Scenes from SF Beer Week 2020 Preview Event Featuring Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Coast Breweries

Andrea and I had the good fortune of attending a second SF Beer Week preview event, this time featuring a number of San Francisco, Coast and Silicon Valley breweries.

We arrived a bit early, which gave us enough time to check out nearby Cityscape Bar & Lounge, the tallest skybar in San Francisco, offering 360° views.

The views were stunning.

The preview took place at Urban Tavern.

I started with Fog Roller Double IPA, poured by Aaron Hottenstein, assistant director of food and beverage for Hilton San Francisco Union Square.

The beer, very aptly named, was a project spearheaded by Aaron and is brewed by Gilman Brewing Co. specifically for Cityscape.

Collaboration beer labels representing the five regions of the Bay Area Brewers Guild – Coast, North Bay, East Bay, Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

San Francisco’s Bartlett Hall events coordinator Boe Geis and head brewer Nick Mamere.

It’s ‘Sheltering Tree Day’ at Bartlett on Saturday, Feb. 8 with the release of Sheltering Dingoes a limited Australian Galaxy and Enigma-hopped variant of house favorite Sheltering Tree IPA. One dollar of every pint of the entire batch of Sheltering Dingoes sold at the brewery will go to WIRES, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organization.

Humble Sea Brewing Co.‘s Nick Sanchez.

Humble Sea Brewing Co. cofounder Frank Scott Krueger.

Based in Santa Cruz, Humble Sea is participating in a number of events throughout the Bay Area during SF Beer Week.

Fruition Brewing founders Tallula Preston and David Purgason.

Fruition Brewing, located in Watsonville, is one of the Bay Area’s newer breweries.

Look for Olallieberry Double Snack and Plueberry Double Snack Blended Sour Ales to be released on Sunday, Feb. 9.

San Francisco’s Barebottle Brew Co. co-founder Lester Koga.

I asked Lester about the Barebottle Santa Clara location. He said he was just there earlier in the day installing the taps. He also shared that training would start soon and that their opening is imminent, within a week or two. He is confident of an opening in time for SF Beer Week.

In addition to their many beer week events, Barebottle is set for the following beer releases:

• Super Wonder Dust Double IPA
• Doom Bloom Triple IPA with Cactus Fruit
• Socola Imperial Truffle Stout, collaboration with Socola Chocolatiers
• Visible Haze Double IPA, collaboration with Harmonic Brewing
• Torcido Mexican Lager, 2019 GABF gold medal winner
• Grand Tiki Imperial Kettle Sour with Passionfruit, Pink Guava and Lime
• Strata Fliip West Coast IPA, collaboration with Riip Beer Co.

San Jose’s Lazy Duck Brewing co-founder Mike Rayzman.

Lazy Duck will host their ‘Sunday Sours & Stouts in SJ’ event on Sunday, Feb. 16.

The San Jose brewery contingent – Strike Brewing Co. taproom manager Cody Bishop and Mike.

Strike Brewing Co. operations manager Alayna Mills and Cody.

Strike will be busy releasing a number of beers:

• Triple beer release: Bourbon Barrel Aged Big Wall Imperial Stout, Moonshot Hazy Double IPA and Off-Speed Imperial Pale Lager
• Variants of DH Barleywine, including 2018, Bourbon Barrel Aged, 2019 and 2019 Vanilla
• Grapefruit Seltzermetrics Hard Seltzer
• Special Sour Releases, including Weird Uncle Chuck

San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales & Lagers brewer Zach Farwell and Caleb Velez.

A part of beer week for Speakeasy will be the release of their Blind Tiger Triple IPA.

San Francisco’s ThirstyBear general manager Tim Mullins and head brewer Brenden Dobel.

ThirstyBear always features a number of special, food-related events during beer week. Also featured will be house-crafted beer cocktails and a vintage bottle menu of select library beers from their Stave (barrel-aged) Series and Cellar (Barley Wine) Series.

San Francisco’s Woods Beer & Wine Co. winemaker Kyle Jeffrey.

Just some of the special releases from Woods during SF Beer Week:

• Pride Barrel Fermented Pilsner with white wine lees
• Greed Tiramisu Pastry Stout
• Lust Passionfruit Smoothie Sour
• Envy Chocolate Fizz Hard Seltzer
• Gluttony 500 Calorie Mango Lassi Milkshake IPA
• Wrath Chili Pepper Enobeer Saison
• Sloth Raw Kveik Fermented Beer
• Orange Wine and Orange Enobeer
• Islay IPA Double IPA with Nugget and Azacca hops matured in Laphroaig barrels
• Double-Sided Scotch Ale with California malted rye matured in Laphroaig barrels

San Francisco’s Black Hammer Brewing operations, brand and product manager Cody Laxo.

Black Hammer’s beer week lineup:

• Black Hops Series – Hopped Seltzers with a variety of hops
• Black Claw Series – Rosemary & Meyer Lemon Hard Seltzer and Watermelon & Basil Hard Seltzer
• Gluten-Reduced Nector of Life Kolsch
• Gluten-Reduced Total Perspective Vortex IPA
• Sour Series – Apricot Berliner Weisse, Lemon Meringue Kettle Sour, Brain Lazer Sour IPA Blend and ImPeachMint Gose

 

Once again, our thanks go to the Bay Area Brewers Guild and to the breweries I got the chance to chat with. Thank you, also, to Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Urban Tavern, Visit Santa Rosa, Barretto-co and The Printed Image.

Cheers! Prost! Gunbae!

~Andy