Brews on the Bay 2011: Peace through Beer and Mutual Hatred

There was a feel good San Francisco vibe for those who boarded the good ship Jeramiah O'Brien this September 1oth for the Brews on the Bay festival. The festival is held annually by the San Francisco Brewers Guild on the Jeramiah O'Brien, a World War II era ship docked near San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, providing fantastic views of the San Francisco Bay from it's decks. There isn't a better spot for quaffing some of the finest beers the San Francisco brewing community has to offer.

And there was plenty of great beers to chose from. Perhaps since this festival has been condensed from a two-day to single day event, all the breweries had much larger selections than they have in years past. And it was nice to see Anchor Brewing show up this year. Kudos to Magnolia Pub for rolling out plenty of interesting session beers. Double IPAs and Imperial-styles seem to dominate festivals, but their skillfully brewed milds, bitters, and Kolsch session brews were a breath of fresh air. The worst beers were OK, and the overwhelming majority were good to great. But then, one of the best things about San Francisco is that its breweries always deliver great beer.


And it was a pretty chummy brewing community on the ship, with plenty of brewers hanging out at other brewer's pouring stations chatting away and sampling each other's beer. In fact, this feel good vibe was so infectious I actually had a pleasant conversation with not one, not two, but actually three graduates of the University of Michigan, including craft beer blogger and SF Brewer's Guild social media whiz Brian Stechschulte. This may not seem like a big deal, but as a graduate of The Ohio State University, we're usually more comfortable spewing hatred towards other. That's just the way it is.

Of course, a certain bond is created through rivalry, a respect gained by understanding just how deeply the other side disrespects you. There is a certain release in the controlled bloodlust of the game, but once it is over, most of us realize it is just a game and we're all just people. If we could only overcome our fears and take this same approach over matters like race, religion and sexual orientation.

So as we reflect on ten years after September 11th on the consequences and challenges of hate, I'll give the last word to the Dalai Lama, who said:

“We need to learn from our painful memories of September 11th and become more aware of the destructive consequences that arise when we give in to feelings of hatred. This tragedy in particular has reinforced my belief that fostering a spirit of peaceful co-existence and mutual understanding among the world’s peoples and faith traditions is an urgent matter of importance to us all. We must therefore make every effort to ensure that our various faith traditions contribute to build a more caring, peaceful world.”

Sensory Overload at The Toronado Barley Wine Festival

With the Beer Run over, I wanted to catch some of the action at the Barley Wine Festival being held at the The Toronado. Of course, there was no place to shower before heading over there, but I was able to dry myself off a little and change clothes in my car so I didn't smell too funky. Of course, if you're put off by a little body odor, you're probably not setting foot inside The Toronado.

Not wanting to go in on an empty stomach, I first stopped at Memphis Minnie's , which is located just across the street from The Toronado. How good is the barbecue there? Well, let me put it this way. When barbecue aficionado's from Red States like Texas, Missouri, and Tennessee rave about a place smack dab in the middle of Nancy Pelosi's district, you know it's pretty damn good. Since there was no seating available inside, I figured I'd just sit outside on the sidewalk and enjoy my pulled pork sandwich with collard greens. Memphis Minnie's deliberately avoids drowning their meat in barbecue sauce, a common mistake of lesser establishments. Memphis Minnie's knows how to smoke dead animals to perfection, and are happy to show off their skills without any sauce getting in the way, even though their peppery red and mustard sauces are as good as any you'll find.

With that taken care of, it was time to head across the street. I figured the crowd would be small on a Saturday afternoon. In relative terms, that was certainly true as I could just walk into the place, without waiting in the long lines that ran for nearly a block which would develop later in the day. That said, The Toronado was pretty packed inside for the Barley Wine Festival.

The Barley Wine Festival is held over the last weekend of SF Beer Week, and over 40 different Barley Wines are served and judged, with the winners announced Saturday evening. The judging does not actually take place at The Toronado, but next door at Noc Noc, since beer judges are a bit of a sensitive breed, and when contemplating the nuances and subtle differences of barley wines, generally do not believe a loud bar, crammed fall of people, with punk rock blaring out of the speakers is a particularly good place to do this.

I joined the polite rugby scrum around the bar and made my way towards the front at a speed of roughly one inch per minute. At the epicenter behind the bar was a well built man with a white muscle shirt showing off his brightly colored tattoos covering his arms and torso, and a woman with thick rimmed glasses who could pass for a school teacher, gliding around behind the bar filling everyone's orders. After making it to the front in about 30 minutes, I shout out my selections to the woman in the thick rimmed glasses, ordering two barley wines to avoid having to get fight my way through the rugby scrum again. She hands over my selections and I find a less crowded area, near the front where I have a grand total of six inches of personal space.

Barley wine is a style I definitely enjoy in its many forms, although I notice many brewers, especially on the West Coast, using hefty doses of hops, going for big flavors, but often creating something I find a bit harsh and almost painfully astringent. That was the unfortunate case of my first selection, which I simply didn't like very much for that reason. My second choice, Pizza Port's Farley Barley Wine, aged in bourbon barrels, was way more to my liking. The bourbon barrel aging gave it a smooth, very easy drinking character with vanilla and bourbon notes with a slight woodiness in the background. It was just very enjoyable and the hefty 13% abv is barely detectable.

Standing there sipping the barley wines all by myself, it was fun looking at all the beer memorabilia and reading all the beer bumper stickers plastered to the walls. Several times I was inadvertently jostled by others trying to get their barley wine fix, and was asked about five times "How do you order in here?" as if there could be possibly any order to the chaos. It was all very stimulating at first with all the noise, pungent tastes and aromas of the barley wines, taking in all the sights, and constant brushing contact with those around me, but after about an hour of this, my senses were pretty maxed out, and with barley wines consumed, I had about enough. Maybe I'm just getting too old, but needed to seek the refuge of Haight Street.

I made my way back to Magnolia and ordered their Let It Rauch! Smoked Strong Ale. One of the many things I love about craft beer is that even after tasting hundreds of beers from so many creative brewers, there are still plenty of beers that make me sit up and say "Wow!". This was definitely one of them. Lightly smokey and sweet, very smooth drinking with some background flavor like rum or butterscotch I struggled to identify, it was just a joy to drink.

Craft beer is part discovery, and whether participating in a small informal event like the Beer Run, the intensity of The Toronado Barley Wine Festival, or just a quiet moment at Magnolia, it had definitely been an afternoon of discovery.

San Francisco Beer Week Beer Run: And we have lift off.....

A couple weeks ago, I get this e-mail from Brian Yaeger who tells me of his plans with Philadelphia beer blogger Bryan Kolesar of Brewlounge to organize a beer run during San Francisco Beer Week, and asking me what I thought about it. I tend to initially react to things in "worst case scenario" mode, and my initial reaction is the thought of hundreds of runners clogging the streets of San Francisco and somebody getting hit by a car. After further and more rational contemplation, it seemed like the worst thing that could possibly happen is that just the three of us would show up. That seemed pretty good, so told Brian to count me in. After hashing out plans over e-mail between San Francisco, San Jose, and Philadelphia for a few days, lo and behold, we put together a little three mile fun run that started and finished at Magnolia Pub and Brewery on Saturday, February 13th, with the course running around the Golden Gate Park pan handle, and the into Golden Gate park itself, with the turn-around point at the Conservatory of Flowers.
Now the question was, with announcements on the San Francisco Beer Week website, Brewlounge, this blog, and some grass roots marketing by Brian Yaeger just a week before the run, who was going to show up? As the days passed by, a couple RSVP's trickled in, giving us confidence that we wouldn't be doing this all by ourselves. Unfortunately, the huge Mid-Atlantic blizzard that week grounded so many flights that Bryan Kolesar simply couldn't make it to San Francisco Beer Week at all.

So I'm standing on the corner of Masonic and Haight in front of Magnolia about ten minutes before the 11 am start, and look around for anyone else who looks like they're there for the run. A couple minutes later, this guy in a green Singha Beer T-shirt and baggy shorts comes bounding down Haight Street. I figure its Brian Yaeger, and as he gets closer, I see his socks are pulled up nearly to his knees and have the word "BEER" on them, and there's no further doubt that it's Brian.

My craft beer epiphany started less than three years ago, and the geographical nature of craft beer was one of it attractions. So reading Brian's entertaining book, Red, White and Brew about his road trip to explore breweries all over the United States was a milestone on my craft beer journey, and it was indeed a privilege to meet him. We shook hands and Brian shows me the bottle caps with the words "Beer Run" on the underside to serve as tokens to get a discounted pint at Magnolia. Magnolia Head Brewmaster Dave McClean graciously helped support the run, since Dave certainly didn't need any further distractions like a bunch of sweaty runners further clogging up the packed brunch crowd with a busy brewpub to manage.

By the 11 am starting time we're joined by five others from the surrounding neighborhood: Calvin, Trey, Nicole, Devin and Sophie. (If I got a name wrong or left someone out, sorry, and don't hesitate to correct me here.) So how did it go? Well, seven people who were mostly strangers became less of strangers. We all got our recommended 30 minutes of daily exercise. And at the end, we all got to support one of our local brewers. Brian quietly bought beers for everyone, so the run was good for his Karma. And the spirit of Bryan Kolesar was with us as he wouldn't let a little snow stop him from doing his own beer run. The Beer Run turned out to be one of those small events that make the world a little better place.

The San Francisco Beer Week video crew happened to be at Magnolia when we finished, and were quite intrigued by the concept of beer run as a San Francisco Beer Week event. They shot a brief video interviewing Brian and myself. I'm glad Brian did most of the talking, since he's clearly a natural and articulate speaker, and I barely had the foggiest idea of what to say when put on the spot like that. Inside Magnolia, we met Chris and Merideth of The Beer Geek , who were also pretty interested in the concept of a beer run, and told us they'd like to participate next year, even with little or no prior running experience. At the end, Brian and I figured we probably get 40-50 people for a SF Beer Week Beer Run with a just few more weeks of advance preparation and promotion, as the Beer Run idea clearly resonates with the craft brewing community. Even for a runner like myself who enjoys craft beer, I couldn't help asking myself why.

There's the obvious connection that beer is simply great to drink after a run, since it cools you down, and provides well needed hydration and carbohydrates. A Wine Run, Whisky Run, or Cocktail Run seems rather contrived, and quite frankly, a bit ridiculous. A Beer Run just seems natural for some reason. But I think there is a deeper connection between beer and running, which has to do with the egalitarian nature of both the sport and the beverage.

One of my favorite running quotes is from an old Nike commercial: "There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open." Virtually all running clubs and races are open to anyone young or old, big or small, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, origin or talent. The stop watch never plays favorites, and running is an affordable activity to all but the very lowest income levels.

The worlds finest beers are still an affordable luxury to most, and beer has a long history as the People's Beverage. Whether used as payment to workers building The Pyramids, or used as an equalizer to help ease the racial tensions in the high profile Beer Summit, beer has a long history of shedding elitism and breaking class barriers, bringing wide cross sections of society together. I find it interesting that a good pair of running shoes, running shorts, socks, and a T-shirt costs about the same as the typical home brew starter kit.

Well, enough attempts at deep thoughts for one day. I'm already getting hyped for next year's SF Beer Week's Beer Run!

Peace, Love, Beer and Barbecue in Haight-Asbury

I must admit to being a bit of a tourist whenever I go up to San Francisco, having moved to San Jose from Detroit nine years ago. Linda and I try to take a day off from work once a month for a little exploring, and often we spend it in San Francisco. We've been talking about going to the Haight-Asbury neighborhood for sometime now, and yesterday we finally went. I had never been there, and was eager to see the neighborhood, a focal point of the 60's counter-culture revolution, that gave the world Janis Joplin's powerful soul, as well as The Grateful Dead's tedious banality.

As I suspected, Haight-Asbury is a good place to buy stuff like Tibetan crafts, Buddha statues, Jerry Garcia t-shirts, and ornate glass bongs. But I wasn't there for that. I was there for the beer at Magnolia Pub & Brewery.

We walk in and they're playing what seemed to be a 60's-era recording of Bob Dylan in concert, a promising sign. We take our seat at one of the large, black booths, and as it is our first time here, order a couple of their tasting flights. The menu looked interesting, but besides a couple of luscious cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, we didn't order any of the food. Here's a brief run-down on the notes we took of the beers.


Kalifornia Kolsch
One of our favorite beers of the afternoon led off the flight. It's hazy yellow brew, with a strong peppery flavor and we also noted some notes of lemon. Despite the strong flavors, has a feathery lightness to it. Really nice.

Half Step Hefeweizen
Strong, rich bread dough like flavor, without the fruity esters one normally associates with the style. Maybe we picked up a little banana in there, but there was also a little underlying sourness. Still a good beer, but a reminder that California brewers seem to struggle with this style.

Blue Bell Bitter
A toast bomb? Lot's a toasty malt here, with some nuttiness to the overall flavor. Couldn't detect much hops here, but with all that toasty goodness, who needs them?

In the New IPA
This was a more restrained, balance IPA than one usually found in West Coast brewpubs, much more like the East Coast style. Had a citrus-like aroma, a grassy bitterness, and a decent amount of malt to balance the hops. Well crafted and balanced IPA's like this one are way underrated.

Proving Ground IPA
We're back on the West Coast with this one, and in a good way. Lot's a bitterness, at 100 ibu's, but there's more going on than just the brewer punching us in the face with a bunch of hops. We detected some aromatic spice notes and a little sweetness in the malt. Linda's is a big hop-head, so when we were done with the tasting flight, she had a half-pint of this.

Gallows Hill Porter
Part of Magnolia's summer long project to brew various beer styles using artesional Maris Otter malt, in collaboration with Teddy Maufe of Branthill Farms from Norfolk, England. Lot's of bitter roasted coffee bitterness in this one, with a really sturdy mouth feel to it. Sorry to miss the earlier releases of this project.

Afterwards, we walked down the street into the Lower Haight for an early dinner at Memphis Minnie's barbecue. I like the fact that they don't use any sauce in the preparation of the meats, but leave a few bottles of traditional barbecue sauce styles at each table for each person to add to their liking. Way too much barbecue is buried in sauce, but Memphis Minnie's puts their expertly smoked meats front and center. Inspired by San Francisco's multi-culturalism, Memphis Minnie's serves sake to pair with their barbecue, which we didn't try having been a bit beered out by the time we got there. Sure, Memphis Minnie's is located in barbecue Siberia, but having been to national barbecue shrines Arthur Bryant's in Kansas City, and Angelo's in Fort Worth, I assure those dismissing it as "hippie-cue", it's the real deal.

Linda likes taking photographs of flowers, so this shot taken as we walked back to the car seemed like the appropriate way to end this post.