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SF Weekly’s Best of San Francisco

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sf-weekly
The weekly alternative SF Weekly announced the winners in their most recent “best of” issue for 2010.

  • Reader’s Poll Winner for Best Brewery: Magnolia Gastropub
  • Best Beer Bottle Selection: City Beer Store
  • Best Cult Brew: North Coast Le Merle
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  • Best Microbrewery: Elizabeth Street Brewery
  • Best Brewery Tour: Speakeasy Ales and Lagers
  • Best Beer and Trivia: The Church Key

And a special shout out to Jesse Friedman, whose blog Beer & Nosh won for Best Food Blog.

Congratulations to all the beer winners. Here, you can read the rest of the Bars & Clubs winners or take in the entire Best of San Francisco 2010.

Beer In Art #76: Neal Barbosa’s Lagunitas Dog

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Today’s works of art is by a very fast painter, Neal Barbosa, who bills himself as the performance painter and the live painter. I first saw his work at last year’s Lagunitas Beer Circus, which was held again today at the Lagunitas Brewery. Barbosa was there again, outside near the stage, painting to music, the way he prefers it. Last year, he painted a version of the Lagunitas dog, which I happened to catch him finish.

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And here’s the original it’s based on.

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Here’s a brief Biography:

Neal Barbosa paints during music. A performance artist based in southern & northern California, Neal’s art studio is often a stage he shares with bands such as Fishbone, Alfred Howard & the K23 Orchestra, Acacia, Frogdog Rocks, Shiny Toy Guns, New Orleans Social Club, Larry Carlton, New Soul Underground and many others. As the band performs, so does Neal. He paints what he hears and feels.

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Neal Barbosa painting at the 2009 Lagunitas Beer Circus.

You can see more of Barbosa’s art on his Facebook and MySpace pages.

The Beer Circus Is Coming To Town

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If you missed last year’s Lagunitas Beer Circus, you missed one of the most amazing spectacles involving beer I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending. It was so good, they’ve moved it to May for the better weather and because it deserves its own time slot.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2nd annual Lagunitas Beer Circus, which will be held Sunday, May 16 from 1:00-6:00 p.m. Tickets are $35, which includes admission and 10 beer tokens, and be purchased by calling 707.769.4495.

Here’s a description of the circus from one of two Facebook pages for the event.

This year’s going to be c-r-a-z-y. In lieu of a bigtop they’re gonna take over the entire Lagunitas parking lot and Beer Sanctuary. More space means more Circus.

Already confirmed are awesomeness like a midway with carnival games; different stages with bands like the kings of klown-fi, Gooferman; aerialists, contortionists, and sideshow freaks like Jo-Jo The Dog-Faced Boy and The Bearded Lady; oilpunks of the Golden Mean Giant Snail Car and burlesque teasers Boiler Bar Revue & Theater; with tons more to be announced.

Oh yeah, and the beer in Beer Circus? Well, this is a Beer Festival and Lagunitas always does ‘em right. So with your ticket you’ll get a healthy number of pours. Not only from their standard lineup and one-of-a-kind brews found only in their TapRoom, there’ll be taps from 10 local breweries: Ace Cider, Dempsey’s Brewing, Russian River, Moylan’s, Marin Brewing Company, Moonlight Brewing, Sonoma Springs Brewery, Napa Smith, Third Street Aleworks, and Iron Springs Brewerys (hopefully with their Ambrewlance).

I had such a great time at this last year, it’s definitely one not to be missed. See you there!

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Social Kitchen, SF’s Newest Brewery Opens

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San Francisco’s newest brewery opened today, Social Kitchen & Brewery, at 1326 9th Avenue. Rich Higgins, who was our beer week director this year for SF Beer Week, is the brewer there. I know he’s been working on it for a while now, and it’s finally open. Stop by and say hello to Rich and wish him well … oh, and try one of his beers. There are also additional details on their Facebook page, too.

Outside the new Social Kitchen & Brewery.
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The initial lineup of beers.
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Moonlight Goes Wild

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Brian Hunt, from Moonlight Brewing, sent me the photo below showing the two used French champagne foeders (oak barrels) he bought for the brewery. Each one will hold 34 barrels (1,054 gallons). He’ll be making spontaneously fermented beers with them, but don’t expect to see any beer for at least 18 months, because they’ll be aging for at least that length of time, possibly longer. This is going to fun. I can’t wait to try whatever he makes with these. What will they be called? Perhaps Sonambic (Sonoma + lambic), which as I understand it is a term Brian coined, and Vinnie also uses at Russian River, and both breweries are in Sonoma County.

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Brian Hunt and his assistant brewer, Jeff Barkley, in front of Moonlight Brewery’s new foeders.

The Tyranny Of The Disgruntled Minority

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Tomme Arthur, from the Lost Abbey, has an incredibly restrained post up about the travails created by a single individual person who went to the trouble to lodge a complaint about every beer tasting room in the San Diego area. “Apparently they were concerned that we didn’t have a GIANT BLUE “A” on our cold boxes!”

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So Tomme and every other San Diego brewery has spent the week, and boat loads of money, getting up to “code” to satisfy an army of inspectors who didn’t know there was a problem — and in fact there wasn’t — until some pinhead decided to bring it to their attention. Perhaps most remarkably, winery and brandy tasting rooms are exempt from any regulations — so typical — but I certainly hope they find out who this “concerned” soul is. Read all about it at Tomme’s latest rant, I’d Like To Thank Some People.

Fritz Maytag & Keith Greggor Talk About Anchor On PBS

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This morning on KQED, San Francisco’s PBS station, aired a live interview with Fritz Maytag and Keith Greggor about the sale of Anchor Brewery. The podcast of the interview, Anchor Steam Sold, is now up and you can listen to it on the KQED Archive or download it for you iPod. Or you can just push the play button below.

Odonata Saison Released Today

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odonata
Odonata Beer, a new brewery is Sacramento, is releasing their Saison today. Below is the press release with all the details:

ODONATA (OH-DOE-NAH-TA) is ecstatic to announce the arrival of its flagship beer, Saison! Brewed with malted barley, wheat & rolled oats, Saison is a rustic interpretation of the traditionally Belgium-brewed beer. Spiced with Styrian & East Kent Golding hops Saison has an aromatic, floral & peppery aroma and a modest hop bite. Our Belgian yeast strain also lends the slightly wild scents of passion fruit and spice. Saison is designed for refreshment & complexity; perfect on its own, or paired with ripened cheeses or classic Belgian-style seafood dishes. Saison bottles are bottle-conditioned, so serve chilled.

ODONATA Saison will be available on draft at select Northern California retailers beginning Friday, April 30, 2010 and will begin distributing bottled Saison in mid-May throughout Northern California. For further information regarding Saison, its availability or other inquiries, please contact Rick Sellers using the information found below.

ODONATA Beer Company is based in Sacramento, Ca. Brewmaster Peter Hoey is an experienced, award-winning brewer as well as an instructor at UC Davis’ prestigious brewing school and The American Brewers Guild. Sales Director Rick Sellers is an experienced beer journalist and former Beer Director for DRAFT Magazine, the world’s largest beer publication. Together Peter & Rick started ODONATA in 2009, with their first beer release (Rorie’s Ale) scoring a 100 on RateBeer and was named one of the best beers in the world.

Odonata-saison-btl

ABV: 6.4%
IBUs: 24
PKG: 22 oz. bottles
Suggested Food Pairings: Ripened cheese like Cyprus Grove Chevre’s Humboldt Fog; Pasta & Cream Sauce; Steamed Mussels
(The Homebrew Chef has also created a special recipe using Odonata’s saison for Saison-Steamed Mussels.
Serving Suggestions: Store Saison upright at cellar temperature & serve chilled, between 40-48 degrees, in a sturdy glass.

Beer In Ads #98: Acme’s Dietetically Non-Fattening

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Thursday’s ad is from the 1930s and is part of a series of pin-ups done for San Francisco’s Acme Brewing by one of the most famous pin-up artists ever. George Petty is probably one of a handful of well-known pin-up artists who also made the transition to commercial and mainstream work. Some of his most famous work was done for Esquire magazine, where he worked from 1933 to 1956. The women he painted had a look that was dubbed “the Petty Girl.” You can see more examples at the Pin-Up Page, BPIB and the Pin-Up Files.

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Today’s Petty ad was part of the Dietetically Non-Fattening series, which Brewery Gems describes.

In the mid ’30s Acme came up with a brilliant marketing concept directed at an untapped market – women. It advertised its beer as “Dietetically Non-Fattening,” and following the asterisks, the fine print says: “Relatively so, compared with other foods.”

This caused the Federal Trade Commission, who was devoted to fair practices in advertising, to move against Acme Breweries. However, it took until 1951 for the Commission’s decision that the words “Acme beer contains no fattening substances and will not increase consumer’s weight” was still considered a “deceptive nutritional claim,” so Acme dropped the advertising campaign, but by then they had doubled their capacity and captured nearly 50% of the California beer market.

Petty apparently painted three works for Acme Beer, the other two are below.

Petty’s Cowgirl.
Cowgirl by Petty

Petty’s Reclining Lady.
Redhead by Petty

New Oakland Beer Fest This Weekend

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A new Bay Area beer festival will be held this Saturday, May 1, from Noon to 3:00 p.m., at Jack London Square. It’s sponsored by the local radio station KGO. It will be called the Craft Beer and Fine Food Celebration and will a benefit for the Alameda County Food Bank. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. According to the website, you’ll be able to “taste 30 different craft and specialty beers, along with delicious food from fine Bay Area restaurants.” So far, nineteen breweries are listed on the website along with ten food providers. There’s also a Facebook event page with additional details.

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