The Yard House in Santana Row opened a year ago in April 2011 and continues to be a popular place with good food and over 130 beers on tap. Had lunch there back in late December with a couple of buddies, one visiting from Boston.
I like their beer samplers and how they change them up weekly. These particular samplers were all very tasty.
Also back in late December was a cousins’ gathering at BJ’s in Cupertino.
On this evening, I particularly liked the Pale Ale and Jeremiah’s Red – they paired with my ribs the best in my opinion.
Some of these photos are from my cell. phone, and some are from my cousin’s camera. I very much appreciate that he took some photos for me as I forgot my point-and-shoot at home. That evening reminded me how it’s always fun hanging out with my cousins, which is something we did so often in our younger days.
A highlight from this past summer was getting the chance to drink our friend Stef’s home-brewed beer.
This IPA, so crisp and refreshing, especially on that warm, summer day back in late May, was the first home-brewed beer that wifey and I ever had.
And with our growing interest in craft beers really taking off since the beginning of this year, we were very happy to see the home beer brewing process in person about a week after drinking this delicious IPA, thanks to the kind invitation from Stef, his lovely wife, and their charming kid.
Steeping the grains.
Beer recipe and instructions.
Main ingredients.
Mixing in malt to make wort and then adding hops.
Cleaning and sterilizing.
Wort ice bath.
The home beer brewer.
Transferring and then pitching yeast.
Waiting for fermentation and then the transfer to secondary fermentation (which would take 10-14 days) before bottling.
Watching the beer brewing process was completely interesting and inspiring. It’s a labor of love and something I hope to try one of these days soon.
Meanwhile, the kids had a great time playing.
Then, it was time for dinner.
To go along with some beers.
Thanks very much for an awesome time!
As cool as viewing the home brewing process was, it’s much cooler to be able to call you our friends.
Copied from last month’s Harry’s Hofbrau Facebook page:
OKTOBERFEST! September 26th Come kick off our month long celebration with Schneider Brewing from Kelheim. We will feature 4 brews on draft Aventinus (100/100 ratebeer.com), Hopfen-weiss (98/98 ratebeer.com), Edel-weiss (95/99 ratebeer.com) and Original Weiss (95/99 ratebeer.com). Buy the beer take home your 1/2L mug, and refills are only $6-$4! Sausages, Schnitzel, Sauerkraut, Hot German potato salad, and meet the rep from Germany!
My brother and I went. Here are the pics as proof.
Both of these beers were enjoyable. It was great taking home these beer glasses. Hanging out with my brother for a while was also nice.
And I had the pleasure of hanging out with my brother a couple of weeks later at Harry’s Hofbrau again.
October 13th Thursday’s pint night will be a German celebration! Hofbrau Munchen original will be on draft… Large steins will be only $11 that’s for the glass to take home and 34oz of delicious Bavarian beer. .5L steins will go for $7 for the glass to take home and 16.9oz of HB Original… The rep will be here with samples. So come grab a brat, a schnitzel, and a Litre of Hofbrau Original! Prost!
Sausage and Weinerschnitzel, sauerkraut, and hot German potato salad.
Hofbrau Munchen Original (Munich Helles Lager, 5.1% ABV).
A refreshing, relatively light beer that paired very well with the hearty food.
More.
As is usually the case when going out, the highlight of the evening was the company. It was simply great to meet up with a couple of friends we haven’t seen in ages. Hope to hang out with them again soon.
And part of the view of the hotel ground floor from the hallway in front of our room. Can you spot the lion?
A closer look at that lion.
Breakfast was a huge, hearty one for me. Sure, I was hungry, but I was also making sure to eat plenty to prepare for what was in store next.
As a recent craft beer fan, I looked up online to see if there were any good breweries around. TwoBoosWhoEat were kind enough to confirm that The Bruery in Placentia was supposed to have great beers. Unfortunately, the brewery itself was closed that day, but their specialty market and tasting room, The Bruery Provisions in Old Town Orange, was open. Plus, it was also only a 10-minute drive from our hotel.
We got there right at the opening time.
From having checked out their Facebook page in advance, I knew that I’d be ordering the 2 different flights they had.
The Bruery Class Flight.
From left to right: 7 Grain Saison, Bruery Saison Rue, Mischief, Bruery Loakal Red, and Run BMC.
The Bruery Special Flight.
From left to right: 714, Bruery Salt of the Earth, Bruery Humulus Lager, Bruery Iniquitous, and Cuir.
I got a bottle each of Cuir (Old Ale, 100% bourbon barrel aged) and Batch 300 Tripel.
Though I couldn’t finish them all, I really liked The Bruery beers.
But it was time to meet wifey and the toddler (they’d been walking around the downtown blocks) nearby at The Perfect Circle Cupcakery, a 2011 Food Network Cupcake Wars winner and a place that originally caught our eye when we first arrived.
After a couple of sweet treats, we were off to Beverly Hills. We first hung out at an outdoor mall.
Where we met up again with our buddies, Mimi and Sophia.
Hello!
And had delicious crepes.
That we all cherished like a bouquet of flowers.
Hanging out with these two ladies was such a delight. We were very fortunate to have been able to hang out with them twice during our L.A. trip.
Driving back to our hotel, we finally felt some of the L.A. traffic. But luckily, it wasn’t too bad.
It was great seeing the lion again.
Day 3 really showed us how much we’ve learned to be flexible when traveling and taking our mini-vacations, as we brainstormed more than a dozen additional activities that we contemplated doing up to this point. But we tried our best to simply, yet deliberately, play things by ear, and thankfully, wifey and I were extremely pleased with how everything was continuing to turn out.
Wifey, the toddler, and I embarked on a 4-day Los Angeles trip a week ago. The highlights for me from Day 1 are captured below:
On the drive down, the toddler wrote wifey a special note. We were blown away.
We had left at 6 a.m. on Sunday, and that really paid off because before we knew it, we had already arrived in the heart of Koreatown.
The Biergarten restaurant caught our eye, and we decided to check it out. They weren’t technically open yet, but we were welcomed in.
The beer selections got me excited.
For wifey, an Allagash White (a Belgian Style Wheat, AKA Belgian Witbier style – 5% ABV) from Maine’s Allagash Brewing Company.
And for me, a Stone Ruination IPA (7.7% ABV) from Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, CA. Yeah, I went big; it was my first Stone Brewing beer, and it was glorious.
And some food to go along with our beers.
Kimchi tofu – stir-fry kimchee, German sausage, onions, and tofu.
Sliders with cheese instead of peanut butter.
Wurstplatte of bratwurst and bockwurst.
With mustard and kimchi sauerkraut.
We all enjoyed the Biergarten. So glad to have stumbled upon it.
We missed meeting up with Lynn of The Actor’s Diet blog due to scheduling challenges, but she gave wifey a great tip about a children’s festival taking place at Paramount Studios.
I don’t get how the toddler managed to stay paint free.
My heart raced a bit seeing the Glee sign. I’m pretty sure that I’m the number one Gleek for my demographic – Old. Asian. Guy.
That said, I think I like The Glee Project more than Glee – just love Damian and Lindsay. I’m pretty sure that I’m also the number one Gleep. Interesting results from the season finale, yes?
The toddler got so much exercise at Paramount Studios. He ran all around the open space.
Which worked out well because he was in mellow spirits when we met up with our L.A. friends, Sophia and Mimi, at Yellow House Café.
These ladies absolutely glowed, and meeting up with them was great. We planned to see each other again in a couple days. At this point, we still needed to drive a bit to check in to our hotel.
Some enjoyable wines to unwind.
Copper Ridge Merlot.
Copper Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon.
Cheers!
Margaritas. Tasty. A bit too sweet.
Cheers again!
Koi pond on the ground floor.
Watching Disneyland fireworks.
And a video clip of the first few minutes of the fireworks. I just checked Disneyland’s website for their up-close video clip of the fireworks – amazing! But we were also very happy with what we got to see:
Before the first day of our L.A. trip came to an end, wifey and I agreed that the day could not have gone better.
