SF Beer Week 2018 Opening Gala Beer Festival

SF Beer Week 2018 kicked off last Friday with the Opening Gala beer festival and it was very clear that I should write about it for #BeerSaturday this week so that you all could vicariously experience a small taste of this wonderful event. This will be a long read with notes from 17 different beers but I'm sure you'll find it worth the the time and quite mouthwatering.

The Opening Gala is a massive beer festival featuring breweries from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Breweries from the following counties participated: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. This amounted to over 120 breweries serving hundreds of beers at Pier 35 in San Francisco’s Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood.

One of the highlights of this event was the collaboration beers. Each year the SF Brewers Guild has a collaboration beer or two for SF Beer Week, which is featured at the Gala. However, this year to celebrate 10 years of SF Beer Week, 10 collaboration were debuted at the Gala. The collaboration beers represent breweries from various parts of the Bay Area and San Francisco and will continue to be available for a limited time during SF Beer Week and after. You can find out more information about these 10 collaboration beers on the SF Beer Week website.

In addition to great beer there was great food available from various San Francisco and Bay Area based restaurants and food trucks. Since it was National Pizza Day, I ended the festival with a delicious, fresh baked Del Popolo pizza. It was definitely worth the wait in line.

The Beer

It’s impossible to sample all of the beer at such a beer festival but I was able to try a few and here are the beers I sampled with my 5-word tasting notes.

Pliny the Younger by Russian River Brewing Company

Triple IPA, 10.25% abv

This “whale” of a beer is famously elusive and is only available 1 week per year, and that happens to be during SF Beer Week. I always stop at Russian River first.

Notes: Tropical, grapefruit, pine, grassy, smooth.

Heart’s Delight (Apricots) by Santa Clara Valley Brewing

American Wild Ale (Sour), 5.5% abv

After Russian River we spotted Peter from SCVBC and he poured us a delicious sample of their apricot sour.

Notes: Tart, apricot, funky, delicious, fruity.

Lost In the Fog by Half Moon Bay Brewing

Milkshake IPA, 6.8% abv

I had to try at least one milkshake IPA at the festival and I heard this one was good. It has blackberries and vanilla and was really tasty. It’s also a collaboration with Hop Dogma Brewing Co.

Notes: Hoppy, blackberries, vanilla, lightly sweet.

Bourbon Vanilla Latte Vastness of Space (2018) by Cellarmaker Brewing Company

Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout, 11.5% abv

The name of this beer says it all

Notes: Bourbon, coffee, vanilla, fudge, roasty.

Bayview Haze: SF Beer Week Collaboration #5

Hazy IPA, 7.1% abv

This is a hazy IPA made with pomegranate and is collaboration between Barebottle BRewing, Ferment.Drink.Repeat, HolyCraft Brewery, Laughing Monk Brewing Co., San Francisco Brewing Co., and Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery. Each brewery made it’s own version. It’s so close to a Milkshake IPA, why not just call it what it is? It is quite delicious whatever it’s called.

Notes: Hazy, pomegranate, sweet, citrus peel.

Outlaw Bound by The Rare Barrel

Sour Ale, 6.1% abv

The Rare Barrel makes amazing sour beers and these two were no exception. Outlaw Bound is aged in oak barrels with prickly pear cactus and lime peel.

Notes: Lime peel, tart, fruity, smooth.

Ensorcelled by The Rare Barrel

Sour Ale, 6.2% abv

Ensorcelled is an award winning dark sour beer aged in oak barrels with raspberries.

Notes: Tart, raspberries, dark, oak, amazing.

Locally Grown SF Beer Week Collaboration #3

India Pale Lager, 6.4% abv

This IPL (India Pale Lager) was brewed at Hermitage Brewing in San Jose. It is made with local crowd-sourced citrus: oranges, tangerines and grapefruits.

Notes: Malty, citrus, clean, refreshing, yum.

Bourbon Barrel-Aged Sutro Tower Stout by Local Brewing Co.

Stout, 7.1% abv

Local Brewing has a great barrel program and this beer was delicious.

Notes: Roasty, chocolate, bourbon, vanilla, coffee.

Local Lagerita by Local Brewing Co.

Lager, 7% abv

This is Local’s lager aged in tequila barrels with lime. I lost my notes for this one but it was quite amazing. From recollection, it had nice lime notes, some agave qualities from the tequila barrel, and s nice soft texture.

Brewbies Oceanside 2018 by Oakland United Beerworks

Pale Ale, 7% abv

Brewbies is a beer festival in Oceanside that raises money for breast cancer awareness. This beer was brewed for that event. It is a pale ale made with blood orange and pomegranate.

Notes: Blood orange, pomegranate, pale ale.

Framboos Op Eiken by Uncommon Brewers

Belgian Blonde Ale, 7.6% abv

This is a barrel-aged Belgian-style blonde ale made with raspberries.

Notes: Sour, somewhat funky, berry, dry.

Coral Isle — Plum Saison by Black Sands

Fruit Saison, 5.4% abv

This is an “unfiltered and hazy slightly tart saison base with 100 lbs of fresh in season black plums added to the tank.”

Notes: Plums, slightly tart, dry, excellent.

Bretta Weisse by Firestone Walker Brewing

Sour — Berliner Weisse, 4.9%

Inspired by Berlinerweisse style beers, Bretta Weisse was aged 1700 gal French Oak horizontal foeders for 8 months.

Roggen Bräu by Blue Oak Brewing Company

Vienna Lager, 4.5% abv

This Vienna-style lager is brewed with 20% Rye.

Notes: Biscuit, wheat, rye, clean, delicious.

Pedal To the People by Alameda Island Brewing Company

Stout, 13% abv

This is a collaboration with Bicycle Coffee and is a is a barrel aged Imperial Coffee Stout Porter.

Notes: oak, coffee, roasty, chocolate, boozy

Hopocalypse Green Label by Drake’s Brewing Company

Double IPA, 9.3%

Notes: Dank, hoppy, malty, sweet, bitter.