Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Bistro West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Fest Results

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bistro
On Saturday, the 6th annual West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Fest took place at the Bistro in Hayward. 67 different barrel-aged beers were served to a packed house on a beautiful fall day. Festival goers voting for their favorites chose the following three for the People’s Choice Awards:

  1. Brette Davis Eyes, from Drake’s
  2. Rumpkin, from Avery Brewing
  3. Big Woody Barleywine, from Glacier Brewhouse

Congratulations to all the winners.

El Cerrito Brewpub Owner Injured By Police During Occupy Oakland

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elevation-66
I was really hoping to avoid writing about the Occupy Oakland horrors currently going on in the city I used to call home. But last Thursday, Oakland Police apparently injured yet another war veteran — two tours, one each in Iraq and Afghanistan — simply trying to walk to his home, rupturing his spleen in the process and refusing him medical attention for eighteen hours! It turns out the man, Kayvan Sabeghi, is a co-founder of Elevation 66 Brewing, a new Bay Area brewpub which opened in nearby El Cerrito this past September. As a result of his beating, Sabeghi ended up in intensive care fighting for his life, but nobody knew about it until Friday, because the police that beat him bad enough to give him a lacerated spleen and a few broken ribs ignored his pleas for help, instead hurling insults at him and calling him a heroin addict, an alcoholic and a diabetic, none of which were true.

So that means the police injured not only another war veteran, but also a small business owner — in right wing parlance a “job-creator” — who according to what I’ve read posed no real threat to the peace at all. What’s perhaps most disturbing of all is the comments on news websites where many are suggesting his story is not true, or he deserved it or simply applauding the police for hurting him. That people can be so cruel is not exactly news to me, but it’s still pretty hard to stomach.

The Daily Kos posted a story, now updated three times, on Friday, which includes an interview with the victim’s sister. There are also reports on the UK’s Guardian, Reuters and the Huffington Post.

The El Cerrito Patch also covered the incident, as they’d previously written about his brewpub, Elevation 66, in Made-In-El Cerrito Beer: Elevation 66 Brewer Describes New Pub’s Approach. In addition to the brewpub’s website, their Facebook page also has updates about Sabeghi’s progress. Let’s all wish him a speedy recovery. And if you’re hankering for a beer, perhaps a trip to El Cerrito is in order.

Lagunitas Brewhouse Destroyed At Sea

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Ouch. As many of you probably know, Lagunitas Brewing is in the process of installing a new 250-barrel brewhouse, but there may be a bit of a delay. Apparently the brewhouse was on its way to California, tied down on the top of the deck in the Caribbean, when a storm hit the cargo ship. As it “rolled back and forth by more than 40 degrees a crane came loose from its chains and crushed the brewhouse. The 30′ diameter lauter tun caught the blunt of the attack, and appears to be a total loss.”

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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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David Farnsworth From Lucky Baldwins Passes Away

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David Farnsworth, who co-founded the well-known beer bar Lucky Baldwins in Southern California, passed away yesterday. The Full Pint has the full story, and a hat tip to Dr. Bill, who gave them the news. I only met David a couple of times, but used to talk to him on the phone regularly when I was with the Celebrator full-time. He definitely did a lot for the beer scene in California and will be missed. Raise a glass of Belgian beer tonight in his memory.

Beer In Art #145: Ben Sanders’ Beer Portraits

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art-beer
This week’s works of art are part of a series of “beer portraits” by a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, where he studied illustration & design. Ben Sanders lives in Los Angeles, where since graduating in 2009, he’s been involved in “a number of projects that include Illustration, Graphic Design, Large Scale Painting, Sign Painting, Sculpture, Book Design, and Book Binding.” There are nine paintings currently in the series, of which these are my favorites:

Sanders-orval
Orval

Sanders-dogfish-90-minute
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Sanders-chimay
Chimay

You can see the rest of the six paintings in the series at Sanders’ website and some of his non-beer work at his gallery.

Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale

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lagunitas
No, that’s not a judgment call on my part. I love Lagunitas. But that is the name of their new seasonal ale for 2011; Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale. They’re calling it that because the new beer is a temporary replacement for their popular — and usual holiday seasonal — Brown Shugga’, which they won’t be able to brew this year due to the installation of their new 250-barrel brewhouse.

From the press release:

It is a sad day at Lagunitas when we have to tell you that our favorite seasonal — Brown Shugga — will take a year off and come back in full force in the fall of 2012 after the installation of our new brewhouse.

A brand new beer that’s sure to please is our “Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale”….. it’s our BrownShugga’ substitute.

This beer is a Dry-Hopped ‘Cereal Medley’ of Barley, Rye, Wheat, and Oats…. full of complexishness from the 4 grains, and weighing in at 7.6% abv, it is mondo-dry-hopped for that big aroma and resinous hop flavor.

The entire project has a self-deprecating air about it, including the label notes, which are always written by Lagunitas founder Tony Magee. To wit:

This sad holiday season we didn’t have the brewing capacity to make our favorite seasonal brew, the widely feared BrownShugga’ Ale. You see, we had a couple of good years (thank you very much) and so heading into this season while we are awaiting a January delivery of a new brewhouse we are jammin’ along brewing 80 barrels of IPA and PILS and such every 3 hours. A couple of months back we realized that since we can only brew a mere 60 barrels of Shugga every 5 hours, that we were seriously screwed. For every case of Shugga’ brewed, we’d short 3 cases of our daily brews. The new brewhouse will help insure that this kind of failure never happens again. It’s a mess that we can not brew our BrownShugga’ this year and we suck for not doing it. There is nothing cool about screwing up this badly and we know it. Maybe we can sue our sorry selves. There is no joy in our hearts this holiday and the best we can hope for is a quick and merciful end. F*@& us. This totally blows. Whatever. We freaking munch moldy donkey butt and we just want it all to be over ….

My guess is that the new Lagunitas Suck Holiday Ale will be so good that we’ll all forgive them and Santa will not bring them all a lump of coal this Christmas. They do seem to be appealing to Santa’s better nature but putting a yummy-looking Santa cookie on the label. Perhaps they’ll leave some of them out on Christmas Eve so when Santa comes down the brewhouse chimney, he can eat himself.

Lagunitas-holiday-ale

California Beer

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california
Today in 1850, California became the 31st state.

California
State_California

California Breweries

California Brewery Guides

Guild: California Craft Brewers Association

Regional Guilds:

State Agency: California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control

maps-ca

  • Capital: Sacramento
  • Largest Cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Long Beach
  • Population: 33,871,648; 1st
  • Area: 163707 sq.mi., 3rd
  • Nickname: Golden State
  • Statehood: 31st, September 9, 1850

m-california

  • Alcohol Legalized: December 5, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 305
  • Rank: 1st
  • Beer Production: 23,583,042
  • Production Rank: 1st
  • Beer Per Capita: 19.9 Gallons

california

Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 44.1%
  • Cans: 45.7%
  • Kegs: 10.1%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.20
  • Per Case: $0.45
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $6.20
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $6.20
  • California Redemption Value: $0.04 per containers for all aluminum, glass and plastic less than 24 ounces and $0.08 per container for all containers for aluminum, glass and plastic greater than 24 ounces

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $3,809,238,894
  • Direct Impact: $9,224,009,106
  • Supplier Impact: $10,726,058,038
  • Induced Economic Impact: $13,291,784,223
  • Total Impact: $33,241,851,367

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: 6 a.m.–2 a.m.
  • Grocery Store Sales: Yes
  • Notes: Relatively unrestricted; beer, wine and liquor available at grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, and warehouse clubs. No statewide holiday restrictions.
    Motor vehicles entering from Mexico may only import 1L of alcohol (duty free). Sale or distribution of alcohol higher than 153 proof is illegal.

    You may serve alcohol if you are at least 18 years of age.

    City and County governments can set different sale hours.

california-map

Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.

For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2011

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bistro
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.