Moonlight Brewing Company

WineCountryBEER

 
 

Some breweries travel by the beat of a different drum yet end up with fantastic beers just the same. This explains to a tee colorful brewer Brian Hunt and his Moonlight Brewing Company.

While it’s not set up to entertain tours nor does he have a brewery tap room or pub, this craft brewery is one of those rare gems that beverage aficionados long to discover and then tell their friends back home about.

Hunt is big advocate of local. Classically trained at UC Davis, as are several Wine Country brewers, he loves the richness and diversity of Sonoma County flora. It’s only natural then that some of it would wind up as ingredients in his beers.

Whether its redwood tips, western cedar branches or his estate-grown hops, Moonlight Brewing Company makes beers that find a harmony with the locale. Going out on a limb, so to speak, is something Hunt does so well.

Look for Moonlight beers on tap around Sonoma County, San Francisco and the North Bay region’s restaurants and better bars. You do not want to end a Wine Country vacation without trying these beers.

The Brews

While Moonlight Brewing’s specialties are often unique local-ingredient beers, its traditional beers are all very well made and immensely drinkable. The line up includes both ales and lagers. Seasonals are popular. These beers rate very highly with critics and drinkers alike. The creative names alone should win some kind of award.

Some favorites include:

Working For Tips – A malty copper ale with the tips of redwood branches substituting for hops. A true Wine Country original. Great notes of conifer-juniper along with some fruit esters. ABV 5.5%

Twist of Fate – A California-style Bitter. Very toasted malt flavors with pronounced hop bitterness and aromas. Flavorful and aromatic. Great body. ABV 5.5%

Reality Czech Pils – Bright golden color. Delicate, clean, and crisp with bready malt and grassy/spicy hop flavors. A beer of character. ABV 4.8%

Death and Taxes – Not just for April 15th, this year-round brew is flavorful, yet quite light bodied. A dark, coffee roast with floral-herbal hop aroma.  ABV 5.0%

Bony Fingers – Offered for Halloween season. Pours black with brown head. Dark roasted malt flavors of chocolate. Perfect hop balance and strong bitter finish finish. For those not afraid of tannins and astringency Delicious. ABV 6.2%

 

An emphasis on local ingredients

Location

This small brewery is located in rural Sonoma County west of Santa Rosa. It does not accommodate drop in visitors and does not have a tasting room. The grounds include the brewery building, hop garden and various redwoods and other trees and shrubs. It’s actually quite a scenic location.

Tours: Because of its small size and small staff the brewery is not open for public tours and tasting.

Email: brewer@moonlightbrewing.com

Tasting: The best way to sample Moonlight Brewing beers is to try them in local restaurants. Some of the best places include Flavor in Santa Rosa, Mosaic in Forestville, Bistro M in Windsor and Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol.

Go To: Moonlight Brewing Company Web Site

The tips or new growth on this redwood branch that grows on Moonlight Brewing Company’s property may well have ended up in a batch of the unique Working for Tips beer. It uses the redwood in place of hops, and it works. Moonlight also makes other tasty hop-alternative beers as specialties.

Self-distributor. Hunt works out of the back of his delivery truck that he uses to supply fresh kegs of Moonlight beers to local restaurant and bar accounts. Being a very small brewery means you get personally involved in many tasks.

Reality Czech Pils is a delightful Moonlight take on a Central European original. This is a food-friendly beer of the first order. Delicate, clean, crisp with bready malt and grassy/spicy hop flavors. Just the beer for lighter dishes and summer salads or for washing down spicy cuisine.

Brian Hunt, brewer and proprietor of Moonlight Brewing Company, tends to his field of estate-grown hops. It’s early May so the hop shoots are just beginning to vine. These hops are used in such classics as Homegrown Ale (aka Greenbud Ale) and Subliminal Ale.

Death and Taxes is one of Moonlight’s signature beers. It demonstrates that American craft brewers can make dark, flavorful lagers as well as anyone in the world.

This former hop kiln, now part of the  Martinelli Winery complex, sits only a few miles from Moonlight Brewing. Hop farming was active here into the 1960s and demonstrates that this part of Sonoma County has the climate and soils to produce quality hops for brewing use.