Leave some time for reading through the growing list of activities, scouting out the best beer week events and getting reservations for those that require them. All ready?  Then check out these events in the run-up to SF Beer Week.

Next weekend, on Saturday, January 28, starting at noon, the Brewing Network’s enthusiastic army of homebrewers will seek out Todos Santos square in Concord for their third Winter Brews Festival event, with a solid lineup of craft breweries and a repeat of their unusual and impressive homebrew sampling program where you get a chance to taste top amateur brews.  (For walking directions from Concord BART station, use our description of how to get from BART to the original E.J. Phair brewpub, which is on the plaza. It’s a easy, flat walk from the station.) Winter Brews Festival tickets are on sale in advance, so you can plan ahead.

Then on the first, Magnolia and 21st Amendment brewpubs in SF start their traditional month of making and serving special strong brews, from Barleywines and other fine styles of strong ales, to their own inventive winter “Imperial” versions of usually more modest beers. (It doesn’t even snow around here, but we don’t seem to mind those strong, warming brews.)

Last year’s SF Beer Week kickoff festival was at the Yerba Buena center. This year the opening event moves to a larger venue (though not as short a walk from BART). In this photo, beer bloggers Peter Estaniel and David Jensen enjoyed the opening of SF Beer Week 2011, almost a year ago.

P.S.: To our out-of-town beer community friends and readers: you don’t have to just have to dream about all the great Northern California beers poured during SF Beer Week 2012. There’s still time to book that trip.

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

On Brewmaster’s Dinner nights, Social Kitchen has been a whole other restaurant. Higgins has been producing creative and moderately priced beer dinners in collaboration with guest culinary talent during the last year.   He works with the chef in a beer tasting session where they plot flavor combinations, and on the night of the dinner, the beer and food pairing alchemy is unveiled.  Starting with this next dinner he will finally have an inventive collaborator in house again.

In September the two of us Beer-by-BARTers joined some friends for the “Thai-Italian Night” Brewmaster’s Dinner. September’s guest chef, Tyler Moorish from Osteria Coppa, had worked with Higgins to create that special menu.  Since then, the still-under-construction Southern Pacific brew pub has arranged to bring Moorish aboard as chef, so we will get to appreciate his beer-friendly food creativity in another venue soon.

The pairings for the September dinner included Simon Saison paired with a salad including bean spouts, cilantro and peppers.  Surprisingly, the fresh bean sprouts brought out a lovely earthy quality in the dry saison.  The third course of that dinner featured Rapscallion, a Belgian-inspired strong golden ale.  Higgins had served a special version of that beer, White Thai Affair, brewed with galangal and lemongrass,  for last year’s SF Beer Week.  At the dinner, the Thai flavors came from a delicious lemongrass red curry sauce rather than being infused in the beer, and the combination was just as good. Higgins served as host and beer pourer for the event. He was enthusiastic and available to discuss the pairings, his brewing processes and any questions having to do with beer during the meal.

Brewmaster’s Dinner prices are modest – September’s multi-course meal with matching beers was only $40 per person, and the December dinner is the some price.  Allergy adjustments are made graciously. Vegan and vegetarian variations are built into the menus from the start so everyone can be included.  Social Kitchen is right on the N-Judah MUNI metro line, so transit access also works.

Rich Higgins has made the idea of a San Francisco neighborhood “Cuisine a la Bière” a major part of his agenda. He’s brewed at Social Kitchen since it opened in May, 2010. Previously he brewed downtown at Thirsty Bear. Rich is also, at this point in time, one of three beer professionals in the world to have achieved the Master Cicerone certification. This beer steward certification program focuses on excellence in pairing beer with food as one of its multi-faceted goals.  (Several Bay Area Cicerones are awaiting results from the most recent Master exam in Chicago, so hopefully this elite club may soon expand some.)

If you want to learn from the master, you can also take beer appreciation and pairing courses from Rich Higgins at the Boothby Center, a promising new San Francisco spot for beer and spirits education, where you can attend a single class or take a course. We attended one of these beer classes in November. There Rich worked with the chef from Firefly Restaurant in pairing Thanksgiving-inspired foods with some classic and unusual European beers. The innovative approach to traditional flavors and the class conversation about the beer pairings was a real treat.  The Barbary Coast Conservancy of the American Cocktail is the nonprofit group behind this new education facility, conveniently located near Civic Center BART. The next beer and food class will be December 18th, featuring pairings with food created by Delarosa restaurant.

Both the Brewmaster’s Dinner and the beer classes are worth your attention.  Check out the Social Kitchen “Holiday Gathering” menu and the list of Rich Higgins beer classes at the Boothby Center.

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

The Jeremiah O’Brien is one of the last remaining World War II Liberty Ships, now docked at Pier 45 near Fisherman’s Wharf. You can get there from BART Embarcadero Station by taking the historic F street car (get it in from of the Ferry Building Tower).

Brews on the Bay provides a great chance to explore the old ship and taste fresh beers from all 8 of San Francisco’s craft breweries: 21st Amendment Brewery, Anchor Brewing, Beach Chalet, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Magnolia Gastropub & Brewery, Social Kitchen & Brewery, Speakeasy Ales and Lagers and Thirsty Bear Brewing Company, all of whom brew beer within the city limits.

This event is likely to sell out in advance next year, too. The best way to keep apprised in time is to get on the mailing lists of our local SF breweries.

P.S. — East Bay beer news: Keep your eyes peeled for a Pink Boots Society charity beer brewed last week at Drake’s to raise scholarship money for women who want professional brewers training. Here’s a little video about the project.

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

Last weekend we (“we” being not just the editorial plural, but Beer By BART’s Gail and Steve) went to Oregon for a Beer Bloggers Conference. One highlight was a trip to a hop farm, not far from Portland in the nearby Willamette valley.  We got to see Tettnang hops, a delicate “noble” variety originally from Germany, as they were mechanically picked and dried.  Our video shows part of the special tour of Goschie Farms given by one of the neighboring hop farmers before an outdoor dinner at the hop farm.

Hops attract more than just beer geeks. If you were an aphid, where else would you want to live?  So pesticides are used for professional hop cultivation in most areas.   Growing certified organic hops can be labor-intensive and expensive. The yield per acre ends to be lower. The hops will cost more.

Organic beers had been given an exemption for hops in the Organic labeling law, along with a few other food ingredients. Brewers are allowed to use non-organic hops without noting that fact.  If beers use 100% organic hops, that can be a voluntary addition to the label. This is about to change, at the end of 2012.  Beer brewed after December 2012 will have to have hops that are certified organic in their production in order to be called certified organic beer  The total amount of organic hops produced in the next harvest, a year from now, will be very important to organic brewers.   For example, local organic brewers such as Bison and Thirsty Bear will compete for these hops with larger players.  If we buy organic beers, we will support more acres being farmed without heavy petrochemicals, but until then a fascinating competition will play out.

What about Goschie farms?  As this interview says, they are certified Salmon Safe for their agricultural runoff practices, a worthy endeavor. They have produced some organic hops, but the transition is gradual, and natural conditions are part of the process.  For example, this uncharacteristically cool year on the West Coast did not bring the hot temperatures that help control aphids naturally.

Along with the organic beer movement, another industry pressure on hop farmers comes with changes in the AB-Inbev hop buying patterns.  The giant brewing company will now use more hop oils and extracts and  is no longer buying some hops, including the Willamette hop variety,  grown for them under contract and providing stability to the farms for decades.  Healthy hop plants can last for about 30 years, so ripping them out and planting another variety is not just a significant cost, but inherently wasteful and disruptive to the land.  However, shifts in demand are part of the reality of modern brewing and farming.

The Beer Bloggers Conference itself was a good recreational and educational weekend, produced by a group which has also done wine bloggers events. This was their third beer bloggers conference, and it felt slightly smaller than a critical mass for a conference, but members of the burgeoning Oregon beer community certainly made up for that. (Notably, the second one had been in England, and was quite popular. If anybody is interested, this is the group that plans to do it again!)

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

Jean Van Roy tells the story of Cantillon and Lambic tradition

The more you know about Lambic brewing, the more different it seems from other beer traditions. Modern ales usually take merely weeks to produce, after a very pure dose of specific beer yeast is added to start a typical vigorous fermentation. True Lambic beers will have a slow life-cycle closer to that of a wine fermentation.  Traditional Lambic breweries allow a hodge-podge of yeasts and local bacteria to blow in on the breezes to land in a vessel called a coolship, and later to live deep in the wood of fermentation barrels. Those strange “spontaneous” mixtures of microorganisms are totally responsible for fermenting and conditioning these beers at their own pace.

While aging, the mixed organisms form a strange-looking protective film over the surface of the beer, and then go though two summers of warmer temperatures where they become extremely weird, ropey and viscous throughout the entire barrel. This harmless but off-putting polysaccharide slime can pour with the consistency of oil or perhaps thin snot, so it is no surprise that this condition has come to be known as “sick” beer, or more specifically as the fat sickness, “la maladie de la graisse” in French.  For contemporary brewers who are embarking on a journey to make a beer inspired by the Lambic method, it’s comforting to know what strange things may happen along the way.

Jean comments about beer sickness and beer quality (30 seconds)

Jean Van Roy stated that he is not a “brewmaster” because he cannot master or dominate his beers.  He says he is a bit of a partner and a bit of a guide to his beers, using his knowledge of the peculiar paths these fermentations can take, passed along from his father and grandfather.  He helps the beers along.  This brings to mind some of the older words, like “alewife” from England (once used for women who brewed with undoubtedly mixed fermentations,  serving almost as midwives to deliver the beers of their day).   In using his experience to guide these great beers to fruition, Jean says that he is compelled “to follow my beer.”

The Van Roy family has faced several generations of adversity, ranging from a century-long decline of interest in Lambic in its native land and loss of many of their respected peers, to a dilution of meaning of their magical process and place-specific beer style.  While regional wine style names like “Champagne” are protected by having a legally enforced definition in Europe, traditional Lambic has not been so fortunate.  Some other Belgian companies filter and sweeten modern industrial products that can legally still be called Lambic.   As a result of the great new sour beer making explosion of recent years,  admiring brewers around the world are marketing their beers as “Lambic” or “Lambic Style.”

At the question portion of the conference session, Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing brought up this question of the Lambic appellation.  What should we call other contemporary beers, from outside the Senne valley, that were inspired by Lambic beer making traditions?   They could be named for their region, as Lambics were originally. They might be called “spontaneous,” Jean suggested.   Cantillon will be working on a new Lambic cellar in conjunction with the city of Brussels to honor the tradition and make long-aged beers available.  We can honor that resolve to save the authentic traditions by not calling our non-Belgian domestic beers “Lambic Style,” and by leaning on groups who present brewing competitions to change course and avoid the use of “Lambic” in category names.

Americans seem willing to call the related beers “sour,”  though that is often an exaggeration.  Jean wants his own finished beers to be complex and mellow.  Many people comment on the similarities between the true Lambics and fine aged dry wines.  There is a tartness, but there are layers of mysterious character that balance the acidity. Tasters search for analogies for the complex and compelling wood and animal aromas and flavors. “Wild” is used on labels sometimes in the US and other areas outside of Belgium, and not always when the fermentation is open to local organisms.  Sometimes the use of Brettanomyces yeast is noted on a label.  Those of us who seek new examples of these remarkable beers sometimes have to embrace beer-hunting and label scrutiny as an extension of our hobby.

CAUTION: Special beers protected from accidental purchase at the Jug Shop in SF.

Now and then the scary sound of “sour” works to the advantage of the sour-seeking consumers. It is reassuring to see that people who might not yet appreciate these beers have been cautioned to leave them for those of us who already love them, and who would never pour them out or return them as “spoiled” in confusion.

We are already seeing Cantillon beers available less often locally, as the global interest in the wild and sour increases. One great moment of optimism in the CBC panel came when an audience member asked about building a coolship, prompting the panelists to all speak with great enthusiasm.  (You want a very large surface area on the cooling vessel, but it should not be so shallow as to make for a too sudden a cooling of the hot liquid.  Some of those ambient organisms in the cold night air only get “spontaneous” when their food source is still warm.)  We can only hope that this contemporary recognition of the importance of teaching the old ways will revive the craft in a deep way in the Brussels region, too.  It is clearly opening the rest of the world to experimentation.  Enough of us have fallen for these beers that Cantillon has a growing world wide audience, waiting for that the next batch that has made the journey through time, surviving seasons as a sick beer to heal, become even stronger and flourish.

Here’s a recording of Jean’s talk posted by Jay Brooks for your listening pleasure.   

Local notes: The Craft Brewer’s Conference was a big week for local breweries, who did the region proud. Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo, along with their Russian River brew crew, appeared to have boundless energy up to and through the week. Along with convening this panel, they hosted a pre-conference symposium at their own place, they prepared and bottled a special conference attendees’ brown sour ale made in conjunction with Sierra Nevada, and they held an event to announce that these two fine northern California breweries will undertake another sour collaboration to be released to the public.

Natalie Cilurzo and a member of the Russian River brew crew pouring for industry colleagues in front of a wall of fish at the Academy of Sciences.

How to learn more: For San Francisco Bay Area sour beer learning, an afternoon at City Beer Store, Beer Revolution, The Trappist or La Trappe, all walkable from the BART or MUNI system, is a good way to begin or to continue your education, providing you can get the time and attention of the experienced bartenders there. Three or four people sharing a few bottles can put together an excellent flight to explore fine American and Belgian tart and funky flavors. Cantillon beers may not be not as easy to find in California as they were a few years ago, but the new craft beers from North America and elsewhere that they have inspired are also worth exploring. Ask your better beer bartender or bottle shopkeeper what’s new… and what’s ancient. For book-learning, seek out a copy of the excellent “Wild Brews” by Jeff Sparrow, which has insights for those who drink, brew or home-brew beers inspired by these traditions.

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

The annual Craft Brewers Conference, an industry conference and trade show for craft beer professionals, has come to San Francisco this year. This sold-out professional gathering features technical and business sessions in tracks such as Brewery Start-Ups, Government Affairs, Selling Craft Beer, Quality, Sustainability and more. Many of us have heard our favorite brewers, pub owners and beer salespeople excitedly talking about being the host city.  There’s a lot to be excited about. CBC attracts brewers from all over the world and many of them will be out and around the Bay Area sampling the beers offered in our part of the world.

The benefit for the rest of us is that our local breweries, tap houses and brewpubs get to show off their best offerings.  Below is a list of the public events we are aware of. The list of no-badge events is growing as venues alert their fan lists. Check CraftBeer.com for public events posted there, watch our FB page, or our tweets and ask around at your favorite pubs. (If you do have a conference badge, there are also some attendee-only events including receptions, a private concert at the Fillmore, a chocolate and beer reception at Tcho and more, listed on the CBC page, but this public lineup is looking pretty amazing.)

Late Additions

Added 3/22:
Another one for Thursday 3/24

CBC Happy Hour: Oskar Blues “Canned Beer Appocolypse” Happy Hour with Oskar Blues Brewery
“Oskar Blues Brewery Can Apocalypse Night featuring Head Brewer Dave Chichura pouring cans of:
Mama’s Little Yella Pils, Dale’s Pale Ale, Old Chub Scotch Ale, G’Knight Imperial Red, Ten FIDY Imperial Stout, GUBNA Imperial IPA and the limited run of One Hit Wonder Imperial IPA.” Happy hour.

Urban Tavern, at The Hilton, 333 O’FARRELL ST, San Fransisco

Added 3/21:
Another for Wednesday 3/23

New Belgium Comes To Toronado

New Belgium will be bringing several of their rare beers to The Toronado to ramp up the CBC Week fun. 6:00pm-Close

Toronado, 547 Haight St (Between Fillmore and Steiner), San Francisco

Another for Friday 3/25

Speakeasy Brewery Special CBC Open House Firkin Friday

In addition to the usual Friday music, food and beers they will release a new beer, Snatch Racket India Pale Lager. Snatch Racket – named for the surge of kidnappings and ransoms in 1920’s during prohibition – is a unique blend of styles, a 6.5% full bodied lager dry-hopped like an IPA with all German hops. They’ll also be pulling a few rare aged beers from the cellar just for the night. House opens at 4:00 closes 9:00
Free tickets and details here

Speakeasy, 1195 Evans (at Keith)

*************************************************************************************

No Badge Needed CBC Special Event List

Tuesday 3/22

Deschutes Collaboration Beer Dinner

“Deschutes Brewery Chef Matt Neltner and Monk’s Kettle Chef Adam Dulye collaborate to deliver a menu made for beer. The special menu, from which anyone visiting the restaurant can order, takes the expertise of these two chefs to create food and beer pairings that will kick of the week just right. On tap will be a large variety of Deschutes beers including: The Abyss 2010, The Abyss 2009, Black Butte XXI, Hop Henge Experimental IPA, Red Chair NWPA, Mirror Mirror, Jubel 2010, Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Green Lakes Organic Ale. Visitors will also have a chance to discuss the beers and brewing processes with Deschutes Brewery brewer Robin Johnson. Open to all patrons that evening.”

Monk’s Kettle, 3141 16th Street, (at Albion) San Francisco

Deschutes Brewery Night at The Hop Yard Featuring Woody

Sample many of the Deschutes Brewery’s special beers dispensed from their traveling kegs in the famous Woody-mobile. 5:00 PM-Close

Hop Yard, 3015 Hopyard Rd., Pleasanton   (a significant walk from the BART Station)

Saison Night at Beer Revolution

The good folks at Beer Rev will feature as many fine examples of Saison style ales as they can get their hands on and will pair them with “some very fancy stinky cheeses.” The saisons start pouring at  6:00PM

Beer Revolution, 464 3^rd St (Between Broadway & Washington), Oakland (12th Street Oakland BART Station)

Wednesday 3/23

East Bay Brewers Tasting

Barclay’s Pub and Restaurant features beers by the growing number of East Bay brewers; OBC (Oakland Brewing Company),  Ale Industries, Drakes, Triple Rock,  Linden Street Brewing,  High Water Brewing and more!

Barclay’s, 5940 College Ave. (at Harwood), Oakland (Near Rockridge BART Station)

Drake’s Brewing CBC Limited/Barrel Aged Beer Week

“Porky’s Pizza Palace will feature some limited, barrel aged & some of our favorite Drake’s offerings from the past & present with a twist added!”

1. Jolly Roger-Imperial Brown Ale, 2009

2.Bourbon Barrel Aged 2009 Jolly Roger

3.Bourbon Barrel Aged Drakonic Imperial Stout

4.Exclusive CBC I.P.A.1/2 Brewed for CBC attendees and in limited release-we have just 1 keg! Not a double IPA with a just right balance of malt and hops!

5.1500 Hoppy Pale Ale(Nitro-Dispensed)adds a creamy body to one of our favorite beers from Drake’s!(think hoppy Boddingtons)

6.Hop Salad-8% Agressively Hopped Limited Double IPA, a limited release from mid-January, saved for this event, Cheers.

7.Hopocalypse Imperial IPA – Bronze Medal Winner at this years “The Bistro” Double IPA Fest, 3rd out of a field of 56 other professional judged Double  IPA’s

8.Alpha Sessions-American Session Ale-Lighter session ale with a big hop character just 3.8% & 75IBU’s.

Event continues through the weekend or as long as the beers last

Porky’s Pizza Palace  1221 Manor Blvd.( at Farnsworth), San Leandro

Deschutes Brewery Black Butte XXII California Debut

The Republic hosts “a very rare appearance of last year’s coveted Black Butte XXII, which never released to the public. What we can tell you is that this imperial bourbon-aged version of our popular Black Butte Porter, brewed in 2010 with chilies, dark chocolate and orange peel, is well worth a taste during its California debut. You may be familiar with Black Butte XX and XXI which were released to celebrate the Brewery’s past anniversaries, but because XXII was not available outside of our brew pubs, most have not had the pleasure of tasting this spectacular beer.”   8:00-11:00 PM

The Republic, 3213 Scott Street (at Lombard), San Francisco

San Diego Beers at Public House

“The Craft Brewers Convention is coming to San Francisco and we’re celebrating opening night with special beers from San Diego brewers Ballast Point, Green Flash and Stone. Not only will we have the beers at PH, but we will also host some of the owners and brewers from these small craft breweries giving you a chance to hobnob with them over your tasty San Diego beer.”

Public House, 24 Willie Mays Plaza (3^rd and King Sts.)

Deschutes Joins the Revolution

Beer Revolution welcomes the good folks from Deschutes Brewery.  20 taps will be devoted to these Oregon revolutionaries.  6:00PM-Close

Beer Revolution, 464 3^rd St (Between Broadway & Washington), Oakland  (12th Street Oakland BART Station)

Thursday 3/24

Deschutes Brewery Night at The Englander, Featuring Woody

There will be 5-6 Deschutes Brewery beers on tap from 5-8 PM.

101 Parrott St. (between Washington & E. 14^th St.), San Leandro  Not far from BART.

“Northeast Night” at the Monk’s Kettle

“Two breweries not usually found in this area, Pretty Things Ales, and Cambridge Brewing Company.  Pretty Things, from the East Coast, will soon be available in this area; we will be pouring the first keg of their saison Jack d’Or to be found on this coast.  We will also be pouring two drafts from Cambridge Brewing, Project Venus and Blunderbuss.  Dann and Martha, owners of Pretty Things, and Will Myers, brewmaster of Cambridge, will be on hand for the evening.”   (Beer By BART has learned that “Project Venus,” the collaboration beer by women brewers from Cambridge, Victory and Stone and will be on tap, and that Megan Parisi will be there.  Pull on your pink boots and go enjoy a pint.)

Monk’s Kettle, 3141 16th Street (at Albion), San Francisco  (16th Street BART)

Sierra Nevada & Russian River CBC Collaboration Beer Event

“Public House will be hosting a party to announce a very special collaboration beer from Sierra Nevada and Russian River breweries.  In celebration of this event we will be offering vintage, limited edition and other hard to find beers from both breweries!  This is a good chance to try some great brew that won’t be available anywhere else, so plan on stopping by PH to have a pint or two and let us know what you think. This collaboration is part of the Craft Brewers Convention and sure to be a highlight of the week.” 6:00 PM – close

Public House, 24 Willie Mays Plaza (3^rd and King Sts.) San Francisco

Deschutes Brewery Night at The Toronado

(No Woody, after all, how could you park it in the Lower Haight?) From 8:00 PM-close

Toronado, 547 Haight Street (between Fillmore & Steiner) San Francisco. (MUNI 71 and N-Judah)

Friday 3/25

East Bay and North Bay Brewing Revolutionaries

Beer Revolution will turn over all 47 of its taps to beers created by brewers located in the East Bay and North Bay.  This is a great opportunity to taste the great varieties of beer being brewed in our back yard. 6:00PM-Close

Beer Revolution, 464 3^rd St (Between Broadway & Washington), Oakland (12th Street Oakland BART Station)

Deschutes Beer Tasting at City Beer Store

City Beer Store will be serving up “…some small appetizers from Fatted Calf to bring out the flavors of the beer as we host a casual beer tasting evening for the Friday night crowd. We will be bringing in some favorites and specials such as The Abyss, Jubel 2010, Mirror Mirror, Hop Henge Experimental IPA and Red Chair NWPA. Meet Deschutes brewmaster, Larry Sidor, along with three other Deschutes brewers as they discuss this wide variety of beers.”  6pm to close

City Beer, 1168 Folsom St # 101 (Between 7^th & 8^th Sts.)  Near Civic Center BART.

Deschutes Brewery Day at Whole Foods in San Ramon featuring Woody 3-7 PM

Whole Foods, 100 Sunset Dr. (between Bollinger Canyon Rd. & Bishop Dr.), San Ramon

Marrón Acidifié Kick-Off

Celebrate collaboration!  ”The Bruery and Cigar City Brewing are psyched to release the fruit of their collaborative efforts during the Craft Brewer’s Conference. Join the brewers at Rosamunde Sausage Grill’s Mission location for the first public tapping of Marrón Acidifié.  Over a year in barrels has left this 8.5% ABV “imperial oud bruin” layered with notes of cranberries, tropical fruits, leather and aged balsamic vinegar, balanced by wood tannins and roasted malt.”  7pm-close.

Rosamunde Sausage Grill, 2832 Mission Street (at 24^th), San Francisco. Near 24th Street BART.

Shelton Brothers Presents: Citizens of the World Gathering at The Trappist

In attendance will be Jean Van Roy from Cantillon, Yvan de Baets from De La Senne, Jens from Haand Bryggeriet, Kjetil from Nogne-O, and Stephane, JP, and Luc from Dieu du Ciel! Your chance to meet some of the top brewers, innovators from five of the best breweries in the world!

Here is the preliminary tap list for this night:  From Cantillon: lou pepe, St. lamnivus, fou fone. 

From de La Senne: Zinnebir, Equinoxe. 

From Haand: Norwegian Wood. 

From Nogne-: NogneHavre stout, #500 Imperial IPA, Sunturnbrew. 

From Dieu Du Ciel: Corne du Diable, Rosee d’Hibiscus, Route d’Espices. 

Also

From Pretty Things: Jack D’Or. 

From Russian River: Supplication, Mortification. 

From De Dolle: Oerbier, Mad Bitch.

The Trappist, 460 8th Street, Oakland  (12th Street Oakland BART Station)

Plus some special All Week  offerings:

Vintage Beers at The Monk’s Kettle

Throughout the week, The Monk’s Kettle will also be featuring a very special selection of beers on draft and on the vintage list.  The drafts will include Cantillon Fou Foune (August 2009), Haandbryggeriet Smoke Without Fire, Stone Brewing’s Lukcy Bastard, Abbaye de St Bon Chien, Dulle Teve and a few beers from our local favorite Moonlight Brewing; five beers on draft will be from 2009.  The vintage list will include selections from Cantillon, Allagash, Russian River, Stone, BFM (Abbaye de St Bon Chien), Orval and others, dating as far back as 2006.

Monk’s Kettle, 3141 16th Street (at Albion), San Francisco.  (16th Street BART)

East Bay Beers

Barclay’s Pub will be pouring beers made by East Bay breweries throughout the week.  A great opportunity to sample the great variety of locally brewed beer in one great beer-drinking location.

Barclay’s, 5940 College Ave. (at Harwood), Oakland.  Near Rockridge BART.

Whew!  We’ll see you out there.

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info for each pub or brewery, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

The big marquee event is the Celebrator Beer Newspaper’s 23rd anniversary party at Trumer Brauerei at 1404 4th St. in Berkeley. As much beer as you want to taste from thirty breweries, and a chance to talk to a lot of beer industry pioneers and insiders will be the main attractions. Wonder how it was to launch a craft brewery back in the day? Find out by talking to the people who made it happen when there were no road maps. There will be a free shuttle from North Berkeley Bart this year (not the downtown station) if you don’t want to leave time for a brisk sunny stroll down from the station. 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm, there are tickets at the door, and if you work as a beer seller, server, writer, supplier or you name it, show your business card for a discount. Here’s BART logistics and a map for Trumer.

There are still plenty of carefully crafted barleywines to try at the Toronado’s 18th Annual Barleywine Festival. Want to show you are one of the cool kids? Pick up the list of about 50 top barleywines, order by size and number, carry six small glasses to a table with a sixpack carrier you brought from home, tip the bartenders religiously and discuss your favorites with your friends. Memory lapses with barleywine flights so taking notes is always appropriate. It’s at 547 Haight St. in SF, and you can use BART and MUNI busses to get right there. They go until 2:00 AM, so this can always be your last stop.

21st Amendment Brewery hosts the Brewers Sunday Tea, an annual tradition. If sausages and fine 21A and Magnolia beers sound like about the best brunch in the world, this is your event. 
10:30 am – 2:30 am, and you can hang outdoors, depending on your jacket. It’s sunny out!

Oddly enough, the Last Chance Tapping at Gordon Biersch, at the foot of Harrison St. in San Francisco, from 
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm may provide a very interesting and non-reinheitsgebot barrel-soured hefeweizen, if it is not all gone forever, along with German-style classics,some collaboration beers and live music.

Most likely sold out but worthy of mention (and a phone call if you are interested) are the 2nd Annual Dave the Butcher & La Trappe Cafe Belgian Beer Dinner at the La Trappe Cafe for meat eaters, and the Eric Tucker Beer Cooking Class at the Millennium Restaurant, for vegans and for omnivores who do not fear vegetables. Foodies diving into beer!

Beer Revolution, at 464 3rd St. in Oakland, a stroll down Broadway from 12 Street BART, recently tripled their number of tap handles so they can host fine beers and specials from Lagunitas, Ale Industries and Upright Brewing all at once.

Go forth, Beer Weeklings! There’s more… choose something and enjoy. This is the grand finale.

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

This beer was brewed to celebrate 140 years of brewing history in San Francisco and as an homage to Gottlieb Brekle, the owner and brewmaster of the brewery he purchased in 1871, which became Anchor Brewery, in 1896.

Current Anchor brewmaster, Mark Carpenter, adorned in his white Anchor brewer’s suit, held court throughout the evening amidst Anchor’s classic copper kettles.  At one point, he was joined by the special guest of the evening, Jane Cunningham, the great granddaughter of Gottlieb Brekle.  She was accompanied to the event by her good friend and fellow San Francisco native, Louise Petrusich.  Loiuse told us a charming story of the olden days when she would accompany her parents to

Mark Carpenter, Jane Cunningham & Louise Petrusich

a brewery in the Potrero Hill area.  She painted a picture of the joyous weekly gatherings of families inside the brewery,  The adults would drink beer and chat and the kids had the run of the place.

The Beer

We found Brekle’s Brown to be a richly-flavored, smooth ale.  The complex flavors, derived from the blend of the malts make it seem like you get something new to taste with each sip.  As the beer warms different layers reveal themselves. Very drinkable, it’s as clean, nuanced and balanced as anything Anchor does but with a noteworthy flavor twist from the Citra hops, one of the newest hops in commercial cultivation. Brekle’s Brown shows off a combination of a lemon-pie aroma from the Citra hops and a rich toasted and caramel-like flavor from the crystal and Munich malts, all in a smooth, dry beverage. According to Mark Carpenter, Citra was developed specifically for its aroma contributions.  Using no other hops during the boil highlights the bright lemon-tart tastes and aromas in this beer.

Iron Springs brewer, Christian Kazakoff and The Bistro owner, Vic Kralj enjoying Brekle's

For those who do not like the bitter chocolate and coffee-like flavors from the more roasted malts in many dark beers, this could be your gateway dark beer.  Coming in at a deceptive 6%, many would consider it a little strong to be called sessionable.  However, we could easily see our way to having more than one at a sitting.

Brekle’s will be available as draft-only (at least for a while!).  It’s not out of the question that there may be bottling in the future.  Anchor will be doing releases at select pubs throughout the Bay Area. BART and/or MUNI will get you to most of them.

Here are some survival tips, plus a little video valentine to this beer week from last year’s.

1. Have a backup plan. If you get to point A without a reservation to find a line around the block, know what’s easy to get to and just as awesome or at least another flavor of awesome.

2. If you are not packing a mobile device, grab your addresses, routes and logistics ahead of time. Field tested directions to many fine sites can be found on here on Beer By BART, on the right side of the main page, with details that will assure you how easy it is to get to places like Hayward (for the Double IPA Festival), and dozens of other venues.

For even more information, check out:
http://www.bart.gov/schedules/ Detailed route info and BART schedules
http://www.511.org/ Transit info from various agencies all around the Bay.
http://www.nextbus.com/ Get live arrival time info for assorted buses

3. Enhance your mobility. Figure out how to use any new apps before you need them. There’s an official SF Beer Week schedule iphone app here: http://www.sfbeerweek.org/app
Some other transportation apps and tools you might like:
http://www.511.org/apps.asp
http://m.511.org
http://www.bart.gov/schedules/ Listed again, because sure, you can get BART schedules here, but you can also find a bunch of cool BART schedule and live arrival apps.

Or keep it simple. Remember that you can phone 511 and use a voice menu at any time to figure out how to get from point A to point B.
You can even use texting for getting up to the minute bus arrival info with a less-than-smart phone if you look ahead at http://www.nextbus.com/ Try it.

4. Shoot!

Take pictures, videos, notes. Your best Beer Week photos and short video clips are welcome in the Flickr group pool at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sfbeerweek/ and by putting them there you offer them to the http://www.sfbeerweek.org webmaster for use on the beer week site. YouTube videos are also welcomed. It’s our beer community history, let’s get it out there for everybody.

5. Tell your friends – beer fans and otherwise – what’s going on. Tweet a little, all about #sfbeerweek – or become a Bay Area Beer Blogger – #babb – and write a longer article about your experiences.

6. Water! Especially when you are drinking stronger beers. You know this, so all you have to do is to remind yourself. Matching big beers one for one with glasses of delicious Hetch Hetchy mountain water out of the tap can help shift your experience of a marathon from an ordeal into an epic adventure.

That takes care of survival. Now for love. What do you like about SF Beer Week? A year ago we asked some of the fine people who created and enjoyed SF Beer Week 2010.

Here’s an encore performance:

Cheers!

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.

This time around, Magnolia has created another noterworthy tribute to British brewing with their “Pride of Branthill.” Ah, the British bitter. Drinkable, crisp and civilized. We mostly know American interpretations of the strongest version of the English Bitter family, the ESB. If you were to set out to make an Extra-extra ESB by using old-fashioned English floor-malted barley and traditional hops to match, you would not match the elegance of Magnolia’s special strong ale, because theirs is made from the malt which comes from a single exceptional British beer barley farm. Branthill Farm’s crop from the town of Wells-Next-The-Sea in Norfolk, displays the best attributes of English barley. It seems odd that water is sometimes described as giving local and specific “terroir” character in brewing, while the malted barley, which gives all the body, alcohol and much of the flavor usually is not. Barley malt is usually treated more like a commodity, blended for uniformity for bulk distribution, rather than as a specialized artisan crop. Magnolia has turned that around with their ongoing relationship with the farmer who brings in this Branthill malted barely. It’s cool to see that the Norfolk area is as proud of this unusual relationship as we San Franciscans are. While Magnolia has also made more traditional session-strength bitters out of Branthill’s product, the malt really shines in this example. It’s a unique beer from the heart of the Haight, glowing with the character of the topsoil and the farmer’s pride of a very specific corner of Britain.

Down near the bay and the ballpark at 21st Amendment, two collaborations are getting plenty of attention. “Imperial Jack” is a delicious reprise of the popular and medal-winning collaboration with nanobrewer Richard Brewer-Hays. “21 Rock,” the 9.7% IPA collaboration made by brewers Zambo from 21A and Rodger Davis from Triple Rock over in Berkeley is a west coast imperial IPA to try. It’s big, but not “hot” with a boozy character, nor bitter-sweet like the hoppiest of American barleywines. They are calling it a triple IPA. A sip reveals that generous helpings of hops were coaxed out of their flowery, citrusy, golden flavors to balance the bitterness. At 65 IBU, 9.7% and moderately dry, this still comes off as a balanced beauty for the hop heads amongst us.

Surprisingly, one of the note-worthy February attractions at 21A right now is not a strong beer at all, but a lighter hoppy ale called Bitter American. With less than half the alcohol as the big beers on the board, it still has rewarding hop flavors and aroma right out of the can. This is one of their brewpub favorites which has just been replicated for the 21st Amendment line of canned beers produced by contract at a production brewery in Minnesota. Working with a brewery that was built on American lager styles is another form of collaboration with challenges of its own. The weather is delightful this February, so a picnic or a little coastal camping may be in order to make the most of a canned sixpack.

There is an “unofficial” strong beer line up at Social Kitchen for February, with some worthy contenders to taste. Last week we we enjoyed a sneak taste of brewer Rich Higgins’ original and delicious light-colored strong ale with a creamy sensation and real cacao, inspired by the flavors found in a cocktail, the classic White Russian. It was well worth a trip from downtown on the N Judah street car.

Coming soon is all the joy of SF Beer Week, so the suggested strategy is to get to your Strong Beer destinations this week, and avoid missing any of these remarkable beers.

Explore Beer By BART; use our list of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best beer places with detailed transit info, so you can get out there to enjoy without driving.