Sacramento Craft Beer 101 with Urban Roots Brewery’s Peter Hoey
This week I want to start with a confession: I don’t like beer.
Even though part of my job is to tell you where to find the best and most unique brews around town, I don’t actually know what constitutes a “good beer.”
I can count on one hand the number of beers I’ve actually enjoyed — most others I’ve tried have just tasted like liquid bread. My drinks of choice are typically fruity cocktails, wine and cider, in that order.
However, doing food and drink reporting in a region that is home to upward of 50 craft breweries without actually trying any of the local beers would be an oversight on this important facet of Sacramento’s cuisine.
With the 15th annual Sacramento Beer Week, hosted by the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild, around the corner, I figured it was finally time to learn how to enjoy the beverage.
Sacramento Beer Week is set to kick off on April 25 and last through May 4, with events planned for beer enthusiasts and non-drinkers alike. One of the participating Beer Week businesses, Jackrabbit Brewing in West Sacramento, is hosting karaoke, trivia, a vintage beer market and a puppy adoption event, according to the beer week website.
As of Wednesday, nine days before the start of beer week, the festival’s website only had events listed for three breweries, but more events may be added in the coming days. In 2024, there were more than 100 events throughout Sacramento Beer Week, according to the festival’s Instagram.
To gain an understanding — and maybe even an appreciation — of Sacramento craft brews, I visited Urban Roots Brewery & Smokehouse in Sacramento’s Richmond Grove neighborhood on Monday to speak with Peter Hoey, one of the brewery’s co-founders.
“What do you normally drink?”
That’s Hoey’s first question to anyone who asks him what beer they should try first.
A light, easy-to-drink craft lager may seem like an appropriate starter beer, Hoey said, but the flavor profile doesn’t always match everyone’s taste.
Instead of providing a generic catch-all answer, Hoey looks for “natural bridges” between someone’s drink of choice and beer.
If someone is a wine drinker, he suggests a wine barrel-aged beer or fruited beer. Coffee drinkers might appreciate a “roasty, fruity” stout, he said.
At Urban Roots, Hoey tries to have 15 to 20 brews on tap on any given day, dependent on seasonal production and distribution.
“My goal as a brew master is to make sure there’s one beer on the board that someone will enjoy,” he said.
Hoey tries to keep Urban Roots’ brews classic, easy-to-drink and balanced, which he said is an approach that has contributed to his and partner Rob Archie’s success in their various food and drink ventures around Sacramento.
Urban Roots was recently named one of the best brewpubs in the U.S. by USA Today readers, and in 2021 it was given the California Brewery of the Year title in the Brewer’s Cup of California.
The pair’s other concepts, which include the fried chicken spot Bawk, speakeasy The Roost and pub Pangaea Bier Cafe, have earned numerous accolades, The Bee previously reported.
“We want to be approachable,” Hoey said. “We don’t want people to have to learn how to enjoy their time here.”
As part of my initiation into beer society, Hoey gave me seven beers to try, ranging from a deep stout to a hoppy hazy India pale ale. Here’s what I tried:
Blend In, fruited sour (8% ABV): The spring seasonal flavor of Urban Roots’ tangy, sour-sweet beer has nearly two pounds of blackberries and raspberries per gallon with a spritz of lemon, Hoey said.
“(Blend In is) a good bridge beer, because it’s almost more fruit than beer,” he said.
Fruit is the overwhelmingly predominant flavor, but the lactic acid produced by the brew’s yeast is bright and punchy. A briefly lingering malty finish reminds you that this is, in fact, still a beer.
Right Right, hazy IPA (6.5% ABV): This classic hazy IPA is made with citrusy, floral Cascade hops from the Yakima Valley of Washington, according to Hoey.
The beer, as well as many others at Urban Roots, is named for a saying Hoey said he commonly hears in conversation with folks, “oh yeah, right, right.”
Hoey said some people get coconut notes from the IPA, while others taste a more woody profile.
I was on team woody; the ale was incredibly herbal on my palate. The most striking part of the beer was how intensely it smelled and tasted like cannabis, which is not wholly unexpected as hops is a relative of the cannabis plant.
No Tricks, stout (6.5% ABV): This beer lives up to its name. It is a pure, basic stout with no extra flavors or twists.
Brewed with a touch of caramel malt, the rich chocolate and coffee notes shine through each sip. At the end, you’ll be left wondering if you just drank a beer or a shot of espresso.
Blood Orange Radler, helles lager with soda (2.5% ABV): Urban Roots’ newest release combines the brewery’s helles beer in equal parts with a house-made blood orange soda to make a refreshing German radler, a cousin of the popular shandy style.
It is a low-alcohol option with a precise balance of bitterness and sweetness thanks to the citrusy soda.
If you’re early in your beer-drinking journey and are still apprehensive about diving right in to malty, bitter brews, Hoey said a radler may be a good option. I consider it one step further into beer territory than Blend In.
Chocolate Moustache series, bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout (14.9% ABV): As a polar opposite offering to No Tricks, the Chocolate Moustache series is made up of three seasonal, high-alcohol stouts that I can only describe as dessert in a drink.
The original Chocolate Moustache, packaged in a 12-ounce bottle with a black wax-sealed lid, adds roasted cacao nibs and vanilla bean to a dark stout that spent 1 to 2 years aging in Kentucky bourbon barrels.
The Spumoni edition adds a fruity kick to the Chocolate Moustache base, with a juicy and tart cherry flavor cutting through the luscious chocolate.
Hoey was inspired to make the pink wax-topped Spumoni flavor while eating the cherry-chocolate-pistachio dessert with his family at The Old Spaghetti Factory.
The third flavor, a white wax-sealed Rocky Road, has a light marshmallow flavor supported by toasted Blue Diamond almonds.
Urban Roots produces and sells the set annually, releasing it in early spring. The 2024 set included the original Chocolate Moustache, a coconut almond variety and an orange-flavored draft-only brew.
Though I was skeptical that Hoey would be able to overcome my beer aversion, I was swiftly proven wrong. The versatility of this beverage impressed and surprised me.
Hoey’s favorite quote, which he referenced multiple times throughout my visit, will stick with me whenever I see a tap list without a cider and instinctively bristle:
“If you think you don’t like beer, you haven’t tried enough beers.”
Urban Roots Brewery & Smokehouse
Address: 1322 V St. in Sacramento
Hours: Sunday-Thursday: 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Phone: (916) 706-3741
Website: https://www.urbanrootsbrewing.com
Food: Various barbecue options, including smoked meats, seafood and sandwiches. Small-bite bar classics also available.
Vegetarian options: A handful of salads and sides.
Noise level: Loud.
Outdoor seating: Covered patio seating along V Street.
Openings and Closings
- The Lumpia Truck owner Joanne Suavillo soft-opened her brick-and-mortar Filipino restaurant, Spoon and Fork, at 2022 Broadway in Curtis Park. The soft opening started Monday and will continue through Saturday, April 19, according to the restaurant’s Instagram.
- Chocolit Cafe, at 7441 Foothills Blvd. in Roseville, held its grand opening on Sunday, an Instagram post by the business showed. The late-night dessert shop, which closes as late as 2 a.m. on weekends, frequently posts about its crepe-focused take on the viral Dubai chocolate trend.
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