The Beer Chronicles, Days 5 & 6 - Ventura County Chillin'

Life's Not Just About Beer.  No... Really!

Driving Ventura's Main Street, We Saw This

After our whirlwind tour of the last four days, the next two were positively serene by comparison, our driving limited to the fertile coastal narrows which housed the collective communities of Ventura, Oxnard, and Camarillo.  And while most of the trip up to this point was focused on seeking out brewpubs, these days our attentions would be moved in different directions.  It had been an unwritten rule up to this point that we would go to at least two different craft breweries a day, getting flights at each so as to sample at least a dozen different beers per 24 hour period.  Keeping that pace would mean trying well over 100 different brews for the whole journey, an adequate amount for a self-described beer blog.

Inside Micheal Kelley Day Spa

But today we had other priorities, not least of which was having a late lunch with my aunt at the awesome Lure Fish House in Camarillo. Prior to that, we indulged ourselves with a mini spa day at the Michael Kelly Day Spa, right in the heart of a more eclectic neighborhood of Ventura, far from the trendy hipster vibe of downtown Main Street.  In this area of town, second hand stores, hair & nail salons, and taquerias predominate, a clearly more working class area of what is otherwise a rather affluent beach community.

Whereas Oxnard is the working class city of the coastal plain, Ventura is cultural hub and Camarillo the rich & trendy outlier.

Me & sis at Lure in Camarillo

After my massage & haircut (the latter in deference to my aunt, who just loves it when I've gotten "cleaned up" for our visits) and my sister's pedicure (her first ever!), we went back to the house briefly to change clothes, freshen up and then make the 30 minute or so drive out to Camarillo for lunch.  The back roads from the Saticoy region of Ventura that led us to Camarillo are a delight, allowing us to avoid the hustle of CA126 and US101 and enjoy the backbone of Ventura County; that is, the roads led us by groves of oranges & lemons, avocados & grapefruit, as well as fields of berries, especially Strawberries for which the area is justifiably famous.  With a 365 day a year growing season, strawberry stands pop up everywhere, selling the succulent little morsels on nearly every country highway corner.  And if you've never had an actual fresh strawberry- not one that was picked green and allowed to ripen en route to other regions- you've never tried one of the greatest foods on Earth.

Finally... Beer!

After a long and fabulous lunch of catching up, filling each other in on family happenings, and pointedly avoiding political discussions, it was time to bid my aunt adieu and start the beer tasting in earnest.  A local favorite of Camarillo, Institution Ale Company was a short 1.5 miles from Lure so we made our way over there for our first flight of the day.... and it was nearly 5:00 pm!  A late start for us, to be sure.

A caveat about Institution:  by the time you read this blog entry, they may well have moved into their newer, larger tasting room.  As for this visit- my fourth time coming to this place in less than a year- they were still in their claustrophobically small room in a small industrial area, with seating for less than 30 in a space that didn't even include an outdoor patio.  But the quality of their beer more than makes up for the less than hospitable venue.  And let me start by staying:  this place is a hopheads wet dream.  From their magnificent session IPA Solitary to their monumental Double IPA Unit 28, they have a full range of IPAs and hoppy Pale Ales to satisfy even the most discriminating bitter lover.

• Piney and resiny?  Yep, they've got that. (Institution IPA) 
  
• Citrusy & melony?  Check! (White Walls IPA)  
• Tropical & floral.  Oh yeah! (Solitary, again)  
• All of the Above?  Try their Progress Series Pale Ales, which singularly feature a new hop with every batch!

Sadly, they didn't have my favorite on tap this time around, a nitro golden stout full of coffee, vanilla and cocoa nibs.  Aptly named Dissonance, this brew ticks off all the boxes for the stout lover in me: rich, creamy, with a chocolately and nutty taste and lovely coffee finish.

MadeWest Tasting Room

With Camarillo in our rear view mirror, the late afternoon lethargy was setting in; after all, we'd been all go-go-go these last few days and, after a big and delicious lunch and even bigger and tastier beers, we were running low on energy today.  Still, we had to meet our quota so we descended on the newest craft brewery in the area, the aptly named MadeWest Brewery.  Just like Institution, this brewery made its home in one of the areas many industrial parks, stretches of lower rent office spaces situated near agricultural fields and usually away from the main hubbub of the trendier spots in town such as the harbor, downtown, and the pier.  Unlike Institution, however, this place was HUGE, with a vast outdoor patio area and an even bigger tasting room right next to the fermentation vessels.

We tucked into our flight with abandon, sampling the five beers that were currently on tap.  The good news?  All of the beers were tasty.  The Prospect Porter was smooth and characteristic of type, finishing with just a hint of vanilla and coffee.  The Red Rye IPA was smokey and complex in its maltiness, the bitterness lingering longer than expected.  Their standard IPA was citrusy, owing to the heavy use of Citra hops, and finished with a hint of tangerine.  Their Pale was a slightly subtler take on the citrus quality of the IPA.  Finally, their Pilsner almost succeeded in emulating its great German counterparts, with banana and clove slightly noticeable on the nose.  And now for the bad news; while everything was decent and massively better than anything made by Budweiser, Coors, or Miller, none of these beers were real standouts in their area.  Good, yes.  Memorable?  Not so much. Now, they have only been open a few months so I have every reason to believe that MadeWest will start competing with the best of the area but right now, Institution and at least two other local breweries are better, even as they make do with lesser space.

Only One on Wednesday

Geocache find in the foothills

On Wednesday, May18th, when we finally got rolling, we opted for breakfast at a Ventura institution, Pete's Breakfast House, which was featured on some Food Network show hosted by a bleached blonde, spiky haired weirdo.  Despite that claim to fame, Pete's does do a rollicking good breakfast and, if you arrive there at "between" hours like we did, you can actually get a table right away.

Walking to Topa Topa on Thompson Blvd

After a hearty repast and some much needing walking to find some geocaches, we were hitting on the noon hour, just in time to go to my favorite Ventura brewpub, Topa Topa.  Situated right next US101 in downtown on the "wrong side" of Thompson Blvd, this place is a diamond in the rough part of town, a tiny brewery with big ambition and even bigger taste.  I first discovered this place about two weeks after they opened and they were nailing it big time even then, grabbing me with their fabulously citrusy session IPA, the Weekender.

But since that time not long ago, they have imagined themselves well beyond the awesomeness of their IPAs and ventured into arenas hitherto unknown in Ventura county.  This is best exemplified i their startling Black Wing, a bourbon barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout that screams out bourbon, vanilla and caramel.  This is a beer for the ages... just not too much of it at 12% ABV.   Perhaps even better is their amazingly good Tux Milk Stout on Nitro, a variety of beer that seldom ends up on my "to get" list but definitely does here.  With the prominence of vanilla throughout the tasting experience, this one finishes with rich chocolate nuttiness and at 5.5% ABV, it's a lot easier going down than the more extreme Black Wing.

But really, these are only a few of a consistently good and innovative menu of brews, all done right there on site in a place that is home to surfers and business professionals alike.  Of course, in Ventura, it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between the two.

Everyone wears flip flops at Topa Topa!

Day Six Post Mortem:  I regret to say that we never made it over to the excellent Poseidon Brewing Company on this trip nor did we make it out to Casa Agria Specialty Ales in Oxnard, the other new brewery in the area that I haven't tried and which wasn't open on the days we were there.  I hope I can include those in my summer travels and write about them later.  For now, you'll have to settle for the three mentioned here.  And let me tell you, that's not really settling.

Next Up, Day 7, when we sample the beer and wine of Santa Barbara County and experience the madness of San Luis Obispo beers, kombucha, and of course, their famous Thursday Farmer's Market! Stay tuned....