The NorCal Brew Tour - Part 2

The deckel from AVBC.

Today I’m continuing with a series of three posts about the vacation to Northern California that Mary and I recently took – these three cover the five breweries we visited.  Yesterday I wrote about Bear Republic, North Coast, and Russian River; today is about Anderson Valley, and tomorrow will close out the series at 21^st Amendment. 

Of the five breweries that we visited on the trip, Mary and I had been to Anderson Valley and North Coast on previous trips to Mendocino in 1995 and 2000.  Anderson Valley is conveniently situated about halfway along Route 128 from Highway 101 to the PCH.  It’s in wine country, as well, but it made a good stop for us on the way to our destination.

A row of hop bines along the parking area.

The years since our first visit in 1995 have been good to Anderson Valley.  They make excellent beers, and they have adopted a sustainable philosophy, installing solar power at the brewery.  There were several hopyards around – I’ve got a photo here of them, mostly Cascades, as with many of the Northern California breweries.

A more traditional hopyard out by Route 128.

I’ve also got a photo of the taproom here, just for a reference for myself and friends, if we ever do finally chase the dream of opening a brewery ourselves.  A clean, well-lit place, as Hemingway once said – and that is exactly what I have in mind.

The AVBC Taproom.

My selections for sampling.

After checking out the offerings, I chose four to have in the little sample glasses.  I picked one of the namesake offerings, a weizen, a saison, and then the Chilean Porter.  All were good, but I really enjoyed the Saison and the Porter – both were enough of an inspiration that I might look into them for future brew projects.  

Especially the porter!

Tomorrow I will wrap up this series of posts, but until then, here is a link to the Anderson Valley brewery:

https://avbc.com/