Ashley Routson

SF BEER WEEK 2010: RECAP (ROUND 1)

My sincere apologies to my fellow HopPress writers and my editor, Mario Rubio, for neglecting my HopPress column. There are reasons, but this is not the time or forum to discuss them.

But the good news is that I’m back.

Last week I had the opportunity to partake in 7 of the 10 days of San Francisco Beer Week.

For me, the week started on Monday, February 8th and ended on Sunday, February 14th. I had the opportunity to meet and drink with many key craft beer industry individuals as well as hang out with a few of my fellow HopPress writers. Here is an abridged version of the events I partook in on my first three days:

MONDAY — FEBRUARY 8th

1. SOUR FEST — Triple Rock Brewery — Berkeley, CA

• About The Event: Festival featuring bottles and draft domestic and imported sour beers.
• Beer Highlights:
  • Lost Abbey’s Duck Duck Gooze (bottle): Gueuze style made from a blend of young and old barrel aged beers. This particular beer was my all-around favorite American beer of 2009. I made sure to get my fill of tasters on this tasty treat.
  • Lost Abbey’s Red Poppy (draft): Flanders-style red ale made with sour cherries and aged in French Oak barrels for one year. Prior to this evening, I had only tried Red Poppy in bottles. It was a lovely surprise to try this beer on draft.
  • Odonata’s Rosa (draft): Straight gueuze style beer, fermented with yeast compliments of Russian River Brewing Company and aged in oak for 20 months. HOT DAMN! This beer totally rocked my socks. Ridiculously tart. I cannot wait to see how this beer fairs at the 2010 GABF in the American Sours Category. Mark my words today, this beer will be in the top three — if not number one (watch out Captain Lawrence!)
  • Odonata’s Beersel (draft): Odonata’s first collaborative beer – made with the help of the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton. Sour ale made with raw wheat, pale malted barley and whole flower hops aged 10 years and fermented with Drie Fontenien yeast. Once again, the brewers at Odonata had me falling off my chair. Considering Drie Fontenien is my favorite gueuze producer of all time, it is easy to see why I liked this beer so much. I’m so excited that these guys are brewing up in NorCal where I live. I’m really looking forward to trying more of their beers!
  • Green Flash Super Freak (draft): Green Flash’s Le Freak Belgian-style Double IPA aged in San Pasqual Grenache wine barrels with Brettanomyces. I had the opportunity to try this beer during San Diego beer week as well. Belgian yeast, American hops, aged in wine barrels and spiked with brett — the beer has so much going on in it, it is ridiculous.
• Additional Highlights:
  • Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey made a brief appearance. I got a hug
  • Had the opportunity to meet fellow HopPress writer, Mark Dredge. Mark smuggled over some BrewDog Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Tokyo* from across the pond. The HopPress/RateBeer crew was honored with a tasting of both beers. My opinion on TNP? Take a handful of dirt, some peet, lots of liquid smoke — add vodka, stir, filter and there you have it. But after saying that, I did not mind it. I like scotch and it is very “scotch-esque.”
  • Stephen Beaumont made an appearance. And I must apologize for you if you are a beer geek and do not know about Stephen Beaumont. He is a renowned beer writer, extremely well traveled and very knowledgeable on beer. I consider him to be one of my greatest mentors. Rumor has it, I may have an opportunity to write for/with him. Shhhh.
• Lots of celebrity beer writers/bloggers/brewers were in the house:
  • HopPress/RateBeer: Mario Rubio, Ken Weaver, Joe Tucker and well, ME!
  • Jay Brooks of Brookston Bulletin
  • Steve & Gale of Beer By Bart
  • Phil Lowry of Beer Merchants
  • Jon Weber of Beer Obsessed
  • Rick Sellers of Pacific Brew News (oh, and Odonata)
  • Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment
  
  
  

2. RARE BEERS FROM MOONLIGHT BREWING & MEET THE BREWER: BRIAN — Bobby G’s Pizzeria — Berkeley, CA

• About The Event: Rare beers from Moonlight Brewing Co. with special guest Brian Hunt, Moonlight’s owner/brewer.
• Beer Highlights:
  • Misspent Youth Pale Ale: “American” style Pale Ale. This beer is really unique. For this one time batch of beer, Brian did two extremely unique (and rather taboo?) hop additions. The first hop addition was into the mash ton. To my knowledge, no one has ever done this before. Brian made the second hop addition during the secondary wort. Again, this is something that I haven’t heard someone do before.
  • Working For Tips: This beer is really odd. It is completely hop free. Instead, Brian uses California Redwood “tips” to balance with the malts. The beer is smooth with a nice soft body and no bitterness. Malt character dominates, yet there is a very subtle woody characteristic mixed in. Overall, a very interesting beer.
  • Reality Czech Pilsner: It is what it says it is: a Czech Pilsner. When it comes to the lager styles, my palate tends to lean towards the novice side. However, saying this, Pilsner happens to be the one style of lager with which I’m most familiar. And in my opinion, this beer is true to style.
• Additional Highlights: Naturally, the main highlight of the evening was having the opportunity to learn about these unique beers from the man himself — Brian Hunt. I made the grave mistake about making a (novice) comment about brown ales and pale ales. As a result, Brian made it his mission to school me on the two styles, which was pretty damn awesome. And I’m actually glad that I made the (stupid) comment after all.

TUESDAY — FEBRUARY 9th

STRONG BEER MONTH — 21st Amendment — San Francisco, CA

• About The Event: February is strong beer month and, in celebration of it, 21st Amendment is featuring 7-8 different strong beers on tap every day. Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to try them all. And for a good reason. At 9-11%abv, I would not have made it home alive.
• Beer Highlights:
  • Blind Lust: Despite being a major hophead and huge fan of sours, this was my favorite beer of all the 21st strong beers on tap. Blind Lust is a blend of a Belgian Quad and  two year oak aged framboise. It comes in at 9.5% abv. My palate is very sensitive to alcohol content (especially in wine) and this beer was extremely drinkable. But then, the notable fruitiness definitely masks the alcohol.
  • Hop Crisis: This beer is a beast of a Triple IPA. Tons of pine, resin and citrus flavors. Although its a whopping 10.8% and intensely hoppy (85 IBUs), Hop Crisis is very drinkable. And by drinkable, I mean that I can handle drinking more than one tulip of it. Okay, maybe two is my limit.
  • Beer School: This beer makes me happy. Back in October, Shaun O’ Sullivan offered to let 9 year 21 A veteran and cofounder of  Beer School, John Foster, have free reign and brew a beer of his choice at 21 A. The result? A dry hopped Imperial Blonde that came in at 9.1% abv and 40 IBUs. And what did I think? It was damn tasty. DAMN tasty.
  • Two Lane Blacktop: Imperial Black IPA ringing in around 9.5% abv and 65 IBUs. I’m a big fan of the relatively “new” black IPA trend. It is interesting to have dark malts and intense hop presence in the same beer. Blacktop was both toasty and piney and relatively smooth for such a big beer.
• Additional Highlights: In lieu of partaking in some of the other official beer week events, I opted to spend the evening sipping on some of 21st Amendment’s strong beers with beer industry celebrities — Chad & Justin — of The Brewing Network. Unlike all the other beer week events, this was a more intimate and relaxing setting. I got to learn more about the two boys, The Brewing Network and most importantly, about beer.

WEDNESDAY — FEBRUARY 10th

1. MEET THE BREWERS OF LAGUNITAS — Toronado — San Francisco, CA

• About The Event: Toronado opened up its back room for a special vintage beer and local cheese pairing featuring Lagunitas beers and the brewers.
• Beer Highlights:
  • 2008 Old GnarleyWine: At 11% abv, this is the “Big Daddy” beer of the Lagunitas lineup. Very rich, syrupy, malty, sweet, caramel, toffee and virtually no bitterness detected. Not sure which of the two I preferred better.
  • 2009 Old GnarleyWine: See above.
  • 2008 Hairy Eye Ball: Described as a beer that “defies style” — one of the maltiest beers that Lagunitas creates. It is considered to be an American Strong Ale (9%) and it is released in the Winter. I got lots of caramel and brown sugar. No notable bitterness. Alcohol burn was mild.
  • 2008 Brown Sugga: Categorized as a Barleywine, this was by far my favorite beer in the lineup. Lots of caramel sweetness and brown sugar. Out of all the beers, I found this one to be the smoothest. It also paired best with the cheeses.
• Additional Highlights:
  • Obviously, the main highlight of the event was hanging out with Ron, Jeremy and many other members of the Lagunitas team. Those dudes are some of the freakin coolest people in the craft beer industry.
  • The cheese. All local. All yummy.
  • Got sausages from Rosemunde’s next door. OMFG. So good.

2. ELSYIAN & GREEN FLASH COLLABORATION — City Beer Store — San Francisco, CA

• About The Event: Special tapping of the Red Queen Saison — a collaboration beer between Elysian and Green Flash.
• Beer Highlights:
  • Red Queen: Winter Saison with rose hips, pink peppercorns and Pink Lady & Braeburn apples in conditioning. It was definitely fruity. The apples dominated the palate and the pepper yielded an interesting spiciness.
• Event Highlights: Meeting Dave Buehler from Elysian. He is one hella cool dude.

3. BILL BRAND TRIBUTE NIGHT – Barclay’s Restaurant & Pub — Oakland, CA

• About The Event: Memorial for late beer columnist Bill Brand. Tribute beers featuring some of Bill Brand’s favorite styles brewed by local breweries such as Valley Brewing, Black Diamond, Ale Industries and more.
• Beer Highlights:
  • Valley Brewing’s Bill Brandbic: Valley’s Calambic — aka a Central Valley California “Lambic” style beer. Fresh pomegranate juice was blended into Valley’s spontaneously fermented Luna Blanca and then other barrels of lab cultured barrel aged sours were blended to achieve the final product. Blended as a tribute to memorialize and celebrate the life of Bay Area beer writer Bill Brand.
• Additional Highlights:
  • As with all beer week events, lots of local beer celebrities & brewers were in the house. The most notable was Beer Chef Bruce Paton.
  • Barclay’s french fries were amazing.

Thanks for tuning into my first round of SF Beer Week recaps. Stay tuned for Round 2! Cheers!