Moving to San Jose!

Let's give this a few days and see if anyone else on the thread expresses any interest...

Just as an example of something that has been done before and "might" work, scheduled once a month at noon either on a Saturday or Sunday.

 

Would be interested as well! I like what billf suggested, noon on a weekend roughly once a month.

 

I'd definitely be in for a Saturday afternoon once in a while (monthly sounds good).

 

Here is a quick recap from last week as you guys were very helpful in helping me find some great beer spots.

Monday: Santa Clara Liqours - In my opinion this was the best beer store of the week. Hightlight was picking up a bottle of BA Bomb. Seeing BCBS cases on the floor was crazy too. Found several others as well.

Tuesday: Dinner in Reposado in Palo Alto. Stopped by the Rose & Crown afterward for a beer (missed Pliny by 1 day). It was busy as it was trivia night, but we were still able to grab a seat at the bar and have some good beer.

Wednesday: Dinner at Rok Steakhouse. Stopped by Mission Liqours in Fremont (close to my hotel). Didn't buy anything and was pretty disappointed.

Thursday: Stopped by ISO. Impressive beers, picked up a few more bottles to bring back. Dinner at Original Gravity. Decent beer selection and friendly bartenders/patrons. Stopped by for a couple more beers at Good Karma afterwards. Again, great beers (although I missed Pliny by a few hours), great bartender and friendly patrons, even willing to share sips. My favorite of the 3 downtown places was Good Karma.

I'll be back in town for work March 6-9th. I'll be trying to make it to Mission Creek. I am also willing to bring some beer from Minnesota if anyone is looking to trade. Some of my favorites breweries that are readily had in Minneapolis are Toppling Goliath, Surly and Central Waters. Just ask if you are looking for something specific. Feel free to send me a private message.

Thanks again for the help. BA really is great.

 

I would also definitely be down for a semi-regular thing. Weekends starting around noon works for me.

 

just to recap, so we don't end up paging back and forth to figure out who, and/or how many people might be interested. From above, and if anyone else responds please just copy/paste/add your name on to this list so we have a running total:

Chrisjws
Chickenwing
Leftofthedial
Brent212
BeerMoto

 

Cheers!

If you liked Good Karma and decide to go back, don't sleep on them as a food option. Vegan or not, the food there is also pretty damn tasty.

By March Uproar (founded by a husband and wife formerly of Surly) will likely be open just south of downtown and that'd probably be worth checking out.

 

You could count me in for a bottle share as long as I'm off work that day.

 

Thanks for the input on Good Karma. I've actually been vegetarian my whole life so I look forward to eating there next time.

 

Even better. I'm very much not vegetarian, but I still think their stuff is top notch all around. The owner is a great guy too. Awhile back I was there and the register conked out, he just told me to take my beer and food and not worry about it. They check all the boxes as far as being a top flight beer bar.

 

Especially the blatant disregard for the law when it comes to selling non-distributed beers? And chilled pint glasses? Especially for a place that serves food, if they're obviously flaunting the ABC laws, I always wonder what other laws/rules they feel aren't worth following.

 

Look up self distribution laws in CA. They might be doing some of those outside the law, but I know for a fact a number of the non-distributed things they get are on the up and up. They don't chill their pint glasses and they haven't for years. What's up your ass, bro?

 

I was there last week and got a chilled pint glass, I was actually pretty astonished. Also, you can't sell Bruery society beers, they're not covered under self distribution laws and they have bottles like Chocolate Rain out on display.

Mostly I just don't like the SJ beer scene. It's fairly lawless down there for whatever reason and everywhere ends up having a sketchy vibe. I haven't checked out any of the breweries in the area, but the beer stores are horrible and the bars aren't far behind.

 

I can see some people being rubbed the wrong way by the environment at the Original Gravity, but I've never seen anything there that seemed lawless. Or ISOBeer for that matter.

 

My understanding of self distro laws in California is that if the business purchases those bottles from the Bruery and controls them, they are allowed to sell them on premise as all transactions have occurred in the state of California. Same goes for Aptos BBQ/Traildust buying kegs and bottles from Societe, Council, etc. If you're talking lawless in the South Bay scene then you're probably thinking of Cask and Flask, Bobby's and South Gate who "import" stuff from other states and have been known to purchases beer from customers at times to resell.

OG is on the up and up. All their limited stuff comes from the breweries and not secondary market. ISO appears to be on the up and up, but the guy who owns it also owns Bobby's, where they are notorious for doing shit like selling $12 cans of Heady Topper.

 

IANAL, but from talking to my friends in the industry, and from The Bruery's public response, it seems that's still very much not legal. I've heard the Aptos keg situation for things not normally distributed to the county is sketchy as well. The liquor stores are just crazy (and ISO by association, as you mentioned) in the South Bay - but the ABC doesn't seem to care at all.

I don't actually think it's that reasonable of a law to start with, but when places like Good Karma are openly flaunting obvious things like Reserve-only Bruery beers, I'm always wondering what other laws they feel are unreasonable and not worth following as well.

 

I know it's against the rules of the societies, but that doesn't make it illegal. In the case of Texas, yes that's illegal because it's crossing state lines. Inside California borders there seems to be a lot more flexibility from a legal perspective. I asked someone (today) who's in the business and they said from what they understand that's kind of a grey area. Even if it is outside the lines, you're acting like they're doing something horrendous and wondering what other horrendous things they do. That'd be like me point out you go 70 in a 65 zone (you probably do, everyone does) and wondering if you also snatch purses from old ladies.

Whatever though. If you don't like it, then don't go there. I've had nothing but awesome experiences there, so I'll continue going.

Cheers

 

That's sort of mean. rryanc's local bar really sucks.

 

Since this seems to be the San Jose thread now I thought I'd ask this here. My girlfriend is living out there for a few months and I was planning on getting her to try to find some Pliny to send back to a friend of mine who hasn't had it yet. Does anyone know what days the whole foods in the area get their deliveries? I'll be out there in April for 2 weeks can't wait to check out Sante/Aptos and make the trek to Russian River. Not to mention all the great bottle shops out there. Our Distro in Pittsburgh is pretty terrible so I have her stocking up on bottles while there(mostly saisons/fantome).