Tag Archives: Beer Festivals

The Bay Brewed: A Rock & Roll Beer Festival

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This sure sounds like a fun new event. The San Francisco Brewers Guild along with City Beer Store and The Bay Bridged is putting on a beer festival and a music festival called The Bay Brewed, which is scheduled to take place on December 3, from 2-7 p.m. at San Francisco’s Verdi Club, located at 2424 Mariposa Street. Here’s some more info from the press release:

Presented in partnership with the City Beer Store and the SF Brewers Guild, a ticket to The Bay Brewed includes unlimited beer tastings from San Francisco Bay Area breweries including 21st Amendment, Anchor Stream, Beach Chalet, Lagunitas, Magnolia, Social Kitchen & Brewery, and Speakeasy, and musical performances from four excellent San Francisco bands: Weekend, Sleepy Sun, Extra Classic, and Terry Malts. Food will be available for purchase courtesy of Rosamunde Sausage Grill.

Christian Cunningham, General Manager of The Bay Bridged, explained the desire to create an event pairing local bands and local craft beers: “San Francisco’s music and beer scenes are both unbeatable when it comes to the talent and creativity of the people involved. The Bay Brewed is our way of bringing together people who like great music and people who like great beer for a unique event that couldn’t happen anywhere but San Francisco.”

Ticket prices are $45 and can be purchased online, or buy them at the door for $55. According to the ticket page, “[y]our ticket purchase includes performances by four great local rock bands — Weekend, Sleepy Sun, Extra Classic, and Terry Malts — and a commemorative mug that gets you unlimited beer tastings all day long from an array of awesome local breweries. In partnership with the City Beer Store and the SF Brewers Guild, you’ll be sampling beer from and meeting the brewers behind 21st Amendment, Anchor Stream, Beach Chalet, Lagunitas, Magnolia, Social Kitchen & Brewery, and Speakeasy, with more still to come.”

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Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2011

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Family commitments kept me from attending this year’s Bistro IPA Festival, but owner Vic Kralj was kind enough to send me the list of the winners. Craig Cauwels’ IPA, from Schooner’s in Antioch, California, was chosen best in show at the 14th annual IPA Festival yesterday at the Bistro in Hayward, California. The full list of winners is below.

OBF Opening Ceremonies

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After we marched from McMenamin’s Crystal Ballroom to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park and the Oregon Brewers Festival, the ceremonial keg was brought into the park by the Hammerheads from this year’s parade host brewery, McMenamin’s.

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Hammerheads and the ceremonial cask.

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The Hammerheads and the Ruby Witches McMenamins’ folks positioned themselves in front of the stage.

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Then Art Larrance got things started.

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This year’s parade host represented by Brian McMenamin, took the ceremonial hammer.

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And passed it off to next year’s host, the Cascade Barrel House.

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Then Grand Marshall Fred Eckhardt had a few words for the crowd, before tapping the first keg.


Fred, tapping the keg.

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Fred drinking the first toast to OBF 2011.

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Fred and me catching up with a pint after the ceremonies.

Oregon Brewers Festival Parade 2011

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Although I missed last year’s Oregon Brewers Festival for the first time in many years, it felt like it had been at least five years since I’d been back. That’s how much I missed Portland, and I was thrilled to be there again. After the Brewer’s Dinner Wednesday night, I attended the brunch, this year held at McMenamin’s Crystal Ballroom, and helped setup for the event beforehand, as well. After everyone feasted and prepared their stomachs for the day’s drinking, what looked to be close to 1200 people lined up for the parade. That’s just a guess, but it was easily the biggest crowd I’d seen for the parade, and this was my third time, of the five so far. Many of the usual suspects were there, the band, the Rogue Friars, people in kilts, people wearing literal hopheads, etc. This year’s Grand Marshall was Portland legend Fred Eckhardt who led the parade via pedicab down to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park, the annual home of the beer festival. Here are some photos from the parade. Enjoy.

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Pedicab leading the OBF Parade with Grand Marshall Fred Eckhardt and OBF founder Art Larrance.

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Here we come.

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… walking down the street,

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We get the funniest looks from …

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Everyone we meet.

After arriving at the festival grounds, it was time to tap the keg and officially start the festival. Look for the ceremonies coming soon in part 2.

Fairfax Brewfest This Weekend

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This Saturday in the city of Fairfax, in Marin County, the 16th annual Fairfax Brewfest will take place from 1:00-5:00 p.m. Along with festival sponsor Iron Springs Pub & Brewery, at least 17 breweries will be pouring their beer. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, for unlimited samples and full details, along with how to buy advance tickets online, can be found at the festival website. See you there.

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Indianapolis Man Wins “Brew Your Cask Off” Contest

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A couple of weeks ago, All About Beer magazine conducted a contest, to win a trip to the “Brew Your Cask Off” beer festival hosted by Georgia’s SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, Georgia on March 5, 2011.

The winner had to write an essay explaining what type of cask they’d brew, in 300 words or less. The winner, Matt Robinson, from Indianapolis, Indiana, wrote a poem which won him and a friend a trip to SweetWater Brewery’s cask festival.

From the press release:

Matt will also be a honorary judge for the cask ale competition and be a server for a cask made from his hilarious and precise poem.

Without a doubt one of the most unusual, and clever beer events, SweetWater Brewery’s Brew Your Cask Off features 80 different cask ales made by a full range of celebrities and not so celebrities, including dignitaries from the beer media, non-profits and retailers from the metro Atlanta beer community. All About Beer Magazine publisher Daniel Bradford participated in making a cask named Adam’s All About Beer Ale, after the SweetWater brewer who guided the actual cask ale production. The cask ale festival features a judging of all the casks with the winner getting serious bragging rights, including being brewed by SweetWater Brewery, and the loser getting the much coveted, and highly decorated golden toilet seat.

Matt Robinson will join a collection of very talented palates as a honorary judge helping chose the best cask of the festival. During the festival itself, Matt will have the pleasure of presenting a cask made from the numerous clues he provided in his winning poem.

Runners up included second place finisher Steve Forbes who wrote a passionate sensory entry. Third place went to Michael Iris who described how his hound found an unusual cache of berries that would have made a wonderful cask. Both of these entries and the other finishers can be found at All About Beer.

The winning entry is below. Enjoy.

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What Cask Should An American Brew? by Matt Robinson

What cask should an American Brew?
But nothing less than around 55 I-Be-Yous!
I would add subtle flavor with East Kents
Perhaps more for hop compliment
Throw in some fuggles and American C’s
Many will say it’s the knees of bees!
Powerful flavor will be most divine
Even with a gravity around one-thousand nine
The grain bill is full of Golden Promise Malt
This great American session cask has no fault
The hydrometer reading will need to state
Around 3.55% alcohol by weight
This may sound like an English creation
With bold American style is my summation
Lovibond sounds nice somewhere near ten
Many hours with our cask we will all spend!
Wyeast numbered Nineteen Forty-Five
Will make our cask come alive!
Gravity-fed like our English brethren
Cask beer please take hold for American beer drinking heaven
Deep in the south in town called Atlanta
Our cask brings so much joy we call it Santa!
All the people will come and stand
To sing play us a song you’re the piano man!

“Brew Your Cask Off” Contest

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All About Beer magazine, one of the publications I regularly write for, has launched a cool contest, where you could win a trip to the “Brew Your Cask Off” beer festival hosted by Georgia’s SweetWater Brewing in Atlanta, Georgia on March 5, 2011. The festival will include around 80 special one-of-a-kind cask ales created by brewers from around the country, each competing to win the “Best Cask Ale” or be declared the “Biggest Loser.”

You can win a trip for two to the event, courtesy of All About Beer, by telling them — in 300 words or less — what type of cask beer you’d brew. That’s roughly the equivalent of two tweets. Impress them with your beer description and you could win big.

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All the details, along with the form to enter, can be found at the All About Beer’s website. In a nutshell:

Tell us what type of cask you would brew in 300 words or less and you could win a free trip for two (two nights of lodging included) to the Brew Your Cask Off festival. In addition, you and your guest will be celebrity judges helping decide who made the best, and who made the worst cask ale.

Entries will be judged on entertainment value, imagination, artistic abilities, historical accuracies, whatever criteria strikes us at the office when we all sit down to decide the lucky winner of a trip for two to Brew Your Cask Off. You need not be a professional or even an amateur brewer — just someone with a palate for what makes a good cask ale.

Start thinking about your beer, but don’t ponder it too long. All entries must be received by Valentine’s Day, February 14th, and the winner will be announced on February 18.

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