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Bistro Double IPA Winners 2024

February 10, 2024 By Jay Brooks

Earlier today, the 24th annual Double IPA Festival was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California. I got there early for judging again this year, and spent the morning holed up in the basement, where we judged Double IPAs for most of the morning, before choosing our top three favorites.

Starting our judging bright and early.

After emerging from the dark into the light, it was nice to see a bright, sunny day in beautiful downtown Hayward.

At 2:00 pm., owner Vic Kralj announced the winners:

Double IPAs

  • 1st Place: The Suspense is Terrible, by Sunriver Brewing, from Sunriver, Oregon
  • 2nd Place: HopTomic, by Morgan Territory Brewing, from Tracy, California
  • 3rd Place: Chux, by Danville Brewing, in Danville, California
Matt Sager from Danville Brewing picking up his bronze medal.
Silver medal winner Craig Cauwels, from Morgan Territory, missed the awards ceremony by just a few minutes
Sunriver made it down from Oregon to accept their gold medal.

People’s Choice Awards

Double IPA: Cone Goblin, by Ghost Town Brewing, from Oakland, California, in collaboration with Alvarado Street Brewing, headquartered in Monterey, California

Ghost Town won the People’s Choice this year.
Cheers from the 2024 Double IPA Festival!

Filed Under: Beers, Events, News Tagged With: Awards, Bay Area, California, IPA, Northern California

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2021

April 10, 2021 By Jay Brooks

Today was the 23rd annual IPA Festival and the 3rd annual Hazy IPA Festival at the Bistro, but that’s only because there wasn’t a festival last year. It was a lovely sunny day in Hayward, making it was perfect beer-judging weather now that we’re no longer in the basement. This year we judged in pairs, split into two groups of regular clear IPAs and hazy IPAs. The full list of winners is below.

Traditional IPAs

  • 1st Place: Altamont Maui Waui IPA
  • 2nd Place: Slice Green Nugget
  • 3rd Place: Sun River Clearview West Coast IPA

Hazy IPAs

  • 1st Place: Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing
  • 2nd Place: Danville Hop Magee
  • 3rd Place: Societe Bulbous Flowers Hazy IPA

Filed Under: Beers, Events, Just For Fun, News Tagged With: Awards, Bay Area, Beer Festivals, IPA

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2019

April 13, 2019 By Jay Brooks

bistro

Today was the 22nd annual IPA Festival and the 2nd annual Hazy IPA Festival at the Bistro. The weather cooperated and it ended up being a sunny day in Hayward, making it was perfect beer-drinking weather once we emerged from judging in the basement. This year the judging was split into two groups, regular clear IPAs and hazy IPAs. There were 32 traditional American-style IPAs and 40 hazies. The full list of winners is below.

BistroIPA19-2
Final Round judging of Traditional IPAs.

Traditional IPAs

  • 1st Place: Central Coast Lucky Day IPA
  • 2nd Place: Revision IPA
  • 3rd Place: Urban Roots Like Riding a Bike IPA
BistroIPA19-1
Starting the first round with Hazy IPAs.

Hazy IPAs

  • 1st Place: Lead Dog Saturdays are for Brews IPA
  • 2nd Place: Fieldwork Dancing in the Dank IPA
  • 3rd Place: Cellarmaker Cantaloupe Island IPA

Peoples Choice Awards

  • People’s Choice Award — Traditional IPA: Altamont Mau Waui
  • People’s Choice Award — Hazy IPA: Urban Roots Lapse of Judgement

Congratulations to all the winners.

Filed Under: Beers, Events, Just For Fun Tagged With: Awards, Bay Area, Beer Festivals, IPA, Northern California

Bistro Double IPA Winners 2019

February 2, 2019 By Jay Brooks

bistro

On Saturday the 19th annual Double IPA Festival was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California. I got there early for judging again this year, and was sequestered in the dark, dank basement out of the view of the beautiful Bay Area sun for most of the morning. We judged 66 Double IPAs and 34 Triple IPAs.

Double IPAs

  • 1st Place: Kern River Double Church
  • 2nd Place: Urban Roots Bigger On the Inside
  • 3rd Place: Beachwood BBQ & Brewery Greenshift
Bistro-DIPA19-UR
Peter Hoey from Urban Roots accepting his silver medal from Double IPA.

Triple IPAs

  • 1st Place: Morgan Territory Menace to Sobriety
  • 2nd Place: Faction Brewing / SARA Cuddle Tent
  • 3rd Place: Kern River YUB Trippin’
Bistro-DIPA19-MT
Craig Cauwels from Morgan Territory winning gold for his triple IPA.

Peoples Choice Awards

  • People’s Choice Award — Double IPA: Cellarmaker Triple Mt. Nelson
  • People’s Choice Award — Triple IPA: Russian River Pliny the Younger

Congratulations to all the winners.

Bistro-DIPA19-1
It was a beautiful day at the Bistro for tasting 100 Double and Triple IPAs.


Filed Under: Beers, Events, News Tagged With: Awards, Bay Area, California, IPA

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2018

April 14, 2018 By Jay Brooks

bistro
Today was the 21st annual IPA Festival and the Inaugural Hazy IPA Festival at the Bistro. The weather cooperated and it ended up being a cool but sunny in Hayward, making it was near perfect beer-drinking weather once we emerged from judging in the basement. This year the judging was split into two groups, regular clear IPAs and hazy IPAs. There were 41 traditional American-style IPAs. The full list of winners is below.

BIPAF18-1

West Coast IPA Festival Winners

  • 1st Place: Chain Shot (Moonraker Brewing)
  • 2nd Place: Rakau (Triple Rock Brewing)
  • 3rd Place: Danker Will Robinson (Alpha Acid)

For the first time, this year we separately judged Hazy, East Coast, New England IPAs, or whatever you want to call them. We had 36 in the first round, and eight in the final round.

BIPAF18-2

East Coast or Hazy IPA Festival Winners

  • 1st Place: DDH Cantaloupe Island (Cellarmaker Brewing)
  • 2nd Place: Citra Dream (New Glory Craft Brewery)
  • 3rd Place: Relax (Bruery Offshoot)

Filed Under: Beers, Events, Just For Fun Tagged With: Announcements, Awards, IPA, Northern California

Bistro Double IPA Winners 2018

February 13, 2018 By Jay Brooks

bistro
On Saturday the 18th annual Double IPA Festival was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California. I got there early for judging again this year, and was sequestered in the dark, dank basement out of the view of the beautiful Bay Area sun for most of the morning. We judged 63 Double IPAs and 36 Triple IPAs.

Double IPAs

  • 1st Place: All Hops on Deck, Moonraker Brewing
  • 2nd Place: Greenshift, Beachwood BBQ & Brewery
  • 3rd Place: Hop Salad, Triple Rock Brewery

dipa-2018-3
Judging in the basement of the Bistro.

Triple IPAs

  • 1st Place: Nod & Smile, Triple Rock Brewery
  • 2nd Place: Compulsory, Iron Springs Pub & Brewery
  • 3rd Place: Power Plant, El Segundo Brewing

dipa-2018-1
It was a beautiful day at the Bistro for tasting 99 Double and Triple IPAs.

Peoples Choice Awards

  • People’s Choice Award — Double IPA: Oak and Rye, New Bohemia Brewing
  • People’s Choice Award — Triple IPA: Scarcity, Altamont Beer Works

Congratulations to all the winners.

dipa-2018-2
Jeremy Marshall, from Lagunitas, and Terence Sullivan, from Sierra Nevada, with their wives, enjoying some camaraderie at the Double IPA Fest.

Filed Under: Beers, Events, News Tagged With: Awards, Bay Area, California, IPA

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2017

April 8, 2017 By Jay Brooks

bistro
Today was the 20th annual IPA Festival at the Bistro. The weather mostly cooperated and it ended up only a little wet in Hayward, with sun peeking out mid-afternoon. It was near perfect beer-drinking weather once we emerged from judging in the basement all morning. This year’s big winner was Revision IPA, from Revision Brewing, which was chosen best in show, out of 53 IPA offerings. It was an especially big win for Jeremy, as it’s one of the first batches from his new Revision Brewing, which even managed to beat his own IPA that he created at his previous brewery, Knee Deep. Revised, indeed. The full list of winners is below.

  • 1st Place: Revision IPA (Revision Brewing)
  • 2nd Place: Pulp Free (Fieldwork Brewing)
  • 3rd Place: Breaking Bud (Knee Deep Brewing)
  • Honorable Mention: TropiCali Dank (Tap It Brewing)
  • People’s Choice: 3 Headed Hop Monster (Melvin Brewing)

jeremy-warren-bistro-ipa
Jeremy Warren and me at today’s Bistro IPA Festival.

Filed Under: Beers, Events, Just For Fun Tagged With: Announcements, Awards, IPA

Bistro IPA Festival Winners 2016

April 9, 2016 By Jay Brooks

bistro
Today was only a little wet in Hayward for the 19th annual IPA Festival at the Bistro. It was perfect beer-drinking weather once we emerged from judging in the basement all morning. This year’s big winner was Today Was a Good Day IPA, from Pizza Port Carlsbad, which was chosen best in show, out of 64 IPA offerings. The full list of winners is below.

  • 1st Place: Today Was a Good Day IPA (Pizza Port Carlsbad)
  • 2nd Place: Gold Digger IPA (Auburn Alehouse)
  • 3rd Place: Hop Riot IPA (High Water Brewing)
  • People’s Choice: Maui Waui (Altamont Beer Works)

SAM_5053
Perfect Beer Drinking Weather.

Filed Under: Beers, Breweries, Events, News Tagged With: Awards, Bay Area, California, IPA

The Muppets Drink Lagunitas IPA

October 15, 2015 By Jay Brooks

muppets
As I’ve revealed many times here, I’ve been a huge fan of The Muppets since I was a kid. I’ve even gotten my own kids to love them, as well, showing them the old Muppet Show on DVD, along with all of the films. So imagine my delight when ABC announced a new Muppet Show called simply “the muppets” that debuted last month. So far it’s been pretty good, with their signature bad puns, musical numbers, celebrity cameos and much of the same type of humor that I loved in the 1970s. Plus, they’re making fun of reality shows, which as a genre I absolutely loathe, so that’s a bonus.

With the kids schedule, and mine, we Tivo almost everything and finally got around to watching Episode 4, Pig Out, yesterday. If you don’t have Hulu, try Putlocker or, depending on your cable provider, the ABC website.

The episode’s plot revolves around the staff unwinding after hard days dealing with their insufferable boss, Miss Piggy, who is miffed she’s never been invited to one of these after parties. She manipulates Kermit into geting her invited with the promise that she’ll turn them down. Then, as you’ve probably guessed, she accepts and everyone assumes that the evening will go downhill fast.

They go to a karaoke bar, and indeed it is quite awkward at the beginning. In fact the bar is called “Rowlf’s,” as you can see on the beer mugs they’re shown drinking out of. Rowlf, a brown shaggy, piano-playing dog, was one of the very first Muppet characters back in the 1960s, so it makes sense that he’d own a bar in the new incarnation.

But then Ed Helms unexpectedly arrives at the bar and things begin to liven up. There’s much drinking and karaoke singing — the Swedish Chef’s turn at the mic is particularly memorable. Halfway through the evening Helms’ is leading a sing-a-long to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” when at one of the tables in the bar, something caught my eye. One of the more obscure Muppets, Chip, and the Swedish Chef were drinking Lagunitas IPA! Chip was drinking out of a mug but the bottle sat on the table while the Swedish Chef was drinking straight from the bottle.

muppets-ipa-1

It’s only there for a few seconds, but there’s no doubt what it is. If you don’t think that trademark is important, or that typefaces and fonts can, or should, be protected, both my wife and my son immediately recognized the bottle when I showed it to them as being from Lagunitas, and all you can see of the label is the single letter “I” on the sideways bottle.

muppets-ipa-2

You can also see humans in the bar holding bottles of Lagunitas IPA throughout the scenes shown in Rowlf’s. They’re all quick cuts but it’s still unmistakable. The Muppets definitely drink Lagunitas IPA. Nice to see my local brewery’s beer on a show I love.

Filed Under: Beers, Just For Fun, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Cartoons, Humor, IPA

What 3,465 Breweries Are Doing To The Hop Supply

April 22, 2015 By Jay Brooks

hop
I admit there’s a certain “duh” factor to this, but it’s still interesting to see the numbers. With IPA and other hoppy beers accounting for over 20% of the craft beer market, there’s not enough hops being grown to keep up with current demand, and it will only get worse as interest continues to grow, as it seems likely the popularity of hoppy beers will be with us for the foreseeable future. This is from the May 2015 issue of Popular Science, which has a short article entitled Craft Beer is Annihilating the Hop Supply, which adds that demand for hops has “nearly quadrupled in the past decade.”

The article is subtitled “why that might be a good thing,” presumably alluding to the increased demand, but never really answers that question satisfactorily. There’s a quote from the former director of the Hop Growers of America, Doug MacKinnon, saying “Craft brewing is sucking up every pound of hops in the U.S. Growers can’t expand fast enough,” and suggesting that’s opening up the market beyond Washington, Oregon and Idaho, where U.S. hop growing has been concentrated at least since prohibition ended.

The article cites as proof that “single-acre hop operations are popping up on other types of farms across the country, including “Growers in New York, Minnesota, and Colorado,” and I’m also aware of similar efforts with commercial farms in Maine, Wisconsin and California, and I’m sure I’m forgetting somebody. Hops-Meister, which is near Clearlake, started in 2004 and grows ten different varieties on at least 15 acres. Co-owner Marty Kuchinski will be talking to my class tonight about hop farming. California used to grow more hops than any other state prior to prohibition, but never rebounded as farmers here found they could make more per acre growing grapes, but it’s why that legacy includes the town of Hopland and the Hop Kiln Winery. And New York used have an entire hop industry in the 19th century, until a downy mildew problem and other issues forced many to move production out west. So it’s little surprise that, with more modern farming methods, this growing demand would bring back hop farming to many parts of the country, not to mention a strong desire for brewers to have more local ingredients.

But the numbers just seem crazy: 27 million pounds of hops in 2014, and an estimated 31 million pounds this year.

hops-use

Filed Under: Beers, Breweries, Editorial, News, Related Pleasures Tagged With: Hops, IPA, United States

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