the king of beer(s) club in, um "wine" country!?

King of Beer(s) Club says hello from California! Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, that is.

Pop quiz: name all the awesome breweries in these two counties:

Answer (off the top of my head):
Russian River (Santa Rosa)
Lagunitas (Petaluma)
Bear Republic (Healdsburg)
Anderson Valley (Boonville)
Mendocino (middle of nowhere nearish to Mendocino)
North Coast (Fort Bragg)

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.

OK, so now name all the awesome wineries in these two counties.

Sike. That is a silly question. There are so many. I experienced a couple today. Didn't think I'd appreciate them, but, um, I did. Shhhhhhhhh. This one and this one in particular.

But enough about wine. Snobs.

BEEEEEEEER!

So far soooooooo good. Sleeping Brewty and I have hit up Lagunitas, Russian River, and Anderson Valley. Each had its unique charm.

Lagunitas beers tasted:

• Maximus (Imp IPA: Thumb UP
• Wet Hop Pale Ale (on cask): Thumb DOWN, nice try guys.
  
• Spicy IPA: Thumb confused (habenero in my IPA!?) but upish!
  
• A Little Sumpin' Wild: Thumb UP UP UP!
  
• Bourbon Barrel Aged Cappuccino Stout: Thumb UP (Katy's was WAY UP!)
• Fusion 2 (Black IPA) : Thumb SIDEWAYS

Russian River beers we done slurped up:

• Pliny the (freakin) Elder!!!!: Thumbs UP UP UP UP UP UP UP UP UP. Maybe the beer I'd choose to drink for the rest of my life, if I had just one choice.
• After a pint o' Pliny, I decided to push my limits and asked for a sample of all the Belgian style beers they had on hand. I received the following (to the best of my memory)
• Temptation
• Supplication
• Redemption
  
• Salvation
  
• Sanctification
  
• Damnation
• Consecration
• Compunction
  
• And a couple others
  
• Four sours were among the bunch. Though I'm still warming to sours, I could tell that these were superb (especially for an 'merican brewery).

Anderson Valley Brewing Company. Beers that got drunked into my mouth:

• Imperial IPA: For real thumb up.
• Mendo Mellow Fresh Hop IPA: Thumb UPPPPPPPPP!
• Bahl Hornin' Imperial Boont Amber Ale: Thumb Sideways
• 3-Way: Imperial ESB aged in whiskey barrels and mixed with the Imperial IPA and Amber. Whoa. Thumb up.
• Brother David's Belgian-style Double Ale: Thumb sideways
  
• Brother David's Triple Abbey Style Ale: Thumb sideways
• Somethin else.

More to come.

PS: We were totally blown away to meet a serious foodie and wine head (the son of the French Laundry owners) who grew up a stones throw from Santa Rosa and hadn't even heard of Russian River. WTF. WTF!?