For serious beer drinkers, it’s like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve all at once. It’s SF Beer Week, and the beast is slouching toward us as we speak. Festivities are from February 10 to 19 all over the Bay Area.
If you’ve never experienced SF Beer Week before, first read these survival tips. Look at the entire SF Beer Week schedule if you’re willing to travel, and my overview of East Bay events if you’re not (warning, new events have cropped up since I wrote that preview). Then go grocery shopping, do your laundry, and otherwise catch up on the basics of life you may be neglecting until Monday the 20th.
The beer tasting opportunities start with a bang in just a few hours.
Friday
The opening celebration in SF is sold out, but you have another option. It’s not on the official schedule, but Beer Revolution is having a meet the brewer night with Deschutes starting at 6pm. If you think Deschutes is just Mirror Pond Pale and Black Butte Porter, prepare for a pleasant surprise.
Saturday
- The Bistro Double IPA Festival is in its 11th year in BART-accessible downtown Hayward. Not on the sfbeerweek.org website: it runs from 11am-7am and $45 gets you a glass and six tokens, with additional tokens available for purchase. I’ll be there as media to see what everyone gets so excited about every year, but I’m bit IPA’d out right now so I won’t be partaking.
- A style I’m in no way burnt out on is imperial stout, so I’m heading to Concord to taste Ale Industries’ new one (with sour cherries!) Plus those guys throw a good party and I still need to sample Code Red, the imperial red they brewed for Beer Revolution’s second anniversary party.
- Beer Revolution kicks off the day’s festivities at 2pm with a visit from Jef Versele of Van Steenberge, the Belgian brewery that brought us Gulden Draak and Piraat. Port and Lost Abbey show up at 5pm, and Firestone Walker’s Matt Brynildson joins the party at 6pm. Expect these breweries’ best beers and a festive crowd.
- If I have any stamina left at the end of the day I’l swing by Triple Rock for a taste of this year’s Keyser Soze. At 14% or so, this will be the last thing I do (tonight, or possibly ever).
- Click here for other events in Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, Lafayette, and Pleasanton.
Sunday:
- Sour beers have gained in popularity over the last couple of years, but it’s still rare to find anything as dedicated as Sour Sunday at Triple Rock and Jupiter. This is always one of the first SFBW events to get entered into my calendar
- Sierra Nevada brewer and all around cool guy Terrence Sullivan will be at Beer Revolution from 2-9pm, along with some Sierra Nevada beers that are about as far from pale ale as you can imagine. Fal Allen, renowned brewmaster of Anderson Valley Brewing Company, joins in at 5pm.
- If my palate wouldn’t be shot from all those sour beers, I’d be game for Beer and Cheese of the British Isles at Commonwealth. It’s led by master cicerone Nicole Erny, who can show you just how much better cheese pairs with beer than with wine.
- I’m not into booze, but here’s a good beer crossover event for those who are: beer cocktails (yup, beer as a mixer) at Revival in downtown Berkeley. It’s not on the SFBW schedule, but details are here
- Click here for more Sunday events.
Assuming I followed the survival tips in the second paragraph, I’ll be back after the opening weekend to let you know what I’ve done so far and what’s ahead for the coming days. If you’re on Twitter, I’ll be tweeting about #sfbw12 at @jmuehlbauer and you can find me on Facebook at the page "East Bay Beer." Cheers!
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