SFBeerWeek Mid-Week Recap

It is Wednesday. I’ve made it half way through SFBeerWeek. Life is good. Having a handful of events under my belt, I can say that this year has been great so far, even with the hiccups and annoyances that have transpired. The one thing that has been immediately obvious since the Gala on Friday, is that there are a ton of beer enthusiasts in this city. Which brings us to hiccup number one. My girlfriend and I arrived at the Yuerba Buena Center about fifteen minutes before the doors were to open. The line wrapped down the stairs and onto the sidewalk. Within minutes, the line grew to around the corner. Soon thereafter, the announcement came that the event was at capacity. At capacity? There was a mob of people outside–good standing citizens who purchased tickets to the event, and we were not going to get inside? Event coordinators marched up and down the line asking if there were any VIP ticket holders in line, because they would apparently be allowed in. Then came the grumbling from the line. “Did you hear what they did with Groupon?” Several members in line proceeded to explain that SFBeerWeek sold pre-sale tickets to the event at two price points: VIP ($65) and Early Bird General ($45). Several weeks later, they allowed a deal with groupon to offer VIP tickets for $55. So essentially, there was an event filled with people who purchased their tickets after the pre-salers, and the pre-salers were stuck out in the cold. After several outbursts from the line, another event coordinator came outside to tell us that the fire Marshall had deemed it too crowded, but that there were actually two rooms. They were trying to shuffle the people from the main room to the secondary room in order to allow more people inside. She mentioned that Yuerba Buena had given them a number for capacity (for which they based ticket sales off of), but that this number did not jive with the Fire Marshall. The cold line shuffle was a slow process, but my girlfriend and I finally got in about an hour later.

Inside, our bitterness faded with the first sips of beer. There was a bluegrass band playing in the corner, and forty or so brewery tables wrapped the walls or formed a circle in the middle. I won’t go through a review of everything we tried, but here are the beers that we deemed at least 3-out of-5 stars worthy:

• High Water Hop Riot IPA
• Lagunitas Fusion Beer Week Beer
• Sierra Nevada Grand Cru (30th Anniversary)
• Iron Springs Black Rye and Double Pale
• Triple Rock 7-fifty
• 21st Amendment 21rock
• Firestone Walker Robust Porter and Oatmeal Stout
• Moonlight IPA
• Rubicon IPA
• Anchor Old Foghorn
• Marin White Knuckle

The Best of Show, in my opinion, was the Fusion Beer Week Beer from Lagunitas. Man was that an awesome beer! Made with Pale Malt and Toasted Wheat, and weighing in at 9.25% ABV, apparently 280 IBUs, and dry-hopped with 4 lbs of Citra per barrel.

Russian River was tapped out by the time we made it to their table. There were also some disasters being served up that tasted like canned corn, or were heavy on diactyl, but I won’t mention who they were. We also started to notice that some people were using plastic cups, because the event had run out of commemorative glassware to hand out.

As we were leaving the venue, en route to the Toronado for the Ninkasi event, we quickly realized that there were still people waiting in line. This was deeply troubling, and we later found out that some ticket holders did not get in at all. Ugh.

When we arrived at the Toronado, the event had not yet begun, and it was fairly crowded. The friends we were meeting had moved next door to the Noc Noc, so we joined them for a pint, and then called it a night.

Saturday did not exist.

Sunday arrived with new vigor. After a game of tennis, we met up with some friends at Chile Pies & Ice Cream for Beer and Ice Cream Floats. We all tried the Bison Organic Chocolate Stout with Chocolate Ice Cream, and I have to say it was better than I thought it would be. From there, we walked to 9th and Irving for the Breweries of Tomorrow Nanobrewery Festival at the Social Kitchen and Brewery. Again, we arrived around fifteen minutes early, and found ourselves about thirty people back from the start of the line. By the time they begun letting people inside, the line was massive. I was okay with it though, since this was a ticket-less first come first serve event. Inside, we met several friendly people, had great conversations about beer, and tasted some excellent brews. My favorites were probably Clara Street’s Black IPA, Clara Street’s Black Lager, and Elizabeth Street’s Chocolate Milk. I was surprised that many of the Nanobreweries didn’t bring a Beer of Tomorrow. Most stayed with the strict and popular styles of today. One brewery, 510, did serve a Pepperment beer that was undrinkable to me, but I give them props for trying something out of the box. All in all, it was great to see Social Kitchen and Brewery supporting home brewers who are striving to become nanobrewers. As we left, once again there was a line of people still trying to get in.

Monday was Valentine’s Day.

On Tuesday, I headed out after work to Zeitgeist for the Bear Republic Event. I had time for one beer before I needed to meet my girlfriend at Pi Bar, so I chose their Cafe Racer DIPA. A nice example of a west coast balanced double ipa. We got to Pi Bar early enough to grab a table and order some Pie. It was Deschutes Brewery night, and we ordered up a Hop Henge and a Black Butte XXI. The Black Butte XXI was an explosion of malt flavors from caramel, to coffee, to roast, in the form of an almost molasses viscosity–enjoyable but I couldn’t drink much more than the short pour. One of the Deschutes Brewers, Brian, sat down next to us and we struck up a conversation. The brewery seems like a great place to work, with good people. Brian was pleasant and passionate about his craft, and he invited me to stop in and say hi the next time I was in Bend. He tracked down a sample of Dissident for me, and I was blown away by it. Such subtle Lactobacillus and Brettanomyces qualities with a great aroma and perfectly layered malt profile. I love that beer. We finished up with a Red Chair and a Abyss.

We left Pi Bar feeling very satisfied, and walked down Valencia Street to Heart, who was having a Firkin mini-fest. They had around seven firkins (casks) pouring, and we chose the Linden Street “Black and Blue”, which was a traditional schwarzbier with Blue Bottle coffee, and Stillwater’s Existent, a Black Saison. I enjoyed the Saison, and would make the comparison to it being the black ipa of the saison world with very little roast, and just enough dark malt to add color. The blackness didn’t diminish from the ethereal Saison spice characteristics. On the other hand, I did not care for the Black and Blue. This beer tastes like a strong shot of espresso, burning your face off.

And that brings us to today…