BetterBeerBlog

It’s spring and the beer festival season is in full swing. There are a lot of good festivals coming up, but unfortunately, they’re nowhere near San Jose. Hopefully that’ll change soon. Until then, here’s what’s coming up.

5th Annual Firkin Gravity Festival - This is coming up this weekend! This festival is interesting in a number of ways but the most interesting is that all the beers are cask-conditioned. In addition, this festival will benefit the Alisa Anne Rusch Burn Foundation which supports burn victims and their families. So feel good about all the beer you’ll be drinking because it’ll help a good cause. Here are the details:

• $20 Admission (Tasting glass, 5 drink tickets, 1 wooden ticket for a full pour)
• April 5, 2008, 11am - 6pm-ish
• Triple Rock Brewery and Alehouse, 1920 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA

Hop Rhizome Beer Festival - This festival will be at The Bistro in Hayward. Hop rhizomes are basically hop roots. They’ll have a bunch for sale as well as hoppy beers on tap and BBQ all day. Can’t complain too much about that. This is one I’ll definitely be at just to pick up a few more rhizomes to plant in my backyard. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to brew a “harvest ale” this fall. Here are the details:

• As far as I know, free
• April 12, 2008, starts 11am
• The Bistro, 1001 B Avenue, Hayward, CA 94541

Five Guys and a Barrel - Beer and Food event featuring Russian River, Port Brewing, Avery, Allagash and Dogfish Head, hosted by the beer chef Bruce Patton. The wife and I really wanted to go to this but as far as beer events go, this one is very pricey. Here are the detaisl:

• $95/person, SOLD OUT
• April 20, 2008, 6:30pm reception, 7:30pm dinner
• The Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109

San Francisco International Beer Festival - This a huge event. There are over 300 beers from all over the world as well as approximately 19 local food providers. It’s a bit pricey but it’s all-you-can-drink. Also, it’s a relatively short time frame. Here are the details:

• $60, unlimited beer tastings SOLD OUT
• April 26, 2008, 7pm to 10pm
• Fort Mason Center, you can get directions here.

12th Annual Boonville Beer Festival - San Jose should take a page out of Boonville’s book (and Fairfax’s as well). In my opinion, one of the best ways to bring tourism to your city or town is to hold a kick-ass beer festival. It’s year 12 and they’re still going on strong! One admission price, unlimited beer tastings and camping available.

• $35 advanced sale, $50 at the gate, unlimited tastings
• May 10, 2008, 1pm to 5pm
• Mendocino County Fairgrounds, 14400 Hwy. 128, Boonville, CA

Westcoast Brewfest 2008 - Thanks to BetterBeerBlog friend Brandon for this tip. If you’re from or close to Sacramento, this is the beer festival for you. I just checked their list of participating breweries from last year and it is quite the impressive list with many brewers from out of state and a number from Germany, Czech Republic, Poland and England. I wasn’t planning on going to this one because of how far Sacramento is but if the same brewers are going to show up, I think I’ll make the effort.

• $30 available starting April 15. 3000 tickets available for sale only
• May 17, 2008, 1pm to 5pm
• Miller Park, 2790 Marina View Drive, Sacramento, CA

These are the beer festival and events that I know of. If you know of any more, don’t hesitate to shoot me an email and I’ll gladly put it on the list. It’s hard to keep track of them all, let alone find them all.