SF Beer Week 2017: What We’re Looking Forward To
SF Bay Area Beer Bloggers Suggestions for Beer, Events, and More
San Francisco Beer Week 2017 starts tonight at the Opening Gala at Pier 48 with 125 breweries serving their beer. The Open Gala is an amazing beer festival but there are over 900 other events this year. The following are suggestions for beer, events, and more for SF Beer Week 2017.
John Foster, Beer School
SF Beer Week brings out the best of beer. kegs and bottles that got squirreled away for a rainy day get to come out and play even if the coast is clear. I always look forward to being surprised by the random offering. these beers could be their own event any time during the year when they might be more enjoyed. But there it is anyway, listed next to a bunch of the other things way more common. Like that one time Fritz and Ken made another appearance. This was a special Sierra Nevada beer released in 2010 re-darkening a door four years later. It was just as good if not better on the second date. the weird was nobody was drinking F&K. More for me, I guess. another year aged Black Butte XXIII and a deeper Abyss from Deschutes was pouring. Why is this here? now!? Or the beer that gets saved in the back of the 21st Amendment cold box (which is tiny) meaning anything that comes from there is tonight only.
If you have not experienced the madness of the every day pouring of Pliny the Younger at Toronado you owe it to yourself to see it first hand. Every day for 1o days a keg is tapped at 12PM then small glasses are continuously filled until there is no more beer. This takes about 40 to 50 minutes. The best thing to do is get there at 11 when the T opens. Find a seat at the bar if there is one. And enjoy a pint(s) of anything until the valve opens. Tip well. Let your bartender know in advance that you want Younger. That should get you one.
Usually by noon it is 4 or 5 deep at the bar.Sso if you are just getting there around then with the idea of sneaking one in forget it.
Seriously, the chaos is comical. And almost worth seeing every day. Oh wait, once is enough.
Chuck Lenatti, All Brews
Try Something Different
Several of the newer members of the SF Brewers Guild are establishing specific niches. For example, Sufferfest makes a gluten-removed beer that you might not recognize as gluten-free. Try their Taper IPA and see if you can tell that it is gluten-free.
Seven Stills is another interesting concept: a brewery/distillery that distills beers into whiskey. Fluxuate, for instance, is distilled from a coffee porter with Flux cold-brewed coffee. And Whipnose is distilled from a collaboration double IPA with Pac Labs brewing.
Brew Your Own
If you think you might like to brew your own beer, a number of SF breweries links drinking beer with brewing beer. Barebottle combines recipes from its head brewer and founder, along with Bay Area home brewers. It pilot brews a small batch and tap room customers get to vote on their favorite.
Black Sands Brewing is “designed and constructed by homebrewers.” You can watch the beer being made, taste it fresh right out of the fermenters, see the recipe and leave with everything you need to make the beer yourself.
Ferment. Drink. Repeat. combines a brewery and home brew store so that you can make your own beer.
Remember: the home brewer of today may very well be the professional brewer of tomorrow.
For more of Chuck’s suggestions read his article here: Celebrating Craft Beer with SF Beer Week
Evan Rusackas, Beer Citizen
SF Beer Week is broadly lauded as an opportunity spend an action-packed week (staycation?) hunting for whalez in the rain, supporting your local breweries and brewers, and celebrating the local craft culture. No beer enthusiast, however, should overlook SF’s burgeoning homebrew scene, and its impressively collaborative community of homebrewers. There are several events to keep an eye out for, this week. Several places are serving up winning homebrew competition recipes brewed up on bigger pro-am systems (just search “homebrew” on the SFBW site). The SF Homebrewers guild will be throwing their anniversary party and homebrew share (a private, members-only event, but if you’re a homebrewer, you should sign up!)(https://www.sfhomebrewersguild.com/sign-up/). The Sirwisa Hops for Housing AM-Pro is a ticketed event (https://sirwisa-am-pro-2017.eventbrite.com/) where you can sample many beers brewed by pairs of amateur brewers who brewed their recipes with local pro brewers. You can also search the SFBW site for one of several off-flavor tastings, which is a valuable educational experience for homebrewers or any beer lover at large. Homebrewing in general is the certainly one of the best ways you can learn about the process of making, tasting, and critically assessing/discussing beer. Don’t miss your opportunities during SFBW to tap into the talent and camaraderie of this growing community.
Dave Jensen, beer47 and BrewOps
There are a few beers that I look forward to every year for SF Beer Week. Although it already has a lot of hype, I still look forward to Russian River Pliny the Younger and since I didn’t have a chance to try it in 2016, I’m really looking forward to trying it this year. I also look forward to the SF Brewers Guild collaboration beer and it seems especially interesting this year: New Frontier a Kolsch-style beer made with Douglas fir tips and satsuma oranges. I also look forward to all of the barrel-aged beers. It seems that during SF Beer Week, barrel-aged versions of your favorite local beers are more widely available. For instance, Local Brewing Co has taken their Coffee Belgian Golden Ale and aged it in Four Roses bourbon barrels and will be serving it, and other barrel-aged beers this week on Feb. 11 and Feb. 18. Finally, I truly enjoy cask beers and events like Cask & Queso provide a freat opportunity to try a bunch of different styles, all conditioned in casks.
Gail Ann Williams and Steve Shapiro, Beer by BART
Please see their curated list of events on the SF Beer Week website.
Chris Cohen, The Beer Scholar
Please see Chris’s curated list of events on the SF Beer Week Website.
