RSSGuilty Pleasures -- High on Weed, Calif.
ON Magazine
E-mail
Print
Comments
More 'ON Magazine'
- Wringing fun out of wine
- A lighter 'Carol' this holiday season
- Hustle down to Sesame Street at the SunDome
- Remembering Dick Elliott: A favorite memory of an amazing artist
- Guilty Pleasures-- As holidays roll in, so do old acquaintances, good and bad
- Local poet will autograph his chapbook Sunday at Inklings
- Moxee singer finds himself back where he was before
Most Read
- This feature is under development and will be available soon.
Guilty Pleasures loves a good, handcrafted beer -- that's no secret.
That's why this Saturday evening will be spent trying out all the brews at the Fresh Hop Ale Festival. (Rumor has it a cowbell-playing Guilty Pleasures will even make a guest appearance on stage with the Blue Tropics.)
One wonderful microbrewery that Guilty Pleasures just discovered (and hopes one day will be at the fresh hop fest) is the laid-back Mt. Shasta Brewing Co. at the foot of the Siskiyous in the northern California town of Weed.
Admittedly, this past weekend's trip to Weed from Ashland, Ore. -- where Guilty Pleasures was visiting an actor friend in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival -- was not for beer.
It was simply a Sunday drive to take in the beautiful landscape -- and to take funny photos. Because, as you can guess, the tiny town of Weed, and its signage, is popular for its pot-smoking double entendres. (The city is actually named for Abner Weed, who built the area's first lumber mill.)
While the Weed Chamber of Commerce has come up with the clever slogan of "Weed Like To Welcome You," the first shop you run into on the main drag of Weed is a souvenir store that sells an array of "I (heart) Weed, CA" bumper stickers and "I Got High In Weed" or "Enjoy Weed ... California" T-shirts, and other novelty items playing up Weed's ganja goofiness.
In fact, Mt. Shasta Brewing recently won its battle with the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau over the craft brewery's "Try Legal Weed" bottle caps.
Of course, it wasn't the brewery's fame over all this litigious mumbo-jumbo or its smooth, award-winning Mountain High IPA that brought Guilty Pleasures in for a beer -- it was the possibility of more funny photo-ops.
However, after getting a warm welcome from Tonya the bartender, as well as a great tour of the brewery that's housed in the very cool old Medo-Bel Creamery, Guilty Pleasures and friends agreed that the best part of Weed isn't the photo high, but the beer buzz.
* To see some snapshots from Guilty Pleasures' trip to Weed, visit www.flickr.com/onmagazine.
* Guilty Pleasures is a weekly look at whatever Guilty Pleasures wants to look at.
- Advertisement