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From: mark@sickkids.UUCP (Mark Bartelt )
Newsgroups: net.wines
Subject: Re: need California beer information
Message-ID: <6@sickkids.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Mar-86 06:48:54 EST
Article-I.D.: sickkids.6
Posted: Tue Mar 18 06:48:54 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Mar-86 09:08:46 EST
References: <3054@ut-ngp.UUCP>
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Organization: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
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> I need some help.  A friend of mine is going to San Francisco at the
> end of the month, and she has promised to buy me a six-pack of boutique
> beer while she's there.  The last time this happened, I asked for
> Anchor Porter, which was good but tasted a lot like Tooth Sheaf, which
> we can get here, and besides, April-October is a very bad time to drink
> stout or porter in Austin (unless you enjoy drinking dark, chewy
> liquids in 80 degree-plus weather)!  Does anyone have any suggestions
> on what she should get?
> 
> By the way, we can already get Anchor Steam and all the Sierra Nevada
> products here.
> 
> 
> cheers, from
> 
> charles s. geiger
> u. of texas

My favourite California beer, back when I was still living there (until
mid-1982) was New Albion ale.  At the time, it was often hard to find in
southern California, where I lived; it's made up north somewhere, so it
may be easier to find in the SF area.  In any case, it's definitely worth
looking for.  It was also frightfully expensive (around $1.50 per bottle,
I recall).  It was a really "natural" approach to brewing:  Apparently
little or none of whatever the beermaking equivalent of filtering and
fining is called; one would usually find a sediment of yeast sitting in
the bottom of the bottle.  One problem (which they may have remedied by
now) was bottle variation from lot to lot.  Usually the beer was quite
excellent, but occasionally it wasn't really up to snuff, and on one
occasion it was quite obviously spoiled.  The beer isn't pasteurized,
and is supposed to be kept refrigerated, so poor handling might account
for the bad lot.  But if your friend brings some back, it would probably
be best if she could find a way to keep it cool.  I seem to recall that
New Albion also made a porter and a stout, both of which were good, but
neither of which I found as delightful as the ale.