Sacramento Beer Week 2013 :: Beer Train

On a warmer-than-usual Sunday afternoon, my posse took off on our bikes to ride the 6.5 miles from McKinley park to the Sacramento River Train's Beer Train! Live music and beer from 4 local breweries (Track 7, Hoppy, River City and Sudwerk) on a moving train - we were so stoked!

Photo credit :: @ufallome on Instagram (thanks, Scotty!)

First, let me tell you, that train is straight out of the 70s. The smell, the upholstery, the narrow hallways, the rope lights (wait, those are modern... but they look so disco!) - it was fantastically dank and weird. We loved it!

The Hoppy station was in the first train car, which was the most disco one in the bunch. It was clearly a First Class train car back in the day. I don't know why it cracked me up so much, but it did. I now wish I had taken more photos of the actual train. Guess I'll just have to go again!

We were closest to the Track 7 table, so we spent most of our time drinking there, though we did venture to the other stations. I can't get enough of their Collaboration Ale with Knee Deep. That is just such a great beer.

I really feel like Beer Week 2013 has converted me into a bit of a Hop Head. I have always seemed to shy away from huge hop bombs, and have tended to lean toward sweeter, maltier pastures. But with the current IPA craze, which has seemed to dominate my Beer Week experience (mostly because my husband is a dedicated Hop Head), I've been exposed to a huge variety of hop flavors in a short window of time, which has really opened up my palate. While I'm not huge on the spicy-bitter, really piney, resiny hop flavor, I am really starting to enjoy the sweet, citrusy, lightly piney hop flavors. Thanks, Beer Week!

Cheers!

>^..^<

{image courtesy of sacramentobeerweek.com}

Hashtags :: #sacbeerweek #SBW2013 #craftbeer #locallove