J. Jason Lazarus Blog

St. George's, Ethiopia

I promise, this is the last post I’ll have about my trip to San Francisco - which, at this point, was almost a month ago.  I have yet to, at length, discuss the beers that I tasted on my trip - and although this list doesn’t mention all the beers I tasted, it does note those of significance, interest or my first tastes of said beer.  As a whole, unlike Alaska, I found it hard to track down many dark beers in San Fran.  Most Brewpubs and Breweries would only have one on tap at a time - I’m so used to seeing 2-4 at any given time in Alaskan Breweries.  Although it may have seemingly made the choices slim, I still did enjoy myself quite a bit.  Although the list may seem long, note that I was in-town almost two weeks - each beer was appreciated and I found myself most of the time sipping on each far after my food was done and far after the wait staff wanted me to free up the space.  The following is a list of my encounters and my quick thoughts on each, as transcribed into my iPhone at the time of consumption…

Asahi Black, Japan

St. George’s (Ethiopia) is surprisingly a full-flavored beer for being such a light colored lager - doesn’t have that annoying bitter nip that many do.  Nice drinking beer.  4/5.

Prohibition Ale (San Francisco) - far too hoppy for me - the overwelming aftertaste takes away from the liquid - this isn’t an ale, it’s an IPA!

Rogue Mocha Porter (Oregon) - although a bit on the watery side - though could be because of the draft itself, it has a nice ever-so-slight roasted flavor that doesn’t overpower the cofffee element ( note that they are indeed separate ) - good drinkability and a light aftertaste which is also surprising.

Moylan’s Kilt Lifter (Novato, CA) - very perplexing concoction - it quite literally has the overall taste of a Guiness with a half shot of gin.  You’re talking to the guy that hates gin because of it’s overwelming juniper berry flavor - but damn, for a sipping beer it’s not bad!  Has hints of molasses and coriander as well as a light rum cask aged taste.

Rogue Mocha Porter

Stout of Circumstance (Magnolia Brewing, SF) - Very pleasing toasty coffee aroma to the smell of this beer.  Well balanced for a roasted flavor and it doesn’t linger on the palate.  Outstanding.  5/5.

Fleishhacker Stout (San Francisco) - Beach Chalet’s Stout that doesn’t bring much but mediocrity to the table.  Nothing I haven’t tried before and nothing even closing in on unique.

Koslov Stout

Thirsty Bear’s Golden Vanilla (SF) - I’ve never, ever had a vanilla infused brew that hasn’t been obnoxiously overbearing and drenched in sweetness - or to a lesser extent, one that used vanila as such a light note that it gets looked over - perfect, this one is.  Powerful fragrance isn’t at all a hint of whats to come - the brew is well balanced and highly drinkable.  4.5/5.

Koslov Stout (Thirsty Bear, SF) - wow. I had to restrain myself from chugging this one (joking!).  Nitrogen conditioned, it drinks smooth like a Guiness but has an overwelmingly delightful roasted flavor that lingers just long enough.  Ahh… perfection!  5/5.

Eugene City Oak Rum Stout

Eugene City’s Oak Rum Stout (Oregon) - this beer has one hell of an identity crisis - it’s obviously oak barrelled aged - the name gives that one away - but usually that comes with a slight bitterness which is strangly lacking.  It also has a hint of hoppiness, which usually would kill it for me (I hate IPA’s) but the slight sweetness makes it palatable.  A serious sipping beer - anything moreso makes it taste like an IPA - dare I say this beer is too complex for me to enjoy?  That’s probably not near the stretch I’m making it sound like..

Alcatraz Stout (SF Brewing Co.) - nice light stout with strong roasted overtones - I could managed to drink a few of these without feeling full or weighted down - unlike most heavier stouts that tend to fill you too fast.  Uncomplex yet fulfilling.  3.5/5.

In all, I tried out four local brewpubs, a public house and several other local brews - and in all, I was most impressed with Thristy Bear Brewing’s menu, service and selection.  I was completely unimpressed by San Francisco Brewery Co., as their brewpub’s menu resembled a diner more than a brewpub and their selection was, just like their menu, half the offerings they listed online.

Flying Horse, India

Magnolia Brewpub, in their attempt to clean out the Haight Street riff-raff I’m sure, has made their Brewpub such a posh location to go that it virtually makes it inaccessably snobby for the likes of me.  Two years ago the place was amazing - with gourmet burgers, vegetarian entrees and a healthy beer selection - now it’s full of five-word descriptions for complex foreign-inspired entrees that alienates the laymen - which is a odd tactic given that last I knew, those who like the tastes of high society rarely pick up a beer.  Beach Chalet was, well, your most basic excuse for a brewery.  It would be like, using Fairbanks as a reference point, if the Pumphouse decided to make it’s own beer out of the blue.  Rogue Public House was inviting, albeit a bit too busy for this old dog, and the food was outstanding.  All together, a great trip for food and brews.

It’s taken me a while to finally get these up - but with the trip to San Fran and all, I think I’m allowed a bit of slack time.  Christmas went pretty much as expected - Aidan made out like a bandit, mostly courtesy of both sets of grandparents.  Most of the pictures, of coarse, predictably cover his presents and pretty much nobody else’s.  I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t expecting that either - but it is pretty interesting to see how radical the shift is - really sinks it in that you’re a parent now and Christmas will never, ever be about you anymore :)  I can’t complain too much, watching Aidan open his presents and play with them was a much bigger treat than any gift I could’ve gotten!

The Inchworm he’s riding does have a bit of a story behind it - when I was his age - or should I say a bit older (18 months) - I got a Inchworm almost just like this one.  I’ll have to dig up the photo and scan it - it’s uncanny the resemblance - everything above the chin is me!

That being said, here’s the <link to the gallery> - enjoy yourselves!

Man, have I ever been bad at this.  Seriously, finding Free Wifi in San Fran was a pain - to say the least.  Anyways, obviously I’m back by now - have been for over a week - and all is well in what was a plague-ridden home.  Our entire family has now been sick with the stomach flu but we’re all better now - thankfully.

Anyways - the fifth day in San Fran was practically uneventful.  Having already picked up my Macworld supplies the day before (thankfully IDG finally figured out giving only one day for all conference attendees to pick up their stuff before the keynote was a BAD idea), I didn’t have much to do on a horribly rainy day…

Stepping back a bit, it’s probably worth noting that I checked out Eastwood’s Gran Torino the day before - and ever since seeing the movie, I can’t talk about it enough.  Classic Eastwood with a shocking twist that, quite literally, goes against all prescribed notions of him and his characters.  Great movie - worth a watch.

So, on the fifth day  I decided to pick up the F-line Street Car and head down to Castro.  Did quite a bit of browsing around, ate a wonderful slice of Garlic and Potato Pesto Pizza at Escape from New York Pizza, grabbed an awesome gift for Deanna, did a bit of shopping downtown and headed home to my new hotel - The Mosser - downtown on 3rd Street.  As much as I love the Haight District, I don’t think I’ll be planning on staying there anytime soon again - after about 9pm there’s far too many drunks and homeless on the streets, far too many screaming hippies outside at 2am and … well, it’s just not the same cheery place it is during the daytime hours.

Day Six was Keynote day - standing in line for about two full hours - *mumble* after cutting in line *mumble* can be daunting.  What can I say, when the line starts moving inside and you refuse to move fast enough not to cause a 1/8th mile gap in the line?  Yeah, I’m gonna cut.  Keynote was actually pretty fun this year - some neat additions to both the iWork and iLife series makes them definite buys - well, at least the iLife series.  I’m currently waiting with a slightly-bated breath for this product.  Oddly enough, the keynote didn’t seem as vacuous as I thought it would be without Steve around.  His replacement had practically the same energy, vibe and - dare I say it - even more enthusiasm than Steve.  There’s only so many times Steve can say “It’s just simply amazing” in a slow, methodical repetition without it seeming like monotonous droning.  I, of coarse, would’ve loved to see more product announcements - some meat behind the Mac Mini upgrade and iPhone Nano rumors - those sorts of things - but I suppose we can’t have everything.  Although, if everything included seeing Tony Bennett perform - I suppose I’d have to be happy.  It was great seeing him perform two songs at the end of the keynote - simply amazing!  The rest of the day was spent perusing the Expo Floor (which I cut the line to as well - bad karma for me, I’m sure).  I did, however, have a late lunch over at Schroder’s Cafe, a German restarurant, and have to admit I wasn’t nearly as impressed by it the second time around… which is kinda sad, as much as I love German food.

Day 7-9 was, for the most part, completely dedicated to Macworld.  I did, however, have several wonderful dinners - which, to be honest, there’s no lying that this trip less about doing and more about eating.  Afgani was the choice for Day 7 - I had found wonderful reviews online about Helmand Palace, and even though it was a bit of a hair-raising experience getting there from where I was, I absolutely loved the food.  It’s interesting to pick out the subtile nuances of each country’s food - although it’s so easily to group all the Middle East into one cuisine category, there are major differences in, say, Turkish and Afgani - or even Afgani and Indian.  Day 8 was trying out the San Francisco Brewing Company.  Great beer but unfortunately their online menu is horribly out of date - half the beer and food selection than I was actually expecting left me eating Fish and Chips and only partaking in one of the beers I wanted to try.  Day 9 was yet another walk into North Beach to The Stinking Rose, an Italian Restaurant that knows a thing or two about Garlic - and one of our favorite stops in San Fran.

With Day 9 finishing up Macworld, I ended up going around the Expo and grabbing the last bit of things that I wanted to get - picking up several Gelaskins for our iPods and my Macbook, finally grabbing a screen protector for my iPhone and a day or two eariler picking up a Livescribe Pulse Pen.  My God, if there was ever a single item that I needed more during my undergrad - I don’t know what it is.  This pen will not only record up to 200+ hours of audio, but will link it to my notes - literally - in the notebook itself.  Click on a word you wrote and it’ll start playing the audio you recorded as it was written - fully linked the audio also transfers with your notes (courtesy of a infrared camera in the pen), fully transcribed, to your computer.  The words you write are also searchable via handwriting recognition and the audio can be exported to your iPod while both notes and linked audio can be placed online to share with others - all for $200!  An outstanding bargain and something that makes notes actually *fun* to take.  I can only imagine what this gadget would’ve done to my GPA if I would’ve had it - now I need to take classes again just to have an excuse to use it more!

Day 10 was awesome - Harlan, a buddy of mine from Fairbanks, previous broomball teammate and a proficient dark beer drinker met up with me in town.  Having only the evening to hang out because I had a plane to catch the next afternoon, we ran all over the Financial District, Nob Hill, Union Square, Chinatown, North Beach and SoMa just to take in as many local brewpubs and pubs as we could in one evening.  Hitting up the Irish House for Bangers and Mash, then the San Francisco Brewing Company, then the Rogue Ales Public House and finally Thristy Bear Brewery, after walking probably three miles that night, we were both bushed.  I know I at least got one blister from our excursion - but it was outstandingly fun.  We did happen to note that apparently the closer you get to Mexico the fewer the options for dark beers there are - up here in Alaska we live off of dark beers - aside from those shallow individuals that love IPA’s for some reason *smirk* - yet even down in San Fran, in Northern California, it was hard to find more than one or two dark brews on tap at any given brewery.  Harlan, who had just came from Mexico by way of Vegas, said it was practically impossible to find darker brews in our neighbor to the south.  Sad state of afffairs, I tell you.

In retrospect, I didn’t get to do nearly as much as I wanted to in San Fran - I didn’t do nearly as much photography as I wanted to - didn’t have the inspiration to do so for some reason - I suppose seeing the same thing over and over makes me unaware of said opportunities.  I didn’t see as much as I wanted to and yet I got a lot of the rest that I needed - a change of scenery that, even with all its flaws, was welcomed.  A breath of fresh air, perhaps, after -40F in Fairbanks and a relative stagnant day-in-day-out routine.  I’m going to try my best to break that routine this spring - try and get out and do some photography even with the blasted weather, and attempt to not get so frustrated by the routine that it all becomes.  I’ll be looking forward to Harlan getting back - thereby gaining someone to have a slow, methodical pint with.

I know, I know - at this rate I’m never going to get anything done and I’ll be home in Fairbanks by the time that I just get up-to-this-date. I know - deal with it. I’m having fun, deal.

So, the third day ended up being one heck of a mess of a day - staying the nights in the Upper Haight district, I had intended to spend quite a bit of time in the Golden Gate Park and hopefully get to see the Academy of Sciences. In fact, I planned this entire day around going to it - and of coarse, what are plans but things that are made to be broken? I wandered through the park for about an hour or two before I started meandering toward the AoS.

Then, I saw the line. In fact, the Mother of all Lines. Stretching easily for a quarter mile (I kid you not!) for some reason that I never figured out - yes - because I gave up. After seeing a line of easily 500-1000 people, you’d probably give up as well. I still haven’t managed to get back to see it - I’m crossing my fingers for tomorrow afternoon/evening… but more or less, it’s starting to look like a impossibility.

After that, I opted to head toward Japantown - unfortunately Golden Gate Park isn’t exactly the easiest park to just walk out of - neither is it easy to find a transit line once you’re in it.  I had stupidly opted out of the $3 full Muni Map thinking that the dinky one I have in my Moleskine would be enough to allow me safe passage around the town - boy was I wrong.  About 3-4 miles of walking from Upper Haight, through the park, around the AOS and toward Geary Blvd., I finally got on a bus toward Japantown.  Managed to have lunch at my favorite Japanese Fusion restaurant On the Bridge and also managed to burn my mouth alive in the process.  The last time that I went to San Fran, I declared this restaurant as the spiciest food I’ve ever tasted - and it was good to know they haven’t changed a thing.  Although I was able to handle myself a bit better this time around, I still uncontrollably cried, started hiccuping and ran through my Calpico pretty darn fast.  The addition of Calpico (basically flavored carbonated/caffeinated milk) was a smart choice this time - last time the cook came out of the kitchen to fan me with a magazine, laughing while doing it, because I didn’t have enough water to satiate the flames.  Also had a Japanese Beer that I’d never had before, did some shopping (but didn’t find anything) and then slowly headed toward the Haight District to actually shop there.  For dinner, I stopped by Magnolia Brewpub and wasn’t nearly impressed with the place this time as I have been before.  Before, the Brewpub was a lot more accessible to like-minded people - this time they had infused a bit too much sophistication to their establishment to make it enjoyable - the menu was minimalistic, non-descriptive and not at all appetizing - and the beers hadn’t gotten better either.  Ah well, one depressing note on a great trip.

The next day I took advantage of it being a gorgeous day and headed, once again, toward Golden Gate Park - but this time I was a bit smarter - took the buslines that, as I discovered in frustration the night before, my iPhone had pre-programmed in the Google Maps.  Unfortunately, soon enough I found out that they weren’t nearly as perfect as I had expected - apparently lacking the Sunday times for the transit.  So, here I sit, in the middle of nowhere residential area south of the Park, near the Ocean, waiting 35+ minutes for the bus that my phone says will be here in less than five minutes.  Being proactive, I decide to start walking toward my destination - the ruins of Sutro Baths (a destination in the early 20th century right near the Beach where a hot springs resort used to be - not it’s just ruins).  Yes, 2+ miles of walking ahead of me - with a full bag of camera equipment - joy!

After taking a break at the Beach Chalet & Brewery, I made my destination - took pictures for about an hour or two and then started heading toward downtown.  I didn’t get nearly the amount of photography done on this trip than I wanted to, but I’m still glad I at least got some done… and on such a wonderful day!  At the very least, it was extremely relaxing - even though the walk wasn’t all too fun.

That’s up to Day 4 - next time soon, I hope!

Current pics (which will probably be updated more than my blog right now) are available via my Gallery in two locations - through the main gallery <link> and my iPhone upload Gallery <link>.

It’s been a busy last few days - but it’s been an enjoyable change of pace (and temperature) from Fairbanks. I’ve ate far too much, walked far too much, seen and shopped and spent far too much but in excess there is always fun to be had. The only thing that I have been lacking is reliable wifi that I’m not hijacking from some idiot that left their wifi open - so here I am, day 5, sitting in Schroder’s German Restaurant in downtown SF - right after seeing the Macworld Keynote and rummaging through the Expo floor until my feet fell off.

But I digress - I’m sure all of you are wondering what the hell I’ve been doing for the past few days..

I got here later on Thursday than I was hoping for - a traffic jam in the air in San Fran kept us on the ground an extra hour in Seattle - always fun to be on a overheated plane for longer than you wanted. Got into town, onto the BART and into my hotel room about two hours after I landed - forcing me to delay a lot of plans that I had for the day. I did, however, get dinner at my favorite Ethiopian restaurant - Massawa. If you haven’t ever tried Ethiopian - you’re missing something - extremely flavorful food that’s fun to eat cause you’re practically eating with your hands and gathering something the consistancy of stew into spongy bread. After partaking in a wonderful dinner and a highly recommended Ethiopian beer (St George), I headed downtown to find a brew at one of the local brewpubs - quickly finding out that - OH YEAH - it’s New Years Day - nobody’s open. Apparently I was attempting to celebrate one day too late.

I started the next day out early, skipping out on a “Peaceful International Breakfast Discussion” at my bed and breakfast (redvic.com). I promptly headed toward Chinatown - no matter how many times you shop in the area, you’ll come back for more and more of their amazing disposable gifts and trinkets. Actually, I shouldn’t bash it too much seeing that a good portion of our current decor choice comes directly from the district itself - and knowing what, before the end of this trip, more of it will come as well. Making my way through the district, I ended up plopping down for lunch at Rogue Ales Public House in the middle of North Beach (aka Little Italy) Had a great brew - and trust me, I plan to review all the brews I tried later on - and a great lunch. I got to hit up quite a few awesome stores that I had found online a few weeks before - between a Japanese Toy/Collectable store to a Vintage Video Game store - even hit up an amazing candy store that we’ve gone before, picking up 4+ lbs of candy to send back!

After that, I headed toward the Fisherman’s Wharf for some limited shopping as well as stopping by the Musee Mechanique - a arcade with old-style coin-oped games (circa 1900s).

I’ve always loved going through the small neighborhood shopping areas of both Union and Chesnutt streets - not only because of the shopping options but mainly for the atmosphere of Main Street America in the middle of a huge city. I hit both of them up - and trust me, my feet were truly complaining afterwards. There’s only so much you can reasonably expect out of a transit system, and, at some point, no matter how much you can get around if you’ll just wait at a bus stop, sometimes walking seems to make more sense. After barely picking up anything shopping-wise in either district (aside from some Williams-Sonoma for Deanna), I took up a personal guilty pleasure and took in a movie - Valkyrie - at a wonderful neighborhood theater - the Presidio. Enjoyed the experience and the movie immensely. After that, I finished the night at a Nepalese Restaurant and also enjoyed a wonderful ethnic brew.

Being that I’m at dinner, attempting to enjoy myself and have far too much left to write, I’ll leave the rest for later.