Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer Birthday: J (Yes, Embarrasing Myself This Time)

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brookston
Today is my 51st birthday, and I’ve been overwhelmed by an embarrassment of riches from well-wishers sending me notes via e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to one and all. Since it’s usually me posting embarrassing photos of my friends and colleagues, last year I posted a bunch encompassing my first 50 years on a page entitled Beer Birthday Overkill. From old baby photos to the high fashion of the 70s and beyond, they’re still up and good for a chuckle. So again in a spirit of fair play and transparency, here are a few more cringe-worthy photos from my days of youthful indiscretions.

confirmation-bowtie
Another classic from the early 70s, around 1972 or 73 when I was 13 or 14. It was taken for a church directory when the Lutheran Church I attended was celebrating their 100-year anniversary, or something like that. My Mom actually made the jacket and, no offense to her, but she was not the finest seamstress to peddle a sewing machine. You gotta love the butterfly bow-tie look. I’m sure glad that died a much-deserved fashion death.

wd37
At Woodstock (’94 — I’m not that old!) and yes, that’s a can of Miller Genuine Draft I’m holding. After a few days in the mud, we couldn’t be very picky or stand on ceremony about using the proper glass, sad to say. The sleepy-looking fellow next to me is Jim Noecker, my oldest friend in the world, who I’ve known since we were in kindergarten together.

sarah-10
While I can’t recall the exact details of where or when this photo was taken, it was definitely on one of my first dates with my wife Sarah, which places it around 1993 or so, roughly seventeen years ago. Good god, we look young.

There’s many more where these came from, just check out Beer Birthday Overkill and thanks again for all the birthday wishes.

The Homebrew Chef’s Beer Dinner At Mercedes

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Thursday night was the Sean Paxton — a.k.a. The Homebrew Chef — beer dinner at the Mercedes Hair of the Dog Cantina in San Francisco. A modest affair, at least in Homebrew Chef terms, it was a mere eight courses. The dinner was paired with almost all collaboration beers, from De Prouef and Firestone Walker. For that reason, it was known as the Collaboration Beer Dinner.

After the dinner, Matt & Sean
Firestone Walker brewmaster Matt Bryildson and the Homebrew Chef, Sean Paxton.

You can see each course and photos from the beer dinner below in the slideshow. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Hump Day SF Beer Week

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Wednesday was hump day for SF Beer Week, falling smack dab in the middle of the ten days. Here’s some more photos from Day 6. Below are individual slideshows from several Wednesday events during SF Beer Week. They’re best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Day 6: Wednesday, February 10

The Bistro Cheese-Off

Barclay’s Bill Brand Tribute

Cobb’s SF Beer Week “Beer-In”

Toronado Nightcap

After Cobb’s, I went over to the Toronado for a nightcap and to see if any of the Lagunitas folks we re still there. They’re weren’t, but Gabbi Chan and Phil Lowry were still there, though about to leave. I made do with a Russian River Mortification, Vinnie’s quadrupel.

Gabbi & Phil at the Toronado
Gabbi Chan & Phil Lowry.

Drinking my nightcap of Russian River Mortification at the Toronado
Having my last beer on Wednesday night at the Toronado.

The Great Cheese-Off Of 2010

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Last night, the Bistro held its 2nd annual cheese-off, one of my favorite SF Beer Week events. Similar to last year, Bistro co-owner Vic Krajl picked four cheeses and then asked four breweries — Eel River, Mad River, Moylan’s and Sierra Nevada — to pick the beer they made that they felt was the best pairing with each cheese.

Pairing #2: Moylan's Hefe, Eel River Amber, Mad River Jamaica IPA & Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Here’s flight 2, for example, one cheese with four beers.

After choosing our favorite from each round, we handed in our scorecards and they tallied up the results to determine which pairings were the most popular. A prize was awarded to whoever correctly predicted the most popular choices. Only one person, for the second year running, chose all four most popular. While I’d argue that most popular doesn’t necessarily mean best, especially since people’s tastes and palettes vary widely, it was still a fun way to wrap up the evening and determine at least what a majority of people thought about the choices. Below is a list of each of the cheeses along with the beer pairings chosen by each brewery and then what was determined to be the most popular. The beer in bold was chosen as most popular and italics indicates my personal choice, in case you’re interested.

Cheese No. 1: Wavreumont (cow)

  1. Molyan’s: Celt’s Golden Ale
  2. Eel River: Triple Exultation
  3. Mad River: Mad Belgian Golden Ale
  4. Sierra Nevada: Kellerweis

Cheese No. 2: Petit Agour — Tomette d’Helette (sheep)

  1. Molyan’s: American Hefeweizen
  2. Eel River: Amber
  3. Mad River: Jamaica IPA
  4. Sierra Nevada: Pale Ale

Cheese No. 3: Sunlight (goat)

  1. Molyan’s: Hells’ Lager
  2. Eel River: Porter
  3. Mad River: Jamaica Red Ale
  4. Sierra Nevada: Torpedo Ale

Cheese No. 4: Bleu de Laqueuille (cow)

  1. Molyan’s: Barrel-aged/blended Kilt Lifter
  2. Eel River: IPA
  3. Mad River: John Barleycorn Barleywine 2008
  4. Sierra Nevada: Glissade Golden Bock

What’s interesting to me is that I chose all four of the beers from Mad River Brewing, and similarly last year I picked four of the five beers from a single brewery: Bear Republic. What that suggests is that while palettes do differ, we tend to be in sync with them, that is my palate was similar to whomever chose the pairings last year at Bear Republic and this year at Mad River.

Cynthia Kralj at a table w/ Bruce Paton & Denise Jones
Bistro co-owner Cynthia at one of the cheese-off tables.

Hat’s off once more to Vic and Cynthia for coming up with such a simple yet effective new way to approach cheese and beer pairings. It’s such a great way to educate yourself about cheese and beer and at the same time have an enormously fun time. I really hope to see more of this type of event in the future.

Below is a slideshow of the Bistro Cheese-Off. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

The First 4 Days Of SF Beer Week

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With four days under my belt for SF Beer Week, I’m now behind in everything except having a great time. I thought before I get even more behind that I’d share some of photos from the first few days, which in order to get up quicker are just below in their individual slideshows from Flickr. Below are individual slideshows from several events during SF Beer Week. They’re best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Day 1: Friday, February 5

Russian River’s Release of Pliny the Younger

The Opening Gala

Day 2: Saturday, February 6

The Bistro Double IPA Festival

Day 3: Sunday, February 7

Matevaza’s Beerunch at Kelly’s Mission Rock

Beer Ice Cream from Humphry Slocombe

Meet the Brewer: The Lost Abbey at The Toronado
Dave Keene & Tomme Arthur after a night of Washoes
After the Super Bowl, I went into San Francisco to the Toronado where Tomme Arthur was pouring his Lost Abbey beers. Tomme and I ruled the Washoe boards for the better part of the night.

Day 4: Monday, February 8

Triple Rock Sour Monday Sour Fest

Meet the Brewer: Moonlight Brewing at Bobby G’s Pizzeria
Brian Hunt pouring his beer at Bobby G's
Brian Hunt of Moonlight Brewing at an event with some of his rarer beers at Bobby G’s in Berkeley.

Meet the Brewer: Valley Brewing at Barclay’s
Stave Altimari at an event at Barclay's
Stave Altimari from Valley Brewing at Barclay’s for a Meet the Brewer event.

Meet the Brewer: Rob Tod of Allagash at The Toronado
Rob Tod at the Toronado
Rob Tod from Allagash trying to stay awake at the Toronado, where he was pouring his beers Monday night.

Consecration In 375ml Bottled Today

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russian-river
I stopped by Russian River Brewing today, because my friend Pete Slosberg told me last week that he would be there for the first bottling of Consecration in the new proprietary 375ml bottles. Pete was there with a few volunteers, including Peter Estaniel, from A Better Beer Blog.

The new bottle was developed for exclusive use by Russian River Brewing, along with North Coast Brewing and the Lost Abbey. So for now, those will be the only breweries you”ll see using this new bottle.

consecration-375

This is the third beer to be bottled by Russian River in the new bottles. The first two were Supplication and Temptation.

In other exciting Russian River news, the brewery is about to go off the grid, and go completely solar. One-half of the production brewery’s roof has solar panels already installed and the second half has the frames laid down, waiting for the panels. It may go live as early as this weekend and should power all of the brewery’s electricity needs.

Below is a short video of Consecration moving through the bottling line.

Below are some photos from today’s visit to the brewery.


Here is a slideshow of the Consecration bottling. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Pacific Coast Holiday Tasting Results

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Before Christmas, I attended the 21st annual holiday tasting at Pacific Coast Brewing in Oakland. It was my first time at the long-running event and I had a terrific time. Owner Steve Wolfe and brewmaster Don Gortemiller were gracious hosts and I spent the afternoon with several friends and colleagues. I also didn’t realize just how much food would be served — which I should add was a welcome development — with the fifteen beers. Having done this for decades, they have the process down. Every fifteen minutes a new beer was poured and in between a new dish was made available for noshing.

Steve Wolfe & Don Gortemiller, a bit lighter
Pacific Coast Brewing’s Steve Wolfe with brewmaster Don Gortemiller.

Don and Steve chose all the beers with an eye toward serving the most special beers they could get their hands on, and ones which were appropriate for the holiday season. Nine of the fifteen were holiday seasonals, and three were anniversary ales.

Mario, me, Steve Wolfe, Don Gortemiller & Mike Pitsker
Mario Rubio, from Brewed For Thought, me, Steve Wolfe, Don Gortemiller and Mike Pitsker, from the Celebrator Beer News.

Every attendee was provided with an elaborate scoring sheet along with some guidelines on how to score each beer. Most people in the brewpub seemed to take scoring the beers very seriously. At the end of the tasting, the completed sheets are collected and tabulated. Brewmaster Don Gortemiller released the results of the 2009 tasting a few days before Christmas. This year’s winner was the Double Jack from Firestone Walker Brewing in Paso Robles, California. Deschutes Black Butte XXI came in second and third place went to the collaboration between Dogfish Head Brewery and Sierra Nevada Brewing, Life & Limb. To see the full tally, check out the results on Pacific Coast’s website.

Beer #8: Firestone Walker Double Jack
This year’s winner, Firestone Walker Double Jack.

Below is a slideshow of the Pacific Coast Holiday Tasting. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Lagunitas Tweetup

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tweetup
Yesterday I attended my first Tweetup, organized by Ashley Routson — a.k.a. The Beer Wench — and Fred Abercrombie from Ünnecessary Ümlaut. Though we’ve attended at least one beer event together, I’d yet to meet either blogger. So this seemed like a good opportunity to do just that, and also drink some tasty beers and meet some more like-minded tweeters. In case the term is new to you — it was to me — a Tweetup is a get together in the real world that’s organized using Twitter.

Tweetup organizer Ashley, a.k.a. The Beer Wench, with Ron Lindenbusch, from Lagunitas
Tweetup organizer Ashley, a.k.a. The Beer Wench, with Ron Lindenbusch, from Lagunitas.

The Tweetup took place at Lagunitas Brewing in Petaluma, Calif. Between 40 and 50 tweeters attended the event. It was a lot of fun. I’ve been to Lagunitas countless times, but it’s a great place to hang out. Ron Lindenbusch gave a tour to the many people there who’d never been to the brewery. I ambled around the brewery, talking to people I knew there, and snapping photos of the brewery because … well, you can never see too much brewery porn in my opinion. It was another great example of Twitter bringing people together instead of keeping them apart, as many of Twitter’s critics have argued it does.

Me and The Beer Wench
Me and The Beer Wench.

Below is a slideshow of the Lagunitas Tweetup. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Puttin’ Up The Brookston Xmas Tree

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christmas
My favorite parts of celebrating the holiday season all involve the originally pagan rites like the mistletoe, the yule log, exchanging gifts and, of course, the Christmas tree. We got our tree last night and decorated it this morning. My mother was somewhat obsessed with Christmas, and did a completely different tree theme every year, often making all the ornaments herself. She’d also buy a few ornaments every year and add them to a box for me and, when she passed away in 1981, I inherited all of the ornaments. I’ve continued the tradition of buying new ornaments every year, though I don’t have a whole new tree each year. Instead, the family looks through the boxes and boxes of ornaments and we choose the ones that catch our fancy each year to create our decorated tree. Many of the ornaments reflect our passions, so Porter has train ornaments and Alice has princesses. Over the years I’ve amassed ornaments of some of my peculiar fetishes, such as globes, clothespins, snowmen, birds, potatoes, bowling pins, the Packers and, of course, beer. So this morning I took a photo of each of my beer ornaments, which are presented below in he slideshow. Hoppy Christmas.

Beer: A 6-Pack

Below is a slideshow of my beer-themed Christmas ornaments. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.

Anchor’s Annual Christmas Party ’09

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anchor-xmas09
The lovely missus and I attended the annual Christmas party at Anchor Brewery, one of our favorite events of the year, and one of the few my wife regularly attends. Good friends, good food and great beer. I always start with a Liberty Ale — a perennial favorite — and also finally had a chance to try their new Humming Ale. The Humming Ale is brewed with an “unusual hop variety called Nelson Sauvin” and was brewed to commemorate the 30th anniversary at the brewery’s present location on Mariposa Street in San Francisco.

Me and the Missus at Anchor
Me and Mrs. Brookston Beer Bulletin all dressed up and somewhere to go.

Though there was some terrific food this year, as always, I can never get enough Maytag Blue Cheese. There was also a tasty brisket with sage mashed potatoes, and a veggie table that included some wonderful au gratin potatoes. But my favorite was Pumpkin Soup Shooters with toasted mini-turkey and cranberry Panini.

This year's Xmas Box Tree
The annual tree made from Christmas Ale mother cartons and decorated with bottles and bows.

The dessert was Spiced Gingerbread with dried fruit compote and Anchor Porter ice cream. The ice cream was so good I had seconds of just that, which I found paired really well with the Christmas Ale.

Below is a slideshow of this year’s Anchor Christmas Party. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.