As you may have read in my previous post, last summer, Christine and I finally got off the freeway in the mythical town of Weed. But we weren’t looking for gas, or, well, you know…weed. Nope, what we were looking for was some of the legendary Weed beer brewed locally by the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company.
And though Christine only gave me one shot at finding it — we were trying to make Oregon by nightfall, yo — I happened to find plenty of Weed beer at the first and only gas station we stopped at. Yay!
Why all this trouble for a microbrew you ask? Well, first off, I loves me some beer, the smaller the batches, the better, and secondly, I wanted to support the brewery in their epic struggle with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) over the pithy slogan on their bottle cap.
See, until spring of 2008, the bottlecaps on all the MSBC’s beers read: “Try Legal Weed”. Hilarious, right? Well, apparently, the suits in Washington did not agree and even though the trinkets at the gas station were loaded with pot humor and Weed references, the bottle caps had to be recalled. As the local headlines jokingly proclaimed: “Government is keeping us safe from bottle caps”. Insane!
Of course, that only made me wanna try the beer even more. Not just as a beer lover, but to help support the kick ass dudes who brewed it. I mean, hell, microbreweries are having a hard enough time making ends meet these days, last thing they need is to be replacing hundreds of so-called “inappropriate” bottle caps. The way I saw it, if my lowly purchase could in any way help their bottom line…sign me up!
So, we bought a six pack of their signature brew, the Weed Pale Ale, picked up some Weed-centric shot glasses and refrigerator magnets at the gas station and drove the rest of the way to Grants Pass. Only then, when safely ensconced in the bosom of Christine’s family farmhouse did I get to taste this magical beer for the first time…and let me tell ya, it rocked!
Crisp and malty with a vaguely sweet aftertaste, this was a pale ale for the ages, and after a long, sweaty trek up the interstate from Burbank, it was just what the doctor ordered. Amazing!
Sadly, the bottle caps I was searching for had already been replaced with a generic gold cap with no writing on it at all. LAME! But a few months later, the case was overturned and the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company was allowed to resume bottling all of their beers with their now-legendary bottle caps. So, yay!
To read more about the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company and the many fine beers they produce — I wanna try the space-alien-themed Lemurian Lager next! — click here. And, once again, happy 420, amigos!
make. see. eat. do. 
I actually heard about that case on the radio. Our tax dollars hard at work. What a waste of time trying to squash a totally cool slogan.
But I think the microbrewer got the last laugh. If anything, I think the case by the Feds actually helped promote the sale of “Legal Weed.”
Go Weed Brew!!!
Dude, these Weed beers are amazing. Just yesterday, I stumbled upon the Mt. Shasta brewery itself, located in between the College and Weed, and did a tasting of their full selection. Appropriately, I was stoned – after blazing a spliff in Arcata, I had gotten the ridiculous idea to seek the town of Weed via this dodgy forest service road, which had a rockslide blocking it halfway thru.
After clearing the rocks, I was desperate for some beer, and what do you know? Dodgy road eventually took me to the brewery, which most ppl miss since its on the wrong side of I5.
They offer a tasting of all 8 of their beers for $10 – can recommend the Mountain High IPA and the Lemurian, both of which I purchased to take home. Amusingly, I was seated next to a bunch of forest service rangers at the bar – when I asked why they neither bothered to clear the rockslide or to put up a sign saying the road was closed, they were like, “dude, then we’d have to put up signs everywhere.”
They then informed me that the beautiful blue and green rock in my car that had blocked my way was actually made of asbestos and was going to kill me.
Its all good – my roommate with a PhD in physics and materials science told me that the rock was completely safe. But I do hate it that my tax money goes to fund these losers who prefer to spend their time hanging out at the Weed bar instead of maintaining their roads.
LOL. Laters 🙂
Ha! That is an awesome story, Sam. Thanks for commenting on my blog…and most especially, thanks for the heads up about the groovy rocks in the road. I will totally leave room in the back of my Vue to store them when I pass through to the brewery! 🙂