Salt Lake City, Utah January 7, 2009

Winter wonderland

It was with some trepidation that we headed toward Salt Lake City for the start of the year. Particularly considering that it’s the Mormon capital, and well…. Mormon’s don’t typically drink. However, the mountains and snow were calling, so we packed up the car and began our adventure. We drove through the night and arrived at beer o’clock. So upon arriving, we checked out the local weekly, and settled on grabbing a bite to eat at Salt Lake Pizza and Pasta (SLPP). They advertised something like 30 local microbrews on tap, so it was a no-brainer to check it out. When we arrived, it appeared to be a pretty standard sports bar with screens throughout the dining area. The waitress was not very helpful with the beer selection though, particularly when asked about the styles of the ambiguously named beers, everything was described as “it’s… an ale….” and “…kinda like the amber…”. This description was used to describe everything from a pale ale to a golden ale.

I was a bit out of my head when we ordered after having so little sleep, so I wasn’t thinking so much about pairing my beer with food. All I knew at the time was that it was cold out and I wanted something dark with robust flavors. I ordered Captain Bastard’s Oatmeal Stout by Squatter’s Brewing. It’s a dry stout with roasty, chocolatey flavors and a silky mouthfeel. The finish was clean and left only a barely perceptible sourness in the aftertaste. It didn’t pair well with the spinach salad that I had ordered, but as I had mentioned before, my head wasn’t on straight and I was trying to redeem myself after having eaten a bunch of “road food” on our long drive! The pizzas that I took tastes of were pretty good though. While at SLPP I also tried the Squatter’s Full Suspension Pale Ale, which was hoppy with some floral and citrus notes. I felt that the body was a bit light for the hops but it’s a pretty good pale ale nonetheless. Squatter’s American Wheat Hefeweizen is also pretty true to style for an American hefe, which is to say, it lacks the banana and cloves that are typical of the German counterpart. This hefe was malt-forward with the taste of grains and citrus. It had a medium body and a slightly tart finish. I enjoyed drinking the Squatter’s beers and after having heard some good things about the brewpub, we put that on our list of places to visit later on in the trip.

Squatter's Brewery

When we did go to Squatter’s brewpub, I was drawn to the oatmeal stout again because of the cold weather. This time though, I was prepared for a good pairing, so I ordered a buffalo burger with Captain Bastard’s BBQ sauce. It paired really nicely, particularly since the BBQ sauce was made with the same beer I was drinking. I always love a good burger too, and buffalo is just so much more flavorful than most beef used in burgers. We had some warm bread pudding with bourbon sauce for dessert and the stout also paired very well with that. While at Squatter’s I also tasted the Emigration amber ale from a handpump. It’s a very good amber ale with dank hops and some citrus presence. It has some nice malty sweetness with a slightly tart aftertaste, but was well-balanced with hops. The Squatter’s seasonal nut brown ale is highly carbonated and malty with a very subtle hop presence. It has a light body and has a slight hint of nuttiness to it with a clean finish. They also had a seasonal cherry lambic called Cherry Love, which smelled a lot like Dr. Pepper. It was not as sour as I would have liked in a lambic. It definitely had some cherry flavor in but lacked the horsey quality that good lambics usually have.

Jer with too many to choose from at Red Rock Brewing

Red Rock Brewpub is located in the same area of downtown as Squatter’s and also has very good food. We tasted almost all of their beers which were pretty good as well. The atmosphere was slightly more casual than Squatter’s, with TV screens and a rowdy game-watching crowd. Red Rock’s honey wheat was a nice light-bodied session beer, which was malt-dominant with the presence of honey but not overly sweet. It was very clean and easy to drink. Their hefeweizen is an American hefeweizen, with a bit more hops than in typical hefeweizens. It had a light body with a bit of grassiness and citrus in the flavor. Their Belgian wit had a subtle spiciness to it, with hints of lavendar and citrus. There was some tartness in the finish but then dried out and was very clean with only a light citrus aftertaste. Red Rock’s nut brown ale, although still malt-dominant, was hoppier than most nut brown’s and very similar to an amber ale, in both flavor and color. There was a slight tartness to the finish. It was so remarkably similar to their light-bodied amber ale, that we had to check with the server to make sure that they weren’t the same beer! When tasted side by side, there may have been a tiny bit more hops in the amber… but I had to reach for that subtle difference. Red Rock’s IPA Jr. was slightly peppery, and less bitter than many American IPA’s, making it more of a session beer than most IPA’s. The malt backbone was also light though, making the beer seem a bit watery to me. The Positively porter is roasty with some coffee and chocolate notes and a slight tartness in the finish. It’s a very nice porter and I ended up ordering a pint of it to have with my dinner – a flatiron steak. The pairing was very nice because the roasty qualities of the beer brought out the smokey sear on the meat, and the mineral flavors of the beer and beef played off of one another nicely. Jer had Red Rock’s oatmeal stout with his dinner. The oatmeal stout was nice and chocolaty with a creamy mouthfeel and a clean finish. It paired very well with the chicken schnitzel that Jer had ordered.

To sum up the trip to SLC, it was a whirlwind tour of site-seeing, beer drinking, and snowboarding. It was an exhausting, but great trip. And despite our initial reservations about finding good beer in a town where most people supposedly don’t drink, we found great brewpubs! It was another successful adventure, and a great way to start off the year!