CA Craft Beer Week started on Friday with a load of virtual speakers plus cheese! Here are my takeaways from the evening….
Philly Beer Week inspired SF Beer Week which is now (at least this year), CA Craft Beer Week
Greg Koch thought that Stone Brewing had started too late. He also boldly declared that craft beer has “won” which he is both right and wrong about and ended his portion of the night talking about how there is so much happening now in craft beer.
Next up was David Walker who spoke about craft brewers as tinkerers and how California really brought hops back into the conversation. He said we all will still be chasing the perfect beer and that we need to keep curiosity as a tool in our brewing tool box.
Next was a three-way discussion of hops from North Park Brewing, Silva Brewing and Cellarmaker. What caught my attention were a few comments about how yeast had been somewhat forgotten about in early IPA’s and now has garnered probably too much credit especially when you take into consideration that some customers order IPA’s based on the featured hop.
I also like the idea of a blind tasting that has three Hazies and three West Coast IPA’s. It is something new that the Hop Grenade bar has done that should be replicated to see which style I should favored.
The last session that I watched was the beer and cheese pairing. Learned a golden rule to have a sip of beer first, then the cheese. Also that contrast is usually best with this type of pairing but if you have a really bold beer that a striking cheese can work.
Happy Valentine’s Day and enjoy the beer week.