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Bringing you the Alpha and Omega Sessions

Friday, April 26th, 2013

“Foolish consistency is the hob goblin of little minds.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alpha Session is different this year.

Hold the phone. Don’t fret. We haven’t abandoned the Alpha Session you loved before. Let us explain what we mean here.

Each year the hop crops are different in varying degrees. Rainfall fluctuates; temperatures differ; one field’s aromas can diverge from the next of the same hop; and hop growers are always introducing new varieties into the mix. Last year’s CTZ can be great, but this year’s may not be anything to write home about. It’s natural.

“Hops are a changing agricultural product; a hop can vary from one year to the next; and there are always new varieties coming out,” explains Drake’s Head Brewer John Gillooly. “Our seasonals are the place where we get to really dig in with the best hops in our supply in a given year.”

Now, don’t get us wrong, we’re not just going to decide that EKGs (English hops, East Kent Goldings) are great this year and stick them in Alpha Session. We keep in mind the flavor profiles of the previous batches. We just don’t fill compelled to use the exact same recipe.

As Gillooly puts it, “We are not constrained to make these beers consistently the same recipe, but to make them consistently awesome.”

John Gillooly (left) and Brewer Chris Dunstan examine hops for Alpha Session.

Alpha Session this year will have the bright, citric American hop profile with the slight dank, pine edge that characterizes our NorCal bitter. We are using a large addition of Citra in the whirlpool and a heavy-handed dry hop with Simcoe for the slight dank, pine character loved by West Coast hop heads; El Dorado for juicy citrus and lemony flavors; and Experimental Hop 01210, which stood out amongst new hops for its pleasant floral, pine, and citrus peel aromas. How did we choose these hops? They were the best for the job.

Alpha Session, 3.8% ABV, 50 IBUs, will release on draft at Drake’s Barrel House (and at the Boonville Beer Festival) on Saturday, May 4, and this year (another change) they will be packaged in 4-packs of 12oz bottles available shortly thereafter.

Oh, but we’re not done with the good news here. We didn’t stop the Session brewing with Alpha Session alone. Starting this year brewers in the Bay Area and beyond have declared that May is Session Beer Month, and we are getting into the spirit with Alpha and its dark twin.

Omega Session will be an under 4% ABV dark, American hopped, session beer (session CDA, perhaps?) available at the Barrel House and on draft in the Bay Area. Omega Session features a brooding, dark malt character and a dank, herbaceous hop tone with prominent Mosaic and Simcoe hops (both great this year).

So stop by in May the Fourth for a pint or several of our light and dark side, appreciate our attention to the hops, and walk in a straight line home. Cheers.

 

 

**Want to know more about Session Beer Month?**

Follow on Twitter: @SessionBeerMay

OR

Like on Facebook: facebook.com/SessionBeerMonth

AND

Mark your calendar for the 1st Annual NorCal Session Fest hosted at Drake’s on May 25th featuring Session Beers (craft brews under 5% ABV, and preferably under 4.5%ABV) from around California. The fest will benefit the East Bay Bike Coalition. More details to come.

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Posted in beer, Beer Fests, Brewers, Brewery, craft beer, Drake's Brewing, Drake's Staff, Release, Seasonal | No Comments »

Drake’s Joins Strong Beer Month

Friday, January 18th, 2013

Just in case SF Beer Week isn’t enough for you, our friends at 21st Amendment and Magnolia have declared every February for the past decade plus to be Strong Beer Month.  Not ones to miss a party, we sent lead brewer Alexandra Nowell westward to 2nd & De Boom to collaborate with 21A’s Shaun O’Sullivan on an Imperial IPA sure to hold its own against the rest of what Strong Beer Month has to offer. Then on the brew day January 5, the Drake’s crew (including John Martin, Packaging Supervisor (and former 21A brewer) Mike Pawlicki, Marketing Director Kelsey Williams, and Sales Manager Dow Tunis) came out in force to lend a hand (or drink and supervise) as the brew commenced.

Nelson, Jade, and Helga, which was brewed Saturday, January 5 at 21st Amendment, will be a Triple IPA made with 2-row, caramalt, rye, chocolate malt, and a little roasted barley, along with a combination of New Zealand (Nelson Sauvin & Pacific Jade) and American hops (Centennial & Amarillo) set to hit 10.5% ABV.

The concept of this beer harkens back to a cask Alex made for the Aroma Coma and Aroma Prieta release on July 28th of 2012. Alex had decided to do a yin and yang sort of thing, adding NZ hops to a cask of Aroma Coma US-hopped IPA, and some US Chinook hops to a cask of Aroma Prieta NZ-hopped IPA.

Anyone who experienced the latter cask on that day can attest to its brilliance. It had all the elegant, aromatic gooseberry, lemon, tropical fruit experiences of the Nelson Sauvin, Pacific Jade, and Motueka hops with an added sturdy backbone of pine-woodsy aromas from the Chinook. It was a tremendous cask. Those who received it were lucky bastards indeed. So, Alex brought the idea to Shaun, and together they came up with the final Drake’s Collaboration submission to the strong beer month lineup at 21A.

“Expect an incredible hop aroma with a firm malt backbone, but the hops are gonna be the showcase here,” said Shaun during the brew day.
“It will have notes of tangerine, gooseberries, and muscat grapes from the NZ hops with the pine and citrus US hop backing,” added Alex.

Don’t know about you guys, but it sounds like its gonna be pretty damn good to us. The beer will be released on Friday, February 1st at 21st Amendment alongside a lineup of five other beers over 8.5% ABV at the pub and 6 other strong offerings at Magnolia. If you manage to try all 12 beers within the month, you will receive your own Strong Beer Month glass to commemorate your staunchness in the face of delicious, liver-crushing dangers. Drink Drake’s and Godspeed.

Enjoy Pics from the Brew Day below.


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Drake’s Goes to Yakima- Alex’s Hop Selection

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

*Post by Alexandra Nowell, Drake’s Lead Brewer*

It’s one of my favorite times of the year to be a brewer.  The 2012 American harvest hops are beginning to arrive at Drake’s, and being the hop-forward brewery that we are, fresh hops and new varieties are exciting!  This year, I got to travel to Yakima Valley in Central Washington to hand select all of our American grown hops and make sure we get exactly the aromas and flavors we want from each variety.

The Yakima Valley is the largest hop growing region in the United States, 2nd largest in the world, and home to the growers who are leading the innovation of new hop varieties.  Imagine farm after farm, both large and small, with rows of hops as far as the eye can see, where during harvest time almost everywhere you go smells like hops. This is the Yakima Valley.  Basically, I got to spend a few days running around like a kid in a candy store.

Hop Selection
How hop selection works: You set up an appointment with your hop vendor (we buy our hops from multiple sources, so in this case, I had more than one appointment to attend).  When you arrive at the selection location, you are led into a room with a large table.  Then selection begins.  For each hop variety, anywhere from 2 to 10 different brewers cuts of whole hops representing a hop grown in a different location, are placed in front of you.  This is when you tear into the cut, rub the cones between your hands and deeply inhale the aromatics of the hop, analyzing and deciding whether this is the lot you want or if you want to smell the next one in line… or both.  With certain lots, you know immediately whether or not it’s up to your standard, but some are so close to the other that you want to smell each of them 3 or 4 times before making a decision.  Once you figure out which lot you want, the next variety and a new set of brewers cuts appear and you start the process over again.  We selected 9 varieties of hops this year, and all lots were of amazingly high quality, making some of my selections incredibly difficult. But that’s not exactly a bad problem to have, is it?

The Harvest
If you are not familiar with how hops are grown and harvested, allow me to introduce you to the process.  The hop plant, Humulus lupulus, is planted in the early spring.  It emerges from the ground as a vine and trained to grow up on vertical trellises.  The hop cone, which is the only part of the plant used in the brewing process, develops on the vine and continues to grow and mature throughout the growing season until harvest time, which usually begins towards the end of the summer and continues for several weeks.  The hops are picked from their vines at their peak of maturity and immediately sent to large kilns to be dried in a manner that doesn’t compromise the delicate essential oils that brewers value so highly.  Afterwards, the dried hops are baled and either sent off to be stored in freezers until they can be processed into hop pellets or sent off to breweries that use hops in whole form.

Hop Farm Visits
While the work in the small selection rooms was the main cause of my visit to Yakima, I also wanted to take the opportunity to see the farms and meet the farmers that would be supplying our hops.

I had the pleasure to spend a day at CLS Farms while they were harvesting Chinook (which just happens to be one of my favorite hop varieties).  The air was thick with dank hop aroma, and from where I stood, I could watch truck after truck roll up to the pickers, packed to the brim with vines of Chinook.  I spent a lot of my day in educational seminars about the state of the hop industry, but I also had plenty of time to wander the fields, pickers, and kilns.  Hops as far as the eye could see. It was a happy day.

Also on the itinerary was a trip to BT Loftus Ranch, one of the larger Yakima hop growers, where I was given a tour by 4th generation hop farmer, Patrick Smith.  They were harvesting Ahtanum that day and had just finished drying the new hop, Mosaic (sidenote: I am stoked for this hop – wait and see what we do with it next year).

Loftus Ranch has one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen – a small experimental hop yard.  A few vines of this, a few vines of that, some familiar names and hops that you just don’t see anymore, but many of them are known only by a number.  This is the part of the tour when I get really excited.  Knowing my interest in new and exciting hop varieties, Patrick takes me to hops that smell of pineapple, coconut,  vanilla, mango, papaya, sweet pine forests, and more.  Amazing!

Patrick Smith smells the hops at BT Loftus Ranch.

After my trip had concluded, I was left with a lingering feeling of how awesome and crucial it was to be able to connect with the growers and the environment of such a personally important brewing ingredient.  My first hop selection is an experience I will never forget.

That’s about it kind drinkers of Drake’s.  We’re excited about this year’s hop harvest, which means you should be too!  Beers with 2012 harvest hops are already starting to roll out of the brewery, so drink up.

Cheers,

Alex


 

 

 

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Four Years of Change with John and Roy

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

John Martin (left) and Roy Kirkorian (right)- beer guys.

This Saturday marks the anniversary of what has been a huge milestone in the growth of our humble brewery. Four years ago on November 3rd, John Martin and Roy Kirkorian walked into the Drake’s Brewery as the new owners. There they found a 19-year-old boil kettle, thirteen 15 barrel fermenters, one driver, and two brewers who were putting out just under 1000 barrels per year of some of the best brews in the Bay Area.

It was the beer that drove them; both John and Roy knew the potential that Drake’s had with each taste of the beers. The small brewery just needed the extra push and investment to grow, and it certainly has.

In 2008, Drake’s was brewing 2-3 times per week and producing just under 1000 barrels (1 barrel= 31 gallons = 2 standard American kegs) of beer per year. Now, we are brewing 4-5 times per day, running a 24 hour daily schedule Sunday-Thursday, and aiming to brew approximately 13,000 barrels of beer by the end of 2012 (20,000 barrels for 2013).

The old shrink wrap label.

IPA's new look.

The brewery has expanded to fill the entire 6,100 square foot space with three 80 barrel fermenters, seven 60 barrel fermenters, four 30 barrel fermenters, seven 20 barrel fermenters, six 15 barrel fermenters, a new 20 barrel boil kettle and brewdeck, and a brand new 16-head bottling line. The cold-storage, barrel-aging program, admin offices, and tasting room were moved into the building next to the brewery, and new storage space was acquired. Drake’s now inhabits 22,000 square feet in San Leandro. The only pieces of equipment that still live in their original spaces are the silo, mill, and mashtun.

In June 2011, we opened Drake’s Barrel House Retail Store and Taproom beside the barrels of aging beer where we have the ability to showcase up to 22 beers on tap including a rotating selection of our small batch barrel-aged beers.

With all the growing, the work load has increased to accomodate over 32 full and part time employees, all of whom have a deep and abiding love of great beer.

It’s been a thrilling 4 years for Drake’s, and we have no doubt as to what has made it possible for us. It’s the fans of the beer, our proponents in the streets looking for our beers on the shelves, talking us up to their local barkeep, and watching out for our latest releases. So, to give back to your guys on Saturday, come by the Barrel House for “one on John and Roy.” A free 4oz taster of your choice and a free glass of our latest seasonal Exxpedition Imperial Red Ale on cask (while the cask lasts). Cheers to many more years, and many many more beers!

Click on the pics below for larger views of our changes over the past 4 years.


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Drake’s at GABF 2012

Friday, August 31st, 2012

We are closing in on our deadline of August 31st to get our brews on the wagon headed toward the 2012 Great American Beer Festival for the festing and the judging. To meet this deadline we needed to have all of our GABF entry beers brewed and ready to go by the end of this week.
Our smallest batch at Drake’s is 15bbls, so once all the requisite kegs and cases for Denver are filled, we will have a little extra. So, for our loyal fans in our neck of the woods in the next few weeks you will be seeing some specialty brews from us made specifically for GABF. Here’s the list of our GABF entries, starting with the one-offs.

1. Drake’s Occu-Rye- 6.1%, 32 IBUs- a light amber rye ale redolent of spicy, herbaceous flavors and aromas with a light toasted malt character and a clean spicy rye finish. Created and brewed by our Cellar Master John Gillooly, this is the one beer that he says he’s been chasing his entire brewing career. We think he nailed it.

Subverting dominant Barley Grain privilege, Drake’s Occu-Rye demands equal status for long oppressed Rye grain. Further, we have ended the patriarchal dominance of Craft Brewers who insist on hiding Rye’s light under a bushel (of hops) by presenting a beer brewed with an eye-watering amount of Rye. Barley Dominance Must Die! Hella Hella Occu-Rye!

2. Scorched Earth- 10.2% ABV- Beech smoked Imperial stout. **

Last January we got together with Beer Revolution co-owner Fraggle to brew a specialty beer for the Oakland Beer Bar’s 2nd Anniversary. Given the Beer Revolutionaries’ penchant for German Rauschbiers and smoked beers of all types, we made Moscow’s Burning smoked Imperial Stout- a delicious lightly smoked, rich dark imperial stout. We found it to be pretty delicious, so when it came time to decide on a couple special ideas for our GABF entries we thought that a slightly smokier version would be right on target. Moscow’s Burned, so now we have Scorched Earth.

OTHER ENTRANTS
3. Barrel House Sour- Light Belgian ale aged in used French oak red wine barrels, and inoculated with a blend of brettanomyces and lactobacillus. Category: 24A; Wood and Barrel Aged Sour Beer; ABV 6.5% **
4. 1500- dry-hopped American Pale Ale; ABV- 5.5% **
5. Aroma Coma- double-dry-hopped American IPA; Category: 52; American IPA; ABV- 6.75% **
6. Denogginizer- Imperial IPA; Category 53; Imperial India Pale Ale; ABV- 9.75 **
7. Drake’s Gold Ale; Category 46; English Summer Ale; ABV 5.2%
8. Drake’s IPA; Category 51; American Style Strong Pale Ale; ABV 7%
9. Drake’s Amber; Category 58B; Extra Special Bitter
10. Black Robusto Porter; Category 75; Robust Porter; ABV 6.3%

** Indicates beers that will be judged and poured at GABF.

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Teamwork Wins the Game

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012

If we had to name the common ground that every single person on the crew shares, there’s no doubt that it would be an intense fascination with the process of making craft beer, tasting it, and sharing it with others.

Kelsey's manning the camera as Alex pulls from a wine barrel

Today, we got members of the whole crew involved round the brewery in various tasks. Early on in the day, Lead Brewer Alex grabbed the wine thief tool to check on the sour barrels with tasting and barrel climbing help from our Community Manager Kelsey. Then, Barrel House Manager Gabbi and DBH Bartender Antonio ascended the catwalk to help John Gillooly dry hop a 60 bbl batch of IPA. Afterwards, Tony went behind the mashtun to give Chris Dunstan a hand in graining out today’s batch of Hefe.

Having earned the brewer/kinda for a day badges. It was then time for a toast at the Barrel House for a job well done. Teamwork kids. That’s what’s up. Cheers.

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Feelin’ New Zealand

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Alex and Vince had a good time mashing in.

There’s a guest brewer in the house today, and I don’t think we could have picked a better brew day for him to join. Vincent Hine, former brewer at Hallertau Brewbar, a 12 hectoliter (~10 bbl) brewpub in Auckland New Zealand joined Alex on the brew deck.

We first met Vince last November at a local beer festival here in San Francisco, and have been hatching plans to have him in for a brew day ever since. So, when Vince showed up this Saturday for the Aroma Coma and Aroma Prieta release, one of those little Eureka lightbulbs popped up over our heads… bring  him in for the next Aroma Prieta brew.

Yes, that’s correct. More of our newest seasonal, Aroma Prieta double-dry-hopped IPA with New Zealand hops is hitting the tanks today.

We know what you’re thinking…  ”That’s Awesome! But why didn’t you just brew more in the first place?”

There’s a pretty fascinating answer for that, but the short version is: We didn’t get all of our New Zealand hops in time for the first brew. Due to the growing popularity of New Zealand’s hop varieties and their long harvest season, all the hops we planned to use didn’t quite make it to San Leandro in time for the first brew of Prieta.

According to Vince, their particular aromas and flavors of tropical fruit, lemon, citrus, and gooseberries have caught the attention of brewers both domestically, where they have traditionally relied more on Noble and English varieties, as well as in American craft breweries.

“From what I’ve seen of the hop fields, it’s still a very small production, but expanding. I don’t know if they are expanding at the rate of popularity,” Vince explained.

Still, despite initial setbacks, we are currently brewing up more Aroma Prieta today, which according to our in-house expert of the day, is “balanced with nice Motueka (lemon, citrus) and Nelson Sauvin (lemon, gooseberries, and sometimes green bell pepper) character.”

Thanks Vince for hanging out, helping us with the brew, and giving us some first hand insight into New Zealand hops.

For those still seeking Prieta, we currently have a few cases of bottles left here at the Barrel House, and the next batch should be available in a couple of weeks, though we’ve not decided how much will become bottles and how much will be draft. In the meantime, have an Aroma Coma. Cheers.


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2012 Craft Brewer’s Conference- i.e. the Best Industry Family Reunion

Monday, May 7th, 2012

We had an incredible time at the Craft Brewers Conference this year. Thanks to the Brewers Association for putting it on. So, many incredible brewers and friends were there. Now we’re back and more ready than ever to get back to brewing beer, but first here are a few highlights.

1. CBC Opening Gala at the San Diego Zoo- While the animals we ran into were for the most part human… this was a great start to the festivities.

2. Drake’s and Triple Rock Night at Small Bar- was great to get out into the town and meet some local San Diego Drake’s fans alongside our sister brewery, Triple Rock. Anyone who met us that night, please come visit us here in San Leandro anytime.

3. All the Glorious Beer- Every night the Tiki Bar was filled with 137 different, awesome beers from all over the country (and possibly the world) It was so great to be able to sample some things we had never had alongside the brewers that made them.

Thanks to all the folks at the Brewer’s Association for putting on, once again, one of the highlights of our year. For a gallery of more pictures from the night, check out our Facebook page here. 

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Farewell Brian Thorson

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

It’s a sad day today, here at the brewery. With each passing minute we come just a little closer to the end of our time with our Head Brewer Brian Thorson.

Seems a little unreal that after today we won’t see him around: climbing atop barrels, stroking his wizard beard for inspiration, or willingly giving his time to help guide any interested person in learning more about making great beer.  Over the nearly five years Brian has been at Drake’s, he has been not only an exceptional brewer, helping to create some of our most loved brews, but a great friend as well. There’s no doubt; we’re gonna miss the guy.

Where’s he headed? Get excited Midwest folks, Brian says he and his family will be leaving the Bay Area for the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. There he will join Thomas (Tommy) Nicely (formerly of Half Acre Brewing) as the Head Brewing team for a brand new production brewery slated to open this year, Perrin Brewing Company. Brian says they will begin by brewing a handful of regular styles year-round and eventually build a Barrel Aging program.

So, we suppose that while we are sad to see him go, there is a silver lining worth mentioning: We will still get to drink beers made by this great brewer… We just may have to travel a bit further to get them. So, to paraphrase a little Henry David Thoreau for our craft beer world:

Nothing makes the world seem so delicious as to have great brewer friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

Good Luck Brian. You’ll be missed.



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SF Beer Week 2012- Twas Epic- Our Highlights

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

This year’s Beer Week was by all accounts the most phenomenal showing by breweries and attendees across the Bay Area in the week-long event’s history (we would know, we were there). With something along the lines of 300 events throughout the tumultuous ten days, Bay Area beer lovers smelled, sipped, paired, guzzled and enjoyed craft beer in every way imaginable, and many many of them did it all with us.

We did a staggering 22 events from food pairings to pig roasts to good ole beer fests and blind tasting competitions, and it was pretty excellent to see several of our fans at more than a few of our events.

As we couldn’t possibly cover the vast amount of excellent things that happened throughout the week without spending far too much time on this blog post (still have beer to brew…), here are a few of the highlights as we saw them from Monday on.

Monday: Beer and Cheese Pairing at Mission Cheese. This tiny cheese shop helped us pair 5 beers with 5 cheeses, and the results were so delicious that we must share said pairings for your own cheese & beer adventures to come.

Pawlet (cow’s milk) with 1500 dry-hopped Pale Ale.
Aged Tomme with Hopocalypse DIPA.
Ocooch with Dire Straits 2012 Barleywine.
Classico Goat Cheese with Drake’s Amber.
Windemere Cheese (known as the Bacon of cheeses) with Moscow’s Burning Smoked Imperial Stout.

 

 

 

ALSO on Monday: We again participated in the Annual Barclay’s Pub Battle of the Bays with our 1500 and Hopocalypse battling it out in taste duals with foes from the other side of the Bay. For the second year in a row we emerged the big winners. 1500 won the American Pale Ale category; Hopocalypse won the double IPA category; the East Bay took the most votes over the West Bay; and we took home the most votes overall, along with this sweet trophy to adorn the Barrel House.

 

 

 

Brewer Alex with our guest of honor

Wednesday: Our Sau & Brau Part Deux, whole hog pig roast was for the second year in a row a huge success. Our friends at Chop Bar in Oakland showed up early to start the two whole pigs roasting away, and come 6pm most folks were waiting just outside the Barrel House for their pig and beer fix.

Gabbi was excited to tap the special Drakonic firkin.

 

 

 

This year we had the added bonus of over 22 beers on tap (up from 6-7 beers from the first year) for attendees including both the Hopocalypse DIPA,  Hopocalypse Black Label TIPA, our Barrel-Aged Festival Award winner Brette Davis Eyes, The Good Sh*t Barleywine blend, a specialty firkin of Drakonic Imperial Stout with Blue Bottle Espresso and TCHO chocolate nibs added to name a few. We also had our Barrel House decked out with plenty of room for folks to hang out, drink up and pig out. Another cool addition this year was the inclusion of the piano and drum duo “Bangin’ and Clangin‘” who provided just the right tunes to go with the high spirits of the night. Really really can’t wait to do this night again next year.

The Full Meal. Om Nom Nom.

Everyone was lovin' it. Great folks, great pig, great beer.

Jacob and Kirby from Bangin' and Clangin' are awesome.

Drake's Brewer Chris Dunstan, Triple Rock Head Brewer (and former Drake's Brewer) Jeff Kimpe, and Buffalo Bill's Head Brewer (and former Drake's Brewer) Mike Manty.

Thursday: Somehow we ended up all over the Bay Area on this night. Folks enjoyed some barrel-aged beers alongside tasty spirits at Bloodhound in SOMA in San Francisco. Brewer Alex joined a host of other Bay Area brewers at the Cal Academy of Sciences for their SF Beer Week Nightlife which brought out over 2600 people (whoa). On this side of the bay, Head Brewer Brian did our meet the brewer segment at Beer Revolution, and was joined by owners John Martin and Roy Kirkorian as well as our sales rep Dow with a hefty list of cool beers including a few barrel-aged beauties. Finally, we joined our brother breweries Triple Rock and Jupiter at the first ever East Bay BrewFest at Pyramid in Berkeley for a night of East Bay craft beer love.

 

Lots of people came out to get a rare taste of the Jack & Jolly.

Friday: The Return of Jack & Jolly, our Jack Daniels Barrel-aged Jolly Rodger, for another round. Three kegs only were tapped simultaneously at 6pm in three different locations throughout the Bay Area including our own Drake’s Barrel House, The Page Bar in SF, and Iron Springs Brewery in Fairfax. This year’s version was our 2009 Jolly Rodger Imperial Brown Ale aged in Jack Daniels barrels- malty and smooth with flavors of mild smoke, tobacco and a hint of tang from the sour mash whiskey engrained in the barrel. Complex and completely satisfying.

Also on Friday, we were once again entered into a beer battle at Barclay’s Pub in Oakland for their IPA challenge. We faced off against other Bay Area hoppy offerings in a blind-tasting, and again, we took the top prize. You like us, you really like us. Thanks!

Brian hung out and tried some Poppy Jasper from El Toro Brewing Co out of Morgan Hill, CA.

Saturday: While we grilled and chilled here at the Barrel House with Bourbon Bros. BBQ and Fists of Flour pizza, Brian headed south to meet some folks in the South Bay for the 3rd annual Meet the Brewer event at the Tied House/Hermitage. We don’t make it down to the South Bay too often yet, so it was cool to see a bunch of new faces and brewers. Added plus, the 5 food trucks at the brewery were dang tasty.

 

 

 

Drake's, Triple Rock and Jupiter set up together for Celebrator.

 

 

Sunday: As no highlight reel of SF Beer Week would be complete without mentioning the closing event, we must applaud the folks at Trumer Brauerei and Celebrator Beer News for once again pulling off a closing fest that exceeded expectations all around. Road weary and beer soaked from the week, we pulled into Trumer on Sunday afternoon, but it did not take long for us to perk up. A great line-up of Bay Area brewers came out once again with some incredible beers to send off SF Beer Week right. Also, those beer donuts were just incredible (with Trumer Pils cream inside… mmm).

Yeah...

And so it ended with a bang and not a whimper, and after a brief Presidents’ Day of rest (for most of us… Alex and Chris still brewed all day yesterday), we are back to business. In fact, today we did a big tank move in which a 60 bbl bright tank and a 60 bbl fermenter headed over to the new cellar via crane.

Also, Sacramento folks, if this post made you jealous, no worries, Sac Beer Week kicks off Thursday, and we will have events all week with some of our northern neighbors. Cheers.

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Posted in Barrel House, beer, Beer Fests, Brewers, Brewery, craft beer, Drake's Brewing, Drake's Staff, Event, food and beer pairing, Jolly Rodger, San Francisco Beer Week, Sau and Brau, SF Beer Week, SFBW | 1 Comment »

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