01JUN2007 "Sierra Brasserie: Kenya's first microbrew"

On Friday, we hopped a flight from Malindi to Nairobi. I had the whole weekend planned out with surprises for Patrick, but I broke down and told him when he started making his own plans in order to save mine! Ever since Patrick told me about the microbrewery in Nairobi, I had been fantasizing about good, hoppy, bitter, amazing, intoxicating, proper ale. Ever since I told Patrick we were going to Nairobi, we began to fantasize together. So, as soon as we landed in Nairobi, we hopped in a cab and made a bee-line for Sierra Brasserie.

Sierra Brasserie is extremely swanky, with a very re-claimed warehouse industrial feel; brushed steel beams, polished concrete floors, 30 foot vaulted ceilings and exposed ductwork. The menu was tantalizing—lamb tagine with yogurt mint sauce, spicy wings, roasted brie salad… mmmm… everything except fried chicken and chips! They only had two microbrews on the menu, so we ordered one of each, a blonde and an amber. We were practically drooling with anticipation! The waitress returned with two cans of beer (yes, CANS!) and ceremoniously cracked them in front of us. Our jaws dropped and our anticipation deflated almost visibly. The beer was marginally better than Tusker, but… it was in cans! After the first beer, we were (barely) able to laugh off our disappointment. Fortunately, the food did not disappoint. The wings rivaled Cap City Brewery’s (Patrick note - Wendy thinks so, but I think her wing memory is tainted at this point…) and the lamb tagine was impressive to say the least. But the beer…was…in…cans!! Sigh.

At the end of the meal, we got to speak to the head brewer who is also the head chef (and owner and general mastermind). He got his Master Brewer degree at UC Davis (!) and worked at a microbrewery in San Francisco before returning to his home, Kenya. He talked about brewing beer that is slightly sweet to appeal to the Kenyan palette, and therefore not being able to brew strong pale ales and other bitter beers. He told us that the can format was a marketing pilot to see how well his beer might sell to the local safari outfitters. Eventually, he let us taste a bit of his latest brew, a maibock, which was almost ready to tap. It was unfiltered, straight from the fermentor, and DELICIOUS!! We got a special treat since it is apparently illegal to sell unfiltered beer, and the maibock was to go on tap early after the weekend. We vowed to come back Wednesday morning on our way to the airport if we could have another glass of that…

We checked into a first class room in a very swanky hotel called the Fairview. The first class lounge was closed due to the holiday, but we didn’t care because the HIGH SPEED INTERNET WAS FREE!! It almost made up for the beer in cans…