Berkeley has always sparked interest for me being one of the most liberal colleges in the US. Today I took the subway across the bay and north to explore the area. Getting off the subway downtown Berkeley immediately felt safer then downtown SF, littered with relatively tame looking students wandering to and from campus.
I walked north at first to see how far the strip went and on my way back decided to stop into the Triple Rock Brewery. The feeling I got here was that the building hadn't been renovated for 10-15 years and neither had the menu. However the beer menu looked pretty enticing though so I ordered the sampler and decided to get a Philly cheese steak sandwich. The beer sample was a circular pallet, which evolved from bitter to sweet in a clockwise manner. The cheese-steak was juicy, delicious and filling; leaving me enough energy to continue exploring with my newly acquired buzz.
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| outside Triple Rock Brewery |
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| bar @ Triple Rock |
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| upstairs beer garden @ Triple Rock |
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| beer sample |
And some notes on the beer from light to dark:
Drakes IPA: hoppy, very bitter, grapefruity
Red Rock: effervescent, bitter, caramel
Three Frog Ale: sweet and caramel
Finagin's Whistle: Guinness copy
Black Rock Porter: dark, smooth, mocha
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| cheese steak sandwich |
I decided to walk over toward the Berkeley Campus next, I found a pathway to walk along and made it about half mile before turning around. The campus was picturesque with grassy hills and a creaks; plus a variety of trees including, oaks, redwoods and eucalypti. As I wondered about the smell of pot seamed proportionate with the amount of humans in sight.
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| campus from street |
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| pathway |
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| students on campus |
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| some Berkeley trees |
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| a ball |
Back on the main street I walked south to see about finding another brewery. The place I came across was called Jupiter's, which called itself a brewery, but upon closer inspection I found they'd made a deal with a local brewer as apposed to brewing there own beer. There was no sampler to order here, but the bar tender was nice enough to poor me 3 sample size tastes for free before I ordered a drink.
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| outside Jupiter's |
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| bar @ Jupiter's |
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| beer garden @ Jupiter's |
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| beers I sampled |
From right to left:
Jupiter Porter: mildly poppy, strong mocha, effervescent
Drakes Cuvee: dark chocolate, blackberry, effervescent
Jupiter Dry Stout: very frothy and smooth, mild mocha
