California Brewfest Taster Glasses

We had a great day yesterday at the California Brewers Festival in Sacramento.  Web-based registration is the way to go for this event as we only waited for a minute to get our tickets.  We arrived a few minutes early, so we queued up with other festival goers and waited for the event to start.  Upon entry to the festival, you get a four ounce taster “glass” and ten tokens for beer samples.  The weather was wonderful – with temps in the low 80s.  The crowds were big, but even so, we didn’t wait longer than a minute or so for an ale.

Steve with my CalBrewFest "Best of Show" Pick, Paulo Santo Marron.

I was excited to see that Dogfish Head, out of Delaware, was at the Brewfest as I was really hoping to try a brown ale I’d heard about called Paulo Santo Marron (check out the video), that is fermented in special wooden tanks made from Paulo Santo wood from Paraguay.  The Dogfish Head folks were pouring ale out of bottles and they had the Paulo Santo Marron, 90 Minute IPA and Midas Touch Golden Elixir.  The Paulo Santo Marron is incredibly smooth for a 12% ABV ale and goes down a little too smoothly:)  It definitely lives up to Dogfish Head’s motto, Off-centered ales, for off-centered people.  I also sampled the 90 Minute IPA and it was as good as I remembered it to be.

Brenda and Nancy found a new wheat ale they really liked, Lost Coast’s Tangerine Wheat.  The nose and taste of this ale is all tangerine and is very drinkable and refreshing.  Brenda has found a new favorite!

All in all, it was a great day.  The California Brewers Festival is a must attend event for all central California craft brew lovers.  Check out the photo gallery below for pictures of our group enjoying the festival!

2008 California Brewers Festival Photo Gallery

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We went back to the hotel, checked in and than headed over to Old Sacramento, to have a beer on the Delta King.  The Delta King is a permanently moored river paddle wheel boat that has been converted into a floating hotel and restaurant/bar.  Brenda and I stayed overnight on the Delta King about four years ago.  It was very nice and the restaurant was wonderful.  Their bar had nothing on draft, so I had a Newcastle brown ale and we watched the boats go by on the Sacramento River (man – there are really a lot of stupid twenty-somethings with boats…)

Next it was back to River City Brewing for an ale on the patio.  They were out of their Kolsch, so Brenda had a wit and I had a Woodenhead.  I tasted their cask ale again, but found it to be watery and flavorless.  We watched the world go by at the head of the mall and I made dinner reservations for 7:45.  We went back to the hotel and chilled until dinner time.

We shared a Brewmaster’s pizza and a Caesar salad for dinner.  The food was very good – so good to forgot to take a picture:)  We had originally planned on seeing a move, but decided to head back to the hotel after dinner, since there were no movies playing that we really wanted to see.

We slept in the next morning, and headed over to Johnny Rockets for lunch, before heading out of town.  All in all, it was a very relaxing trip.

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We usually stay at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza.  It sits at the head of the Westfield Downtown Plaza Mall, near state capitol, and is just a hundred steps from one of my favorite upscale brew pubs, River City Brewing Company.  I like their ales – I just wish they had an IPA.  I really do enjoy their Woodenhead Ale and Kolsch, though.  Their food is second to none as far a pub food goes.  Their wood-fired oven pizzas are fabulous, and they have a wonderful rib eye steak with a huge dollop of blue cheese and crisp onion strings.  Mmmm!

Right above River City Brewing Company is Johnny Rockets, easily the best burger chain in America – even better than In-N-Out!  Their meals are expensive, but after you have one of their bacon cheeseburgers, half rings – half fries, and a vanilla malt, you’ll pay twice what they ask:)  We hit Johnny Rockets at least once every trip for either lunch or dinner.

If you head out of the hotel and go west, instead of going east into the mall area (which has really great shopping opportunities – Brenda can attest to this:), you immediately go into a walking subway that passes under I-5 and drops you directly into Old Sacramento, with more dining and shopping than you can take in in a single day.

We really like this hotel as the rates are pretty good (and we belong to their rewards program – this stay is completely free for us:) and the surrounding amenities are second to none!

Right after we check in to our hotel, we’re going to visit Rubicon Brewing Company for an ale or two and lunch.  Their IPA is easily in my top ten IPAs on earth.  It is such an easy drinking IPA – very representative of West Coast IPAs without being over the top.

Shhhhh!  Zales recently had a special on black diamond earrings, so I got a pair for Brenda as an anniversary gift.  I think she’ll like them:)

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