Hopjacks (Pensacola, FL)

The senior of the the two Hopjacks locations. I was rather pleased with my visit to the Mobile AL location, so had reasonably high hopes for this one, too.

Right on Palafox, in the Downtown Pensacola. I seem to remember this location having been once one of those grill-your-own steak type places, but then again, I haven't lived in Pensacola since 1994, so who knows how many places have come and gone from here, eh?

Interesting to contrast the two Hopjacks locations. The Mobile location was a bit bohemian, still a bit beat up from previous owners hosting a few too many raging boozers `til the cows come home, with lots of stainless steel (probably makes hosing down the joint easier). The Pensacola location, on the other hand, is much darker, with a ton of dark wood, exposed beams up in the overhead, and just looks less "divey".

But all that's well and good, but what about the beer? No disappointments here. 36 taps (vice Mobile's theoretical 52), but basically the same suspects. Rogue, Stone, foreign and domestic schwills, a few Belgians. Strong emphasis on the regional offerings: 2x Lazy Magnolia, 5xSweetwater. I found it odd that neither Hopjacks location had anything from Northern Alabama (e.g. Good People or Olde Towne), but it wouldn't be the first time I've seen a night&day difference between No. AL vs So. AL & West FL.

I first got a Sweetwater IPA in (you guessed it!) a frozen pint glass. But I don't think the correct serving temp on this would have improved it much: I had forgotten this was a very "meh" beer.

Got to talking to the server, a cute chick by the name of Ramsey, and she was happy to talk to someone who seemed to know a little about beer. She was familiar with many aspects of beer-geek lore, perhaps because she said she had an account on rarely-mentioned BeerPal.com. She even went so far as to bemoan Stone's Vertical Epic series as a "dumb-ass gimmick", for example. Her desire for the region, beer-wise? Russian River! I doubt Vinnie wants to make The Gulfcoast a priority for future expansion, but you never know!

Anyway, she then made it her mission to find me some beers in their stock that I had not had before (or at least in a long time). I felt kinda bad when I shot down most of her suggestions due to either having had the beer in question previously, or not wanting to go there in the first place (e.g. wtf is there six or eight different offerings from shite-tastic Tommyknocker all over The South?). I wanted something light and harmless to go with my tasty Roasted Duck Caesar Salad, so did take up her suggestion of a Bali Hai (from Indonesia, a respectable quaffer).

Finished up with one of the Sweetwater beers not even on the menu yet: a "Dank Tank" (limited edition? wet hop?) beer called Wet Dream. Normally I'd shy away from big[ger] 7.5%ABV Red Ales, but the server was obviously going way out of her way to hook me up, so I just had to man up and power down! Thankfully, the beer was actually pretty good. Nice and malty, *not* sweet and cloying, with the booze only on the extreme edges. Nice hoppy nose, but not all that bitter on the palate, but that's not a huge surprise. A solid beer that I could see hitting the big time if it were served a tad warmer.

Serving temp issues aside (and please don't ask me why they like to offer blends of two or more beers), this was a nice place to visit. I could envision it getting slammed on a Friday or Saturday night (like every other bar/club on Palafox). But for lunchtime visits, when the server(s) can take the time to talk with you and hook you up with some goodies, it's good thing, indeed. Yes, even for The Deep South!
//TB


P.S. Ramsey "accidentally" left the very blah Sweetwater IPA off my tab. :)

Linkage.