San Francisco Brewers Guild Executive Director Joan Marino addressing the crowd |
SMASH Citra IPA from Black Sands - The SMASH series from Black Sands stands for "Single Malt and Single Hop" and Black Sands has no fewer than six of these SMASH series beers ready for SF Beer Week. As for SMASH Citra, it uses Weyermann Pilsner Malt to create a platform for the Citra hops to do its grapefruity, lightly resinous thing. The simplicity and restraint, at only 64 ibu's and 5.9% abv, works to this brews advantage.
Dark Bullitt Imperial Porter from Bartlett Hall - Brewmaster Wynn Whisenhunt described this beer as chocolate coffee milkshake beer. Thankfully, Dark Bullitt didn't taste like a chocolate coffee milkshake beer. Instead of the horrible syrupy sweet mess one might expect with that introduction, what I got instead was a dynamite combination of coffee, dark chocolate, vanilla beans and lactose sugar giving it a surprising light, complex, dark chocolate and milky coffee quality with very little sweetness. At 8.8% abv, it hides its alcohol well and all the strong flavors find a way to meld comfortably together to all pop without becoming too intense. A real pleasure to drink.
Lightship Sour Solera from Headlands Brewing - Headlands Brewmast Phil Cutti takes his GABF Medal winning Point Bonita Pilsner, ages it in Cabernet barrels, and then adds various bugs to sour the brew, transforming it into something lively, lightly sour and surprisingly fruity despite no actual fruit additions. At 5.4% abv, it's an almost sessionable sour and a rare sour you can enjoy without thinking too hard about it....or enjoy by thinking real hard about it.
Park Hoppy Wheat Beer from Fort Point Beer - Wheat beers and hops is a tricky combination, and Fort Point really pulls it off with Park. A smattering of Citra hops creates an extra grapefruit dimension to the underlying wheat beer, producing a rather refreshing and at 4.7% abv, very sessionable brew.
A big part of SF Beer Week is discovery. Here's to your discovery of these beers, or those just as good, during SF Beer Week.
Our favourite one my spouse and I regularly enjoy with friends.There is always a terrific range of brewskies available.
ReplyDelete