Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Anchor Announces Second Brewery in San Francisco

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The San Francisco Chronicle broke the news tonight that Anchor Brewing Co. will be building a second brewery near the waterfront at Pier 48, in partnership with the San Francisco Giants and their 27-acre Mission Rock development project. The Anchor Brewery space will apparently be 212,000 sq. ft., and will include “production and distribution facilities, a restaurant, museum and other public attractions.” It will also allow them to increase brewing capacity to approximately 600,000 barrels, while keeping all of their brewing operations within the city limits. The new facility is also expected to more than double the number of Anchor employees. Below is Anchor’s artist’s design for the new brewery.

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For now, you can read the story at the Chronicle’s Anchor Brewing plant on S.F. waterfront. I spoke to Anchor Brewery co-owner Keith Greggor this evening and learned that there will be an official announcement tomorrow morning around 10 a.m. where we’ll learn more details, and I also have scheduled an interview with Greggor afterwards to go over the project in more details, so stay tuned.

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And here’s what it should like inside part of the 212,000 sq. ft. building.

Celebrator 25th Anniversary Party

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The closing event for SF Beer Week was again hosted by the Celebrator Beer News, who held their 25th Anniversary Party at the Oakland Marriott Convention Center on Sunday. Over 600 people attended the festival, which had a Mardi Gras theme, and 50 breweries were pouring their beer.

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The tap handle for the beer that a group of Celebrator writer’s collaborated on to celebrate our 25th anniversary at Sierra Nevada Brewing

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Some festival attendees really got into the Mardi Gras spirit.

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Though not everybody, as evidenced by the Beer Wench, Ashley Routson, and recent husband Angelo De lseo.

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Steve Altimari, from High Water Brewing, also made a special blended beer for our 25th anniversary celebration.

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The view from the Brewing Network corner.

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Midway through the festival, all of the Celebrator writers in attendance got up on stage and we drank a toast to craft beer, the brewers and our industry, and I introduced publisher Tom Dalldorf.

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Then Tom led us in a 25th anniversary toast.

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Del Grande, Bison Brewing owner, dressed as a bison, giving high fours to anyone who would lend a paw.

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Fraggle and a bemused Jen Muehlbauer.

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Rich Norgrove, from Bear Republic and Brian Ford, from Auburn Alehouse, bookending a friend who’s name I can’t remember, another brain cell casualty of getting old.

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Terence, from Sierra Nevada, with Natalie, from Russian River.

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The long and the short of it, with Sean Paxton, Nicole Erny and some friends.

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Don Gortemiller, from Pacific Coast, and Dave Heist, formerly of Hoptown, with a friend.

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More buffalo hijinks toward the end of the evening.

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Don Ericson and Tom Dalldorf raise a toast to our 25th anniversary. See you next year.

Another New Oakland Brewer

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Just got some more great news. Steve McDaniel, co-founder of the hopefully soon to be open Oakland Brewing, and his lovely wife Justine Nguyen, had their second child last week. Justine gave birth to Chabot just after 3:00 p.m. on February 6. They also had another son, Merritt, in late 2010. I had heard rumblings about the new baby at the Double IPA Festival, but just got confirmation and the details this morning. Justine and Chabot are home and both doing great, with Merritt adjusting to having a brother. Join me in wishing the happy couple all the best on their birth of their new son. Congratulations Steve and Justine!

Particulars:

Original Gravity: 7 pounds, 9 ounces
IBUs: 20 in.
Style: Boy
Release Date: February 6, 2013
Label: Chabot Yggdrasil Duong McDaniel

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Steve McDaniel and Justine Nguyen’s new son Chabot.

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A sleeping Chabot Yggdrasil Duong McDaniel.

Russian River Brewing Honored By California State Legislature

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California State Senator Noreen Evans, from District 2, honored Russian River Brewing Co. with a Resolution from the California Legislature. The resolution was also signed by Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, who joined me and the crew from the Celebrator Beer News, at Beer Camp #93 at Sierra Nevada. Evans was also joined on stage by State Senator Alex Padilla, from District 20 (the San Fernando Valley) so that both the southern and northern parts of the state were represented.

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Senator Padilla, Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo and Senator Evans presenting a joint legislative resolution from the State of California yesterday.

The joint legislative resolution “recognizes RRBC’s outstanding community and customer service, exemplary business ethics and liquid craftsmanship that have provided the county with huge local economic benefits through jobs, sales and distinction.”

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Senators Alex Padilla and Noreen Evans, Tom McCormick, Executive Director of the CCBA, and Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo yesterday at the Russian River brewpub.

Congratulations to Vinnie and Natalie, and all of the Russian River Brewing employees, for this great honor.

Below is a short video I shot of the ceremony (using Sean Paxton‘s camera because mine was unwell, and who also shot the above photos for me — thanks Sean).

UPDATE: Here’s the actual resolution:

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US News & World Report on the Hopslam Between Big & Small Breweries

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If you haven’t seen it yet, U.S. News & World Reports had an interesting read entitled Hopslam: How Big Beer Is Trying to Stop a Craft Beer Revolution, and subtitled “The blocked merger between Modelo and Anheuser-Busch shines a light on the long-brewing fight between big beer and craft brewers.” It’s a long piece, but worth it for pulling together a number of threads that have been pulling together lately.

Another kind of Hopslam.
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Beer Camp #93: Celebrator 25th Anniversary Double Pale Ale

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In anticipation of the 25th Anniversary of the Celebrator Beer News magazine, which takes place this year, we decided to make a special beer to commemorate our silver anniversary. So in December of last year, the largest Sierra Nevada Beer Camp took place when eighteen writers for the brewspaper assembled in Chico, along with state Assembly Member Wesley Chesbro, who leads the beer caucus in Sacramento, got together at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. to make a beer. Our intrepid chronicler, Mike Condie, put together this great little 15-minute video of our Beer Camp.

The beer we made will be available at locations around the country starting around now and through SF Beer Week. Each writer at Beer Camp got to find a home for his or her kegs in their hometown. For example, my kegs will be at Taps in Petaluma and as a guest tap at Russian River Brewing.

The beer we made is essentially a Double Pale Ale, based on the original Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. We then imperialized it and changed the hop bill, with an eye toward reflecting past, present and future symbolically with the hops. For past, we of course used Cascades, for the present we chose Citra and for the future an experimental hop with no name, only a number. The beer finished at 9.3% a.b.v. Look for it during SF Beer Week events. It will also be pouring at the Celebrator 25th Anniversary Party at the Oakland Marriott on Sunday, February 17, the final big event of the 2013 beer week. Perhaps I’ll see you there.

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