Monday, April 28, 2008

Celebrating the Women of Brewing at Rubicon

Last Saturday was the Women in Brewing Festival at Rubicon in
Sacramento. 11 beers were on tap, all brewed by women in the brewing industry.
As I recall we had the following (if I'm off, I apologize, I didn't write them down):

  • 1 from Stone - Vanilla porter
  • 1 from Bear Republic - Crazy Ivan
  • 2 from Sierra Nevada Nevada - Ruthless and Swartzbier
  • 3 from Moylans - Dry Irish Stout, Pomegranate Wheat, and
    Hopsickle
  • 2 from Rubicon - Brown Eyes, Daughters of the Revolution
  • 2 from Lost Coast - Alleycat and Great White

Yay! We finally took over a big enough table!The Hop Heads started around noon as a modest group of four, gathering at a small table on the patio. As we slowly grew, we struggled to find seats for us. Rubicon apparently had a huge influx of customers just before noon, which left
them understaffed and the kitchen backlogged with orders. This is not an usual occurrence for Rubicon. However, the beer, the food, and the location are always worth such inconveniences. Hop Heads came and went throughout the day, with a constant attendance of about 7 at any given time. I'd guess we had about 13 or so in total.

Now back to the beer! The entire selection was awesome, as expected. Here I would normally talk about the various beers, but instead I want to talk about the brewers....two of them, actually. At the far end of the patio, Laura Ulrich (brewer for Stone) and Denise Jones (brewmaster for Moylans) were enjoying some fine ales. I figured, "what the heck," and walked over to say
"hi."

Left to right: Laura Ulrich, Denise Jones, and David Hopwood
I was pleased at how receptive they were upon my introduction. I talked with Laura about how refreshing her vanilla porter was on that hot day. I explained to Denise that I still wasn't up to the grade to enjoy her Hopsicke, but Moylander DIPA was right up my alley. She insisted I try it again today; so of course I did. The conversation moved to growing hops. I learned a lot from them, along with Dave Hopwood, Stone sales rep. Later on, Denise came by to talk about using fruits in beers, like in her pomegranate wheat.


Throughout the day, ladies in roller skates wielding squirt guns were cruising up and down the sidewalk while passing out fliers.
Sac City RollersWho were they? They are the Sac City Rollers, our local roller derby team, passing out their 2008 Schedule! Later we saw several of the derby girls blindfolded while roller-skating in tandem down the sidewalk. This was one of the right of passage (so to speak) events for the new members of their team. They provided great entertainment and conversation as we enjoyed the fine ales
on tap.

I have to say, this was a great event overall. Great conversations, great food, and of course, great beers!