Sacramento Beer Week, Entry #1: Tuesday, Feb. 23rd... Pyramid, Hoppy, and Streets of London

So beer week officially kicked off on Monday, February 22nd... and since I had school obligations I did not partake until Tuesday Night. Either way I had some fun and now have a few things to Blog about. First stop was the Pyramid Ale House, then over to Hoppy Brewing Company, and the end of the night was spent at the Streets Of London pub. All places were participating some way in the Beer Week festivities.

Pyramid Ale House

So the initial journey was to the Pyramid Ale House on K street in Downtown Sacramento. They were offering $2.50 pints of all their house ales along with a free Pyramid logo glass if you were to purchase a pint of their new Fling Pale Ale... All week they are selling 5 5oz. samples of their most popular beers for $3.30. Overall not bad pricing considering you get 25oz. of beer!! The sampler contains their Audacious Apricot-weizen, Haywire Hefeweizen, Crystal Wheat Ale, Thunderhead IPA, and the new Fling Pale Ale.

To make a potentially long story short, the Fling Pale Ale is easily the best beer on this sampler and maybe the best beer they make. I ordered a pint of it and got the free glass by the way... The Weizen's they make have always struck me as sub-par... without being overly critical I would say that I could only use the Haywire as a palette cleanser while drinking the other beers. The Apricot version is a much better concept and much better beer. Not the biggest fan of fruit infused beers, I have an appreciation for this beer in the amount of flavor it balances between the apricot and the beer it self. The IPA is OK... I would not rank it up there with the best. Hops are underwhelming and there was virtually no aroma. The crystal wheat was very refreshing and drinkable with the slightest bit of hop at the end. Very flavorful malt and hop combination on this beer!! Overall, the Fling Pale Ale is worth your time to try...

Hoppy Brewing Company

At the Hoppy Brewing Co. some of the best, if not the best, beers are made in Sacramento. Everything they brew is magical!! The special on Tuesday for Beer Week was just 2 dollar tacos during their Tuesday Night Trivia. I had already eaten at Pyramid so... the beer was all I was interested in. A compatriot of mine, Andrew, had tagged along for the ride and we decided to do the Trivia challenge which happened to center on... yep you guessed it, BEER! The questions ranged from trivia about styles of beer to the brewing process of beer. Out of 20 questions we got 16 of them right, which was enough for a second place tie! We enjoyed a pitcher of their Hoppy Face Amber Ale, which is really just a dark IPA!! It was really good... needless to say I suppose! We finished our beer and headed out!!

Streets of London Pub

So we made a last ditch effort at partaking in the beer festivities and went to the only bar we knew would be open... Streets!! Here they were featuring a new release from the New Belgium Brewery, their Ranger IPA. Along with the purchase of a pint you received the glass as well (see picture, taken by Andrews I phone). I will give an impromptu review of this beer. It is really pretty good!! Slightly heavy malt base, good hop aroma, clean finish, bitterness is well balanced with the malt. For an IPA it is heavier than I generally like but a damn good one nonetheless!! I may have to pick up a sixer or two of this at BevMo...

All in all a good start to Beer Week, off to more adventures... I will post all of my Beer Week experiences as it progresses!!!