last thursday night, AP and I went over to alpine village for some legit german food and brews.

• ever since I dropped by AV a little while back, I was eagerly anticipating our return.  I knew it was going to be a great night right when we walked in the door, and were seated immediately and given a healthy serving of liverwurst and rye.
• thursday was swing night, and there was a full band in attendance along with an impressive singer.  we were definitely the youngest in the crowd by a few decades, but it didn’t keep us from cutting a rug in between courses and beers.
• ah, the beers – AP got one of her staples, hangar 24′s altbier, and I had weihenstephaner’s kristall weissbier.  well, I ordered it, and ended up with an unfiltered wheat instead, so who knows what I put down.  later AP chatted up the bartender and tried the kristall weiss after the fact, which was definitely tasty and probably the variety of the style that I would pursue ifwhen I brew another wheat.
• on sunday AP and I rang in the 4th with some heavy BBQ and great beers.  I’m talking a 10lb pork shoulder, 8lb brisket and two dozen brats in the smoker with all the fixins – it was definitely a good time.
• unfortunately, I was out of homebrew for the occasion, but the food was very well complemented with some firestone walker variety packs and a sixer of stone’s IPA, which was better than I remembered.
• I also snuck down to the basement for some bottles, including stone’s 14th anniversary empirial IPA (uncomfortably bitter with not enough aroma to balance it out, probably due to the hop selection), lagunitas’ hairy eyeball (killer as always, malty and delicious), and new belgium’s eric’s ale (definitely one of my favorites, the most drinkable sour I have come across).
• on saturday and sunday JF helped me out with some “brewery expansion construction”: using an angle grinder and some bootleg jig I threw together based off a modification of this idea from homebrewtalk, we cut the tops off of a couple of kegs that will soon enjoy long lives as an HLT and mash tun.  we also installed some weldless ball valves, thermometers, and sightglasses.  once the third keg makes an appearance and all my quick disconnects and other fittings come in, the setup will be revealed, but until then the project will remain shrouded in mystery.

after leaving russian river brewing the weekend before last, TM, JVG, JC and I cruised down to petaluma to check out the new taproom and beer sanctuary at lagunitas.

• I had high expectations for this place, and as soon as I walked in I knew they were going to be met.
• the taproom was great – it had funky (3-D) local artwork on the walls and a laid-back bartender pouring one of lagunitas‘ many offerings into ball jars.

• the outside beer sanctuary was just as nice – a ton of people were hanging out at enormous picnic tables under canopies and umbrellas beating the heat and enjoying a local brew.

• to top it off, a local BBQ joint was serving up food outside, and a band was jamming on a stage in the corner – it was awesome.

• I scanned the tap list and immediately ordered up a bourbon barrel-aged hairy eyeball, which I wish I could have on a weekly basis.  it was malty and strong, with a boozy bourbon note infused throughout.  in hindsight, I should have ordered this up as a finisher, but I got antsy and scared that the keg would kick before I had ordered up my glass.

• everyone else ordered up a variety of brews, from ruben and the jets to brown shugga.  I tasted the brown shugga and it was was the best I’ve ever had – it had an intense hoppy finish that blew my mind.  I wonder if they tweaked the recipe or if it was just a young batch, either way I need to get my hands on some more.

• I finished up the day with a classic lagunitas IPA fresh from the source, and with that, we took off toward novato, but not before I looked back longingly towards lagunitas and vowed I would return ASAP.