Brew Fest At The Rio Cafe

Some brave California souls ventured out into the intimidating Aptos fog today to attend the 2nd annual Oktoberfest at the Rio Cafe. On hand to serve beer were a couple of the local Santa Cruz favorites, Uncommon Brewers and Ale Works.

Uncommon Brewers pleases with pints.

The Ale Works pouring the love.

Uncommon Brewers was serving up their Siamese Twin, Golden State Ale and Baltic Porter to an appreciative crowd while the Ale Works had on tap their classic examples of an American hefeweizen, pale ale, stout and a great IPA.

A few yards down the street were the new kids on the block, Corralitos Brewing Company who was serving no less than 10 different beer on tap including a hefeweizen, Belgian golden, stout, helles, oktoberfest, IPA, IIPA, kolsch, smoked porter and a red ale. I was particularly

impressed with the IIPA with its ample hop flavor and bitterness supported by a big malty backbone. A couple of the brewers, Luke Taylor (no relation) and Michael Smith were on hand to explain to the crowd the differences in the beers as they poured samples from a massive wall of taps. This is a new start up brewery for our area and from the examples on tap today, are showing great promise for the future. I'm looking forward to quaffing a few pints of their ales when they get their operation up to full production early next year. Head brewer Luke Taylor expects to supply his artisans brews to the locals sometime early spring of next year. 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for craft beer in Santa Cruz county. I hope to do a more in depth review of Corralitos Brewing Company in the future with an interview with head brewer Luke Taylor. Stay tuned.