Beer Forum

Hello all,

I am a brewer from the inner west of Sydney. My girlfriend and I are spending a little time in the US next month, and I would appreciate any advice, and especially to meet up with fellow brewers for a beer. At the moment, my geography comes from beer labels and hip hop (e.g. I couldn't find Shaolin for the life of me when looking at a NYC map).

Basic itinerary:
East:
NYC - Staying in Williamsburg Sept 10 eve - Sept 15th am
SC - Staying in Charleston, no real chance for anything, but I am keen to hear suggestions. We are at a wedding, so will miss the GABF.

West:
In: Portland - Sept 19 eve
Newport, Chico, Santa Rosa, SF...? Get shot in Oakland?
Out: LA Oct 1 eve

I would very much like to hear from locals about OR. I need to work out how to best do Rogue as a short trip from Portland, and whether to go back to Portland, or continue on down to Chico, Santa Rosa and the Bay. At this stage it looks like we will be catching the trains and buses rather than hiring a car.

Are there any events on the west coast at this time of year? Even club meets?

Any advice much appreciated, and again, two Aussies would love to have a beer with y'all (that is how you talk, right?).

Dan

Aussie Bizmarkie wrote:West:
In: Portland - Sept 19 eve
Newport, Chico, Santa Rosa, SF...? Get shot in Oakland?
Out: LA Oct 1 eve

I would very much like to hear from locals about OR. I need to work out how to best do Rogue as a short trip from Portland, and whether to go back to Portland, or continue on down to Chico, Santa Rosa and the Bay. At this stage it looks like we will be catching the trains and buses rather than hiring a car.

Portland is a great beer city with a good network of public transit - many other can comment on specific places that are their favorites. You can spend several days in Portland exploring. Here's some resources:

http://oregonbeer.org/

http://www.portlandbeer.org/crawls/

Coastal Oregon does not have a train option that is Amtrak - not sure if the feeders are trains or buses shown on the Amtrak map that go out to Newport - so i suspect you will be limited to the Williamette Valley if you want to stay on the train. Rogue has a tap room in Portland and another in Downtown Eugene (Tracktown) if getting to Newport proves difficult or time consuming. And another in San Francisco. I enjoyed Ninkasi's new tasting room last time I was in Eugene (May) - you will have to find a bus route that gets you there and the is good BBQ nearby to make it worth your while. There are McMennimans all over Oregon - some the beer is good, some not so, but you may run into one or two for some pub grub - there is a nice one by the river in Eugene (Northbank) and a couple others around campus. Steelhead is a small chain and we had pretty decent beer there as well.

http://www.amtrak.com/

The Amtrak station in Oakland is at Jack London square - a redevelopment shopping mall that has everything but tenants, at least was so during NHC last year. From what I recall that was about 8-10 blocks from the Marriott and BART station - a short walk or taxi ride and that will get you to BART and around the Bay Area. You can stop off at the Trappist 3 blocks before the BART station for a refresher.

This is a good site for getting around the beer scene in the Bay Area by public transit:

http://beerbybart.com/

If you can get out to Santa Rosa to see Russian River - do it. Might even be worth renting a car for a couple of days to see Russian River and the Sonoma and Napa Valley wine country nearby.

I'd suggest most of your time in Portland and the SF Bay, maybe a day or two in Eugene as you are going in between the two and if you make a side trip to Newport.

I'll just miss you - I'm flying in and out of Portland and will be in Eugene Sept 9-14th to check my son into his apartment.

You can use the "Y'all" in the Southeast where your wedding is, but switch that to "Dude" when you hit the left coast.

When in NYC you can contact me or aquariumdrinker or fritzeye (and probably a couple others whose screen names I don't know) for an itinerary. aquariumdrinker actually lives in williamsburg, but all 3 of us are NYC locals. you can ask bub, whoateallthepies and justin, we'll take care our guests.

Also, 9/12 at the Diamond Bar in Green Point (just north of williamsburg, walking distance) is the annual Chew'N'Brew competition, a competition for homebrew paired with homecooked food. It's at the Diamond Bar.

p.s. If you make it up to NYC don't even try the "y'all" or "dude". Just look at someone you don't know and if they make eye contact give them a slight nod if you are so inclined. New Yorkers are warm and fuzzy (sort of) once you crack that gruff exterior. And there better be someone named Vinnie or Frankie in the group for it to be authentic - maybe that's why my uncle's name was Vincent and both of my grandpas were named Frank?

Aussie Bizmarkie wrote: (e.g. I couldn't find Shaolin for the life of me when looking at a NYC map).

Oh man, that's funny! I thought JP was the only one around here with the Wutang references.
Hook up with Ray, Fritz and Lee out in NYC. They will show you a good time, just watch your drink or they might slip you a mickey. You can PM me about your stay in Portland. I live out here now and I could show you around a bit.

My general impression is, if I had a car I would try to do a mini-out-west road trip, but if you don't have a car it would probably just be easier to stick to Portland and there is plenty to do (or...drink) here.

Sean

Maui, thanks a bunch for the tips man. I will pay attention to all that that you posted. I am thinking that I might veto Newport in favour of more time in Portland - I mean it is not like I am likely to meet Mr Maier. Russian River is a sealed deal. I mean, a Sydney hop head puts Santa Rosa on their list of places visit in all of the US... A mate just brought back my first tasting of Pliny a week or so ago... I think I could IV that stuff.

Trust me, I won't pull out the word y'all at all. It is policy not to unless I am pulling out a 'yes, yes, y'all' like a gronky white KRS wannabe. Besides smaller regional dialects, I am cool with North American as a language.

Guy314, I supremely appreciate your hospitable offer. I don't think we are super needy, but it is great to have friends in NYC. I will def be hitting you up for tips. The Diamond Bar event sounds great.

Chupa, I would love to have a beer with you in your town.

Chupa LaHomebrew wrote:just watch your drink or they might slip you a mickey.

Well... I do have a pretty mouth

And re: the music refrences, I scrolled through itunes while I was posting that, and I guess of maybe 7k songs or so, probably 70% is from NYC, and perhaps 20% or so from LA/SF - large proportions. The other 10% is Men At Work.

if you plan on making it to NE Wyoming, get a hold of me. we say y'all.

Just to add more detail - because I don't use any other social media

We are staying in Portland from the 19th to the 24th then flying to SF
We are in SF from the 24th for a few days and then heading up to do RRBC, Downtown Joes and Sierra Nevada, then out via LA, so I guess we'll fly down to save some time.

I would love to have a beer with any brewer, so if you are local and keen, perhaps PM me.

Cheers guys
Dan