Beer Adventure: Martinez Beer Walk, Dec. 15, 2012

Dec. 15: Beer Adventure. My buddy Terrill sent me a text a few days ago referencing a Santa Crawl in Martinez. We arranged to go. Never having been to Martinez, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised that Martinez has a nice downtown area that stands in stark contrast to its industrial surroundings. The event was organized by the Creek Monkey Tap House. They are supposed to have about 30 taps, but for some reason we didn’t actually go into the establishment. I’m not really sure why not. Most of the locations around town were local businesses, many of which were not restaurants or bars. So, there were boutiques with various knick knacks for sale that hosted various beer samplings. While a few were able to bring in portable kegs, most of the locations were serving from bottles. While that was somewhat disappointing, I did get to sample a few things that I hadn’t seen. The two most notable were Heretic’s Gramerye, a rye beer and Torment, a barley wine – both of which were quite tasty. Since it was a roving beer night, I didn’t take notes, so nothing distinct to write about any of the beers I tried. The other notable stop was at a beer radio station that brings on local home brewers and does interviews with noted local brewers. Very cool. Will have to listen to their  internet radio site. They had a saison that was done by a local brewer that was excellent. They also had a beer called Janet’s Brown, which is a collaboration between a local home brewer and Russian River Brewing. Very tasty brown with a mild sour element to it.. The other brewery I took note of was E. J. Phair, which shares some of its space with Heretic. They have a tap room, so I must visit. I hadn’t seen their beers before but they have a new distributer and may make it to San Jose soon. I hope they do since I like the IPA they served – it was somewhat savory. Also tried some standards from Drakes, Lagunitas, Omegang, and Rogue. Cool event and small enough to be low key. Would definitely go back. Ended the evening at a BBQ place that had really good hamburgers. Very successful night. And good recon on E.J. Phair, so new knowledge acquired. Also heard that Heretic is in the process of moving to a facility in Fairfield that will have a taproom. So, good times ahead.