Just saw this and thought it was interesting:

The Year in Beer: Beer Drinking in America by Volume

I finally got a chance to visit The Trappist in Oakland this Sunday and I have to say this is my favorite beer bar so far in the bay area.  The decor is simple and beautiful, everything - the bar, walls, furniture, are done in dark wood.  The bottled beer menu is leather bound, each page protected in a plastic sleeve with short descriptions of each beer.  I told the bartender how much I digged the menu and she said people steal them all the time.  I don’t blame them.  The Trappist is a Belgian beer lover’s paradise and in turn they treat their Belgian beers with love.  Each beer is kept at the appropriate serving temperature for that specific beer.  Every one of them is served in its appropriate glass and rinsed before each pour using a high-tech fountain built into the bar.  I’ve never seen anything like it.

I started off with an Allagash Four, then on to another quadrupel, a bottle of Ommegang’s Three Philosophers split with my buddy Augi.  We finished the day off with a real treat, Brasserie de Rocs’ Triple Impériale, a Belgian dark strong along with a cheese and salami plate. One of the most interesting things was when Augi challenged me to quiz his girlfriend, who does not drink beer at all, on beer and brewing. I was amazed, she could name me all the main ingredients in beer, as well as different types of hops and even processes in fermentation. Funny enough, she probably knew more about beer than 95% of beer drinkers.

By the end of it Augi and I agreed we would try to make going to The Trappist a Sunday ritual. It might take some more effort to convince his girlfriend.

Just imagining yourself riding a train packed with kegs of beer is great but you don’t really get the full understanding of how incredible it is until you actually get on the train, pour yourself a beer, feel the wind on your face, hear the click-clack of the train going over the tracks and see the redwoods over your head. THAT is when you pause and say to yourself, “Wow, this is pretty cool.”  Then you look over at the person standing next to you and see from his expression he’s pretty much thinking the same thing.  And knowingly, you nod to one another and raise your cup.

An hour later you arrive at your destination and what awaits you?  Even more beer and tons of food. Barbeque chicken, potato salad and pulled pork.  Live music playing.  Strangers sitting together, sharing a meal and enjoying wild conversation.  A small group walks down to the banks of the creek.  Moments later a sweet and skunky aroma is in the air.  You find a large, bare chested man sprawled out on the ground, taking drunken refuge underneath the shade of an information kiosk.  The sign on the kiosk reads “Protector of the Forest” and it’s almost perfect.  You and your new friends begin to create a story about his life and how he was given this important task.

The next thing you know the train whistles and tells you it’s time to head back to camp.  You board the train but this time you grab a bottle of water and instead of riding in the open car, you opt for a seat in one of the closed cars in the back.  You sit down, put your feet up and close your eyes.  Because you know once you get back to camp you’ll be doing it all over again.

This post has gone through a couple drafts. I really hate reading blog rants. Using your blog as a forum to vent your frustrations about your personal and work life makes for horrible reading and it’s been a rule of mine never to do it on this blog. But since my last post, I’ve caught myself doing exactly that. I’ve had a few “WTF am I doing here?!” moments in the past two months, mostly stemming from work. Luckily, every time I drafted something, I had enough sense to not click ‘Publish’ and instead slept on it. Some days are good, some days are bad. I just have to remind myself to be patient; I’ve only been here for two and a half months.

San Francisco has plenty of beer lovers and the number of beer-related events here are a testament to that. My first event was an IPA tasting hosted by fellow beer blogger Jessica. It was well organized, with group discussions after each beer was sampled. Not having attended a beer-related event since the 2008 California Homebrewers Festival two months prior, it felt good talking shop again. Afterwards the few of us that were left went over to her house for some more beer, discussed homebrewing and the possibility of even starting our own homebrew club (more details as they develop). Last week I attended the monthly “Meet the Brewers” event by the San Francisco Brewers Guild. This month’s meeting was hosted by Beach Chalet, a restaurant/brewery located only about 2 miles from where I live. I got to meet Aaron, the head brewer at Beach Chalet as well as brewers from Gordon Biersch and Thirsty Bear. We got to sample a variety of appetizers (great crabcake) and a good amount of beer too including their 10th Anniversary Belgian Strong Ale that Aaron only brings out on special occasions.

Next up? The 2008 Lagunitas Skunk Train on September 6th! I’m really looking forward to this one. Beer + Trains = Ridiculous Times.

My next big purchase is a pair of Dr. Scholl’s insoles.  I just got home from my second day on the job.  I would of written this post yesterday after my first day but I was dead tired and could hardly type.  Man are there a lot of things to learn about this business!  I’m like someone who’s never even seen snow trying to snowboard down a double black diamond.  But I have some good people training me.  I’m giving myself a month before I’m totally comfortable working at the restaurant.  I’m getting to know the back of the house guys as well.  They start breaking out beers about 15 minutes before closing.  I thought I’d make a good first impression today and brought two six-packs of some Lagunitas IPA that Augi had given me.  It’s probably the first IPA they’ve ever drank in their lives.  A few guys couldn’t stand them but the others thought they were great.  That’s usually the type of reaction most people have of IPA’s, you either love or hate them.  But hey it’s free beer right?

After I’d finished setting up the tables for tomorrow I stuck around to talk with the server who I’ll be replacing.  According to him the boss seems to like me.  He’s been around for eight years so he knows the owner pretty well.  It was great news to hear.