We flew out to California for a week around Easter, with beer and birds on the agenda. Blastbeats would have to wait for our trip to Baltimore for Memorial Day weekend.
Our first day in California, Martha’s dad drove us out to the Auburn Alehouse. I’ve always thought Auburn had one of the more memorable exits on I-80 in California, as there is a giant statue of a man panning for gold at the exit. I remember seeing it for the first time just before dawn on my first cross-country drive the summer after finishing college — we had left Glenwood Springs, Colorado the previous afternoon and there was something spooky about a big miner appearing next to the road.
The one in front was called the Scarlet Harlot, and was my favorite of the selection.
The Auburn Alehouse makes a fairly straightforward line of beers, with an emphasis on hops that is fairly common on the West Coast. Like most brewpubs in California, they offer a sampler with everything that happens to be on tap at the moment. This generous attitude towards sampling could lead to trouble at places with more extensive selections, but that’s a story for another post. For some strange reason, I forgot to take notes in Auburn, but here’s what I remember:
- Auburn Alehouse makes two lagers, both of which were fairly decent, clean-drinking beers with a notable malt character.
- One of their special beers was a pale ale brewed with hops from the Pacific Northwest, and the other was the Scarlet Harlot, a hoppy red ale. The latter was my favorite of the day, with a lovely caramel character followed up by the grassy, bitter hop finish.
- Their Gold Digger IPA missed a perfect thematic opportunity to use Nugget hops.
- We bought a bomber of their double IPA, which was pleasant if unspectacular.
One of a tidings.
Back in Sacramento, Martha spied a number of yellow-billed magpies in a baseball field, so we pulled over and spent some time watching them muck about in the field. No visit to the Central Valley is complete without some time with the magpies.
(Also, go here for more about the yellow-billed magpie from Martha.)