Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

Craft Beer at Salone del Gusto

By

If you’re not familiar with the Slow Food organization or its American counterpart, Slow Food USA, you should be. The idea started in Italy but has spread around the world. Essentially, they celebrate food in its more traditional guise, using natural and local ingredients, taking time to both prepare and enjoy the meal, paired with the finest beverages, whether it’s beer, wine or something else that compliments the meal perfectly. Their three guiding principles are good, clean and fair.

It’s also a perfect fit for the craft beer industry and the Brewers Association has been sending a team of representatives armed with some of our best beers to the Salone del Gusto in Torino (a.k.a. Turin), Italy for the last four times the event has been held, which is every two years. This year’s event was the sixth biennial festival and celebrates all manner of great food and drink from around the world. The five-day event includes opportunities to taste hundreds of flavors, taste workshops, full dinner experiences, lectures, education along with much more.

In addition, another event was taking place the same week nearby, called Terra Madre, that is a world meetup of people and organizations that produce good, clean and fair food with an emphasis on sustainable farming and food. The city of Santa Rosa selected Vinne and Natalie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing to be their representatives at Terra Madre. The whole experience sounds fantastic and hopefully I’ll be able to attend one of these years. The pictures below are courtesy of Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment Brewery. Thanks Shaun.

The Brewers Association booth at Salone del Gusto in Torino, Italy

Eric Wallace from Left Hand Brewing works the booth. It was very popular with the Italians, Expats, students and visitors from the U.S. You could get a taster of three beers for 3 Euros. Half the proceeds from the booth were donated to the Slow Food Movement. You could also purchase beer which was very popular with the Americans living abroad.

Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment in San Francisco, California poses with Charlie Papazian and a fuzzy Nancy Johnson of the Brewers Association.

Lorenzo Dabove, the “Michael Jackson” of Italy, along with Cantillon owners Claude and Jean-Pierre Van Roy.

Photos from the 2006 GABF

By

I’ve finally got all my photos up from this year’s Great American Beer Festival. As usual, there are a lot of them. With the exception of the awards ceremony photos, I put the posts with the photos backdated to the day that they were taken so to see them all you can either scroll backwards in time or use the links to each of the photo galleries below. Enjoy.

9.27 Burgundian Babble Belt Tasting
9.27 GABF: Wednesday Night at the Brewers Reception
9.27 GABF: Wednesday Night at Falling Rock
9.28 GABF: Thursday Night
9.29 GABF: Friday Night
9.30 GABF: Sam Adams Media Brunch
9.30 GABF: Awards Ceremony
9.30 GABF: Saturday Night
9.30 GABF: Saturday Night at Falling Rock

GABF Attendance Up Nearly 40%!

By

The figures of attendance from this year’s Great American Beer Festival are now in, and it’s a pretty impressive number. A record 41,000 people attended the festival. Last year only 29,500 came, which means an incredible 39% increase over last year! The hall was slightly larger this year, 188,000 sq. ft. vs. 144,000 last year, which is 30% larger, but it did not keep pace with the increase in attendance. It certainly feels like our industry is coming into another golden period where much more — and hopefully better — attention is paid by the mainstream media and consumers alike.

GABF 2006: The Awards

By

This year, 450 breweries entered 2402 in the competition for one of 207 possible medals in 69 categories. The average number of beers entered in each category was 35, with American-style IPAs again having the most with 94 submitted. The award ceremony is always an exciting time, the rough equivalent of the Oscars for the beer industry. Though it’s undoubtedly with much better beer and without the bother of having to wear a tuxedo or ball gown.

Rich Norgrove and Team Bear Republic from Healdsburg, California won four awards and the big award for Small Brewery Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year.

With Vinnie’s parents, Vince and Audre in attendance for the first time, Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo frm Russian River Brewing won three medals, including a Gold Medal for Pliny the Elder.

Owner Brendan Moylan, brewer Shane, and head brewer Arne Johnson of Marin Brewing (one of my local haunts) in Larkspur, California took home another medal this year.
 

For many, many more photos from the GABF awards, visit the photo gallery.

GABF Winners Announced

By

The winner were announced for the 2006 Great American Beer Festival earlier today. California won a total of 39 medals, more than any other state. California brewers won 11 gold medals, 15 silver and 13 bronze. Next was Colorado with 28 medals followed by Wisconsin with 18. Oregon came in 4th with 14 medals and Washington was in 6th place with nine medals. The BA has a full list of the winners available.

Healdsburg, California’s Bear Republic Brewing won Brewery & Brewer of the Year in the Small Brewing Company category.

GABF 2006: Friday Night

By

Friday night was the second of four sessions at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. They added another 40,000 square feet to the hall and sold out every session, which is 13,000 tickets times four or 52,000 vistors to the festival this year.

Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, California, giving me attitude.

Me and Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware along with their new alehouse location in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The girls of 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, California.

Garret Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and Vinnie Cilruzo of Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, California. Vinnie won a bronze medal for his Aud Blonde in the Golden or Blonde Ale category, which was named for his mother Audre who was in the audience along with his father Vince. Vinnie also won a silver medal for his Beatification in the Belgian-Style Sour Ale category and a gold medal for Pliny the Elder in the Imperial or Double India Pale Ale category.

For many more photos from Friday Night at GABF, visit the photo gallery.

GABF 2006: Thursday Night

By

Thursday at 5:30 marked the beginning of the 25th Great American Beer Festival and my 14th festival in 15 years.

The entrance to the hall this year featured five endcaps each with five years worth of photographic memories from the previous 25 years of GABF. The brewers and media entrance was greeted by a bigger-than-life-size photo of me and Greg Koch from Stone Brewing. Apparently we were the face of 1997-2001. It was a little disconcerting seeing myself so large every time I entered the festival and I didn’t know my chins could get that big, but it was also very flattering and pretty cool.

Rich Norgrove of Bear Republic Brewing in Healdsburg, California. Rich won a bronze medal for Peter Brown Tribute Ale in the Brown Porter category, another Bronze for XP Pale Ale in the American-Style Pale Ale category, a Silver for Racer 5 in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, another Silver for Apex Ale in the American-Style India Pale Ale category, and most importantly Rich was named Small Brewery Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year, a well-deserved honor. Congratulations, Rich!

For many more photos from Thursday Night at GABF, visit the photo gallery.

Brews on the Bay

By

The 3rd annual beer festival put on by the San Francisco Brewers Guild, Brews on the Bay, was held today. Eight of the nine breweries in the city were pouring their beers, with only Anchor abstaining. The festival has an unusual location. It’s held aboard the S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien, a World War Two-era Liberty Ship anchored at Pier 45 in Fisherman’s Wharf. Despite a cold, windy and grey day in the city — imagine that — there was a pretty good turnout for the festival and the ship was packed. The beer was spread all over the deck of the ship and there was music and food on board, as well. It’s a fun place for a festival and indeed everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves immensely.

The Liberty Ship, S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien docked at Pier 45.

The festival on the starboard side.

And on the port side, looking aft.

Already a tourist destination, a lot more people than is usual for a beer festival had cameras and were capturing friends aboard ship.

The Brewing Network’s radio show did a live remote with several of the brewers during the festival.

From the upper deck of the ship looking toward the bow.

Members of the San Francisco Brewers Guild pose with the ship as backdrop.

The brewers with the San Franciso Bay at their backs.

Monterey Beer Fest Profiled in SF Chronicle

By

Jeff Moses, who produces the Monterey Beer Festival, among several other Bay Area beer festivals, sent me this article about the festival that ran in San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, while I was still out of town vacationing with the family. It’s nice to see a beer festival get some good, positive press for a change.
 

Monterey Beer Festival Brew with a View
September 9, 12:30-5 p.m.
Monterey Fairgrounds, Monterey, California