The San Francisco Brewers Guild has set the dates for the 11th edition of SF Beer Week: February 1st through 10th.
Category: Events (Page 1 of 2)
This year’s Latin American Craft Beer Cup (Copa Latinoamericana de Cervezas Artesanales, or Copa Latam) competition has been set to take place in Lima, from the 14th to the 20th of May.
The Copa Latam is a BJCP-sanctioned competition launched in 2014 through a collaboration between Peruvian craft brewers. The competition takes place concurrently with the Latin American Craft Brewers’ Conference.The first two events (2014 and 2016) were held in Lima, and last year’s was held in Cusco.
Last year’s competition included participating breweries from Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico, and, of course, Peru.
On February 10th, I attended Admiral Malting‘s “Open Malthouse Day”, hosted by Admiral’s founders, Ron Silberstein (of ThirstyBear Brewing) and Dave McLean (of Magnolia Brewing), as part of San Francisco Beer Week.
Guests were taken on thirty- to forty-minute behind-the-scenes of the malthouse, where we were able to learn about and observe the full production process. Both farmers and brewers were also on hand to experience the tour and to share their stories and speak about their experiences with Admiral’s malt.
Ron Silberstein, co-founder of Admiral Maltings, explains the malting process, accompanied by UC Davis biologist, Lynn Gallagher (at center), who developed the strain of barley used in Gallagher’s Best malt, and Bob Schaupp, a barley farmer, here enjoying his first glass of beer brewed from his crop.
Today, industrial malting is typically done in what is referred to as the “compartment process”, in which grain is passed through large, stainless-steel tanks able to accommodate tens, or even hundreds, of tons of grain. The grain is agitated with auger and aerated with large fans, as it passes through a series of alternating wet and dry stages, before being kilned.
Floor malting, on the other hand, is a more traditional, slower and more labor-intensive method, which is said to produce superior malt with deeper, richer flavor. Upon opening in July of last year in an old dry-goods storage facility on the former Alameda Naval Air Station, Admiral Maltings became the first commercial floor malting facility in California since before Prohibition, and California’s first maltster with a California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) certification.
On my tour Silberstein explained that the barley spends 38-42 hrs steeping in the hydration tanks, then 4-5 days germinating on the malting floor, before being sent into the drying kiln for 24 hrs.
The malt is then passed through another machine which removes the rootlets before it is bagged. A ton of rootlets are removed from each 10 ton batch of barley. With the addition to husks and other debris that is removed, there is a 20% loss, per weight, in the malting process, such that each 10-ton batch of barley results in 8 tons of finished malt. Currently, Admiral is approaching ten batches per month, but are looking into some material improvements which would enable them to attain fourteen batches per month.
With the Bay Area being a hub of the growing farm-to-table (or in this case, farm-to-glass) movement, the opportunity to avail themselves of locally-produced, small-batch, and certified organic, malt has generated a great deal of interest among local brewers. Enough so that Admiral has been able to outfit it’s own taproom exclusively serving beers brewed using its malts.
The tour ended with tastings of Admiral malts and of beers made with those malts, guided by the brewers who made them. On hand were brewers from Harmonic Brewing Co. (serving Prague Rock, made with Admiral Pils malt), Armistice Brewing Co. (serving Berthday Beer English Golden Ale, made with Feldblume malt), Social Kitchen & Brewery (serving California Grown Lager, made with Gallagher’s Best malt), and Independent Brewing Co. (serving Escaped the Island Blonde Ale, made with Maiden malt).
Eddie Gobbo, co-founder and head brewer of San Francisco’s Harmonic Brewing Company, talks bout his experience brewing with Admiral’s malts and leads a tasting of his Prague Rock Pilsner (brewed with Admiral Pils malt).
It’s February, and February in the Bay Area means SF Beer Week!
SF Beer Week is California’s premier beer festival. Over the course of a week it features hundreds of official beer-centered events (623 at last count for this year!) and dozens of unofficial and “warm up” events, throughout the nine Bay Area counties, and beyond.
This year’s Opening Gala –which officially opens Beer Week on February 9th– alone has more than 12o breweries confirmed to pour their best, most special, and rarest beers.
With this being it’s 10th anniversary, the organizers predict that this will be the most epic Beer Week thus far.
For full schedule of events click HERE or visit sfbeerweek.org
When I toured Anchor‘s brewery in mid-November, head brewer Mark Carpenter offered us guests samples of a still-experimental IPA that the brewery was considering as an addition to its line-up of beers. Well, those experiments have borne fruit and this month Anchor released its newest beer: Go West! IPA.
Go West! Launch Party
To mark the release of Go West! Anchor is holding a series of public release events at different venues throughout SF Beer Week. However, I was able to attend a special invitation-only launch party at the brewery itself on Thursday evening.
There I joined other guests in tasting Go West! as well as many of Anchor’s other beers, all flowing freely from the tap room and from draught stations set up throughout the brewhouse, along with hors d’oeuvres including cured meat and cheese pairings, beer ice cream, beer floats, and more. (I highly recommend making your float with Anchor Barrel Ale, by the way.)
The Beer
Ok. So, on to the beer itself…
Anchor’s own literature describes Go West! IPA as
“Made with 2-row pale barley malt and dry-hopped with a unique blend of American hops. Its mouthwateringly complex aromas of citrus, pine, and the tropics; spiky bitterness; gleaming golden color; and clean finish unite to create this singular 24-karat IPA.”
I found it to be very enjoyable, and somewhat unique for an American IPA, and particularly for a West Coast IPA.Of couse, being an IPA, it is hop-forward in flavour, but bucking the trend out here, it is not a palate-numbing hop bomb, and it doesn’t include Cascade hops. Instead, fruit and citrus flavours do stand out, but the beer is well balanced, and finishes really clean.
The fact that Go West! IPA is so balanced and not overly hoppy is a testament to the skill of Anchor’s brewers, particularly since –I was told– it includes the addition of 3 types of hops in the kettle and 4 more during fermentation. I can’t remember them all, but I do distinctly recall that Citra hops were one of the ones that went into dry-hopping.
Like I said, I really enjoyed Go West! IPA. I think that Anchor hit it out of the ball park with this beer!
As for the stats: Go West! clocks in at 6.7% ABV and 75 IBUs. I didn’t inquire about its SRM.
