One of my favorite events at SF Beer Week in 2009 was the Canned Craft Brews event at Jug Shop so when I saw that it was returning for 2010 on April 13, I had to attend. Although I was quite beered-out from the many many other events earlier in the week, I still had a great time sipping on a few beers, taking a few photos, and talking with the representatives from the breweries. It was a great event and a wonderful way to promote craft beer in a can, a movement that I strongly support.Since I had tried everything else being poured, the beer I was most looking forward to were the ones from Maui Brewing Co. especially the Coconut Porter. I had actually tried Coconut Porter for the first time the previous night at Church Key but it was only a sip. It was nice to get another sample of this delightful beer. For me, Coconut Porter tasted like a gourmet version of an Almond Joy candy bar or like German-chocolate-cake with a touch of coffee and vanilla. It was practically dessert in a can.

The other Maui Brewing beer that I sampled was the IPA which has a nice hoppy nose of sweet citrus and herbal green hops complemented by a sweet biscuit or amber grains. It has a pleasant hoppy bitterness well balanced by a malty sweetness.

Another thing that I learned about Maui is that they are able to economically brew and ship from the island not only because they are using cans but also because they are located right next to a Ball canning facility.

I had a chance to talk to the representative from 21st Amendment and he told me about some upcoming special release beers that will be available in cans. As of February 13, 2010 this information was current, it may be out of date now. By July we’ll know for sure. First, Back in Black IPA will be available in cans in July 2010. The name of this beer says it all, it’s a dark-colored, roasty hop bomb. Next will be a special holiday beer available in October 2010, which will be some version of the “holiday spice” beer that has been offered at the brew pub. Finally, Golden Doom, which is on tap at the brew pub now, will be available in cans around of after January 2011 and is a Belgian-style beer.

All told, there were tastings of beer at this event from Oskar Blues, 21st Amendment, Big Sky Brewing, and New Belgium. The complete list of what was available is as follows:

• Oskar Blues
  • Mama’s Lil Yellow Pils
  • Dale’s Pale Ale
  • Gordon Beer (still one of my favorites)
  • Ten Fidy Stout
• 21st Amendment
  • Brew Free or Die IPA (classic and available on Virgin America flights)
  • Hell or High Watermellon Wheat
• Big Sky
  • Trout Slayer Pale Ale
  • Moose Drool Brown
• New Belgium
  • Fat Tire
• Maui Brewing
  • Bikini Blonde Lager
  • Big Swell IPA
  • Coconut Porter

Although SF Beer Week ended nearly 3 months ago, I still have some photos and experiences from a few of the events that I’d like to share. On Friday, February 12, 2010 I attended the release party for Uncommon Brewers Bacon Brown Ale at Church Key in San Francisco. The event featured most of Uncommon Brewers beers including the Bacon Brown Ale, which was interesting an worth a second try when I have the opportunity.The Bacon Brown Ale is about what you would expect, a brown ale a hint of bacon in the aroma and taste and a little more viscous than your average beer. I seemed like there was a bit of sediment in the beer from the bacon that would settle to the bottom of the glass after a period of time. It wasn’t too bitter and not terribly especially sweet but favoring maltiness. I talked with the brewer, I believe it was Alec, and he mentioned that, at the time, he was considering adding more bacon to the next batch.

Also while talking with Alec, I learned about a few upcoming projects that Uncommon Brewers are undertaking. First, he mentioned that both Golden State Ale, brewed with poppy seeds, and Baltic Porter, brewed with licorice root and star anise were “coming soon” to cans and it was taking a bit extra time to get the Baltic Porter approved due to FDA guidelines regarding licorice.

Next, I learned that they are working on a few new beers. One is a sour beer called Serendipity Sour and the other sounds interesting. It will be and American special bitter with 14.5% alcohol by volume, lot’s of bitterness, and aged with redwood.

Finally, I was informed that in February they were planning on going national within 8 months (5 months from writing) with production increased to 120,000 cans per month.

Shmaltz Brewing Company started out 13 years ago in San Francisco and although they are now based out of New York, they came back for SF Beer Week to celebrate their 13th Anniversary with this event and the release of Jewbelation 13.

This event, appropriately named as their Bar Mitzvah (also the subtitle for Jewbelation 13), featured all of their Hebrew beer brands including two limited edition brews: Jewbelation 12 (2008) and Jewbelation 13 (2009). The party also included 2 live bands and cake. Although Amnesia was extremely crowded, this was a great event and a wonderful opportunity to have a vertical tasting of of the Jewbelation beer.

The following are some notes that I took for the Jewbelation beers.

Jewbelation 12 is the Shmaltz anniversary beer from 2008 made with 12 malts, 12 hops, and 12% alcohol by volume. Although it was a dark bar, it was still apparent that this beer has a deep dark color. It has a dark-roasted malty-sweet aroma and scents of bittersweet molasses. The flavor follows the aroma with a not-quite barley wine molasses flavor and astrong roasted malt flavor coupled with some pure cocao flavors. Jewbelation 12 also has notes of prunes and dark dried fruits. The smooth bitterness of this beer brings out molasses and coffee flavors. Smooth bitterness. Despite being 12% abv, this beer is not very boozy. The mouthfeel was syrupy and lightly carbonated.

Jewbelation 13 is the 13th anniversary beer made with, you guessed it, 13 malts, 13 hops, and 13% alcohol by volume. It has a similar color and mouthfeel to 12 but it has much different flavors. Since this beer has not been aged for a year, it is greener in both age, flavor, and hops. The flavor comes off much less like molasses and much more more like beer brittle. The hop bouquet is much more apparent and is spicy and earthy. It is clearly more bitter, with a more harsh bitterness, and more hoppy than Jewbelation 12. The hop flavor makes me think of a very hoppy stout with an enhanced dark chocolate flavor. It is roasty and sweet and balanced by the hops. The beer was good to drink “fresh” and will certain age well. I will definitely wait for about a year to try the bottle that I have in my beer cellar.

Thirsty Bear Brewing hosted their second annual Casks & Quesos event for SF Beer Week at their brew pub restaurant in San Francisco on Saturday, February 6, 2010. I missed this even last year for SF Beer Week but after talking to the Thirsty Bear brew master, Brenden Dobel, at the Gala on the previous night, I decided that I was not going to miss this event and I’m very glad that I attended. The focus of this event was cask conditioned beer and cheese with unlimited samples of beer and as much cheese as you could eat. No wonder the event was sold out!

Casks were brought in from several California breweries with most of them from the San Francisco Bay Area. There were 12 selections of beer from Thirsty Bear, Magnolia, 21st Amendment, Half Moon Bay, Firestone-Walker, Gordon-Biersch, Beach Chalet, Speakeasy, Sierra Nevada, Mayfield, and Triple Rock. I believe that I tried all but one. The three beers that I heard mentioned frequently as “the beers you have to try” were the 21st Amendment Imperial ESB, Thirsty Bear Bearly Legal Barleywine, and Triple Rock Hi-Top IPA. All of the beer was quite fantastic and all three of those were certainly also among my 11 favorites of the evening.

The following are some tasting notes of the beer that I tried that evening.

Thirsty Bear Bearly Legal Barleywine is a cloudy yellow-orange amber hued beer with an off-white not-quite-tan head and it a bit lighter than I expected. The hop bouquet is leafy, spicy, and noble with a hint of citrus and is likely due to dry hopping with Mt. Hood hops. There is also a subtle sweet malt and biscuit aroma. This beer has a pleasant malty sweetness but is just a bit drier than other barleywines that I’ve had. It also does not have a molasses quality to it. The bitterness from the hops is smooth and complements the sweetness very well. Despite being 10% abv, Bearly Legal Barleywine does not smell nor taste boozy. This is a full bodied beer which is surprisingly easy to drink and is an overall delicious and well made beer.

Triple Rock Hi-Top IPA is cloudy and amber colored with a sizeable head for a cask conditioned ale. The Cascade and Centennial hops provide for a wonderfully strong hoppy nose of pine, citrus, grapefruit, spiciness, and floral notes. This beer is a bit sweet and contrasts well against smooth bitter hop flavors and grapefruit. The grapefruit flavors manifest more like a sweet grapefruit juice than a the sour and bitter fruit. This medium-full bodied beer is an easy to consume session beer that is full of flavor.

Magnolia Prescription Pale Ale. I really enjoyed this ale and I thought it captured the English inspiration of both being pale and a cask ale while still having some California influence. The color was a clear amber color with not much head (as most casks ales are). The hops bouquet has a gentle hoppy, citrus, and floral quality with some malty biscuit qualities. The flavor was malty sweet balanced smoothy by some hop bitterness. On cask this is quite an enjoyable medium-bodied and low-carbonation.

Speakeasy Paypack Porter is a robust and full flavored porter. It has a dark black color with a mocha colored head. The aroma exudes copious amounts of chocolate with a hint of caramel and a bit like fresh baked brownies. There are also hints of vanilla which enhances the chocolate aromas. This beer is sweet and chocolaty almost to the point of tasting like chocolate syrup due to the thick mouthfeel. Tasting this beer reveals a roasty and caramel malty sweetness. It is a full bodied beer with the slightest hint of chalkiness, which for some reason I tend to detect in many if not all porters. It is delectable and drinkable.

Serra Nevada Stout from a cask, in my opinion, is much tastier than out of the bottle. The hoppy aromas and flavors seem a little more subdued from the cask stout allowing the dark roasty flavors to dominate. The hops still manifest bitterness which contrasts nicely against the roasty malt sweetness to produce some great coffee an espresso flavors and aromas.

Half Moon Bay Bootlegger Brown. I found this brown colored ale to have just the right amount of maltiness with a subtle hop bitterness. It smelled of toasty and roasted malts. It was a struggle to not grab another glass of this delicious brown ale.

I felt that the Gordon-Biersch Dampfbier was much better and more flavorful out of the cask than out of the keg.

On Monday, Feb. 8, 21st Amendment (21A) hosted an SF Beer Week event called Can-a-palooza featuring craft beer in a can from a number of different breweries. When I showed up, about three hours after the event started, they were out of everything except Fat Tire, 21A IPA, and 21A Watermelon Wheat. This is likely due to the fact that the cans were only $2, you just can’t beat that price.

The event had great attendance and was hosted on the second level, which had a nice view of the brewery where the disco ball was out (see photo below).

Breweries that were featured at this event were Anderson Valley Brewing Company, Uncommon Brewers, Oskar Blues, Buckbean, New Belgium, Big Sky, and 21st Amendment. Next time I’ll be sure to get there earlier, a piece of advice that I recommend for all of the events for SF Beer Week 10.

SF Beer Week is finally here an on Friday, festivities were kicked off with the SF Brewer’s Guild Opening Gala at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The format of this event was basically a beer festival, complete with souvenir glasses, 20 or so craft breweries, live music, food, tons of people, and unlimited pours. Early in the evening there were toasts to commemorate the festivities and special release beers abound.

The following are only a few of the great beers that I sampled at this event.

SF Brewer’s Guild Imperial Common. This is the official beer of SF Beer Week 10 and is a collaborative brew by the SF Brewer’s Guild. It looks like the plan is to make it available at several events throughout the week until it is gone. It has a nice malty and caramel sweet aroma with a woody, green hops bouquet and a touch of citrus. It doesn’t really taste like a stronger version of Anchor Steam but is not also a complete surprise. It has a nice malty flavor, slightly toasty, and a noticeable hop bitterness. Although the hop bitterness is pronounced it is nicely balanced against the malt sweetness. The Imperial common is medium bodied with a smooth bitter taste and is more sweet than dry while not being boozy at all. I find this to be an enjoyable and well craft beer made with Northern Brewer hops and St. George Spirits whiskey barrels.

Sierra Nevada Weizenbock. This was quite a surprising special release beer from Sierra Nevada. This is by far one of the cloudiest beers I’ve experienced with a wonderful yellow-orange hue. The smell has a nice fruity fresh ripe bananas and rich maltiness and lacks cloves. It might have just a touch of vanilla, enhancing the banana-split-like smell. This beer is rich with flavor. It is malty with some grainy qualities accompanied by a hint of banana and a touch of lemon zest. The Perle hops in this beer give it a noticeable but smooth bitterness and some earthy notes. It is full bodied, nicely carbonated, tasty, and delicious.

Black Diamond Tenzing Imperial Porter. This  dark, rich, and delicious beer is named after Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa that climbed Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary.This beer has a lot of clarity but nearly opaque due to the dark brown color. The head is like chocolate milk. The predominant smell is that of a high quality dark chocolate bar which is, in part, likely due to the presence of vanilla and cocoa nibs in the beer. The flavor has chocolate but also has a rich roasty flavor with a hint of espresso. The mouthfeel is full bodied and this beer has a richness to it that in some ways makes it seem more like a stout.

Black Diamond Quadrupel. This is a high gravity ale that is dark amber in color with an off-white, tan head. It smells very malty and somewhat like molasses and just a bit fruity without much in the way Belgian yeast characteristics. The flavor was sweet, roasted malts, and just a little boozy. It is a full bodied beer which is a pleasure to drink.

Lagunitas Hairy Eyeball. This is a high gravity beer that is malty sweet balanced with spicy hops and quite drinkable for such a strong beer.

Drakes 1500 Pale Ale. This crystal clear amber-orange colored beer is quite a hoppy pale ale made. It is made with Simcoe and Amarillo hops which is quite apparent in the nose with notes of citrus, fresh grapefruit, pomelo, grass, and earth. The taste has a smooth bitterness and the grapefruit and pomelo flavors are present. It is not too bitter but the bitterness and the flavor of the hops dominates the maltiness. This is another great California hoppy pal ale.

Valley Brewing Bill Brand Brett. This sour beer is a tribute to the departed beer writer Bill Brand. It has a cloudy straw color and a sour ale aroma with just a nice hint of bready yeast. The sourness in the flavor is prevailing but combines well with a touch of sweetness from the malt. The sourness is fruity, not like vinegar, and quite refreshing. It is a medium bodied beer and quite drinkable for a sour ale.

Valley Brewing Pomegranate Saison. Valley has made a wonderful fruity, Belgian-style farmhouse ale with a nice orange amber hue. The flavor is a little sour and fruity with just the right amount of pomegranate flavor. The sweetness balances the sour for a pleasant drinkable medium-bodied beer.

Other notable beers that I tried were Gordon-Biersch Dampfbier, a German steam beer, Shmaltz Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah with 13% abv, 13 malts, 13 hops, Devil’s Canyon Bill Brand Brown, Thirsty Bear Winter Warmer, NapaSmith Lost Dog Red Ale, and Firestone Velvet Merkin.

On Saturday, November 14, 2009 we made a short journey to Hayward, California to attend the 4th Annual Barrel-Aged Beer Fest, which is organized by The Bistro. When we arrived, we encountered 65 wood barrel-aged beers from about 30 different breweries, all available for tasting form the souvenir tulip-shaped glass. The tasting was $40 and included said glass, a very detailed listing of the beers available, and 10 tasting tickets, additional tickets were available to $2 each but I didn’t need more.

This beer festival featured some of the most interesting beers, in a wide variety of “styles,” from breweries all across the nation, all with two common themes: wood barrel-aged and high alcohol content. Although most were West Coast based breweries other breweries from other parts of the country and the world were there, such as Avery (Colorado), Allagash (Maine), Dogfish Head (Delaware), and Rodenbach (Belgium).

The festival itself, on average, wasn’t terribly crowded. I only had a little bit of trouble getting around when I first arrived but within 20 minutes the number people around was manageable. The people attending the festival and serving the beer all were very interested in beer and all seemed to be enjoying the beer being sampled at this event.

There were no two beers that produced a similar tasting experience, each beer was very unique, interesting, and well crafted. This would be no surprise when inspecting the beer list and the details of each beer. The “styles” ranged from barleywine, imperial stout, Belgian-style strong dark ale, Scotch ale, doppelbock, Flemish red, IPA, fruit beers, and many were blends of everything in between or experimental styles crafted very well. I’m using “style” in quotes because it seems like by-the-book styles were thrown out the window in favor of creating something very interesting and delicious with a complexity of flavor and aroma. Next, the alcohol content by volume ranged from 6% at the lowest all the way up to 13% for the strongest, with the median being around 9%. On top of that, add the diversity of barrels used to age the beer: bourbon barrels from a variety of makers, wine barrels from various styles of wine, brandy barrels, neutral barrels, and toasted oak barrels. Finally, each beer was aged for different amounts of time with the shortest for 2 months and the longest for 2½ years.

With 65 very interesting beers available, it was difficult to figure out what to try so after my first beer I talked to one of the servers and I also ran into the future owners of 510 Brewing Company and Peter from BetterBeerBlog, all of whom had some great suggestions. The following are some brief notes about the beers that I tried at the event.

Interlude by Allagash. Aroma of green apples and a malty sweet flavor with a hint of sour. This 9.5% abv beer was aged in French Merlot and Syrah oak barrels for 12 months. It was fermented with a Belgian farmhouse yeast and Brettanomyces.

Voltron by Avery. Roasty, sour, rich, dark malty sweet aroma and flavor with some woody notes. Voltron is a blend of 5 different small-batch 12 month barrel-aged beers including 2 Chardonnary barrels, 2 Port barrels, and 1 Carbernet barrel. This beer was fermented to 9% by several strains of yeast: 2 Brettanomyces strains and several strains of lactobacillus and pediococcus.

Clobberskull by Bear Republic. Clove honey aroma and flavor. This 10.5% ale was made with 10% raw wheat and 10% split peas and aged for 100 days in Medium Toast French Oak Cabernet barrels.

Imperial Porter by Black Diamond. A medium bodied beer that reminded me of brownie chocolate and roasted coffee beans. This 9% beer was made with Scharffenberger chocolcate cacao nibs and vanilla beans and aged in Tenzing bourbon barrels.

Imperial Eclipse Stout 2008 by Fifty Fifty. This stout was like liquid dark chocolate with a a roasty nature like cacao nibs. A 2008 GABF bronze winner, this 9.5% abv beer was aged in Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon barrels for 1 year.

Cruisin’ with Ruben & the Bretts on Cherries by Lagunitas. Aroma and tasty of dark and sour cherries with a dark malty sweetness and a hint of dill spice. The was by far the strongest beer at the festival at 13%. The beer listing had the following description of this beer:

Ruben and the Jets was an Imperial Stout, yeast dropped and aged in stainless on Criollo Peruvian cacao nibs, then into [Heaven's Hill] Bourbon barrel for 6 months, Brettanomyces claussenii added to the barrel for 3 additional months, then Sonoma County cherries offered as a snack to the yeast for another 3 months.

Black Pearl by Maui Brewing. Roasty, coffee/espresso, woody, a little smoky, slightly malty sweet. A 6.5% abv beer that was aged in Jim Beam American Oak barrels.

Wet Hopsicle 2009 by Moylans. Hoppy, bitter, and a delightful experience of hops. At 9.2% abv, this beer was aaged in Girad Chardonnay Medium Toast French Oak.

Old Woody 2006 by Schooners Grille. Malty with an aroma of candied orange peels and a little bit boozy. This beer is 10.5% abv and was made with whiskey soaked oak chips and then added to a neutral oak cask.

Scotch on Scotch by Sierra Nevada. Had flavors and aromas of caramel, Almond Joy, and syrupy-malty Scotch ale.  Scotch on Scotch is 9.4% abv and was aged in Glengoyne Scotch barrels for 7 months.

From left to right in the picture above: me (David), Travis (510 Brewing Co.), Petter (BetterBeerBlog), Dean (510 Brewing Co.)

For another recap of this great beer festival read these blog posingst:

• BetterBeerBlog – 2009 4th Annual Barrel-Aged Beerfest Recap.
• K.M. Waever Hop Press – Tipsy Coverage of The Bistro’s Barrel Aged Festival 2009

]]> http://beer47.com/2009/11/the-bistro-2009-barrel-aged-beer-fest/feed/ 1 http://beer47.com/2009/03/sf-beer-week-recap-book-signing-and-beer-with-sam-calagione-of-dogfish-head/ http://beer47.com/2009/03/sf-beer-week-recap-book-signing-and-beer-with-sam-calagione-of-dogfish-head/#comments Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:00:51 +0000 David Jensen http://beer47.com/?p=202 For the third event that I attended for SF Beer Week I returned to City Beer Store on Sunday, February 8 for the book signing with Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head Brewery. I had ordered Extreme Brewing [Amazon] a few days prior (it arrived the day after the signing) and I also had been reading a lot about Sam and Dogfish Head but until this event I had never tried Dogfish Head beer. I was in for a treat.

I arrived about 20 minutes early to avoid the crowds that I experienced on the previous day and although many people eventually arrived it was not packed like sardines.

I started with 90 Minute IPA, a great double IPA. It has an extreme amount of malt, hops, and alcohol (9.0% abv).  It is pleasantly different from the west coast IPA’s in that the hop bouquet has less citrus and pine but a little more spice. It also has a great unique orange amber color.

Next, I tried Midas Touch, a beer that is based on ingredients from a 2700 year old Turkish fermented beverage found in the tomb of King Midas. It is sweet smelling and tasting but light bodied, which seems a bit paradoxical given that it contains 9% alcohol by volume. It is seems much lighter that a typical high gravity beer. It is unique and delicious.

Shortly after opening a bottle of Midas Touch, Sam Calagione arrived. Since I did not have my copy of Extreme Brewing, I picked up a copy of Brewing up a Business [Amazon] for him to sign. I had a few questions that I asked him such as how he decides what unique beers to brew and how to determine how much of a unique ingredient to use. He answer was simply that the influences were manifold but included culinary influences and knowing how much of an ingredient to use is based on experience. When I pressed him more on the ingredients he did divulge that sometimes they will soak the ingredient in hot water to make a tea out of it to see what it might be like.

After my breif interaction with Sam, I tried two more Dogfish Head beers. First I tried Chicory Stout, which is a dry stout that has an intense coffee flavor. This makes sense because the ingredients include: chicory, organic Mexican coffee, St. John’s Wort, and licorice root.

Finally, the last beer that I tried at this event was Palo Santo Marron. This is a brown ale with a huge 12% alcohol by volume but is so malty, nutty, and woody that it doesn’t seem like it. That is not to say that you don’t notice that it is a much stronger beer, it is just not in your face and does not detract from the experience. The uniqueness of this beer comes fromt he fact that it is brewed in a Palo Santo wood, a wood from Paraguay used in regional wine making.

According to these, and other brewers, beer from a can has advantages. First, the beer cans are lined so the beer never comes in contact with metal. Next, the beer is never exposed to the harmful effects of light. The beer can is supposedly a more airtight container preventing exposure to oxygen. Finally, the cans are lighter and you can take them where you cannot take bottles such as camping and golfing.

This event was a great opportunity to try canned beer from Oskar Blues from Colorado, 21st Amendment from San Francisco, and Uncommon Brewers from Santa Cruz. I tried a little bit of everything (except Dale’s and Brew Free or Die) and the beer was excellent. For all I knew, the beer could have been poured from a can or poured from draft. The following is a list of beer that was available in cans at this event:

• 21st Amendment
  • Watermelon Wheat
  • Brew Free or Die IPA
• Oskar Blues
  • Dale’s Pale Ale
  • Old Chub Scottish
  • Gordon Strong Ale
  • Ten Fidy Stout
• Uncommon Brewers
  • Siamese Twin

Siamese Twin is a wonderful Belgian-style double brewed with “exotic spices to enhance beer flavors,” which, according to the brewery, is a long tradition in Belgian brewing. A good example is Belgian witbier which includes coriander and orange peel. This beer, however, is brewed with Thai spices such as kaffir lime and lemongrass in addition to coriander. Being a double it had a high alcohol content by volume at 8.5%. I thought this beer was both interesting and delicious and lives up to the name “Uncommon.” Since I had some very hoppy and malty brews before this one, I had trouble finding the Thai spices but they are definitely there. I can’t wait to get some more cans so I can enjoy it with some home made Thai food and also write up a full review.

The Watermelon Wheat beer is interesting in that it smells a little bit like a vegetable but when you taste it the flavor is distinctly and deliciously watermelon. I always prefer to be able to taste the special ingredient than have it be so subtle you’re not sure it is there. This beer is made with 400 lbs. of watermelon per batch.

Old Chub, by Oskar Blues, is an acclaimed and award winning Scottish Ale having won a Gold Medal at the 2008 World Beer Championships. It is a deeply malty ale that is a wonderful representation of the Scottish ale style. It is roasty, sweet, hints of bittersweet chocolate, and slightly smoky from the beechwood-smoked grains. Old Chub also has a nice warming feeling from the 8% alcohol by volume. This beer definitely ranks among some of the best Scottish ales that I have tried.

Oskar Blues Gordon Beer is, according to the brewery, “a hybrid version of strong ale, somewhere between an Imperial Red and a Double IPA.” It is a great beer with an incredible citrus and fresh hop smell yet warms you up with 8.7% alcohol by volume. After the event I picked up a 4-pack of this beer so that I can review it in a later blog posting.

Finally, I tried my new favorite imperial stout, Ten Fidy also by Oskar Blues. What makes this beer imperial? The huge amount of flavor, malt, hops, and alcohol is what makes this an imperial beer. The alcohol content is 10% alcohol by volume but the malty sweetness both overshadows the alcohol flavor as well at the 98 IBUs of hops. The beer both smells and tastes like bittersweet chocolate cake and artisan roasted coffee. It is extraordinarily drinkable for being such a big beer. I purchased a 4-pack at the end of the event and will be doing a full review later. I also used a can of this wonderful beer to cook up a batch of beer brittle, which I will also blog about.

SF Beer Week was a 10 day celebration of craft beer that took place from February 6-16, 2009. The events were not only held in the original craft beer city of San Francisco but also throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz and everything in between. This year, 2009, was the first year in which this celebration was held. Judging by this and the three others events that I attended, SF Beer Week seemed like a success.

I kicked off my participation in SF Beer Week by attending the City Beer Store Bottle Tasting with AleSmith Brewing Company. City Beer Store is a great beer store and bar in San Francisco where you can buy beer to take home or you can drink it right there in the store. AleSmith Brewing Company was started in 1995 by Peter Zien, a hombrewer who “always wanted to own a brewery.” According to the website, AleSmith beers have won over 400 medals and honors. It also appears that most of the AleSmith employees are also homebrewers.

I arrived at City Beer store about an hour after the start of the event and discovered that they were at capacity and there was a wait to get in. We got our numbers and waited and after about 20 minutes they stopped giving out numbers altogether. Finally, after a 30 minute wait we were in. This small store was wall to wall people enjoying some great beer. In addition to all of their regular offerings at the store, for the price of the event tasting (I think it was $15) you received 5 tasting tickets and a small tasting glass.

The AleSmith beers that were offered on tap were: AleSmtih X, Wee Heavy, YuleSmith, and I believe Speedway Stout but the stout was all gone by the time we got into the event. I sampled each one, except for the stout, of course.

The AleSmith X is what they call an Extra Pale Ale and it had a very nice citrus hop bouquet.

I had two samples of the Wee Heavy, a Scotch ale that was very malty, sweet, complex, wonderful, and warm with 10% alcohol by volume. It is a great beer and I felt that two samples added up to enough beer to review it so keep an eye out for a review of this beer coming soon.

Finally, I had two samples of YuleSmith and this time I had it in a larger glass. YuleSmith is AleSmith’s holiday beer of which they have two versions, one for winter and one for summer. I had the winter version and it had great hop and malt  characterists and also had a nice warming sensation with 9.5% alcohol by volume. I wrote a more extensive review of this beer as well, which I will post soon.

After sampling these great beers I was feeling a little claustrophobic and ready to move on to the next SF Beer Week event at the Jug Shop where I would sample great beers from a can.