Drive: San Marcos to Tempe, Arizona

"Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything." ~Charles Kuralt

June 17: I skipped my morning shower opportunity at Greg Koch's old house, and chose to make highway time instead. I was tired of driving on Interstate freeways, although for this marathon section of my trip, they are mostly necessary. I'd been given recommendations to take Hwy 8 or Hwy 10 toward Phoenix, but I picked some 2-lane highways to take me toward Hwy 10 in a more direct line to Phoenix.

If you are following along on your map, I took Hwy 78-East from San Marcos to Hwy 15-North to Hwy 79-South to Hwy 371-North to Hwy 74-East to Hwy 111-South to Hwy 10-East. Whew! Are you dizzy yet?

Hwy 74 was a beautiful winding twisting road through a pretty desert with lots of rocks, shrubs, and outcrops. Lots of motorcyclists were out enjoying a sunny Father's Day ride. The photo above is from the Cahuilla Tawanet overlook. Hwy 74 dropped me into the town of Palm Desert. What a change of scenery. Palm Desert and Indian Springs are possibly the most beautiful and unnatural creations of mankind foisted upon an arid environment. So much green grass you'd think you were in Oregon (except when you spy the barren hills on the horizon.)

Finally I made it to Hwy 10. What a long hot ride to Tempe! I watched the engine temperature carefully, and when it tried to creep above 235 degrees, I had to turn off the air conditioning and roll down the windows to keep the van from overheating. Good thing I didn't waste time going to get a shower this morning!

Arrived at Four Peaks Brewing Company in Tempe around 5:30 pm. Owner-Brewer Andy Ingram was busy enjoying Father's Day with his two kids, so I enjoyed a beer newspaper and a sampler set of 8 beers. Andy then joined me for dinner, and gave me the quick tour. Looks like I'll be able to park within extension cord distance tonight, so I can run Big Buddy's air conditioner. I'm happy about that because most of today's drive was at 109-112 degrees. Four Peaks doesn't have a shower for me, so tomorrow I plan to wash my hair in a 5-gallon pail of warm brewery water. Stay tuned for photos.

P.S. Thank you to Andy Ingram and Four Peaks Brewing Co. for letting me take over his office to update this blog.

Pink Boots at Stone

"Don’t stay at home and putter around the house. You need a change of scene." ~David M. Ogilvy

June 16: Saturday morning and the kettle is burning at Stone Brewing Company in San Marcos. Brewer Jeremy Moynier was single-handedly manning the mash when I arrived. Jeremy is a former wine-maker with an interesting history that begins and ends in San Diego. And here he is, a brewer at Stone and loving it.

Brewer Laura Ulrich joined us at 10:00 am to begin her filter on the large Velo vertical screen open dosing DE filter. Laura worked her way up, unafraid of any of the boy's jobs, and I must say it was refreshing and fun to hang out with her. It is rare that I get to talk shop with another woman brewer, and Laura is totally into it. You go girl!

Laura was kind enough to treat me to dinner at Stone's Bistro. I asked her what she thought of my idea of gathering the contact info for all the women brewers I could find, and forming a "Pink Boots Society." (Sort of like the "Red Hat Society.") She liked the idea. We thought it would be fun to get together at a once-a-year event; maybe dinner during the week of the GABF. All us "Pink Boot Society" women could drink beer and talk about brewing, styles of beer, our experiences breaking into (and staying in) the brewing business, etc.

So, I think I'll do that. It will take a bit of time because I'm busy with this road trip, but eventually I will try to put together a roster of all the women craft brewers (not lab techs or marketing people, but actual brewers), and I will list these women (by state) on my website, http://www.pinkbootssociety.com.

It is 10:35 pm and I am working on this blog in Stone's brewing office, waiting for Kevin Gray to dry-hop the Ruination IPA so that I can take a picture. I'm falling down tired and Kevin won't be ready for awhile, so it's off to the trailer and bed for me. I've got a long drive again tomorrow.

P.S. Thank you to Stone Brewing Company for the free wireless in their Bistro.

Pink Boots at Port

"Adventure is my only reason for living." ~Alexandra David-Neel

June 15: Knock knock. It's 5:30 am, and whereas I thought I was parked in an out of the way spot at Stone Brewing Co., I was actually in the middle of the early morning action. Stone ships their out-of-area kegs and bottles by 4:30 pm. The local deliveries depart by 6:30 am. Plus, the employees wanted to park in those spots I was using. So, I fired up the van and pulled Big Buddy to the top of the "upper lot" near the restaurant. Then I went back to sleep. Stone's owner Greg Koch had generously offered the use of the shower at his old house, which is for sale and empty, so I headed there to freshen up upon waking.

After a quick lunch at Albertsons grocery store, I headed for Port Brewing Company. Port is housed in Stone's old facilities in San Marcos. Brewmaster Tomme Arthur was out of town on an East Coast beer safari, but owner Vince Marsaglia welcomed me. Vince was in the middle of cooking up a seafood penne pasta extravaganza on Port's loading dock. It smelled so good, I had to have a second lunch.

Afterwards, Vince fired up Port's 8-head "Skip-Built" bottle filler. Vince mentioned that until today they'd only filled bottle-conditioned beers with it, but today he planned to counter-pressure fill Shark Bite Red into special private-label bottles for Qual-Com. I fetched my safety glasses (more like sunglasses) from my van. Vince showed me how to run the gas-powered bottle crowner, and he and I tag-teamed most of the afternoon. (Photos above.) Bo Winegarner manned the bar as Port's faithful fans filed in to get their Friday afternoon growlers filled.

Vince took off, Bo cleaned the bottling mess, and dynamic duo Terri and Sage Osterfeld took over bartending and growler-filling duties. The bar atmosphere morphed into a friendly living-room sort of place. Patrons brought their dogs and their babies. Homebrewers shared their beers. A local guy nicknamed the "Beer Hunter" shared his latest finds. I enjoyed the Devotion, Red Barn, 10 Commandments, Angel's Share, and a few others. Terri gifted me three bottles of tasty treats to take with me.

Every time I asked for a "taste," I was served half a glass. I moved from the twilight zone to the danger zone, as most of Port's beers are unique, delicious, wood-aged, and quite strong. The bar is only open on Fridays from 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm, and if you make it there, you were trying because it is not so easy to find.

After closing, Terri, Sage and their friends and crew took me to dinner at Churchills, the No#1 beer bar in the area. I had very nice Fish & Chips and a Kolsch. Adam Tillotson and his wife dropped me off at my van at Port Brewing. I keep an Alchohawk breathalizer in my van for these occasions. Needless to say I sat in the parking lot and chatted with my husband for about 45 minutes until I was legal to drive. Also needless to say, I had a well-earned headache in the middle of the night. Although Port's beers were excellent, I hope not to repeat the hangover experience during the rest of my trip.

L to R: Adam, Teri, Bo, Terri and Sage
P.S. Thank you to Stone Brewing Company for the free wireless in their Bistro.

Drive: Paso Robles to San Marcos, California

"What is more beautiful than a road?" ~George Sand

June 14: The good news today was that I was accepted to receive a scholarship from District Northwest MBAA to attend the MBAA International Brewers Symposium on Hops in Corvallis. That will save me $324 for the registration and the monograph. Every little bit helps because I'll be paying my flight from Bar Harbor, Maine to Corvallis, Oregon for the event, plus my hotel room. (And $324 adds up to over 4 tanks of gas.)

The other good news is that Matt Brynildson gifted me a mixed case of Firestone Walker beer, and helped me get the van jumped after the battery quit.

The bad news is that after a late start, I had a very long day. I had trouble finding an RV wastewater dump station and had to back track on Hwy 101 after several false leads. Finally I drove past San Luis Obisbo at 1:00 pm. Then I hit rush hour at 3:45 pm in Santa Barbara. Traffic let up a bit, then really crawled until the rush hour bottleneck let loose at 7:30 pm somewhere on Hwy 405 in L.A. I felt like I was driving 5, 10, or 65 miles an hour all day, with no other choices allowed.

I lightened the drudgery with slowly doled out diet Dr. Pepper and Cheetos. I thought of road signs I wanted to see posted at freeway on-ramps like, "If you're too stupid to accellerate when merging, stay off the freeway." And bumper stickers like, "Powered by Dr. Pepper."

I grew tired as the sky grew blacker. Finally got to Stone Brewing Co. about 10:00 pm. Although I needed a shower bad, I was too tired to disconnect the trailer and find owner Greg Koch's old house for my shower. I parked in a quiet area in back, away from the restaurant parking, and camped there for the night.

Pink Boots At Firestone Walker

"Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys." ~Richard R. Niebuhr

June 13: I am sitting on the curb outside Firestone Walker Brewing Company at sunset. I can smell the wort from their 5th batch of today, a batch of DBA (Double Barrel Ale). The compressors are noisy, the highway traffic less so. The western horizon an reveals the silhouette of a broad orchard crowned with a pink sky, fading up into violet and then pale ultramarine blue. The North Star hangs suspended like a single white Christmas light alone in that expanse of pale blue. A small black beetle decides not to climb on my legs where my laptop is balanced. The wireless signal is not quite good enough here. I'll have to move closer to the tasting room.
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Today I spent a lovely morning with Will Crosby (photo above with Brewmaster Matt Brynildson) brewing Red Nectar and then DBA on Firestone Walker's 50-barrel JV Northwest system. This system is very similar to Deschutes' 50-bbl JVNW system, except Firestone Walker uses hop pellets and Deschutes uses whole hops. Will even let me hop in the kettle to squeegie the last bits of the spent grain down the chute.

I spent most of the afternoon with QC Manager Jim Crooks (photo right) in their lab. We swapped stories on qualtiy control (or the lack that we've both seen in our long careers.) Both Will and Jim are very into bread-making. Seems there are a lot of us yeast nuts out there.

I'm parked in a shady spot near the brewery. There's railroad tracks about 20 feet from Big Buddy, but only one long train went by last night. On the other side of the tracks is a large brown-grass field full of sheep and one dedicated shepard.

Paso Robles is a grown-up agricultural town. That means the visitation of wine-country tourists ensure a decent selection of restaurants downtown. Matt Brynildson and his girlfriend Melissa and I enjoyed some of that selection. If it weren't so darn hot here, it would be a nicer place than it already is.

P.S. Thank you to Firestone Walker for the free wireless internet in their tasting room.

Long Drive with Short Stop in Gilroy, California

"To know the road ahead, ask those coming back." ~Chinese Proverb

June 12: Spoke with Bill Owens this morning, publisher of American Distiller (http://www.distilling.com/) who is on his own 4-month road trip. Bill is taking photographs for two upcoming books - the first one (on America) is an updated expansion of his famous photography book, "Suburbia" which is still used in university level photography courses. The second book is a photo book on the current state of the American Craft Distilling scene. Bill and I determined that he is about six weeks ahead of me. We will try to link up somewhere along the road.

After a quick drive from San Jose to Gilroy, I stopped into Farmhouse Brewing Company. Peter Licht (pronounced Light) has been brewmaster there since 1995 when it was called Coast Range Brewing Company. I know Peter because Steelhead contracted them to brew two brands of root beer in bottles, "Steelhead" and "Bulldog." Bulldog Root Beer is available nationwide at Cost Plus World Market. Steelhead Root Beer is available at the three Steelhead brewpubs as well as limited distribution in Eugene and Portland in Oregon.

Peter is a former New Yorker with a classic road trip tale: Way back when, he and a buddy got in their car and drove until they ran out of gas money. They ended up in California and they're both still here. Peter looks serious in this photo but he throws his head back when he laughs, and he laughs a lot. For a New Yorker he's a pretty mellow guy who doesn't seem to let much bother him.

Peter gifted me with three 22 oz bottles of his Farmhouse Ales, and a bottle of his "Boot Rear" root beer.

Back on the road, I powered down Hwy 101. It was interesting to note that between Gilroy and Salinas, half of the radio stations were spanish-speaking. That's an estimate, but I definitely had to channel surf a lot as I don't speak spanish.

Arrived in Paso Robles in good time.

P.S. Thank you to Firestone Walker Brewing Company for offering free wireless in their tasting room so I could update this blog.

The Kyle and Jason Show

"My interest is in the future because I intend to spend the rest of my life there." ~Charles F. Kettering

June 11: Spent a wonderful evening with Jon's cousin, Brendan's family in San Jose. Kyle (almost 5) and Jason (almost 3) are my new adopted nephews. They adopted me too. Mom Stephanie grilled steaks for dinner and I took a night off from beer. I didn't know that two kids could jump off the top of a 3-foot plastic playhouse into a 10-inch blow-up pool using so many variations and styles of jumps, twists, and splashes.

Happy, Hoppy Hayward, California

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." ~Beverly Sills

June 11: Spent most of the day in the subterranean offices of Tom Dalldorf's Celebrator Beer Newspaper. Tom worked on editing some neat beer festival videos for the Celebrator website, and I worked on this blog.

Mike Pitsker joined us in Tom's cave for a beer tasting. Mike brought the mixed 6-pack of cans of Maui Brewing Company beers. We tasted the Bikini Blonde Lager (hazy with fruity ale-like esters but lager flavor), Big Swell IPA (coppery with a murky haze and big resinous hop aroma and flavors), and CoCoNut Porter (more chocolate on the nose with forward raw coconut in the flavor). Then we escaped to the surface for fresh air and sunshine.

After a lovely lunch outside at the new, improved and expanded Buffalo Bills Brewpub, we walked across the street to Vic Kralj's famous "The Bistro." Vic was on duty so we had a few tastes of his marvelous draft selection including Green Flash West Coast IPA, Green Flash Double IPA, and Russian River Blind Pig IPA. We joked that the average IBU of the beers Vic had on tap must be 60 IBU or more. (Photo above L to R: Vic, Teri, Mike and Tom.)

Luckily we only had tastes, as next it was back into traffic for me, heading to San Jose.

P.S. Thank you to Tom Dalldorf and the Celebrator Beer News for letting me hook into their wireless for a few hours.

San Francisco Bay Area Friends

"Friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it." ~Marcus Tullius Cicero

June 10: After a morning of organizing Big Buddy (my trailer), I met my former coworker buddy Ann at her home in San Leandro. She took me to lunch at Horatio's on the waterfront, and we had a lovely view of the marina while enjoying our seafood-themed brunch. Then we walked it off by circling the marina. Ann is from Michigan, and with me being a Wisconsinite, we mentally surfed that Midwesterner wavelength. It was fun catching up.

After a thorough review of SF Bay Area maps, it was off to Foster City where I lived when I worked as a financial systems COBOL programmer in the 1980's. Met up with some of my old pals who still live in the area. Camped near Steve's house. Steve and his girlfriend Jennifer cooked up a feast of marinated grilled chicken, strawberry spinach salad, and asparagus. I provided the beer and root beer for the feast. Aggie and Dan brought their kids Rachel and Sean, and also fruit salad and cheesecake. (No we didn't eat their kids - somebody had to take the photo!) It was really fun to reminisce about our youth and former careers.

L to R: Aggie, Dan, Teri, Jennifer and Steve

The next morning Jennifer and I went on a power-walk tour of Foster City, then I drove to Hayward to visit Tom Dalldorf at the Celebrator Beer Newspaper offices.

P.S. Thank you to Tom for letting me plug into his wireless and spend several hours working on photos and blogs.

A Visit to Triple Rock, My Old Home Brewery

"People don't take trips. Trips take people." ~John Steinbeck

L to R: Teri, Karen and Jerry
June 8-9: Drove from Sierra Nevada to Auburn, California to visit Jon’s Aunt Karen & Uncle Jerry. Parked on a flat spot a block away. Aunt Karen did my laundry and I had Uncle Jerry’s homemade chicken soup for dinner, then blogged 4 posts and went to bed. Up at 7:00 am and off to the Edelweiss with Jerry and Karen for a hearty breakfast. A gas fill-up and then on my way to Berkeley. It was Saturday morning without traffic so I made good time.

Parked at Trumer Braueri for the day/night, and Brewmaster Lars Larson came out to greet me. It was chance he was there, and I got a quick tour of his expanded Briggs brewery and a photo. Lars is happy making a lot of Pilsner these days, but his background includes brewing ales at Bridgeport in Portland, Oregon. And you know how serious and kinda scary Lars looks in Trumer’s ads? He actually smiles a lot and is very friendly in person.

Lars Larson at Trumer Brauerei

Then I had an hour to kill, so I arranged the trailer (Big Buddy) as a mini-office so I can work on trip planning tonight.

My old boss, Reid Martin picked me up for lunch. Reid and his brother John opened Triple Rock under the name Roaring Rock in 1986. It was the first brewery in California to have serving tanks, possibly the first brewpub anywhere to have them. (Hey everybody, if I get your stories wrong, just email me the correct version and I’ll update the associated blog post.)

Reid’s seven-year old daughter Kendall joined us for lunch. She was more interested in my dill pickle than her unsauced chicken wings. My green chili-mushroom burger with salad was great. So were Christian Kazakoff’s ales, especially the stout.

Triple Rock was déjà vu for me, as it looked almost exactly the same as when I was Head Brewer there in 1989-90, but not quite. Reid and I caught up on what’s been happening while Kendall mastered her crayon technique. It was great to see Reid. I appreciate that he and John gave me the opportunity to work for them in 1989, as Triple Rock really launched my brewing career. Every good thing I’ve done since then has stemmed from the training and experience I gained at Triple Rock. It was fun to notice that Brewer Christian Kazakoff’s Titanium Ale was completely different from my original recipe that I developed in 1990. Such is common with brewpubs and successions of brewers. It’s still a great name and slogan… Titanium Ale: Strong yet Light.

L to R: Grant, Teri, Kendall, Reid
Grant Johnston, Brewmaster at Black Diamond joined us after lunch. Grant was my buddy back in my Berkeley days. Local homebrewer and beer friend Dave Suurballe and his wife Honoria also joined us. Reid was kind enough to take care of our bill, and he gifted me a t-shirt. We did exactly what beer was designed for: We sat there and chatted and enjoyed each other’s company for several hours.

Grant and I commented that at the beer festivals and professional conferences where brewers run into each other, it seems we never have enough time to just plunk down and enjoy a few beers over a few hours of conversation. The same topic had come up with Rod Kucera of Mia & Pia’s in Klamath Falls. Thus, part of the impetus for my trip: To sit with none of the pressing requirements of our hurry-up world; to sit with nothing better to do than drink a few pints and enjoy a few hours in good company. After all, what could be better than that?

L to R: Teri, Grant, Dave and Honoria

Pink Boots at Sierra Nevada

"Maps encourage boldness. They're like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible." ~Mark Jenkins

June 8: Sierra Nevada has a few tanks bigger than this one. Chris Barlow, Scott Jennings, and I spent most of the day in the pilot brewery. It's a neat 10-barrel system, exquisitely designed to exactly mimic their 200-barrel system. Exact may be too exact a word, but by golly they get it close. Scott runs the pilot plant, and Chris normally works on either the 100-barrel or the 200-barrel system, but they tag-teamed on four back-to-back Celebration batches today. Scott came in at 4:00 am. I didn't.

After a nice lunch in their pub, I followed Terrence Sullivan and Jim Mellem around for most of the rest of the day. It takes that long to see everything (and ask a million questions) because the place is pretty huge. They have lots of nifty lab equipment and I think Jim knows how to work all of it. Gil Sanchez and I swapped tales about MBAA, mountain climing (him), rock climbing (me), Leinenkugels, and Milwaukee where Gil worked for Miller for 20 years. (I drank lots of Leinies and Miller while attending college in Wisconsin). Then Steve Dressler topped off my day by gifting me two cases of Sierra Nevada beer. Life is good!

Cousin Peter in Chico

"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance."~Harrison Ford

June 7: I drove all day to Chico, California. Found a good radio station on the way, FM 107 Classic Rock. I haven't had time to figure out the laptop in the van or dig in a tub for some cassette tapes, so when driving I am currently the great radio channel surfer. I'm in the marathon portion of my trip, so sometimes I just have to drive and not sweat the music.

This is my husband's cousin Peter who lives in Chico. We had a great breakfast at Sins of Cortez. I had the cornmeal and blueberry pancakes. Don't know how my face got a fingerprint on it, but its on both photos.

Cousin Peter has long legs. I'm 5'5" tall. Betcha can't guess that he's one foot seven inches taller than me. Add it up. Peter is a special-cases social worker, a martial arts instructor, and a heck of a nice cousin.