Beer Adventure: Drake's. San Leandro, CA.

June 14

So, Off to Drake’s! I met up with my friend Keenan. He had helped me to find some sources for an African American History course I was writing. Keenan is an English Professor with a deep knowledge of novels by black writers and was able to help me find some great urban noir-style novels. As a result I’ve become a fan of Chester Himes.Keenan went above and beyond simple collegial professionalism to help me out, so I owed him a beer. Plus, he lives not too far from Drake’s so it was a great excuse for me to go.

 

Drake’s is located in a warehouse in San Leandro and is not easy to find. It is behind a strip mall, but even that isn’t altogether obvious how to find. I got off the freeway and turned into an industrial development and drove behind the loading docks for a number of stores. At the end, tucked away, was Drake’s.

 

The brewery has a couple of buildings, one for the brewing operation and the other seems to be dedicated to the barrel house tasting room. It is spare, but inviting. There are a number of wood tables and benches inside the warehouse and a hand full on what was perhaps once a loading dock. But, the tables have umbrellas, so, there is some shade. Great beer drinking atmosphere!

There are a number of regular beers, as well as some specialties and some barrel conditioned offerings as well. I tried as many samples as possible. The nice thing about having a friend along is that it increased the number of samples you can try and still remain relatively sober. So, always bring a friend when you go sampling!

IPA: Thin and piney. OK IPA, but not up to the competition.7%. 65

Black Robusto Porter: Thin taste, light for a dark beer, and a bit on the sour side with not enough roasted flavor to balance the sour. More of a dark brown color than black. 5.4%. 25

Dry Stout (on Nitro): This was excellent. Very dark and tasty with a nice robust coffee flavor. Deep roasted taste. The color is near black. Very limited hoppiness. 6.5% no ibu listed.

Total Recall: Blend of amber and imperial stout aged in port barrels. There is a nice sour wine flavor, and a hint of a soy sauce flavor. It had a tasty caramel maltiness. Very intriguing. Hazy brown color. 8%

Moscow’s Burning Smoked Porter. Very dark and smoky, more smoky than the Stone Smoked or even the Alaskan Smoked Porters. Very dominant smoke, but tasty burnt sugar flavor to accompany the smoke. 9.5% 40

Red Eye: Good amber color and robust maltiness. Slightly sour with a good caramel flavor and an earthy hoppiness. 6.5%. 50

Blonde. Kolsch Light flavor and earthy hoppiness. Somewhat thin and watery in taste. Good honey blonde color.4.85%. 24 .IBU

Honey Wheat This one had a lightly sour flavor and was very pale and light in color. It did have a crisp, light, summery, citrusy flavor. 4.7%. 20 IBU.

Amber. The amber was very earthy and somewhat savory in flavor rather than the sweetness the I associate with most ambers. Nice, deep amber color, so it lives up to its name in that way. Medium hoppiness and ever so slightly sour.5.9%. 28ibu

1500 Pale Ale.  Slightly tart and earthy hops. Medium honey color. It sports a delicious caramel maltiness and is one of their better lightly complected beer.. 5.5% 48

Denoginizer. Just a kick ass beer. Slightly darker than the 1500 with a very inviting caramel sweetness plus a piney, almost savory hoppiness.  And, at 9.75%, it lives up to its name. 90 ibu

Quaid’s Dream  Imperial Stout Aged in Port Barrels. 8.25% Definitely one of the most interesting and complex offerings that Drakes offers. It is a stout, conditioned in port barrels, so it picks up a wine-like character. It drinks a little like a sour as a result. It also has a very slight soy sauce savoryness to it, but the sour is the more dominant taste. It also has a deep roasted maltiness – appropriate for a stout.

Tipsy Witch. Second only to the Quaid’s Dream for most interesting beer of the day. The Tipsy Witch is a Barley wine aged in bourbon barrels. Very strong alcohol flavor, unlike the Denoginizer. This one is a cloudy dark honey color, almost an amber. It has a pleasantly sweet flavor with a hint of cherry and chocolate. Definitely one you could sip after dinner with dessert. Very limited hops. You can smell the port in the aroma and pick up on it in the flavor as well. It is almost like drinking a cherry corial. 10%.

Drakonic Imperial Stout. Despite the strength of the beer, there is very little hint of an alcohol flavor, unlike the Tipsy Witch, even though there is only a difference of 1.25%. This one comes in somewhere in the top 3 favorites of mine for the day. 8.75%. 40ibu