Food & Beer Friday :: Sumpin' pretty tasty!

I'm still trying to keep with my California theme (although Stone would have been more appropriate since I had such a great time there), but I figured I'd take us back in time a little bit since I didn't get to spend adequate drinking time here.

I have a really difficult time finding the specific style to describe this beer.  It really does not fit into most style categories.  This beer really has the hops of an IPA but is also brewed with wheat.  Think combining a wheat beer with a pale ale.  Often, hoppy beers just don't go down as quickly for me.  I didn't have a problem with this citrusy-scented ale!  It has the perfect amount of sweetness (from the wheat) and a hoppy finish.  No fear with the finish, it's definitely not as bitter at the end as the Blind Pig was.  Don't be scared off if you're not into hops!

Little Sumpin' Sumpin' is a year-round beer, but it's perfect for the summer!  Lagunitas had this on tap when we visited and it was delicious!  If you like this beer, keep an eye out!  Lagunitas is known for brewing variations on Little Sumpin'!

Little Sumpin' Wild is its "sister" and is fermented with a Belgian yeast strain.  You can find this beer this month!  You may be a little too late though...I think it flies off the shelves in July!

While I paired this beer with my boring egg dinner, I did a bit of research and came across a pretty amazing recipe.

She Brews Good Ale is not only a beer lover, but also a vegetarian!  In a recent beer & food pairing with the Little Sumpin', she featured a veggie-style dish.  While her Bulgar, Kale, and Parsley salad isn't Whole 30 approved, I'm definitely planning to add this to my recipe book!  I've been eating tons of kale and am always looking for new ways to feature it.  Oh, and you cook it with beer too!

What's your favorite Lagunitas beer?

Cheers friends!

<a href="http://www.skinnyjeanschailatte.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnflfc2abnNlHaIedc53w-T-LoKCrTTF9g5XYrXCRjsVAs8ZO7nqRtQNbFMnxom9kZs4f90LiuZ1mimfg24bV3qFE0Fa-nel5JtRTKUOHU9_tVCAGE86LqsKoAaVRsx-Obr2n9p3oXWIs/s180/Food-%2526-Beer-Friday-Button.jpg" border="0" </a>

The last California post?

I think it is!  I think it is!

This was probably my favorite leg of the trip!  While we gorged ourselves on food and drinks the night before, our next day was much anticipated.  Unfortunately, we got a much later start than we had hoped for...

My friends, that is a flat tire.  After lots of waiting and D talking to a creepy guy, we finally got on the road.  First stop, In-N-Out!

Yeah, I had one.  And a chocolate milkshake.  I'm still not into burgers (you know, the meat kind), but it was all pretty delicious.  D would say it was totally worth it.  He was smitten.  We hit the road yet again to visit yet another brewery.

[Lost Abbey]

Since this was the last leg of the trip and we had been constantly binging on food and drink, I wasn't feeling the hottest.  Sadly, I didn't indulge like I would have preferred.  No worries, we stopped for some meds before heading over to Stone Brewery for the ultimate (oh and a tour).  If you are interested in craft beer in the least, you have likely heard what a beautiful place Stone has.

 [The inside dining area]

 [Outside dining area]

 [Part of the gardens outside]

We had reservations for a tour and dinner at the brewery.  There was a wait between the tour and dinner, so we settled on getting a beer and sitting in the gardens.  Honestly, the pictures can not even do this place justice.  Anna's pictures actually capture it way better than I ever could!  It's beautiful!  I won't bore you with pictures of our dinner, but I loved it!  Ceviche, beer cheddar soup, amazing salad with bleu cheese, and a kick-ass brownie sundae...all in prep for meeting up with some of my favorite SoCal bloggers!

[Excuse the poor photo...late night and a little buzzed will do it to you.  And not so strangely, I looked so scary in practically every single picture.]

Olivia (+ B) and Kelsey were so fun to hang out with!  We basically closed down the place, but I didn't want to leave!  These ladies are so awesome!  After meeting them and Claire in SF, I'm definitely a believer in blogger meet-ups!  Even D had fun!  This was seriously the perfect ending to our time in the city of SD.  I absolutely can not wait for Olivia & B to make a east coast trip so I can see them again!

The next day, we drove around SD a bit then headed over the bridge to Coronado.

Since apparently we can not eat a substantial meal outside of a brewery or brew pub, we headed over to Coronado Brewing Company.

I enjoyed the food here more than the beer (but remember, all the alcohol might be starting to get to me at this point).  Coronado was literally the best place to end our California road trip.  After lunch, we checked in at our hotel and headed straight to the beach.  We may have gotten a little sunburnt. We may have fought off tons of gnats.  We I may have not even stepped foot in the ocean.  The views in Coronado are just stunning.  The pictures have me aching to get back.

 [Our hotel was seriously gorgeous]

 [After the beach and dinner, we walked around town.  Ending the evening with gelato and a dirty chai latte was perfection]

Then we had to get up entirely to early when staying in a fancy hotel to drive to LAX to go home.  California was honestly way better than I would have expected.  I'm so glad we decided to do this trip...but now I've got my mind set on an international locale next ;)

More food than beer?

After some drinking and hiking, it was time to make the much anticipated drive down to San Diego!

Before getting to San Diego, we stopped in Encinitas.  Taylor had recommended this little spot.

[Encinitas Ale House]

It was pretty crowded since there were soccer games in play.  The food was pretty delicious and the beer selection was generous!  After leaving Encinitas, we headed straight for our Airbnb loft.

 [View from our apartment]

After a brief moment to get settled (and finding out how lame Ashley and Robin were going to be and not meet up with me for this once and a lifetime opportunity #imnotstillbitter), we decided to head out to Ocean Beach.  

After walking around the beach a bit, we hit up the much recommended South Beach Bar & Grille for their "world's best fish tacos."

I'm pretty sure we got the wahoo and the tuna fish tacos.  They're obviously huge!  We liked the wahoo better than the tuna.  I would love to down one of those right about now...

Then we headed over to Pizza Port.  We were way too full to have any pizza, but it looked delicious.  I enjoyed the beers and the atmosphere.  Pizza Port has a ton of locations for you SoCal readers.  Afterwards, we went home to change and catch our reservations at The Linkery.

 [Absolutely freaking amazing baked goat cheese with roasted garlic]

 [House salad with arugula, goat cheese, baby carrots, & citrus vinaigrette]

 [The nights special :: grilled beer bread, homemade mustard, house cured sauerkraut topped with cheese and bacon, and a link.  I barely ate the link and was obsessed with the sauerkraut...and the bread.]

Normally, I'm not sure we would have chosen somewhere like this.  D knows the owner, and it was nice to give it a try.  It was really good!  That baked goat cheese was amazing!  The meal was great, but we got so stuffed!  Nonetheless, we walked a block over to get some cocktails!

El Take It Easy has an amazing cocktail menu (and honestly their food menu looks banging too!).  It was their anniversary, so each bartender had a special cocktail.  I adored my drink!  If we hadn't had a bottle of wine (and stuffed our bellies full), I would have had a couple more!  It was a wonderful first day in San Diego!

Food & Beer Friday :: My first California beer.

Remember the first beer I had when we went to California?

[I had it here]

Yes, I'm still talking about California.  Yes, I have a few more native CA beers that I'm planning to feature.  I may never stop talking about our California trip (until we plan our next big trip!).  My first was actually this beer:

When we had the biggest flight of beers we've ever seen, D made sure to snag a bottle of this.  Since we only carried on bags, he had to sift things around to check a bag of beer on our return flight.  Whole 30 was not going to stop me from tasting for this week's feature! 

This Blind Pig IPA was sitting in our fridge just waiting to be poured before D and I head out of town. If you're not into IPAs, I would not recommend it.  It is definitely more hoppy (in my opinion) that the other regular IPA I've featured.  For someone who doesn't love this style of beer, I enjoyed the hoppiness and fruity notes, but I didn't enjoy the bitter finish.  D is much more of a "hop head" than I am.  That being said, I had no problem finishing half of the bottle!

Honestly, I think this beer is a to-the-point IPA.  It doesn't mess around with malty flavors.  Just hops, hops, and more hops.

    

Tonight we paired the Blind Pig with our Whole 30 approved meal: tuna steak, mashed cauliflower, & broccoli.  According to my chart though, this beer is going to pair well with a good meaty steak with a sweet glaze or any other rich dish!

Have you tried any Russian River beers?

CHEERS!  

And feel free to link up via comments (I plan to start back with linky tools if interest is there)!

<a href="http://www.skinnyjeanschailatte.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnflfc2abnNlHaIedc53w-T-LoKCrTTF9g5XYrXCRjsVAs8ZO7nqRtQNbFMnxom9kZs4f90LiuZ1mimfg24bV3qFE0Fa-nel5JtRTKUOHU9_tVCAGE86LqsKoAaVRsx-Obr2n9p3oXWIs/s180/Food-%2526-Beer-Friday-Button.jpg" border="0" </a>

That time we "hiked" in California.

After a wonderful night in Monterey, we hit the road with intentions to make our way to Big Sur.  Of course, we made numerous stops along the way.

I just won't bore you with all of my out-the-window shots as well.  Ashley gave me a few tips about Big Sur (one of her favorite places ever AND she's so cool she got married there!).  She mentioned McWay Falls, and that was at the top of my list.  While the trail was a bit lackluster (I was imagining getting to walk out on to the beach), the views were still gorgeous!  We didn't walk all the way down to the Waterfall House though.

[That's a little waterfall that falls on to the beach]

We hiked up the other side of Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park to see some of the redwoods.

We didn't venture too far since we didn't want to be on the road all night.  This was probably the most fun time of our trip though.  Traveling the 1 through the mountains with the coast on your side is amazing.  The road was not near as terrifying as everyone had mentioned (um, hello...I've been in Georgia and NC mountains that are way more terrifying and have zero guardrails).  I will admit that you feel like you've driven miles and miles, but you've only driven two since the road is so windy.  We were lucky enough to see a slew of sea lions too!

We wanted to stop into San Luis Obispo for some lunch.  We ended up at Eureka Burger, and I was thoroughly impressed!

[Jalapeño Egg Burger, no bacon sub avocado, sub veggie burger]  

I have to say, that was another favorite meal.  I'm not a huge burger person, but they had an amazing veggie burger that was done right!  After SLO, we were planning to hit the road to Santa Barbara.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find any legit, decent priced hotels there (something about the Summer Solstice...), so we compromised for Carpinteria.  It's actually a quaint town right outside Santa Barbara.

Of course since every town in California has a local microbrewery, we discovered Island Brewing Company.   It's a little place but had a great atmosphere!  We enjoyed the beers (myself, probably a bit too much) and struck up a lively conversation with some other tourists.  We didn't do much else exciting in Carpinteria, but it was better than I would have imagined.  Then...on to San Diego!

Ps. The Shabby Apple winner was announced!  Congrats and thanks for participating!