Beering in San Francisco: 21st Amendment

Finally getting to blogging about this trip. Earlier this month the family went up to San Francisco. The wife had a huge conference she was attending and my Mother-In-Law took the baby off my hands, so most of the day I was free to take long runs around the city and have beer up to my eyeballs. So the first day we get there and I am just awestruck at how much a fricken cab costs to get us to downtown from the airport. After the sticker shock, we check in, get cleaned up and IT'S BOSS TIME!!!

The first order of business is to get the wife registered for her conference and it was lunch time. I figure that this being San Fran, that we could walk into any decent restaurant and get some good local beer to start us off. We walk across the street from the hotel to Annabelle's. This nice restaurant that we felt a little out of place with considering we had a rambunctious 3-year old. But seeing as how the price is right, I didn't think we had anything to worry about. AB's has a very nice selection of area beer, about 10 in total if I recall. I'm kinda hot so why not start 'em up with a...

Beer Log: November 2, 2010
State: At Annabelle's in San Francisco. Pretty hot after all the walking, and eating some decent BBQ pork. Taking notes on my wife's ipad. What now son!

Trumer Pils
Big hoppy flower character with nice pilsner malt. Brilliantly clear straw color... Maybe it's just b/c this is the first beer I've had all day after the plane ride, but I like it. It's a slightly softer character to this one than I'm used to for a pilsner. Must have higher chlorides. Very quaffable and soft on the MT. 3.5 stars.

After the BBQ swine showed up, it was time for the next one

Speakeasy Prohibition Ale
Dark amber color, thin reddish-white head. Noseis very hoppy with caramel trying to come out. Nice hop malt balance. Nottoostrong at all, great for multiples. Nice caramel malt and a little to sweet. St. Actually nice crisp finish. Head has some lace. For some reason get a little wateriness somewhere in the middle of the palate. I like the cookie feeling as well. Good beer at three and a half stars...

After we took leave of the in-laws and the kid, the wife, a good friend ours, and I fired up the Android to find our way to the 21st Amendment. I am a HUGE fan of the Brewing Network and have been listening on podcast for years. I'm almost caught up on the archives. I listen to the BN so much that it has probably messed up my professional career as I stopped listening to NPR, Manager Tools, Oil and Gas Journal and so forth. I'll be so happy when I catch up on the archives so I can get it going professionally again. Regardless, I just had to make it to the 2-1-A as soon as possible. So we dragass to 563 Second Street (right across from AT&T park) to get us some.

Beer Log: That same afternoon after Annabelle's
State: A little warm after hoofing for a half mile or so, but enjoyed the joyful walk

21st Amendment Brewery and Restaurant .
So we go in there and it is VERY VERY Spacious. Lots of wood, elbow room, extremely high ceilings. They must pay a GRIP to keep the lease on this place. It's the middle of the afternoon on a workday, so the place was pretty empty. The thick white woman was working the bar as well as the tables. So my future babymomma eerrrr waitress gave us the beer list and it was nice. A good handful of the 21A beers with a few special collection bottles you can get in the back. No watermelon wheat, so I had to live with...

Via

Kinda yeast and sweet on the nose, kinda funky. Clear beer, kinda plain. Reminds me of my home-brewed beg wit. Very smooth single, light and perfect for the summer slamming save the 6% abv. Decent carbo, though a little empty to me in the middle. Low 3 stars. Beer is getting worse as it warms. Take that to two stars

Noir de blanc

Very cloudy brown beer. Get some sweetness and esters on the nose, though it's the wife's beer and it's been sitting there for a while. Kinda reminds me of the stuff I had at Draught House I had in Austin. Very soft, mod carbo, and some big ester yeast flavor. Moderate malt flavor. Great mix of dark bock and wheat. Still a little weak for my taste, but I can see his one being a moneymaker for the pub. Low 3 stars.

Back in Black

Blackish brown with a thin white head and serious flowery hops, very cascade. Now we're talking. Harsh bit in hops with an actual soft finish. AT has hints of chocolate and roast notes. Adds to the bitterness. I like how this thing works together. Just what I expected from a west coast beer. Come on with it baby. High 3 stars for now. Will probably come back later to check it out. (Actually I never came back, but this Cascadian Dark was absolutely awesome).

The beering was not exactly what I expected at first, but not bad either.

Hold up:

Beer Log: Right now

State: Still got some of that sour Beer de Goord taste in my mouth, save us IPA

Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA

Very clean grass/flower nose on a brilliantly clear amber looking beer. Somewhat sticky white head to boot (no homo). A good mix of pilsner bread and hard cascade-like yet complex hops. Not sure where the 48th latitude is, hold up: ok that's pretty cool. it's all hops on the 48th latitude. German, english, american hops. I can get the german noble funky hops and the harsh american. The English hops are there if I let the power of suggestion take over me, but who knows. It's more like the malt is very english like, kind of like the malt on an Elissa IPA from Saint Arnold, very earthy and smooth. High 3 Stars for this complex IPA from SA. Nice.

So the 2-1-A is a great place for some good beering. I didn't get to try any food, but I know I would be spending significant time there if I lived in San fran. Especially on gameday.