SF Beer Week 2017

What was great last year was cellarmaker did some releases the week before SF Beerweek. I remembered Quad Dobis and BA Coffee and Cigs going on tap before beer week, and it wasn't that crazy....

Here's to hoping they do something like that again this year

 

Co-signing with you about City Beer. It was especially bad last year on Sante Adarius night. Shoulder to shoulder soon as they started pouring. Took 45 minutes just to get pours. While I did meet a lot of cool people that night I don't think I'd ever do it again.

 

The beer they have now is already so good. Wide rainbows is incredible. As long as they have a few of their hoppy beers I will be happy. BA Coffee and Cigarettes would be fun to try.

 

I'm lazy, so I just go to Ale Arsenal's events, and maybe Harry's Hofbrau. Got to try Canadian Breakfast Stout last year so that was fun. Hoping for some good finds this year.

 

Did RR bring Elder or Younger? In prior years they have brought elder

 

Elder.

 

Does RR bring the same beers to both Celebrator and the opening gala? A few years back I went to Celebrator, but this year it looks like I'll be there the first weekend.

If I spring for the extra $40 to get in an hour early, any suggestions on which booths to hit before the crowds get bigger?

 

Do you take the train up to Santa Rosa for that? If so, how easy is the trip? I can't decide whether to try to make it up there or just enjoy the beers in the city and East Bay. (Of course, the mandated break during transit and while waiting in line might be good for my liver.)

 

No train we drove up.

 

Are the Rare Barrel events ticketed? I can't find any info about tickets anywhere.

 

The guided tasting is ticketed. There is a general tap take over immediately after (7:30-10 I believe).

 

Still looking........

 

A bit of shameless promotion:

https://www.sfbeerweek.org/venue/old-devil-moon/

 

The bistro just posted this last night on Facebook :

2017 DIPA FEST Preliminary List-

21a Blah Blah Blah
Ale Industries Need to Please
Altamont Juice and Scarcity
Almanac Frisco
Auburn ZZ Hop and PU240
Ballast Point Dorado and Manta Ray
Bartlett Furly Ghost and Hyphy Wifey
Beach Chalet 10th ann.
Beachwood Hops Of Fury
Bear Republic Cafe Racer 15 and Kompromat
Benoit-Casper P12
Berryessa Trendy and Super Seperation
Bike Dog Dogmatic
Boneyard Hop Venom and Notorious
Campbell T.O.W.
CellarMaker Terpene Station
Chapman Searching for WiFi
Coronado Beach Break
Danville Chux and Tres Diablo
Deschutes Sageflight
Devise Anguish and Basilica
Devils Canyon
Dogfish Head 90 and 120 minute
Drakes Hopocalypse Green label
Eagle Rock SUM
EEL River Emerald Triangle
El Segundo 5 lb Sledge and Power Plant
Faction Hop Soup and Melvin collab Stud Muffin
Fat Heads Hop Juju and One for the Road
Fieldwork Tundra
Firestone Walker ???
Gigantic Ginormous and Too big to fall
Half Door # Buzzwords and “I”
Half Moon Bay I Need a Miracle and The Bat Flip
Heretic Evil 3 and Evil Cousin
Hermitage Ale of the Imp
Highwater Hoppyrighted
Hop Dogma Silly Gimmick NE Style
Hop Saint Hops to the wall
Institution Disarray and Surgeon
Iron Springs Compulsory
Kaweah Slauncher
Kern River Hop Nookie and Oh So Mainey
Knee Deep No seed no stems and West Side
Lagunitas SF Fusion
Mad River Slamming Salmon
Magnolia Promised Land
Marin Brass Knuckle and White Widow
Moonraker All Hops and Extremis
Monkey Paw Richmans
Morgan Territory Atmospheric River
Mraz Reckless use of Hops and Slackpacker
New Glory Copious
New Helvetia Indomitable City
Ninkasi Velocihoptor
Pacific Coast
Phantom Carriage Incident
Pizza port Bressi Doheny and Kook
Pizza port Carlsbad Hons Shot First and Thruster
Pizza port OB Jetty and Party sauce
Pizza port SB Holy Dank
Pizza port SC Mae Day
Russian River Pliny the Elder and Younger
Saint Archer Mosaic
Shadow Puppet Shadowbox
Sierra Nevada Hoptimum
Smog City Cryo Havoc
Social Kitchen Jungle Cruise
South park Humanity
Tap It S.N.A.F.U.
Three Weavers Knotty
Track 7 Motherland and Left Eye Right Eye
Triple Rock Hop Salad and Hop, Trip, Stumble
Triple Voodoo

 

TH

Thanks!

 

This is an exciting list for sure. I guess the good and bad thing about this fest is that you only get a limited number of pours. Part of me would prefer a larger number of smaller pours but if I recall from the last time I did it, after about 8-10 full pours of TIPAs, I was well beyond the point of being a discerning judge of the differences between these beers...

 

Very true, I have to work Sunday AM so I plan on immediately detoxing Saturday night. I do plan on buying extra pours for additional $10, my palate will be trashed at the end of this fest for sure.

 

Thought I'd post my review of the highlights (and lowlights) of the festival for those interested. I had a VIP ticket but also had to leave at 6:50 for a dinner reservation. I tried beers from the following breweries: Mad Fritz, Alameda Island, Cellarmaker, The Rare Barrel, Ferment. Drink. Repeat., and Drake's. Forgive my still developing beer vocabulary and analysis. It's not the best but maybe some people will find it useful.

Highlights:

Eagle's Nest (Mad Fritz): This double IPA was made with a fruit called Buddha's Hand. While it didn't have the pillow mouthfeel that I like in IPAs (perhaps because it was served quite cold), its ingredients brought out a unique fruit flavor that appealed in an ineffable way to my pallet, inciting memories of sauternes wine. Not the most drinkable IPA but the flavor makes up for that.

The Void (Drake's): This was an 18% beer that drank more smoothly than most 8% beers. There was absolutely no indication of its alcohol content and needless to say the beer was quite impressive. To this extent, it lacks comparison, and I'm not sure how to describe its flavor profile. All I can say is try it if you get the chance. Though do keep in mind it will be rather sweet.

Sea Haggis (Alameda Island): Like drinking liquid caramel plus some. For an 8% you wouldn't expect so much intense sweetness but this beer was on a mission to surprise. It's best treated like a 'desert' beer and had in small portions. Indeed, the brewers at Alameda Island apparently refer to this as the "antithesis to the IPA". How much you like this beer will depend largely on your mood and what you pair it with.


Lowlights

Map of the Moon (Rare Barrel): I really like The Rare Barrel but I thought this sour was simply too sour. Maybe my pallet was fatigued, this was after I had over 40 ounces of beer, but at this point I was still able to be impressed by other beers. I feel that The Rare Barrel does best when the adjuncts are co-stars in the flavor profile and here they took a backseat to the intense sourness.

Mocha & Cigarettes (Cellarmaker): First Cellarmaker beer, and I'll admit I'm not a coffee fan, so it's very hard for me to comment on this beer. Nonetheless, it did not not appeal to my pallet, and I felt some strong roasty or bitter notes were needed in the background for balance. I'm sure their other beers are excellent, and this is just a matter of personnel preference, but I can't ignore the fact that I expected much and received far less.