Tag: usa

In the blink of an eye, it was the last day of SF Beer Week.

The previous nine days were pretty much a beer-induced whirlwind. We drank lots of beer, attended our first Pliny the Younger release, first Double IPA Festival, Toronado Barleywine Festival and a host of other events. Of course we can’t forget the sausages, cupcakes, cheese and ice cream that accompanied all that beer. But we still had one more day to go.

Sunday, Valentine’s Day, was going to be a relaxed, low-key affair. In the wake of Barleywine, Sunday was a day for mellow beer drinking and meeting friends to compare Beer Week stories and scars. Merideth and I began our day at 21st Amendment for Sunday Brewers Tea.

We arrived about half past eleven. Sausages were grilling in the side beer garden and a small crowd mingled about. Inside, we grabbed a seat in the bar area and ordered our first beers of the day.

Well, I ordered a beer. Merideth was going it slow and ordered a Mead Mimosa. I, however, went straight for Hop Crisis, 21A’s 10.3% ABV Strong Beer Month hopbomb. Hop Crisis is my favorite 21A brew.

Gone was the hustle and bustle of the previous nine days. It seemed almost like any other Sunday. Merideth and I chatted with friends at the bar and others as they filtered in and out from the beer garden. We reminisced about that wild first night and feeling like crap the next day. We talked about DIPA, Barleywine and beer ice cream. After the constant on-the-go feeling of SF Beer Week, it was all very relaxing. We could have spent all day there. But we needed to get over to the East Bay to be part of the setup crew for the Celebrator party.

Our SF Beer Week concluded at Trumer Brauerei, the site of this year’s Celebrator party. Moved from the Oakland Convention Center, we were happy about the new venue for  a couple of reasons. First, we always felt the Convention Center was really impersonal. We had fond memories of the 1998 Celebrator party at Pyramid and the sprawling Convention Center could never duplicate that feeling.

More important, this was an opportunity to add Trumer to  the “List“. Despite it being easily located in Berkeley, we had never visited, mainly because of inconvenient tour hours. This would be our one and only new brewery during SF Beer Week.

As we are apt to do, we arrived early for our volunteer duties and got right to work. Our setup duties were typical; move a table, get some ice, direct a brewery over there. We were even entrusted with handing out the VIP wrist bands. When the festival started, I helped out at the front gate while Merideth handled the ‘merch’ table. Within 45 minutes of the opening bell, I was free to mingle and try some beers.

The most important beer to have was Trumer Pils so we could add Trumer to the List. While Merideth was still on merch duties, I snuck my sample. For a few minutes I was one brewery ahead of her again. Happy Valentine’s Day Sweetie! But once she discovered what I had done, she abandoned her post to get her own share of Trumer Pils. And just like that, the balance was restored.

Not really in the hunt and seek mode, I wandered around trying beers that caught my fancy. Valley Brewing had their Bill Brandbic, one of my favorite brews of Beer Week. I had to get some of that! Hoppy brews were plentiful and I enjoyed Russian River’s Pliny the Elder and Triple Rock’s IPAX. And in what has become a Valentine’s Day tradition, I had some Russian River Rejection.

The big question of the day was whether Russian River would bring Pliny the Younger. Apparently, this was the query of the first dozen people who walked up to their table. An industrious pair, the Russian River guys made a ‘Sorry no Younger’ sign from one of their “Gone to Pee’ beer mats. The beer geeks had to settle for Pliny the Elder and Rejection. Later big bottles of Consecration and Supplication were opened. Oh, the horror.

By the way, I am now accepting bids for the ‘Sorry No Younger’ beer mat. It is a one of kind beer collectible.

Once Merideth was released from merch duty,we were free to mingle and talk with friends. More Beer Week war stories were exchanged. We reunited with our Alaskan friends one last time for this Beer Week and plotted our return to Anchorage in January 2011.

With an hour to go in the party, it was time to think about wrapping up our day. A few more beers and another walk around to say our good byes was how our 2010 SF Beer Week concluded.

Beer Week was ten days of great beer and hanging out with good friends. We were tired and happy it was over. Time now to start resting up for the 2011 SF Beer Week.

It’s early Saturday morning the first post-SF Beer Week weekend. You’d think I’d be resting and recuperating, which I am, but I also couldn’t wait to report on a great SF Beer Week event I had the good fortune to participate in. I’ve been thinking about writing this post all week, but alas, work got in the way. So, I’m taking a brief moment out of book writing to bring you this.

Gail Williams, one half of the informative www.beerbybart.com, organized the Cheers to Women in Beer event at Beer Revolution in Oakland. Advertised guests included Moylan’s Brewmaster Denise Jones and Grand Master Beer Judge and Zymurgy panelist Beth Zangari. It all came together nicely in our second-half Beer Week schedule, as I wanted to support Gail, show my solidarity with other girl beer geeks, and visit the brand new Beer Revolution.

We ran into Gail earlier that morning while she waited in line for Toronado’s Barleywine Festival. She told me then that she planned on me being a “special surprise guest” at the Cheers to Women in Beer event. I thought she was joking and laughed at the idea. When I realized she was serious, my next thought, and I think I actually said it, was “Oh, couldn’t get anyone else, huh?” I was flattered and liked the idea of taking part, I just wasn’t sure how much of a “surprise guest” I would turn out to be.

Together with our friends J.J. and Scott, we traveled to Downtown Oakland. I took an immediate liking to Beer Revolution. The location, the deck out front, and of course the beer selection. For having only been open for a week, Fraggle and Rebecca seemed to have everything under control.

After a bit of socializing, Gail got the show going. We raised our glasses to women in beer and Denise took the floor. Standing tall on a milk crate, she talked about entering the brewing world at a time when women in the beer industry were few and far between. She is a brewer who has stood the test of time. Not because she happens to be female, but because she is a damn fine brewer. Period.

Beth climbed up on the crate next and talked about beer judging. Again, a woman who entered a facet of the beer universe when few female judges existed. As a Grand Master Beer Judge, she earned her lofty position because her palate and skill are top notch, not because she is female.

As the third speaker and surprise guest, Gail introduced me. I was incredibly humbled by following two highly notable female forerunners in the industry. How, exactly, did I fit into this scene, I wondered. But when I stood atop the crate and started to speak, I realized that the three of us represented the variety of contributions women have made to the beer industry. I may not have the patience of a Brewmaster or the sensitive palate of a Grand Master Beer Judge, but I contributed by encouraging all people, not only hardcore beer geeks, to find their own beer experiences. This realization undoubtedly sprang from being in an establishment called Beer Revolution drinking what Beth called the “drink of the people.”

After me, the average age of the women who shared their own beer herstories dropped by 15 years or more. As they spoke I felt proud to be of the slightly older group. I haven’t always blogged, but my interest in craft beer extends back to the young days of the movement. A time when women certainly weren’t expected to know about beer and in fact it was assumed women didn’t know anything about it.

Today there is a growing number of young women who blog about beer, brew beer at home, and are honing their judging skills. They aspire to be authors, world renown beer travelers, Brewmasters, and Grand Master Beer Judges. While I feel that women have moved beyond needing affirmative action in the beer world, on this day I  honored the women that set the stage for me, recognized my personal contribution to the beer community, and took pride in the next generation of women in beer.

My heartfelt thanks to Gail for organizing the event and including me.