2nd Hopmonk Tavern in the town of Sonoma

What’s more satisfying than a frosty, delicious beer on a hot day?

Two beers.

Now, thanks to brew guru Dean Biersch, we in Sonoma County will have just that — twice as many cold, refreshing mugs to lift, just in time for summer. That’s because Biersch is opening a second Hopmonk Tavern in the town of Sonoma, showcasing small-batch seasonal domestic and international specialty beers, drawn from at least 16 draughts on tap.

Taking over the former Deuce/Emmy’s Restaurant location at 691 Broadway, about a half mile south of Sonoma Plaza, the new Hopmonk will feature an outdoor beer garden similar to its original location in Sebastopol. Live music has been key to the west county bar’s success, and the Sonoma spot will include a band shell for acoustical performances.

Hopmonk II will also feature food, though, to be fair, the edible menu has never been the big draw for its crowd, which would rather focus on the beer that’s in the batter for fish and chips than the often lackluster cuisine itself.

Food faults aside, Biersch’s timing for expanding his concept couldn’t be better. Biersch knows a thing or two about brew – he helped create the micro-brewing boom with his Gordon Biersch brand, when he and partner Dan Gordon opened their first brewery restaurant in downtown Palo Alto in 1988. Yet it’s only been recently that the sudsy stuff has hit the limelight, with craft beer experts changing the landscape through boutique ingredients, limited productions, and such skilled finessing of water, malt, hops, and yeast that the beverage is now celebrated as art.

Witness: More and more beer-centric menus are popping up at restaurants nationwide, with even fine dining establishments offering beer-themed dinners, and the National Restaurant Association listing food-beer pairings in its top five alcohol trends for 2010.

The stats don’t lie, either. National sales of craft beer grew 10.3 percent in 2009 despite the fact that overall beer sales in the United States fell by 2.2 percent, according to figures released in March by the Brewers Association, a craft-brewing industry trade group.

Why the sudden obsession? People, it seems, have discovered that in the right hands, beer can be as deeply individual and nuanced as a fine wine. In fact, last spring, PBS put together a special called “Craft Beer: The New Wine.” The humble brew now enjoys a rightful place at a sophisticated dining table, and a new term has started popping up – cicerone, a term minted in 2007 to mean beer sommelier.

It turns out, too, that Sonoma has serious history in the craft beer scene, a fact not lost on Biersch. It’s credited with housing the first microbrewery in the United States, when Jack McAuliffe and Don Barkley starting the (now closed) New Albion Brewery in 1978 on East 8th Street.

In good news for the menu-minded, Biersch promises an intensified emphasis on the varied flavors of beer, and how well it works with food. Planned pairings include fresh Bodega mussels and Tavern fries with a citrusy Ommegang Farmhouse Saison; grilled salmon alongside the floral and piney Russian River Pliny the Elder; and crispy calamari savored with Hopmonk’s own unfiltered Pilsner.

It likely won’t take anyone much past a first few bites to see that food-brew pairing is so, so right. With craft beer having so many different potential ingredients, it naturally offers an enormous range of flavors to complement dishes, be it the light, lemony lilt of ale, to the chocolately depths of stout. Cicerones will suggest that beer is actually better than wine, since the carbonation scrubs the palate, lifting away oils and fats and resetting taste buds for the next bite.

Even more delicious, Biersch, a Sonoma resident, is said to be personally selecting each and every beer found on the constantly changing lineup. Want to sip a specific brew from a rare backyard talent? Just shout it out, and Biersch himself may track it down for you.

Details of the 1st Hopmonk Tavern:
230 Petaluma Avenue
Sebastopol, CA
707-829-7300
hopmonk.com