Jessica Dunegan with one of Seabright Brewery's summer offerings. Photo by Chip Scheuer.
The builders of the pyramids were paid in it. Winning football coaches are bathed with it. Spicy food would be unthinkable without it. Beer—a drink whose season is, without question, summer. Summer without a cold beer is almost as bland as winter without a roaring fire, or autumn without a Frank Sinatra song. You get my drift.
Beer is quaffable all year ’round, to be sure, but somehow that light alcohol, pungent flavor of fermented grains and hops seems absolutely made for quenching summertime thirsts. Think barbecue. Think poolside. Think baseball. Yes, some moments—especially summertime ones— were made for a tall, cold beer. And here in the Santa Cruz area we not only have supermarkets filled to overflowing with decently made beers from all over the world, we've got handmade microbrews from our very own local brewmasters. What's on tap for the summer of 2013.
“Casino IPA,” Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing taproom manager Nicole Todd tells me, “is one of our new brews, originally made for the Boardwalk with lots of vintage images on the label.” Back on tap this summer is SCMB’s popular Olallieberry Cream Ale. Does it really taste like berries, I ask? “Oh yeah,” Todd assures me. “We add 70 pounds of fresh olallieberries to each batch. People come in year-round asking when we'll be having it.” This summer brings Pepé’s Lavender IPA back to the Westside organic taproom, made with fresh lavender from Boulder Creek's Camp Joy. The organic brews from SCMB are nothing if not local and seasonal. Todd admits that “the IPA (India Pale Ale) is the most popular. America is on an IPA kick,” Todd believes. “It has higher alcohol and more hops, bigger flavor.” At 7 percent alcohol, IPA comes close to some of the light European wines, such as 9 percent Vinho Verde and 11 percent Grüner Veltliner. “Our beers generally range from 5-7 percent alcohol,” says Todd who has been taproom manager at the popular Ingalls Street brewery for the past five years. The beer garden out front has heated patio seating, so while it’s undeniably a great place to wind down a hot afternoon, it’s popular year-round. “We started eight years ago as just a brewery, but people pretty much demanded the tap room.” Now the public hoists SCMB IPAs “all day every day,” which means 11:30am-10pm, seven days, 365.
Meanwhile, over at Santa Cruz Aleworks, four “core beers” are on offer year-round: IPA, Hefeweizen, Stout and a new light German Kölsch-style ale, which I’m told by SCA’s Michael Barker is brewed and treated like a lager and weighs in at a summery 5 percent alcohol. SC Aleworks makes an English-style India pale ale—“slightly more bitter” and a West Coast-style pale ale as well. “We've been open six years,” Barker tells me, “and in the last few months we've also become a brewpub, with deli foods and beers available on site every day from 11am-6pm.” You can find SC Aleworks beers at 150 Dubois in the Harvey West area, as well as in most local liquor stores, New Leaf, Staff of Life and Whole Foods. “We only do ales,” Barker explains, “since keeping different yeast strains separate can be difficult.” Barker believes that the brewery's IPA is considered the most exciting product. “IPA has got movement in the industry, people like the flavor—it’s the trend beer right now and it delivers more bang for the buck.” The European model of taproom is to drink at your neighborhood pub, he reminds me. “It's about drinking locally.” Which means there is plenty of room for the fine handmade brews in our coastal beer-drinking community.
Discretion Brewing is a four-month-old operation specializing in handcrafted organic specialty beers, with a taproom and outdoor beer garden open daily 11:30am-9pm. “We just put on a new IPA called Free Day,” I'm told by taproom rep Clinton Shaver. “It's a lighter offering, 5.7 percent alcohol, and we feel that this one can be consumed freely and yet with some discretion,” he chuckles. New entries in the brewery's Conversation series inspired by Belgian-style beers are now ready for sampling. The first Conversation saison is light, summery, “great for hot days and a refreshing 5% alcohol,” Shaver notes. Another Belgian-inspired brew is still fermenting and should be available by the time you read this. “Our taproom has an outdoor patio where dogs are very welcome.” In addition to the limited edition beers made by master brewer Michael Demers, Discretion’s inviting taproom offers designer pub food from Main St. Garden Cafe.
Discretion Brewing – 2703 41st Ave., Soquel (across from Best Buy).
11:30am-9pm daily.
Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing – 402 Ingalls St., Santa Cruz.
11:30am-10pm daily.
Santa Cruz Aleworks – 150 Dubois St., Ste E, Santa Cruz.
11am-6pm daily
Want more beer? Make plans for the California Beer Festival, returning to Aptos Village Park on Saturday, August 10, 12:30-5pm. It’s food, fun, sun, music and 70 craft beers on tap.
