Lengthwise Brewing Company, 7700 District Blvd, Bakersfield, California
CoffeeBeer >> Pint Pleasures >> Perch
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Lengthwise Brewing Company, 7700 District Blvd, Bakersfield, California |
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Great Change Brewing Company, 4200 Resnick Court, Bakersfield, California |
Things have been quiet on the CoffeeBeer website. Don't worry, I certainly haven't stopped drinking beer. This most recent silence has been because finally, for the first time since the beginning of the Covid lockdowns, I was finally able to fly over to California to spend a few weeks visiting. Sadly my Long Beach-based mother had passed away during lockdown, so what's left of my tiny immediate family has relocated up to the Central Valley, to the city of Bakersfield.
When I was growing up in Long Beach, we used to think of Bakersfield as nothing more than a hick cowtown that my family drove through on our summer vacations in order to reach more exciting places like the Sierras or the coast of Northern California or Oregon. We might have stopped briefly in Bakersfield, at some roadside burger joint for a quick lunch or even just a cold soft drink, because it was usually hotter than hell on that stretch of Highway 99 and worth a break from our non-air-conditioned car. But I really never knew anything about Bakersfield--until this year.
Originally inhabited by the native Yokuts people, the area didn't change much until the discovery of gold in 1848, at which point settlers of all kinds flooded into Kern County. The original settlement was washed away in 1861 by floods from the Kern River, but by 1873 it was finally incorporated as the City of Bakersfield, named after lawyer and former colonel Thomas Baker. By the 1890s the city had attracted more migrants who worked in the oil industry. Today it's one of the fastest growing cities in California, and it's famous for the Bakersfield Sound which was popularised by local legends Merle Haggard and Buck Owens.
So I guess we were being unfair, as there aren't that many cows in or near Bakersfield. There must have been quite a few sheep during the Gold Rush, though, because a lot of Basque shepherds moved to the area, and there are currently more Basque restaurants in Bakersfield than anywhere else in the country. I admit I did see a few cowboys while I was visiting, especially out at Ethel's Old Corral, but that may be more of a style than anything else. I don't know.
Regardless of my overall impression of Bakersfield, it is certainly a growing city, so as it's 2022, there would of course be some breweries to explore. And naturally I managed to visit a few.
I first stopped into Lengthwise Brewing Company when my uncle drove down from Sacramento for a couple of days to visit me and my sibling group. Unkletom was really confused when we pulled into the industrial park and drove past the long modern building looking for a parking space. I explained to him that this is the type of location where most of California's newer breweries are located. And as we got out of the car, I pointed out the towering brewing vats to the rear of the building.
We entered the main door and walked up to the bar, where I had a taste of Zeus Imperial IPA (9.5%), which seemed to have the taste of pure alcohol. I also had a quick taste of the gorgeous Grapefruit Zeus (9.7%), which was even stronger. Seeing as how I'd only had my morning coffee a couple of hours earlier, I decided to go for a pint of the much safer Citra Simcoe Centennial (6.5% ABV). This is brewed with Citra and Amarillo and dry hopped with Centennial, a nice cool hops combination for the hot afternoon. Unkletom went for a pint of Cerveza de Lengthwise (4.6% ABV), which is a Mexican-style lager.
We crossed the huge room and took a seat at a long communal table. Leaving my uncle to relax and sip, I went back to the bar to see if they might have a different version of their food menu other than the giant board that was sitting on the bar. As the menu is online, which requires scanning a QR code with one's phone, I didn't bother asking if they had a WiFi password so that I could go online with my British phone. But to make things easy, when I gave my uncle a super-brief rundown of the menu, we both decided to have fish tacos.
The tacos were actually really good, traditional style with white sauce and shredded cabbage, and my hoppy Citra was just right, quite satisfying for what I needed. As we sat, sipped, ate, and talked about all things bizzarreally artiological, my pint grew in hoppiness and was wonderfully set off by the tacos.
My second visit was a couple of weeks later with my friend Mistah Rick. He had just arrived to spend the night, as the next morning the two of us would be leaving to go explore more breweries near the California coast. So I suggested we start our Saturday evening with a pint at Lengthwise. It was a pleasantly windy summer evening, so we sat out on the large patio at a tall table. Once again I had a pint of Citra Centennial (6.5% ABV), which I again thoroughly enjoyed, and Rick had a pint of Widthwise (9.7% AVB), a very strong but delicious beer with Yakima Valley hops.
Besides this brewery, which opened in 2016, Lengthwise has two other locations in the city including a pub in Northwest Bakersfield and a gastropub near Cal State University. And besides brewing beer, they roast their own coffee. So I'm sure I'll be visiting some sort of Lengthwise, perhaps depthwise or diagonally, on future visits.
After we shared our pints, including Rick's strong one which made me feel as if my connection with the world was spreading a bit sideways, we managed to walk half a mile to Great Change. Here we sat at the bar and had pints of the appropriately named I'm A Little Hazy IPA (7.0% ABV). A NEIPA brewed with two of my favourite hops, El Dorado and Mosaic, this was most appropriate for my suddenly hazy head. I believe I recall thoroughly enjoying it. Anyway, we walked out -- or perhaps it was more of a sashay or a mambo -- having bought a four-pack of Underwater Giraffe Pale Ale (5.4% AVB), brewed with Idaho 7, Citra, and El Dorado hops, to take back to the house. Fortunately when I awoke the next morning we both felt refreshed and ready for our journey. So we bid farewell to my brother, my sister-in-law, my unofficial brother, and the four cats. I guess the giraffe had already gone home.
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