Welcome

For the past couple of years a few friends get together on Memorial Day for a city Beer Tour. It started in 2007 in San Francisco and was born because it was a holiday and we were looking for something to do. It was a good chance for people to get together and hang out for the day. Now, I like to think this will be a tradition that won’t end any time soon. This year I chose Santa Cruz because there are four breweries in close proximity and it’s a great town. This trip was also extended to an overnight stay because of the number of breweries that we’d pass on the way to our final destination that none of us had been to before.

Sunday morning Ethan, Mel, and Val met at our house and we started our trip at 10:00AM. Our first stop was E.J. Phair for breakfast and beer. The alehouse is located in a neat part of town in Concord but has very limited beers of their own, about ten guest taps though. Second stop was in Walnut Creek at Pyramid Brewing, I had a Grifter IPA, while others ordered samplers, can’t go wrong at a Pyramid Alehouse. On to Fremont for our third stop of the day at Jack’s Brewing Co., the location and ambiance left something to be desired but it was my favorite beer of the day. Morgan and I split a taster flight. The fourth scheduled stop was scheduled to be the Tied House, unfortunately this location was shut down very recently in San Jose, so we drove .5 miles to Gordon Biersch. A couple people had a beer but Morgan and I skipped this stop. To make up for Tied House we stopped in Los Gatos at the Los Gatos Brewing Company. This place is pretty swanky and has a higher price point than other breweries. Morgan and I split a five beer sampler, definitely glad we picked up this location on the tour.

Upon arriving in Santa Cruz we went to the Beach Boardwalk. It had been almost four years since Morgan and I went and we wanted to get our picture done again by the caricature guy. Ethan, Mel, and Val also had theirs done! We didn’t go on any rides this trip but we did get some carnival food like candy, corn dogs, roasted corn, funnel cake, deep fried twinkie, etc. After leaving the Boardwalk Morgan, Val, and I went to our hotel room at the Pelican Point Inn while Ethan and Mel went to Teri’s house for the night. View pictures from our trip here.