NNTP-Posting-User: kpapai Summary: Review of Bear Republic Brewing Co. Keywords: brewpub, northern Calif., microbrew, review, bear republic Xref: madeline.INS.CWRU.Edu rec.food.drink.beer:23059 ba.food:24030 alt.beer:77509 Bear Republic Brewing Co. Healdsburg, California. (70 miles north of San Francisco) Bear Republic is another new Sonoma County brewpub. They opened in January when all of their brews were done for them by Rubicon in Sacramento. Now all of the brewing is done in-house, with the 16 bbl Liquid Assets Brewing System on line and highly functional. Headbrewer Richard Norgrove seems to have it all in fine control as evidenced by his excellent beer. Richard studied under Paddy Giffen, the head brewer at Moylan's in Novato and formerly the brewer at Marin Brewing Co. Also, James assists Richard in brewing when he's not tending bar. I visited Bear Republic last Saturday, March 9. I got there at 5:30 pm, by 7pm the place was packed. The building is fairly new, designed and originally built in 1988 for another brewpub that never got off the ground. It's located next to the square downtown, next to the winetasting rooms. On tap I has these Bear Republic beers: English ESB, 4.9% **->*** IPA, 5.8%, Columbus hops, *** (this one brewed at Rubicon for Bear Republic and is excellent!) (however, batch #12, is an IPA brewed in house, OG=1.069) Red Rocket, 5.9% ** A potent "red" beer with a good hop bite. Big Bear, 7.5% *** A dark, strong ale, not quite a stout, well hopped A set of 4 tasters was only $2. I also tasted some guest brews: Rubicon IPA **->*** Moonlight Twist of Fate Bitter *** Coming up: Brew #11 is a Cream Ale, OG = 1.043 Food consists of excellent soup & sandwiches and other specials (no pizza). Richard Norgrove proves that brewpubs newly started up can brew excellent beer from the very start and be successful. It will be hard to bypass Healdsburg now without stopping in at Bear Republic. Initial grade = 89 (where 100 is perfect and below 60 is a failure)
California