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.

With the South Lake Tahoe fire 85% contained, the town seemed to sigh in relief. Most of the tourists had choosen not to visit Lake Tahoe this July 4th weekend and it created the perfect atmosphere to relax in.  Continuing my Lake Tahoe tour, I ended up at a Pizzeria and Brewpub named The Brewery at Lake Tahoe. Located on Lake Tahoe Blvd, this hot spot is known to fill up fast on days with good weather. We ordered a couple of beers and a few pizza pies and grabbed a choice picnic table outside with a mountain view.

After looking over the microbrew menu it became clear that I needed to branch out from my traditional order of IPA and try some of the other microbrews The Brewery had potioned up. This led to a bit of worry, until I spotted the "Beer Flight" listing on the beer menu. I immediately warmed to the idea, and ordered it up. Our waiter took the order, and ten 4-ounce glasses of assorted beer were put in front of me. Here’s a quick run down of each one:

• Washoe Wheat Ale – An American style wheat ale – Mild and very refreshing. Their lightest beer in body and color.
• Needle Peak Ale – An American style pale ale – Golden-blonde in color with balanced hops and toasted malts.
• Prince of Pales – An English style pale ale – Dry and Crisp, with a slightly bitter finish. An ale in the tradition of a British pub pint.
• Alpine Amber Ale – An American amber ale – A classic amber ale light in body with a pleasant caramel malt finish.
• Indian Pale Ale – A Traditional IPA – An aggressively hopped brew, golden-amber in color with pronounced bitterness and aroma.
• Paramount Porter – A Brown porter – An amazingly light bodied porter, with a pleasant chocolate essence and malt flavor.
• Bad Ass Ale – A style of its own – Their brewers handcraft this ale to be a perfect balance between its barley and choice hops. Deep burgundy in color, high in alcohol, this beer is always “Bad Ass”.
• Belgian-Style White Bier – A Belgian Wit – This wheat beer made with Curacao orange peel and coriander should be your first choice on a sunny Tahoe day.
• Oatmeal Stout – An Oatmeal stout – An extremely dark and full bodied beer, roasted barley and rolled oats give this beer its rich roasted flavor that any beer drinker will love.
• Captain Dick’s Nut Brown Ale – An English style brown ale – Using specialty malts from 4 different countries, this brown ale has a unique nut flavor and an intense long lasting malt profile.

While not all of the beers in the sampler were my personal favorites, I would recommend trying this out at least once. You get to try a variety of tasty homebrews (different every day, and often seasonal), and, at just under ten bucks, it’s not a bad deal. Also, if you chug each and every glass, you can get drunk rather quickly if you continue to order the sampler like it’s going out of style.