Santa Bruz CA

We got into Santa Cruz around 10 am and grabbed something to eat at a local taco shop and looked around for some local breweries. We found the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery at 11, but they couldn’t start serving beer until 12 and the bar tender wasn’t there yet anyways.



We walked around the complex where the brewery was located while waiting for the bartender to show up. The brewery was in the same area as a couple of wineries and while we were walking around we saw the Bear Republic Brewery picking up 2 giant open oak fermentors from a local winery.





We returned to Mountain Brewing around 11:30 or so and helped the bartender set up the bar stools and tables, then we had a sampler and a pint.



Some solid brews, the IPA was in the English style and not a West Coast IPA which was nice; much more balanced between hops and malt, not a hop bomb like most West Coast IPAs. The Barrel aged Stout was also interesting, it was aged in old Shiraz wine barrels. This imparted both a distinct tartness and a strong tannin sensation on the side of the tongue. It was nothing like a beer aged in bourbon barrels, which gives the beer a mellow vanilla flavor. Maybe there will be more of this style of aging to come when we hit wine country in Northern Cal.