Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
A stalwart of the beer scene in San Francisco is Magnolia. I have had the pleasure of eating and drinking there. I ordered jerky there. What gastropub serves that? Now they have branced out into brewing! And they are in what appears to be the new hip place to be (that I had never heard of before) Dogpatch.
You can check out their current tap list with the handy tapCam. Which looks like this…
You could make a day of it with any of the three columns but I would start with the cask one.
Since it is the month that SF Beer Week falls into, I like to showcase some new spots in the City by the Bay. And the first stop is Fort Point. Not the greatest name (though I do prefer Beer Co. to Brewing).
Founded by brothers Tyler and Justin Catalana this year! Fort Point is in the Presidio which is a great place to walk and see the city. They have an eclectic set of initial beers. Which is saying something in this ever crowded craft market.
Here is what I would put in my taster tray:
Westfalia – A German Rotbier
Collaboration with Freigeist- A Charred Manzanita beer
Tosca – a beer brewed to pair with food at the Tosca restaurant.
I caught this on the Facebook recently and thought that I should pay it forward as it were. It covers a lot of ground that we know and love about our craft beer industry but what I like about it is that they are talking to people that I and most likely many people haven’t seen or heard about. If it gets more butts in seats at City Beer then it is well worth it. So take a watch…..
For those of you who thought they would never live to see the day that a Craftsman beer was bottled and put on sale. Well, it has happened. Just not in Los Angeles. St. Vincent, a bar in San Francisco, has collaborated with Mark Jilg to create “Sumac Summer Ale,” Belgian Style Wheat Beer with Sumac and Coriander Matured in Oak.
Here is the full description from the press release, “This was the beer that Craftsman brewer Mark Jilg collaborated on with our in-house Cicerone, Sayre Piotrkowski. It is a Belgian Style Wheat (not white) Ale, spiced with hand-ground Sumac. The beer’s primary fermentation in steel with a blend of Belgian yeast strains. The beer then spent 9 weeks in a large oak fermenter. The result is not an overtly sour beer. With “Sumac Summer” The boys set out to make a beer that scratched the same itch as a cold glass of lemonade. The result is fruity, a little sweet, a touch tart and just a bit funky.”
Unfortunately, there was only 15 bbls of this beer were brewed and only a limited amount was put on sale in 375 ml bottles.
Tomorrow morning over at Food GPS, a companion piece to my Central Coast post from a couple weeks back.
What breweries in Northern California are must visits for you?
Is it Russian River or Moonlight?
Sierra Nevada’s massive complex in Chico?
Or do you have some other small spot that needs a light shone upon it?
Let me know below…..
Those worried about the future Anchor Brewing when Fritz Maytag sold them should be less so as of a week ago. That is when Anchor teamed up with the San Francisco Giants to announce plans for building on Pier 48 part of what San Francisco is calling the Mission Rock Development Project.
Here are the press release details that are most important (in my mind):
Anchor will continue to operate its facility in Potrero Hill, but will greatly expand its operations with the development of the Pier 48 facility. The two facilities will allow the company to quadruple its annual production capacity from 180,000 barrels to 680,000 barrels.
Pier 48, the southern-most structure of the Port’s Embarcadero Historic District, will be fully rehabilitated and re-established as an industrial hub of the central waterfront. The new Anchor facility will feature production facilities for brewing, distilling, packaging, storing, and shipping; a restaurant, museum and educational facility in the headhouse of Pier 48; and a restored walkway around the entire pier apron that will connect pedestrians to the Portwalk and allow views into the Anchor brewhouse. Anchor will offer tours of the facilities and educational seminars with a focus on the history of craft beer, the art of craft distilling and Anchor’s history in San Francisco. The construction project beginning late 2014 will feature the use of green and sustainable materials, setting the standard for a modern urban brewery.
The Anchor Brewery expansion project also represents the first major tenant of the Mission Rock Project – a new, mixed use urban neighborhood currently being developed by the San Francisco Giants. The Anchor Brewing facility will cover 22% of the overall project site.
In addition to Anchor Brewing’s new facility, the Mission Rock Project will include more than eight acres of parks and open space, 650-1,500 residential units, 1-1.7 million square feet office space, parking structure to serve ballpark and Mission Rock patrons, and up to 250,000 square feet of retail, restaurants, and public amenities. In total, Mission Rock is expected to create 4,800 construction jobs and 6,400 permanent jobs.”
This announcement is one heck of a way to put a cap on the 2013 SF Beer Week.
Press Club in San Francsico was brought to my attention thanks to a weekly e-mail I get from Weekly Pint and this is what they have to say about this beer spot to add to your itinerary the next time you visit the bay.
“What was already one of the best wine destinations in all of San Francisco is now a beer lover’s playground, too. Under the watchful eye of general manager and beer lover Kristian Cosentino the subterranean minimalist style of Press Club is now even cooler, with flights of rare kegs by European masters like Mikkeller, Brasserie de la Senne, and Picobrouwerij Alvinne—always in top condition.”
Usually, if I am asking for the beer geeks of the world to spend some cash to help a start-up, it is for a brewery. Or for a film about beer. This is for the latter, so we can all learn a bit more about what is brewing past and present in San Francisco.
“The Story
The history of brewing beer in San Francisco spans over 150 years, beginning with the Adam Schuppert Brewery in 1849. Between 1849 and the present there have been more than 100 breweries in the beautiful city of San Francisco, today history is still being brewed within nine active breweries.
Brewers by the Bay is the cinematic tale of the past, present and future of San Francisco brewing, told by the owners and brewmasters themselves within the following establishments:
21st Amendment
Anchor Brewing Co.
Beach Chalet
Gordon Biersch Restaurant and Brewery
Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery
Social Kitchen and Brewery
Southern Pacific Brewery
ThirstyBear Brewing
Speakeasy Ales and Lagers
The film is written by Mike Pitsker the Associated Editor of Celebrator Magazine and is hosted by Brenden Dobel the Brewmaster at ThirstyBear Brewing Co.
The brewmasters have opened up their kettles and have shared tales of mishaps, fortune and the amazing friendships and camaraderie that stirs among each other.
Tomorrow over on FoodGPS, I will have an interview with Christian Albertson from the Monk’s Kettle in San Francisco about aging beers, what to buy and tasting dinners. But to borrow the Hollywood movie lingo, here is a teaser of one question and one answer….
Q. What are your recommendations for beer geeks to cellar for themselves?
This advice goes out to not just people at home, but also other restaurants that are doing a vintage beer program. I think the most important thing that I’ve learned first-hand is that if you’re going to do it, you need to do it right: you need a cool constant temperature between 55 and 60. Good cellaring conditions make all the difference. We have had the opportunity (due to the large number of different beers in our cellar) to test other cellars/warehouses: there were a few times when a beer came in and I realized that it’s the same batch that we housed, and did a side by side tasting. Hands down, every time, the beer is better in the bottle we cellared—sometimes it’s a slight difference, and sometimes the contrast is stark (in some cases, it’s not the same beer at all). Get a “wine cabinet” and keep it in there at cellar temp—or at worst, your fridge (it will slow the aging process, but it won’t ruin it as much as a fluctuating, too-high temp will). We are talking here about the best beers in the world, some that can last 20 years and keep improving—it is necessary that the conditions are right. Wine enthusiasts are not putting their ’96 Burgundies in the back of their closet—don’t do the same with beer’s equivalents.
Whether you buy into the “broken windows” theory or not, I think we can all agree that if we had a choice between a vacant lot and a beer garden, that us craft beer geeks would choose the latter.
And that is why what is happening in San Francisco is so cool. Read it HERE.
Why vacant lots aren’t being utilized across the country is strange to me. Allowing carts to converge brings people and allows communities to stay vibrant. And who knows, maybe a pub will see that the response is strong and build. Or a restaurant. Or hell, even a tiny park is better than a weed choked blank patch of land.
What other ways can beer help revitalize communities?