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.

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Bison Brewing is a small brewery, headquartered out of Berkeley, California that brews USDA certified organic beer and sells it to 12 states (as of writing). The history of the brewery was a little turbulent but the excellence of their product has prevailed as exemplified by beers such as Chocolate Stout, Honey Basil Ale, and, the beer we’re focusing on today, Gingerbread Ale.

Bison describes Gingerbread Ale on their website and on the bottle as follows:

Our Spiced holiday porter is brewed with ginger, nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon, yielding the aroma of fresh backed gingerbread men! The chewy dark malt flavors are sure to smooth out that dinner with the in-laws.

Date Reviewed. December 13, 2009

Where I Found It. City Beer Store in San Francisco.

Serving Type. Bottle to pint glass.

Appearance. Bison Gingerbread Ale is deep dark brown, nearly black, and opaque. You can see a little light through the corners of the glass, which gives the beer a deep dark red-brown glow. The head is cola-fizz color. Poured about 0.75 inch of head which did not last long. However, a nice thin layer of foam remained throughout consumption.

Smell. This beer has wonderful holiday spice bouquet of ginger and cinnamon and maybe some nutmeg. It also has the perception of cloves, even though cloves are not listed an ingredient. The spices do not overwhelm and contribute to a good balance of beer and spice. It also has a hint of brown sugar and a nice roasty malt aroma. The roasted and black malts contribute the a hint of coffee aroma.

Taste. Gingerbread Ale is balanced and not excessively sweet. It has a toasty and roasty malt taste with a dark sugar flavor lacking the bitterness of molasses. The dry sugar flavor combines well with the ginger and cinnamon to have just enough spice without being overwhelming. The spice is more subtle in the taste than the smell, which is good thing. This beer tastes better at cellar temperatures than ice cold.

Mouthfeel. Medium-light bodied and nicely carbonated. Like many porters this one has a ever so slightly chalky mouthfeel that smooths out at a warmer temperature.

Drinkability. As a holiday beer this is very tasty and, despite being a spiced beer, I could drink two of these in one session. This beer is great to sip and savor slowly.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 4.0
• Smell (20%): 4.5
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 3.5
• Drinkability (10%): 4.0
• Overall: 4.05

Information

• Style: herb spice beer
• Brewery: Bison Brewery
• Alcohol by volume: 6.0%
• Original Gravity: 1.054
• Final Gravity: 1.009 (calculated)
• Bitterness: 21 IBU
• Malts: (all organic) 2-row, caramel, chocolate, roast barley, black
• Other ingredients: (all organic) ginger, nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon
• Beer Advocate rating: 3.6 (as of December 26, 2009).

Other Reviews

• Drink with the Wench – Gingerbread Ale & Butternut Squash Soup
• Mike Loves Beer – Bison Organic Gingerbread Ale
  
• Brewed for Thought – Beer of the Week: Bison Brewing Gingerbread Ale
• Daily Beer Review – Gingerbread Ale
• Beer Advocate – Bison Organic Gingerbread Ale