Reviews

Strong Beer Month Coming

January 17, 2007

Beginning on February 1, 21st Amendment Brewery and Magnolia Pub & Brewery, both in San Francisco, will team up again to host their fifth annual Strong Beer Month. Each brewpub will create five new and different seasonal beers — and if you haven’t figured it out yet, they’ll all be strong — that will be [...]

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Christgau on Beer

November 24, 2006

Here’s a fun little piece of history I stumbled upon yesterday while searching for something wholly unrelated. If you’ve followed music with any seriousness, I probably don’t have to tell you who Robert Christgau is. Christgau has been the rock critic at the Village Voice for over thirty years and has published several books of [...]

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Black Strap Stout, Black Strap Cookies

November 4, 2006

Today is BridgePort Brewing’s 22nd anniversary so I thought it was time to pull out the cookies they sent me that are made using their Black Strap Stout. This is the second year that Cougar Mountain cookies has made the “cocoa-based cookie with chocolate chunks” for their “flavor of the month.” The stout is inky [...]

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N.Y. Times Reviews Ambitious Brew

October 29, 2006

Friday’s Book Section of the New York Times reviewed two new beer books, including Marueen Ogle’s Ambitious Brew. The gave it a decent review, but perhaps more importantly it’s great to see the Times actually review books about beer. That’s certainly a sign that “the times they are a-changin’.”

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Watermelon Funk is Funkadelic

October 23, 2006

During last weekend’s bus trip to Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, Vinnie brought out a couple of pitchers from the barrel of his collaboration with 21st Amendment that’s been sitting in wood for a year now. Essentially as an experiment, Shaun O’Sullivan gave some of his Watermelon Wheat to Vinnie Cilurzo who put it [...]

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The Beers of OBF

August 4, 2006

While seeing friends in Portland is probably the best reason I love OBF, the beers there rank a close second. Seventy-two beers (73 including the Collaborator that the Oregon Brew Crew does) are poured at the festival and each brewery is allowed only one beer. Here are some interesting facts about the festival from the [...]

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Watermelon Wheat in Cans

May 3, 2006

I stopped by 21st Amendment yesterday to pick up a six-pack of their Watermelon Wheat in cans for a tasting later tonight. I had some on draft first and then had one out of the can. I couldn’t really detect any difference in flavor apart from the cans having more carbonation. It’s possible that’s because [...]

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Sasquatch Legacy Project Event in San Francisco

April 5, 2006

Last night was the charity event at 21st Amendment Brewery for the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation. They served the Sasquatch Legacy Project’s Imperial Red Ale, which was a collaborative effort. The beer was created by the current Foundation Brewing Scholarship recipients (Barney Brennan of Full Sail Brewing, Jenn Gridley of Fish Brewing, and Markus Stinson [...]

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Valentine’s Day Rejection: It’s Delicious

February 14, 2006

Russian River Brewing’s Valentine’s Day seasonal beer is called Rejection, a name so perfect for the holiday that I thought I’d go there today with my sweetheart (in this case with my daughter Alice) and try a pint. When I arrived, Vinnie and his assistant brewer, Travis, were in the middle of a bottling day, [...]

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21st Amendment Taps Firkin of Imperial IPA at Barclay’s

February 8, 2006

Last Night at Barclays Restaurant & Pub on College Avenue in Berkeley, 21st Amendment brewer and co-owner Shaun O’Sullivan tapped a firkin of his new Double Trouble Imperial IPA. One of several new beers for Strong Beer Month, the Imperial IPA is 10.1% abv and an absolute delight on the firkin. It’s brightly amber colored [...]

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