Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
Starting with an Opening Gala, the 2019 SF Beer Week promises a load of fun beer events most notably the original events that serve as the backbone for the week: “the world’s first Double IPA Festival, now including Triple IPAs, in its 18th year at the Bistro in Hayward, on February 2nd, and the Celebrate Craft party for industry and friends at Trumer Brewery in Berkeley, on February 9th.”
Check HERE to see all the events as they pop up on the calendar.
Time does fly. The San Francisco outpost of Mikkeller is now 5. And now they have planted a large flag in California with a brewery in San Diego and a lovely DTLA spot that is one of my favorite spots to taste beer.
Now they are going hazy for a “Quintuple dry hopped” hazy IPA to mark the five year mark. Makes me wonder what type of beer will be popular when the LA location turns that age.
I usually see Fort Point beers in their distinctively designed cans that look like architectural drawings. This time though, I get a distinctive 22oz bomber. Resonance pours a lovely yellow-orange color. It is light and effervescent. The word that I keep coming back to is, Simple. I am getting light wood notes and a little grapefruit with a bit of funk in the back too. Reminds me of Saison Dupont.
When I was much younger and much less wiser about beer than I am today, on a trip to San Francisco with the Mrs., we walked by ThirstyBear Brewing. I convinced her to get some food so that I could try the beer.
Now I hear that they are throwing a party for their 20th Anniversary and they are brewing up a special 20th Anniversary Ale that is described on the website as “a multi-grain fresh hop ale brewed with malted barley, wheat, rye and oats. Hopped with fresh cascade, Columbus and gargoyle hops from Hopsmeister Farms served on nitro.”
Not only that, but they are throwing a party with a bunch of local breweries, music and flamenco dancing. Plus the release of a special barrel-aged beer by the name of “Dark Age”.
It is gratifying to see that a place that I have visited all of twice in my Bay Area travels is still plugging along. 20 Years is to be celebrated.
Hitachino Nest Beer has a solid and established reputation in the United States and is one of the few Japanese breweries that has made inroads (along with Baird) with craft beer fans who haven’t stopped drinking foreign beers.
The 200-year-old Japanese brewery is taking that a step further and opening its very first U.S. restaurant San Francisco. An Izakaya (Japanese tavern) by the name of Hitachino Beer & Wagyu.
There will be ten exclusive Hitachino beers on tap, brewed specifically for the restaurant alone. For the Sake crowd there will be somewhere from five to eight sakes from Kiuchi Brewery, alongside local wine.
Mark another stop in San Francisco for international beer.
The event that I was looking forward to the most was the collaboration + tap take-over between Cellarmaker Brewing and L.A.’s own Highland Park Brewery.
With the focus being on the Brett IPA that they created together with the awesome name of Sharing Sandwiches. And though that beer was fine, it suffered from the where is the IPA syndrome that I have found in this sub-style. The Brett just takes over and leaves it’s indelible mark.
But the other three beers from San Francisco were all really good in different ways. Mocha & Cigarettes didn’t have much in the way of smoke that I could detect but what I did taste was a lovely milk chocolate porter. Really smooth with a touch of vanilla.
Mo’ Passion boasting Mosaic, Southern Passion and Zeus hops was also a really good hop offering. Bright and fruity on the nose with a bitterness that shined.
My favorite though was the Typo Pills. Probably not for purists of pilsners because this had a hop hit to it that brought out some Sweet Tart notes to me. But I really liked that combo. It was crisp and delightful.
Those beers alone would have justified the packed house.
Starting May 11th, new cans will be seen on craft beer shoppe shelves. 21st Amendment of San Francisco started shipping to us, Orange and San Diego counties + the Inland Empire as well.
I had always found it weird that I could buy Hell or High Watermelon and Brew Free or Die IPA in Portland but not in LA despite being just a skosh closer to the brewpub. I know that the canning was going on in Minnesota but it was not enough to dent our large customer base. Thanks to a new California production facility, we are now on the delivery list.
And I can’t wait to buy a box of 21A cans.
The Yard is a pop-up food and retail village constructed of repurposed shipping containers that will include an Anchor Steam beer garden. You could call it an appetizer before they open their second brewing facility nearby.
Oh how L.A. could use a few pop-up / creative / non-traditional taprooms around town like the Yard at Mission Rock in San Francisco. Maybe one of the (possible, maybe) new NFL teams in Inglewood or Carson could take a page out of the San Francisco Giants playbook.
Or find a central location near a Metro stop and have a rotating L.A. County Brewers Guild member pouring alongside a food truck specifically chosen to pair with the food. If I am tossing out maybes, the updated Union Station might be a great spot to do it.
And a little more Anchor news: According to the brewery, the future “facility will quadruple Anchor’s annual brewing capacity and feature production facilities for brewing, distilling, packaging, storing, and shipping; and a restaurant, museum and educational facility in the headhouse of Pier 48.”
Never to early to plan for the massive amount of beer events in San Francisco during their SF Beer Week. The initial calendar is out and ready to be perused by beer fans by the Bay, and us Angelenos too!
Events like:
Festival of Firkins
Magnolia Pub & Brewery, San Francisco
February 12th, 11:00am – 8:00pm
Part of me wishes that Almanac would stay with the fruits and odd styles like Gose. And part of me does not like the damn curlicue/scrimshaw font either. But I guess, when in Rome. Go hoppy. I am sure it will be a strong beer.
“Introducing our year-round Almanac IPA in 22 oz. bottles! This copper-hued, West Coast hop bomb is brewed with a malt base of California-grown two-row barley, with additions of German Vienna, Crystal and Biscuit malts.
Then we start layering on the hops—grown in California, Oregon and Washington. We combine Apollo, El Dorado, Simcoe and Mosaic to create our own twist on the IPA style with intense aromas of grapefruit and tangerine peel, melon, pineapple and pine trees. The finish has a clean bitterness and light saltine cracker note.”
Sorry for the non-ringing endorsement in the intro. As much as I love hops, I wish some people could overcome the urge to add another IPA to the pile. But if the beer drinking people want bread and circus.