Taking the bartenders advice from the Brewery in Lake Tahoe, I made my way to one of their sister brewpubs and restaurants called Cecil’s Steak and Brew located on 4118 Lake Tahoe Boulevard.

The atmosphere was an open floor/sports bar feel (large-screen TV on the wall), and you could see the chefs cooking from the main floor. No booths, just tables. As always, I migrated over to the taps to have a look and grabbed a seat at the bar. The bartender was very knowledgeable about their craft beer and told me all about a specialty batch of brew that their master brewer had just released called their Double Time Double Scotch Ale.

So on to the tasting…. the bartender placed a small taster of the Double Time Double Scotch Ale in front of me and told me to smell it before tasting it. I filled my lungs and smelled butterscotch and coffee. Upon tasting the ale I was pleasantly surprised to find an equally similar taste to the aroma. The beer had bold flavors and was high in alcohol content. My first thought was that this would be a great after dinner or dessert beer to be paired with chocolate.

I wasn’t fully in the mood for dessert yet, so I browsed the beer menu looking for my next victim. I quickly spotted a familiar Californian micro brew on their menu and ordered a round for me and my friends. Lagunitas India Pale Ale is by far one of my all time favorite IPA’s perhaps due to the extra dry hopping technique towards the end of the brewing process or the centennial hops they use. I’m just a sucker for good hops and apparently anything Lagunitas brews up.

Yes, there is good beer to be had in South Lake Tahoe, one of the most popular outdoor wonderlands for skiing, hiking and getaways in the Midwest. I stopped in a corner bar called Whiskey Dick’s Saloon http://www.whiskeydicksslt.com, which from the name you would expect to find stripper poles and drunken cowboys passed out all over the floor. This corner pub had a long island bar, three coolers full of microbrews and at least 24 cases of a town favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon.

As I looked over the beer coolers I noticed a shot-of-the-day sign that read "Russian Pussy". I couldn’t bring myself to ask what made up this classy concoction, but I know I probably didn’t miss out on much. The bartender was very nice while I stared into the beer coolers looking for something new. Three sweat-covered men entered shortly after we did. "Working on a Saturday, are we?" a young woman asked. They grinned and nodded their heads. As they drank their beers, they talked in thick Cali-surfer accents. One drank Miller Lite, another Budweiser and the third had Coors Light on ice.

I saw a beer called SIRIUS, a Lagunitas Special Release High Gravity Cream Ale and the bartender told me he had just got it in that day. I gave it a try and it ended up being a winner. A girl down the bar was curious to know what it tasted like, so the bartender asked if he could pour a spot into a shot glass for her to taste. "Of course", I said and she described it as a great beer, but not a great cream ale. I agreed that the beer was great, but it was definitely a stretch from cream ale. Lagunitas is one of my favorite California microbreweries, so I really enjoyed getting a hint of their classic hop/barley combo in this beer.