2008 Upcoming Beer Festivals
What a February to remember! Between Strong Beer Month put on by Magnolia Brew Pub and 21st Amendment, the Double IPA festival at The Bistro, Celebrator’s 20th Anniversary Beerapalooza party and Toronado’s Barley Wine festival there was a lot going on in the Bay Area beer scene. Lucky for me, I was able to make it to a few of these events and I got to taste a lot of beers I normally wouldn’t have access to. In addition, I got to meet a bunch of really cool people at these events.
Even more fortuitous, the beer festival season looks like it’s about to heat up. Thanks to Brandon, who I met over at The Bistro, he filled me in on a couple of beer festival/events coming up in the following months. Here’s a quick list:
- Slow Beer Festival - Despite what the name says, the beer isn’t at all slow. The “slow” refers to the slow food movement that is basically anti-fast food. You can purchase tickets by clicking here where you’ll be taken to the Brown Paper Tickets website. There will be 8 San Francisco breweries participating as well as an equal number of San Francisco Artisanal Slow Food Producers. The wife and I are planning to go for her birthday. Here are the details:
When: Saturday, March 1st Noon-4:00pm
Where: County Fair Building (Lincoln Way and 9th Ave.) Golden Gate Park
Cost: $50 includes beer tasting and local artisan foods / $75 VIP ticket-includes Goodie Bag and tour of one the local breweries.
- 13th Annual Fairfax Brewfest - The link is sparce, at best, with information about this event. They supposedly have 15 craft and micro breweries lined up to participate but I haven’t been able to get a concrete list. If last year’s list of participants is any indicator for this year’s, then it should be a good one! Here are the details for this year:
Saturday, March 15 1:00p to 5:00p at Fairfax Pavilion, Fairfax, CA
Price: $20.00 advance, $25.00 at door
Phone: (415) 453-5928
Web: Event Web Site
- Firkin Gravity Festival - Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley will be hosting this event. Too bad at the time of this post, their website doesn’t have the updated information. Basically, is a “real ale” event where all the beers available are cask conditioned. Be warned, a cask conditioned beer is much different than your average beer in many ways and is not for everyone. If you don’t go, that just means more beer for me! (A firkin is essentially a unit of measurement for beer and ales equivalent to about 1/4th of a full barrel.) Here are the details:
5th Annual Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Triple Rock Brewery, 1920 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA
$25 admission
There are a few more festivals coming up but they’re still a few months away. I’ll post those as we get closer. Lastly, BetterBeerBlog.com’s very own Malternative: Beer & Dessert food pairing event is coming up on February 29, 2008. If you’re interested in coming, shoot me an email and I’ll put you on the list. Thanks again to Brandon for hooking me up with these upcoming beer festivals.
