after a long week of desk jockeying, the weekend couldn’t come up fast enough.

• after getting a little more settled in our new spot, AP and I rolled over to naja’s to meet up with AP, PP, and DP.
• I can’t overemphasize the great atmosphere at naja’s – no pretention and a laid back attitude, right on the water!
• not to mention great selection – I grabbed  a pour of goose island’s matilda, which was very earthy and refreshing.  AP grabbed her staple – eric’s ale.
• once everyone showed up, the really good stuff got cracked.  first, we pulled a great bottle of fantome saison for everyone to try.
• I also ordered up a fantastic saison that (if I remember correctly) was from brasserie d’achouffe (the tap handle was complicated and it was listed as “saison” on the board – I’ll have to get back with the name since it was pretty great).
• there was also a north/south tasting debate going on (if only in my head) as both carlsbad’s green flash west coast IPA and healdsburg’s bear republic racer 5 were poured.  such a tough call between those two…
• later during the weekend I tended to my fresh hop plants – in addition to last years’ vojvodina and zeus, I picked up some chinook, cascade, mt hood, and sterling varieties.
• I got the rhizomes from freshops, and couldn’t be happier – they came fast, had noticeable buds on arrival and sprouted within a week.  however, CB had different results, however, as state agricultural problems and questionable customer service almost ruined his (sizable) order.
• also, it will be interesting to see the yield of my second-year established plants.  I kept all my hops potted due to limited time, but if the yield is low I might reconsider next year.  fingers crossed…

Tags: bear republic, cascade, chinook, d'achouffe, eric's ale, fantome, goose island, green flash, hops, matilda, mt hood, naja's, racer 5, saison, sterling, vojvodina, west coast IPA, zeus

This entry was posted on Monday, April 12th, 2010 at 7:48 pm and is filed under beers, brewing, places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.