Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A Trip to The Bruery Provisions

After a long day at work that included some unscheduled furniture moving due to a small amount of unexplained flooding in the office, Robert and I were more than ready to make the short trek to downtown Orange and visit The Bruery Provisions store. As you may recall, Robert and I enjoyed our trip to the tasting room at the brewery itself in nearby Placentia a few weeks ago. That trip and my endless beer geek babbling has spurred Robert, normally a wine drinker, to seek out bottles from The Bruery to sample at his leisure at home. It is reported that a bottle of the Orchard White disappeared quite quickly around the table at Thanksgiving. Needless to say, a further exploration of what The Bruery has to offer was in order.

After a quick stroll around quaint downtown Orange and lamenting that the record store was closed, we settled on some Mexican fare for drinking fuel (what mere mortals refer to as dinner). While we had wandered somewhat aimlessly previous to eating, once our burritos and tacos were deployed to absorb the alcohol, we made a beeline to the Provisions shop.

Instantly making my ubiquitous “can you hear those angels singing too?” joke as we approached the cooler, the beautiful sight inside was truly awe inspiring: easily 400+ facings of bottled beer from around the world and a surprising amount of labels I had never seen before, making my earlier quip not much of a stretch. Overwhelmed for the time being, I wandered amongst the other offerings at the store including brewing books, Bruery merchandise, wine and all of its paraphernalia, and finally, lots of cheese.

While I stood gawking at the shelves of bottled beer on the wall opposite the coolers, one of the employees approached Robert and I to ask if we’d been in before and to explain how things work. Further prompting was not required and we all made our way to the area in the back of the store that is cordoned off as the tasting room.

Because of restrictions on the liquor license, they cannot pour full glasses of any one beer, but they do offer three different flights of beer (two Bruery-centric, the other celebrating seasonal offerings from a plethora of breweries), as well as flights of wine or cheese that, honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to. All of the flights were incredibly reasonable in price, so we chose the one with the most beers I hadn’t tried yet.

Choosing a seat in the tasting room was going to prove difficult for anyone entering after we did, seeing as how we took the last two chairs in a crowd that was gathering quickly. Our flights arrived and we began sipping contemplatively. As we shared our ruminations between us, I was delighted in the sophistication of Robert’s palate, although some translation to beer-speak was required at times.

The Humulus Lager had a wonderful hop aroma but was light and balanced on the tongue. The mash up (pun intended) that was the 7 Grain Saison did not allow for any of the distinct grain flavors to shine through, but maybe that was the point and either way; it was very enjoyable. I had the Loakal Red out of a bottle just two nights previous and was surprised at its subdued showing on tap, which I will attribute to a masking effect brought on by the previous two beers and my meal choice. The rye in the RugbrΓΈd adds a wonderful nuance and was perfect for a winter night in Orange. The Workman’s Friend was a great way to round out the flight; the warm, roasty flavors of this imperial porter easily cut through the lingering effects of the first four beers and left me with a sizable grin beneath my beer moustache.

The evening was not over however, as I had yet to try the Orchard White and with it coming on such high recommendations, I would be remiss if I let the opportunity pass. I ordered a full flight of the Orchard White (rules) for Robert and a small flight for myself of the Mischief, a hoppy Belgian golden strong ale I remember being my favorite from our trip to the brewery proper. We then swapped out a glass each so I could sample the Orchard White. Not nearly as tangy as some witbiers that I have had, but wonderfully subtle notes of lavender and an amazing mouthfeel easily endear themselves much more than one-note puckering sourness would. I am sad to report I did not give the Mischief its due and the two glasses I had left disappeared quite quickly, with little time to contemplate the flavor. I will trust my previous evaluation that it is quite splendid.

Perusing the coolers after imbibing was probably not the wisest choice, but I restrained myself to three bottles, knowing that I would have to store them at Robert’s until I return to the OC in January. After much fussing over which beers to choose, I loaded up and snagged a Bruery goblet for good measure. Thankfully, Robert curtailed his intake much sooner than myself (and had generally lower alcohol beers than I) and was fine to drive us home after our reveries.

Downtown Orange has retained a feeling of small town community in an area of the world completely over run by strip malls and box stores and with the level of sophistication without snobbery that the Bruery have effortlessly employed in their beers and branding since their inception just a short three years ago, the Provisions store is a wonderful fit.

2 comments:

  1. Great post! Thanks for stopping into Provisions-- i'm glad you liked it! Hope to see you back soon.

    Cheers,
    Patrick Rue
    The Bruery

    ReplyDelete
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