Stella Artois

Another beer thanks to Kiki.  Stella Artois is selling their signature Belgian beer in 750 ml bottles.

Its basically the same as Stella in the normal 12 oz bottles, but with a new image. Thanks to a Super Bowl commercial starring Adrien Brody Stella seems to be making its mark as a cool beer again.  Although it doesn't hurt to have the marketing power of Anheuser-Busch InBev.  Honestly, lager beers aren't my favorite if you couldn't tell from any of my previous posts.  Stella, however, is a beer I've come to warm up to.  I think what sets it apart from the American lagers is that it has enough of the Belgian lager taste to set it apart, and is lighter in flavor, but not really a light beer.  At $4.99 for the 750 ml bottle its not the cheapest beer out there, but I suppose its cheaper than buying a pint at many restaurants.

Placerville Brewing Company

This is a companion post to the one about Gold Hill Vineyard's brewing operation.  As we continued on our meanderings through gold country we found ourselves in Placerville, California.  Thanks to the GPS we were able to find Placerville Brewing Company.  Their sampler is a BEAST.  You get 10 beers for $7.95.

Here's the beers:

Golden Ale -- 5.5% ABV; its white wheat and yellow corn.  Tastes like Bud so its not so great.

Tangerine Ale -- 5.5% ABV; its the Golden Ale but with citrus added to it which makes for a very tasty and fruity beer.

Pale Ale -- 6.4% ABV; it is made with Chinook and Cascade hops making for a bitter beer that was quite filling.

Boysenberry Ale -- 6.4% ABV; this is the Pale Ale with boysenberry added making for another fruity beer.  I like boysenberries so this was a treat for me.

Strong Blond -- 8% ABV; a very malty beer that was sweet and strong.  It was not bitter although it did have Columbus, Hallertau, and Tettenang hops.

425 (seasonal) -- this beer was a hop explosion.  The waitress told me that the head brewer adds four pounds of hops to five gallons of Pale Ale.  Very strong floral hop flavor.

Copper -- malty and copper color.  Nothing glamorous.

Pumpkin -- they were trying to get rid of the last remnants of their pumpkin beer so they threw it with the sampler.  Nutmeg and cinnamon made for a spicy beer.  This was probably Kiki's favorite.

Stout -- 6.8% ABV; this was creamy like a Guinness but more chocolaty.

Vanilla Stout -- 6.8% ABV; this is a chocolate beer with bourbon vanilla.  Yum.  Kiki gave a thumbs up for this one and she hates dark beer.

I honestly didn't think I could finish all of these.  But I conquered the PBC.

Placerville Brewing Company was kind of like a sports bar, but with its own brewery.  Placerville Brewing Company is not quite as out of the way as Gold Hill, but Placerville is still a trek.  Anyone heading to Lake Tahoe on Highway 50 should make a pit stop.

Gold Hill Vineyard Brewery

This is a delayed posting from a visit to northern California over this last Christmas.  One day Kiki and I decided to explore and we found ourselves somewhere in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains between Auburn and Placerville.  Tucked into the hills are several vineyards, and Gold Hill Vineyard also brews its own beer.  For $5.50 you can get a sampler of six beers.

The photo was taken by Kiki's Blackberry so its not the best quality, but you get the idea.  The varieties I sampled were: Gold Trail Pale Ale, 49er Red, Old Miner's Scotch Ale, Gold Strike Light, Hank's Porter, and Axe Pic n Stout.  I have to say that these beers are pretty good considering their main effort is wine.  The pale ale and red were good, but a little stereotypical.  I think they were trying to copy Sierra Nevada with the pale ale.  The Scotch Ale was different and was fuller body and more of a darker copper color.  Gold Strike Light was obviously something they brewed to satisfy the crowds of weddings they host.  Their porter and stout were great dark beers.  I particularly liked the stout.

If you're ever wandering around through California's gold country this is a good sampler tray to check out.  The location is beautiful, but its not really near anything so don't expect Gold Hill Brewery expand its operations or its market.