SanTan Brewery

I finally visited SanTan this past Sunday. I had tried some of their beer back at the Strong Beer Fest in February and wasn't super impressed, but it is hard to turn down the fact that this is the closest microbrewery to my house. I don't count the Gordon Biersch that is much closer as it is a macro microbrewery with a chain of restaurants and cost to cost distribution. I wasn't in an IPA mood, so I started with their Big Red. It was a nice American red with a clean hoppy finish. I can't say that American reds are my favorite style, but it was good representative of the style. I followed this up with their Gordo Stout to have with my meal, pork adovada. They were out of rice so they doubled up on the beans, but that was fine. The stout was on nitro, but it could afford to be bigger if they are going to go with that serving style as the nitro held back the flavor too much for my taste. I would go with more roasted malt profile. I finished the night with their Oscuro. Despite the name this is an amber more than a brown and not that dark. This also came on nitro and I don't think this helps. The flavor was very reserved. I think that on CO2 this could be a really good beer, but I also have a feeling that they have altered the recipe a bit with the hop shortage. One of the brewers was there and he mentioned that they are having a real problem securing aroma hops, not that this is news to a homebrewer. I want to go back and try the Sunspot Gold which they are calling a blonde ale and give their "sesonal" IPA a shot. I think that my wife will really like the place and she is likely to enjoy several of the beers.