Hopinions: SF Beer Week

SF Beer Week is upon us, and it has been great thus far.  One comment I saw said that while Philly’s Beer Week was more about the local brewers, SF Beer Week is more for the people, by the people.  Both of us having hosted our own events this week, I think we might be a little biased, but which do you feel is a better way to go?

Like I said, having put on two events this week, and having a great time doing it, I have to say I really like the style we have here in the Bay Area.  The support of the beer drinking community has been wonderful and the organizers of SF Beer Week have been just as great, having two invitation only events for organizers of the individual events (neither of which I was able to attend).  This has really shown off the enthusiasm of the Bay Area for craft beer and looks to only get better in the coming years.

As for the brewers, I think they’ve had no choice but to participate, and they’ve done so with as much enthusiasm as the organizers and the attendees.  Just to name a few, Rob Tod of Allagash has been in town (with a broken arm) as has Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, not to mention California brewers from outside of the Bay Area.  Any brewers that might not have participated this week may have to think twice about  skipping next year.  The grass roots organization of this last week has resulted in a wide variety of events from fine dining to raucus circuses.

I’m loving the direction of SF Beer Week and think next year can only be bigger and better.

SF Beer Week is indeed upon and I can’t help but agree with you that it’s been going well so far. The events I have been to so far have been great events and I’m looking forward to attending more as the week progresses, back and health permitting.

I’m not sure what your initial impressions were about SF Beer Week but I was under the impression that SF Beer Week was going to be more of a celebration of local San Francisco Bay Area beer, more than anything else. I thought each brewery was going to try and do their thing or at least collaborate with other breweries to do fun things beer related. So, in that respect, I guess we wouldn’t have been too far off from Philly Beer Week. That being said, I was surprised to see Rob Tod (Allagash), Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) and Peter Zien (Alesmith) around town. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the beers each of these breweries produces (yummm… Alesmith…) but it seemed contrary to my initial impressions of the event. Had I known we could try and get brewers from other breweries to come by, I would’ve tried to get a few guys down here in the South Bay to do “Meet the Brewer” events, or Beer Dinners or whatever. I just didn’t know that was an option. I’ll know better next year.

You did strike upon an interesting viewpoint though. This was definitely a festival by the people, for the people. In addition to my own Beer & Dessert Pairing Tasting Event that I hosted this past Monday, I tried my best to organize more South Bay events. Unfortunately, not everything came to fruition but enough events came about that I was happy with my initial effort. There’s the two Firehouse Brewery & Grill events happening this week; a beer & cheese and a beer & chocolate dinner featuring chocolates made by Pete Slosberg. The latter of the two event was very fun to have planned and I’m looking forward to both.

I’m not sure if you noticed or not but it looks like the beer bloggers have taken it upon themselves to really go out there in a grassroots manner to organize or host events on their own. This is a testament to how much we all love beer and the lengths we’ll go when we feel we have a personal stake in things. I know that Jay, Bruce, Tom, et. al are the one’s who will ultimately receive all the credit for this event, as they rightfully should, but I can’t help but feel a sense of pride in having added value to the festival. Especially in our own neck of the woods. As a result we have events that stretch all the way from Santa Rosa to Monterey Bay. I would hope they change the name of the festival next year to Bay Area Beer Week as a lot of stuff happened in a lot of different places.

It was both shocking and ironic to read that Bill Brand was hit by a Muni train. He is one of the good guys in the sense that he his as responsible a drinker as they come, always taking pubic transportation to beer events instead of driving. Bill lead by both his words and by his actions. Here’s to his speedy recovery.

I don’t think “slighted” is the correct term to express how I feel. I don’t necessarily feel slighted any more than I wonder why that particular name was chosen, especially in light of the fact that the two events bookmarking SF Beer Week happen outside of San Francisco. That’s all. In early discussions with Jay Brooks, I definitely got the sense that this was a “Bay Area” thing and not, “let’s just bring in whoever we can”. If I were the only person who felt this way I’d just let it go but I’m not.

Hopefully they’ll rectify that next year because, to be frank, it was a bit of a challenge convincing some places to have an event tied in to “SF Beer Week” when we’re all the way down here (in San Jose). Since this is the first time, no worries but I’d personally like to see the name changed to incorporate everyone else. It’s not that we don’t all love San Francisco but there’s a certain pride that comes with living and working in the cities that we do. Some might say I suffer from some sort of “little city” syndrome but it’s really all about fairness and equality.

I also hope that your prediction comes true in that more breweries participate next year as well as keep things closer to home. There’s good beer to be found in many places and keeping things closer to home allows those particular spots to have their moment in the sun. I also hope to see a wider variety of events to be put on. I missed out on the Lagunitas event that featured a circus of sorts (you’ll have to fill me on on that), but it’s out-of-the-box thinking like that I can appreciate. While I’ve been more active on the beer pairing side of things, I feel that I need to go back to the drawing board and come up with different and interesting events for SF Beer Week next year. Come to think of it, I won’t even wait for next year. If I come up with something good, I’ll just do it.

In speaking to each other offline, I know we both have big things planned for 2009. I can’t speak for you but I know helping out at SF Beer Week has emboldened me to surpass what I did last year. I can’t help but feel a little “Field of Dreams”: If you brew it, we will come.