle of Great Divide Hercules DIPA and a Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout. I just grabbed those on a whim since I didn’t think I could get them in the Bay Area.

I was pleased to get home and check out the Beer Advocate and Rate Beer websites and see that they are highly rated (over four stars and rated by over 1000 people). Mike

Don’t agree with you about Avery or Dogfish 90-minute Mike. With Oak-aged Yeti from Great Divide, you’ve got a winner. Read my sad story about how I lost my bottle of Yeti at the Denver airport last fall.

And finally… speaking of beer in cans...Shaun O”Sullivan, co-founder and head brewer at 21st Amendment, the San Francisco brewery-restaurant, took this photo in Alaska recently. How about that: Canned Rodenbach. Damn. We’re really winning the can revolution and putting light lager in its proper place: far back on a dusty shelf.