Mad Fritz

Located within a sort of shared warehouse-type building in an industrial park, you will most likely be greeted by your host right at the door to the retail entrance, as tastings are offered by appointment only, not unlike most vineyard and winery traditions you'll often find yourself encountering all throughout Napa.

You'll be led to a small production area in the back, with just a few barrels amongst the fermentation tanks and floor drainage offering stools to sit upon as you begin your journey through a wide selection of styles poured into modestly-sized sherry tulips.

It turns out Christopher, the brewer who was hosting us this day, has a damn impressive resume of pastry chef achievements at several Michelin star restaurants, which is how he met the owner here in the area. Not only is he full of knowledge regarding all things culinary and libation, but he has an insatiable drive for stripping processes down to their most organic nature in order to coax ingredients into expressing their truest forms. Mad Fritz is even going so far as being only one of six breweries malting their own grain in the US! Additionally, Chris also gave us a plethora of off the beaten path recommendations for enjoying ourselves locally.

To be honest, this was a much better experience than I expected, not just because of Chris, but because of the beer itself. Each beer was very well attenuated, fermented to dryness, and focused not so myopically on achieving precise style guidelines as opposed to using process as a guardrail to explore how locally sourced, naturally carbonated, unfiltered and old world inoculated wort can provide as terroir-centered an outcome as possible.

For any of you BAs coming to Napa, put this at the top of your non-wine day itinerary, and set aside half a day without anything in your belly besides perhaps a croissant from Bouchon or English muffin from Model. You can mix and match your tasting selection, or share your tasters as desired, so that you aren't risking inebriation or filling up too much on suds, leaving plenty of room to indulge in all of the other excellent food around town.