Last Call!

Just a quick reminder that Universale is the Red Door's Beer of the Month and you should take advantage of the discounted pint and pitcher prices before this month ends. Pints: $3.75, pitchers: $13.50.

On tap today and tomorrow at Urban Beer Garden are: 1) From Pumpkin to Carriage Stout (a rich stout subtly flavored with real pumpkin but without the allspice, cardamom, cinnamon spicing of many pumpkin beers), 2) Little Woody Oaked and Dry-hopped Pale, 3) Universale, and 4) Nitro Universale.

Also, we're finally on tap at the Nickerson Street Saloon and we're breaking into classy joints like the Hunt Club at the Sorrento Hotel and the Grand Hyatt -- but don't let that dissuade you.

Community

Our Urban Beer Garden continues to draw a fun, eclectic crowd.* My favorite offering tonight is the Gilded Marmot Belgian Golden Ale, superbly crafted by Matt Lincoln. It’s light (in taste and color, not alcohol) yet complex and refreshingly un-hoppy (but then, I’m one of those IPA-hating philistines). Don’t take my word for it, c’mon down!

Despite the craziness of the campaign trail (Election Day’s Nov. 3 – don’t forget to vote!), I finally managed to add content to the “community” section of our sustainability page and I added another: Community Involvement. It’s important to remind ourselves that one of the things that gives us so much satisfaction is being part of a thriving community, meeting new people, making connections, becoming part of the fabric of the social life of Fremont and beyond. Easy for me to say since I don’t actually make our beer and thus derive satisfaction only from drinking it.

But really, when Matt considered the perils of opening a small business amid a recession, one of the things that drove him into beer-making in Fremont was the desire to contribute something of value to the Greater Good. Whether or not beer, however sustainably-produced, is the right something is admittedly a matter of debate (insert long digression on the dangers of alcohol abuse). But providing a place to get together with friends, meet new people, cruise for dates, or just sit alone in the company of others is important. (Cafes serve this purpose too but -- and maybe I'm just going to the wrong ones -- nowadays it's sort of creepy how everyone's hidden behind their laptops.) Because places where one can re-create oneself and connect with others sustain community and provide refuge from the alienation and anonymity of these hyper-speedy, teched-out, economically-precarious, weird times. End of sermon.

Cheers, Sara

*Last Friday, a local PEPS group rendez-voused here – not to scare the child-averse among you. The typical flow of folks is as follows: 4-5:30, parents returning from picking up their kids from school, thirsty Bikram Yoga studs, and various drinkers convinced it’s beer o’clock somewhere (like Montana maybe). From 5-6:30 it’s the after-work crowd, from Fremont’s many large (i.e. Adobe, Getty Images) and small businesses (i.e. Bjarko/Serra Architects). These folks come to meet up with friends or have a bite before their main gig of the night. Then from 7-8:00ish it’s people like me who consider going out for a beer the big event of the night.

Beer of the month!

Universale is the Beer of the Month at Fremont’s Red Door, starting tonight! Not only is this great promo for Fremont Brewing, patrons get to drink our beer for cheap: $3.75 a pint or $13.50 for a pitcher.

Our Universale Pale and the Organic Berry Pale Ale (“Mystere de la Passion”) received top rankings at the Fremont Oktoberfest a couple weeks ago. Both were rated 4 out of 5 on the special iPhone app created for the event. No beer got 5 out of 5, making me question the ratings criteria. But whatever. Let’s just say the discriminating sophisticates who went to Oktoberfest thought we were pretty good.

Meanwhile, back at the brewery, the Urban Beer Garden is going strong. The Red Door’s old swanky furniture provides intimate little niches in an otherwise pretty industrial space. I brought in more toys to entertain the little ones accompanying the pick-up-from-daycare crowd so that’s good. On tap today: Nitro Portage Bay Porter (new), All Salmon IPA (new), Little Woody Oak-Aged Pale, and Universale. Reminder: the Urban Beer Garden will be closed next Thursday, Oct. 8 for a previously scheduled event (see below) but will re-open on Friday, Oct. 9.