Yeah, I’ve done a pretty crap job at keeping this blog up-to-date. I can’t believe I didn’t file a trip report about the Belgian beer bar in Grenoble (Freres Berthom) … or the 2009 tour planning session at the PorterHouse earlier this year. For that matter, where’s the report on the late spring scouting trip to Brussels, where we’ve identified a few more great bars to go to when the Delirium and Floris are overrun during the beer festival?

Maybe my taste buds are feeling deprived. Actually no maybe about it…Belize is not a beer tourist destination.

However, it is a great and diverse country with many sites to see…from its coral reefs to its caves to its Mayan ruins. But we’re not here to talk about that…we’re here to talk beer.

Belize has a virtual beer monopoly with one brewer that controls the market with local brews and some international brews under contract. Most are forgettable … another bland tropical lager that quenches thirst …

Maybe 9 days of drinking Belikin Stout has clouded my judgment, but it’s actually a pretty nice beer. I’m not sure it’s a stout…my favorite stouts are the bottle conditioned Cooper’s Stout from Australia and for draft the PorterHouse brews out of Ireland (proudly served at their branch in London Covent Garden). I like a good draft Guinness…but if I’m in Dublin I hit every PorterHouse before returning to the hotel bar for the Guin. Oh … and don’t get me started on imperial stouts … that would be a nice nightcap right now as I sit on the beach.

Anyway, the Belikin Stout is a lighter stout but has some depth to the flavor…I question whether or not it is a true stout, but let’s call it a summer stout. A darker beer that drinks well under the hot sun…the world needs more beers like that. I’d gladly drink a Belikin Stout back home by the pool.

America needs a good summer stout … Belikin has done something right …

Aruba is not exactly what you’d call a beer destination. Like other Caribbean destinations, it’s the land of fruity drinks and bland lagers.

But that’s ok. The local beer, Balashi, tastes pretty good when you’re sitting on the beach. If you’re going to have a couple of beers, I always recommend drinking local, so be sure to have a couple of Balashis. On the other hand, if you’re going to have 11 or 12, then I’d recommend the Heineken (usually not my first choice … but Heineken does encourage you to enjoy Heineken responsibly, which I think means that you can keep drinking it until you accidentally spill one)…

What else did I learn?

I learned about heretofore little known and mythical religions of the Indian subcontinent. Then again, perhaps the religion was not native to India, and had only been outsourced there … that doesn’t make it any less significant to the people who lost their religion because of this outsourcing, but I digress.

What was I talking about again?

The Drinking String. An inspiring relgious tradition.

(more…)

Fate smiled upon me.

Last Sunday I had the good fortune to find myself on the road between Los Angeles and San Diego. I was in LA for a friend’s wedding, and turning the trip into a long weekend with a couple of days in San Diego sounded like a good idea.

I hadn’t planned on including any beer excursions on this trip. Oh, yes, of course, I had done my homework and had contingency plans for beer … I ALWAYS have a contingency plan that involves beer … but honestly, that plan was just a contingency.

The wedding was in Manhattan Beach, just a couple of miles south of LAX airport, and one of my contingency plans found me at the Manhattan Beach Brewing Company on Friday afternoon. Alas, to say that the beer was uninspiring would be an understatement. At least the porter was drinkable enough to merit a pint after the sampler. But it’s kind of sad to say that the soft pretzel was the best offering on the bar menu.

After that less than stellar experience, I figured that I’d spare my wife from any more brewpub visits on the trip. But as I was driving down I-5, with my wife asleep in the passenger seat, I thought about Stone Ruination IPA. I don’t get to drink it very often, but I figured I could at least pick some up at a package store in the San Diego area, and enjoy it later on the beach.

By the time we got to Oceanside, the thirst was driving me crazy. I was about to tell my wife about the purple gargoyles, but she would see them soon enough…

(more…)

It pains me to write this review.

Yes, I use sites like Beer Advocate, and I scour the web for details about bars and breweries in places that I am traveling to. But I’ve also seen how a lot of the great places become overwhelmed with crowds and become a less appealing destination.

I don’t want that to happen to La Trappe.

I want them to be successful, so that they are around for me to enjoy for a long time … but not too successful, if you know what I mean.

That said, La Trappe is simply one of the best Belgian beer bars in the world. And I’ve been to a lot of them. Bruges t’ Biertje. Kulminator. In de Vrede. Beer Circus Croydon (RIP). Belgo Zuid (RIP … the only Belgo that ever really mattered). Brewer’s Art in Baltimore. The Trappist in Oakland. In de Wildeman. The Gollem. Academie de la Biere (Paris), Delirium Cafe and Tap Room. I could go on, but off the top of my head that’s a good top 10 list. And not to mention countless others with vast beer selections that were not necessarily Belgian focused.

La Trappe in San Francisco is less than a year old, but it is well on its way to establishing itself as one of the best Belgian bars in the United States … or for that matter, the world.

Indeed, it is almost as if Belgium has annexed 800 Greenwich Street.

Why do I give La Trappe such high marks?

Well, of course, the beer comes first. Their growing beer list has over 200 beers … mostly Belgian, with a few interesting Belgian inspired American offerings, such as Jolly Pumpkin La Roja. 15 rotating taps, including my new favorite, Zoetzuur.

Second, there’s the atmosphere. When you first walk into La Trappe, it doesn’t impress you all that much. You’re going to think that you’re in the wrong place, a simple neighborhood eatery. Look for the steps leading downstairs if the kitchen staff doesn’t point you in that direction. The steps take you down into the beer cave … a.k.a., the Trappist Lounge … where beer nirvana awaits.

If you’re there with a group … or a date … what a great place to hang out.

If you’re flying solo … definitely hang at the bar. I’ve met some really interesting people there, and some very bizarre people as well. The Irish guy whose job is transporting federal prisoners was a real hoot … I don’t know how much of what he said was real, and how much was delusional, but it doesn’t really matter.

This should be enough information to get you to pay a visit to La Trappe … but wait, there’s more.

How about some authentic Belgian food?

Yeah, it’s a restaurant too. The moules and frites over coconut jalapeno rice rocks. I have a hard time ordering anything else. There are other traditional moule pots as well … waterzooi … oysters on the half shell.

And their fish soup is the best that you’ll find west of Bruges. Well, it will be. That is the only thing missing. So when you visit, be sure to ask Michael about the fish soup. Once that’s added to the menu, the perfect Belgian bar and restaurant will finally exist.

It pains me to know that the next time I visit La Trappe, it’ll probably be hard to get a seat at the bar. But on the other hand, if fish soup is on the menu, that’s a small price to pay.

Las Vegas is not what you’d call a beer town. It’s a cocktail town. So what’s a beer guy to do in Vegas? More than you would think.

I’ve long been a fan of the Gordon Biersch Brewpub in Las Vegas. It’s not too far from the Hard Rock Casino. Yeah, Gordon Biersch is a chain, and one is pretty much like another. And while the beer is not outstanding, I have to say that it is pretty good and it is consistent. Better yet, the food is always great. Since I’m usually in Vegas for a convention, I try to stay somewhere near GB, which is an ok walk to and from the convention center. And there’s a Starbucks right across the parking lot from GB … what more do you need? You can almost forget you’re in Vegas … good beer, great food … stumbling distance to your hotel … coffee in the morning. Life is good.

The Freakin’ Frog is another venue I always visit while in Vegas. It seems like it used to be the only place you could get a decent IPA in town. And you could usually count on Chimay Tripel on draft and some other interesting beers. But it’s a little out of the way, over by the university. The Freakin’ Frog has an extensive selection of beer in bottles … but a lot of the prices are pretty ridiculous (with many of the beers just listed as “market” for the price). I still like visiting the Frog, but it’s hard for me to take the bottled beer list seriously as so much of the prices are outrageous. Still, when I was there a couple of weeks ago, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot was on the bottle list for $4. Not a bad bar price at all. I don’t remember how many I had, but I’m thankful I woke up the next morning in my own hotel room.

For a better beer experience, I have to say that this time I enjoyed the Burger Bar at Mandalay Place. It seemed a little odd at first, a hamburger restaurant in small shopping mall with mostly upscale clothing shops, with a video constantly playing on the TV with their master chef appearing on PBS making his gourmet hamburgers. But when I sat down and ordered my first pint of Stone Ruination IPA, I knew I was in love. The Burger Bar has some other interesting taps (such as the obligatory Chimay Tripel), and it has a small, but good, reserve beer list. They had a Stone Anniversary Black IPA that I enjoyed with my burger. Since we don’t see Stone that much in the southeast USA, I was quite intrigued by their beers.

While in town, I also made a point to check out the Triple 777 Casino Brewery in the Main Street Hotel, down near the Fremont Street Experience. It was maybe a little better than you might expect from a “casino brewery”, but not much. It did have one redeeming grace, however … the beer was pretty cheap … and the food was pretty reasonable too. I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to visit here again, but if you’re down near Fremont Street, and you could use a Pale Ale, the price to quality ratio is pretty good here.

Enjoy Vegas. If you find yourself in need of a decent beer, I hope this short report helps you out!