The Tied House Brewery & Cafe - Coastal Fog IPA

The Tied House’s Coastal Fog IPA pours a crystal clear pure copper with an off white head. The malt aromas are quite prominent on this brew, offering up a lightly sweet and doughy character, with lightly citric, lemony, and herbal hop notes. It opens on the palate with clean toasted malt flavors with slightly sweet, bready notes. The hop profile offers a citric zing with herbal, even somewhat minty, overtones likely due to the inclusion of Columbus hops. On the midpalate, light impressions emerge of a somewhat fruity quality akin in some ways to apple and grape. Bitterness is quite firm at 51 IBUs, but very clean from beginning to end. Look for a refreshing light to medium-bodied feel to this beer, with a bit of slickness from the hop oils. A versatile beer for pairing with food, we think it would go particularly well with pretty much anything you want to throw on the grill this summer. Cheers!

First a little history to explain the name. In England during the 18th and 19th centuries, a pub system developed consisting of “tied houses” and “free houses”. “Free houses” were privately owned establishments and were allowed to sell any beer they wished, while “tied houses” were pubs that were owned or otherwise controlled by a specific brewery and served as an outlet specifically for that brewery’s beer. Though some things have changed over the years, this system still exists to this day. The creation of Lou Jemison and Ron Manabe, the Tied House Brewery & Café in Mountain View, CA opened for business in 1987 as the first brewpub in Silicon Valley. Completion of the brewery and supervision of the brewing itself were led by Master Brewer Cheuck Tom, whose brewing career included a thirty-year tenure at Hong Kong’s San Miguel Brewing, and six years as brewmaster for Anheuser-Busch in Los Angeles where he was in charge of brewing, fermentation, and finishing the beer. All of Tied House’s original recipes were developed by Cheuck, who won 2 Gold, 2 Silver, and 2 Bronze medals at the Great American Beer Festival prior to his passing in 1993. Now led by brewmaster and founder Ron Manabe and head brewer Peter Licht, formerly of Coast Range Brewery, the Tied House is still going strong twenty-three years after its founding. Offering classic brewpub style beers and food, and the occasional “Firkin Friday” during which they celebrate the English real ale tradition of drawing beer from the cask, the Tied House remains a great place to relax, connect with friends, and watch a game on one of the many large screens. Not content to sit on their laurels, they’ve recently opened a package brewery in San Jose to bottle their beers for distribution, including the Coastal Fog line. To learn more, call 650-965-2739.