SF Beer Week

Toronado Barleywine Festival 2009

February 16, 2009

Saturday, February 14 — yes, Valentine’s Day — began the 16th annual Toronado Barleywine Festival. The day started out cool, but with sun peaking through the clouds. As has been the case for the past few years, the line to get into the Toronado for the Barleywine Festival stretched down the entire length of the [...]

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The Beer Chef's Beer & Chocolate Dinner 2009

February 16, 2009

The Beer Chef‘s annual beer & chocolate dinner took place last Friday night at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco. This is usually the most popular of the Beer Chef’s annual series of beer dinners, and this year was no exception, with 120 dinner guests. The chocolate came from a local chocolate maker, TCHO [...]

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Toronado Barley Wine Festival Results 2009

February 14, 2009

Here are the results from the 2009 Toronado Barley Wine Festival in San Francisco: 1st Place: Big Woody, Glacier Brewhouse 2nd Place: Arctic Devil, Midnight Sun Brewing 3rd Place: Lower De Boom, 21st Amendment Brewery & Restaurant Honorable Mention: Abacus Blend, Firestone Walker Brewing Congratulations to all the winners.

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The Homebrew Chef's A Night Of Ales

February 14, 2009

Thursday night, the Toronado and the Homebrew Chef put on a beer dinner entitled “A Night of Ales” featuring the beers of Firestone Walker. It was a seven-course dinner, including the Intermezzo. It was an amazing evening and the packed house all appeared to be equally impressed by both the meal and the pairings. Matt [...]

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Bear Republic Annexes Zeitgeist

February 13, 2009

I ran into Tom Dalldorf at the Magnolia vertical barley wine tasting, and we drove over to Zeitgeist, where Rich Norgrove, brewmaster at Bear Republic Brewing, was on hand for a meet the brewer event. We slipped in and out long enough to shake hands, take a photo, and slink away so we could get [...]

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Old Thunderpussy Vertical

February 13, 2009

I made a brief stop on my way to last night’s “A Night of Ales” Beer Dinner at Magnolia, who was hosting a “Vintage Barleywine Tasting Event.” On tap was their Old Thunderpussy barley wine from 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 (aged in a bourbon barrel), and 2009 four ways; cask-conditioned, cask-conditioned aged in a bourbon [...]

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Freaks and Beer Geeks

February 13, 2009

As promised, here are many, many more photos and vidoes of the fabulous Lagunitas Beer Circus, an event I hope becomes a permanent fixture of SF Beer Week. Just a few of the clowns at the Beer Circus. Peepshow Mini Golf, just one of dozens of acts going on Under the Big Top. One of [...]

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Russian River Dinner At Oliveto

February 12, 2009

One of the most fun things so far about SF Beer Week is the participation of some high end local restaurants that one doesn’t normally think of as beer-friendly places, such as Chez Panisse and Oliveto. Last night, Oliveto did their first beer dinner ever with the beers of Russian River Brewing. It was a [...]

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Trumer Tours

February 12, 2009

Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley, California, had scheduled tours throughout SF Beer Week every day at 4:00 p.m. On my way over to a beer dinner last night, I stopped by to see how the tours were going and inquire if they were seeing people for each day’s tours so far. I didn’t necessarily need the [...]

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Marin Brew Tour

February 12, 2009

If you’ve ever visited Marin Brewing in Larkspur, California, then you know how tiny their brewery really is, squeezed into nooks and crannies throughout the brewpub. So it was pretty cool that brewmaster Arne Johnson wanted to do an extended, intimate and very personal tour that most breweries just couldn’t take the time to do. [...]

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Henry's Does Beer Right

February 12, 2009

Henry’s Gastropub is a Berkeley fixture, located across the street from Boalt Hall, Berkeley’s law school. For years they’ve had a decent selection of beer, but until recently, the food was rather wanting, not bad, but nothing special. But all that’s changed recently with a remodel, both cosmetically and in attitude. The biggest reason for [...]

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Cheesed Off

February 12, 2009

Tuesday night the Bistro in Hayward, California, held one of the most unique and fun cheese pairing events I’ve ever attended. It was called The Bistro’s North County Cheese-Off. What owner Vic Krajl did was pick five cheeses and then asked five breweries from north of San Francisco — Bear Republic, Lagunitas, Marin, North Coast [...]

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Triple Rock Rolls Out the Barrels

February 11, 2009

Yesterday Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, California held its second small beer festival, this one all barrel-aged beers. The first, on Sunday, was sour beers and I would have loved to have been at that one, but couldn’t miss the Lagunitas Beer Circus (and once I finish posting all the photos and videos from that [...]

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East vs. West Slam Dinner

February 10, 2009

It was an evening of music, poetry, rapping and fun topped off with great food and beer at the “Wanna Git My Eastern Peanut Butter In Yer Western Chocolate” beer dinner, a.k.a. an East vs. West Slam with Dogfish Head and 21st Amendment. In between five courses, Sam Calagione and Shaun O’Sullivan took turns humorously [...]

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Moylan's Whisky! Beer! Cheese! Chocolate!

February 10, 2009

Moylan’s Monday definitely was, as they described it, “a beer and a shot kind of afternoon” at Noonan’s Bar & Grill in Larkspur, California. Come meet Brendan Moylan and Denise Jones of Moylan’s Brewing Company for a taste of the finest. Noonan’s is the definitive destination west of the Mississippi River for the world’s most [...]

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Rob Tod Rocks The Trappist

February 9, 2009

After the Double IPA Festival on Saturday, I stopped by The Trappist in Oakland to see Rob Tod from Allagash, who had flown in from Maine a few hours before. We got a call from him when he touched down while we judging at the festival. The week before, while attending a charity event and [...]

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