Bear Republic

On Saturday, June 7, several hop heads and guests made the trek to the Santa Rosa area to partake in some tasty beverages at the Brew Fest. However, the experience at Bear Republic deserves its own entry. Amazing. If anyone has time, can you please copy and paste pictures where applicable from the Hop Heads meetup site. Thank you. My computer is having problems with several sites and this is one of them. My laptop is part of the UN and therefore waterboarding is not permissible. I will have to find another form of torture to get my machine to cooperate. Maybe if I threaten it with Vista fixes????

At 8:30 AM, Bob, the two Pauls, and I left from the not so scenic Natomas in search of better beer. At 10:30, we arrived at the Bear Republic Brewery in Healdsburg. The brewery, which normally does not except visitors prior to 11 AM on Saturdays, opened its doors half an hour early for the Hop Heads.

Our host for the day was Ryan, he had a very good understanding of how things worked at Bear Republic. Shortly thereafter, Leeanne, Shawn (aka Irish Girrrrl), and Mitch teleported to Santa Rosa and met the other four of us as an away team. Ryan offered us all a pint of our choice. I started with the Black Mamba. Any likeness to any character played by the uber-hot Vivica Fox from any Quentin Tarantino film is totally coincidental. About the beer, very similar to Allagash Black, but with more Belgian yeast flavor. A definite winner. Several others had the Rebellion Pale, another great beer. If you love the taste of yellow grapefruit from the Simcoe Hop, y'all need to bow down and Rebel. 100% Simcoe. Hoo-ah.

Ryan began to explain the history of Bear Republic. It seems the original members were bicycle enthusiasts and that is how the Bear started. Huh? Isn't this supposed to be about beer? Patience. At this event, Ricardo, master brewer and owner, his girlfriend, and the other founders had a table, where they secretly poured beer to hydrate from the hot sun (as opposed to the cold one). Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for them, the secret soon got out and they had a huge line behind this table thirsting for a tasty beverage. The table received infamy when a local Santa Rosa media reporter dubbed it the "Highlight of the Event" the following morning. But what beer would command such a line of epic proportions? The eventual flagship of Bear Republic, Red Rocket Ale.

Ryan then led us on a tour of the brewery. The first stop was the mash tun and the 16 barrel wort kettle, which only produced 15 barrels at a full boil. So why don't they call it a 15 barrel kettle? Anyhow, something seemed wrong. Bear Republic shouldn't have to rely on that kettle alone, they produce too much beer. Turns out they have another site. Somewhere in Santa Rosa behind a Costco. Maybe we should make a scavenger hunt out of this clue.

After the mash and kettle tour, onto the fermenters. They have a shipload of those. Six if memory serves correct. Gotta love the fermenters. That's where beer sits before people like you and me turn it into pee, give or take a couple of weeks depending on the beer. So after the fermenters, Ryan showed us the special secret storage room. The room had about 20 barrels of beer aging on firkin (cask). We inquired about the ones labeled as barley wine, and it appeared they were going to age for about 20 more years. Actually, I think Ryan only said two years. That would be awesome, though, a 20 year old beer.

We thanked Ryan for the tour and headed inside. Our food awaits. The Hop Heads felt like royalty. Beer, a tour, and food waiting when we get back. Don't you just love it when you get back from a tour and there is food waiting at your table? I had the chili. Now, for those who have never been to Bear Republic, this is not your garden variety type of chili. Bear Republic made theirs with wild boar. The chili was excellent. Not as gamey as you would expect so don't be afraid to try it. Definitely less gamey than venison.

After finishing the Mamba, I partook in the Black Raven Porter on nitro. This beer is not available in stores, some places feel it is discontinued (don't hate on me beeradvocate), and you cannot receive this beer with five proofs of purchase. The porter should be their new flagship. Very close to flawless, and it will be my new standard for American Porters (12b for all you beer nerds out there). Lightly roasted malts with a touch of coffee, light chocolate and little to no bitterness on the mouthfeel. Nice creamy flavor from the nitro pour too. I would highly suggest to leave this beer on nitro. Not sure if you would get some of the same characteristics on CO2 (adds moderate texture, richness, and creaminess). Bravo Ricardo.

It was already high noon. Time to head to the Santa Rosa beer festival. If you are lucky, I will probably post the activities from the event on Wednesday. In the meantime, be safe, and Go Lakers!!!!