Pizza and Beer (hold the pizza)

One of the best spots in Berkeley for pizza and good beer is Lanesplitter Pizza and Pub. Over spring break Sleave and I headed out to the location on San Pablo (you'd never know it's there unless you were looking for it) and enjoyed several regional delights. My first inclination is usually to go for whatever is on nitro, or cask conditioned. Cask conditioned beers are usually so smooth you don't even know your drinking them. Another thing I don't mind about them is they are usually a touch warmer than most draughts. Call me crazy but it just tastes right.

The first sampling was the Russian River on the cask. It was hoppy, and actually a bit cold. It was light in color, and had a nice head, typical of most brews on nitro. A great start to the evening.

My second offering was a Santa Rosa lager called Death and Taxes... apparently there's a 65 yr old dude that crafts his own and sells it to some of the local establishments. It was dark, but refreshing. Don't know that I'd have it again (of course that's a relative phrase), but delicious nonetheless.

Next up was Twist of Fate... It had a mild hoppiness, and I would characterize it as malty, kind of like a red--actually it was reasonably red in color. It gave off a hint of sweet hops but I wouldn't say it was a sweet beer. Joe described it as somewhat like bbq sauce. It smells faintly like a stout, like a light stout, or a thin stout. All these beers we've had are complex--fun to drink and challenging to describe. They've definitely been serious beers; beer club beers.

I had a sample of Joe's Scotch Ale... it was sweet meaning sweet not sweet meaning neat.

My last beverage was a Drake's Blonde. A perfect beer to end on; mostly light yet flavorful. Floral, really. Almost a breakfast drink, but still a quality beer.

So I highly recommend Lanesplitter, if you're hungry the pizza will do the trick, but I'd go there more for the beer.

Cheers!