How To Keep On Going

Day Two started off well, except that our amazingly seductive compact camp stove turned out to be less efficient than we would have liked and we used up most of our fuel the night before making dinner. And Long Story Short, we couldn't make any coffee. Boo! Camping with no coffee? I was ready to quit right there. But with a little coaxing and some reverse psychology, John was able to convince me that we could probably find some in town. And who knew? We were to pass through town that very Morning. I was hopeful. We took in a quick view of the lake at our campground, John secured a photo for his 2009 Christmas card and we left for our Day Two: Tour de Sonoma.


As you might expect, there were some vineyards involved. Rolling, rolling hills of vines as far as you could see. Naturally we stopped a few times along the way to sample some of the local nectar. We decided that the Chardonnay at DeLoach won for Tastiest Snack of the day. They're located outside of Santa Rosa on a rather fancy estate, but we couldn't stay long as we were headed for Guerneville and the mecca at Korbel.


But those 20 miles or so between the two were very hard work. Really, just stren-u-ous. We were parched by the time we reached the Champagne tasting room. We obliged and stayed for a few sips of Champagne in their cozy tasting room, before taking to the patio with a small bottle of Brut for sandwiches of summer snausage (Field Roast) and Gouda on sourdough baguette. Something about those flavors, overlooking the Russian River, accompanied by a small glass of Champagne made for such a perfect lunch.



We passed through Guerneville long enough to note its quaint small town feel and motley crew of townies, before beginning our homeward loop. This amusement park sums up Guerneville oddly well. While trying to get a better photograph of it, we were hollered at by a neighbor who declared the road leading up to it to be Private Property. It's a bit of an adjustment in rural places to remember that regular looking streets are often not public roadways. Getting lost can be tantamount to trespassing, if you're not careful. In any case, we found this private property declaration a bit offputting and so we scooted.


And on that note, we headed back toward Santa Rosa, but on the other side of the river. The road, a small winding country route with very little car traffic was so pretty we forgot to document it. So you'll just have take our word. So breathtaking and quiet that we forgot to take another picture until we hit the Santa Rosa city limit, thirty miles later.


And just then, I happened to notice the trip odometer, thus far.


Our whole plan for day two culminated at Russian River Brewery at happy hour where we got to have a couple of Tasty Tasty craft beers: Pliny the Elder, Consecration and Perdition. Three of the finest beers I've tasted in quite a while, though the sense of entitlement may have something to do with it.


After that we made dinner by campfire, squared away the food so we wouldn't be devoured by bears and fell fast asleep. Our two day total: 110 miles.


Stay tuned for the third chapter: How to Make it Home Alive

Now we just have to wait.

So John finished with school this week, an event we celebrated on Monday evening with Jelly Beans and Beer at the park. One whole year of graduate school closer to being Doctor Geography is nothing to sneeze at.


So that also means that now I have an extra set of hands around here for things that are really more of a two person job. The first on the list was getting that aforementioned hefeweizen into bottles so they can start carbonating and aging so that we can drink it. You may however remember that the most dreaded, most labor intensive part of the whole process is when you have to put that stuff into bottles, a process that goes something like this: power wash, suds it up, rinse it WELL, sanitize, and then repeat.

It takes a while just to get everything prepared and then you have to also siphon the tasty beer from the primary into the bottling bucket (I've reverted to single stage fermenting since moving here, as it is a bit simpler in our tiny quarters), managing to leave the trub behind, mixing in the sugar, keeping everything Clean. And then actually dispensing it into those shiny vessels and capping them all off. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

But we did it. John cleaned the kitchen and kept things orderly while I cleaned out the bottles and then we did that brilliant waltz described up there of doing the damned thing and afterwards, John scrubbed the floor. Truly.


Afterwards, the payoff is all those shiny bottles lined up on the countertop ready to do their part and turn that delicious hoppy liquid into something refreshing. Now we just have to wait.



I couldn't have done this one alone. Thanks to Andrew and Miriam for being such trooper beer drinkers and giving us a bundle of bottles. And thanks to Gerik back in January for so considerately saving those big old 33 oz. re-sealable bottles he drank out here, which were Great for this.

Anchor Brews

Today I took the Anchor Brewery tour with lady Lauren, thanks to my new pal Andy. Andy's got a sweet job as their tour guide and though normally you need reservations three weeks in advance, he squeezed us into yesterday's tour. He did a great job illuminating the finer points of their historic brew process, all while donning a very Willy Wonka jumpsuit and talking over the bells and whistles of the brewery's copper kettles.



It was my first time seeing whole hop flowers up close. Anchor has large quantities of them in trough-like wooden bins, so the whole room is pungently scented.


The amazingly powerful bottling line, manned (literally) by guys in those jumpsuits and the laboratory for testing and experimenting were really impressive, but the brewery's tasting room almost stole the show. It's a small museum of ephemera showcasing California brewing history and general beer enthusiasm presenting quite a bit to take in, let me tell you. Some of my favorites included a Chez Panisse-esque hop homage, an old tray from the original Philadelphia Brewing Co. encouraging you to "Drink Old Stock: finest beer in town" and an old photograph of a bar serving Anchor Steam Beer on Draught. I wanted you to see the amazing old counter with neon sign, but also the expression on the bartenders' faces. What happened to facial expression like this? I contend it's got Depth you just don't see in faces today.



With their detailed touring and generous tasting, I've wondered more than once what is the incentive for the brewery to host such events free of charge? But as soon as you're on a tour like this one, it's pretty clear: easy marketing. Tours like these make stewards out of each tour-goer, sending out champions of the Anchor label into the many corners of the earth. Looking at the guest list, most of my fellow tourists were in fact, Tourists from Chicago, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, cities with thriving beer cultures all their own. So it's probably helpful to go ahead and show a handful of beer enthusiasts from each of those cities a good time here in San Francisco. It's a pretty good bet they'll buy Anchor more often at home.

Homebrewer, Revisited

When we moved to the West, we took with us many bicycles, many books, many kitchen supplies and a favorite chair, but the beer making equipment didn't make the cut. The carboy will crack, the hydrometer will shatter, I assumed and so we sold it to some nerdy boys at Drexel and left without it.

Having moved from a three story, 5 bedroom Victorian house with a basement into our scant one bedroom apartment, we put off buying new homebrew equipment until we were certain that our essential belongings would fit comfortably in here. Since September, we've build lots of shelving, kept the place neatly organized and gotten more comfortable with the place. In sum, we've figured out how to stay junk collectors at heart and still have enough room to maneuver among the madness.

And so two weeks ago, it was with great anticipation we finally went to Oak Barrel Winecraft in Berkeley to buy ingredients for the first batch and a setup. A far cry from the wall-hole in South Philly where I first got started and from Home Sweet Homebrew, the center city brew shop staffed by several cats, Oak Barrel is all glamour. They manage to make beer brewing romantic, and that friends, is not easy to do.

They were a little pricier on the equipment, but much cheaper on ingredients and if my math is correct, that will be just fine in the long run. We got ingredients for Hefeweizen, it being spring time and all, and the plan is to boil it up this afternoon.



Did I mention that Oak Barrel also sells vinegar making supplies? Um, don't even get me started.

John's Big Birthday

Actually it started on top of a hill with a bottle of classy champagne. And then descended from there...

...to a Fancy Belgian and a Shouter...

and then a flash of a man and a tasty dinner.

After which we were thoroughly sloshed on food and drink and went to play rummy...

and then there was cake.

The end!