We seem to be no closer to re-opening the Bay Area’s taprooms right now, but most of our local breweries are hanging on, thanks to the support of their communities. Here are a few new brews to check out so you can continue that support — plus a virtual beer festival that involves more than 1,00 breweries, including some very close to home.
New sips
Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks brewery, which is where they make all their barrel-aged goodies, is releasing a new wild beer — Big Mood — made in collaboration with Capitola’s Sante Adairius Rustic Ales. It’s brewed with Blenheim apricots and white wine grapes, using Sante Adairius’ house yeast, which is the first time it’s been used outside the Capitola brewery. It’s available now in bottles, but in limited quantities.
Barrelworks brewmaster Jim Crooks describes the wine-hybrid side of the beer as “really dry and refined in flavor.”
“Then you add that fleshy, juicy, ripe part of the apricot and you get this amazing balance,” he says. “It’s reminiscent of an apricot mimosa — it’s one of the most delicious and flamboyant beers we’ve ever made.”
You’ll need to hurry to get your hands on one of the 500 bottles of Sierra Nevada Brewing’s new seasonal, but it may well be worth it. The new Farm Trail Harvest Baltic Porter is a dark lager, brewed with locally sourced fresh peaches, fire-roasted almonds and organic brown rice syrup. The only way to get this beer is by ordering a Sierra Oro Farm Trail tasting box ($125), which also includes wine and artisanal food items, at https://sierraoro.sohnreyfamilyfoods.com. (It’s a great way, too, to participate from afar in the popular Butte County farm and winery festival, which has been canceled due to the pandemic.)
While you’re considering Sierra Nevada’s latest releases, check out their new Dankful IPA, which was created as a charity for COVID-19 relief. The hoppy West Coast-style IPA will be available in cans everywhere by mid-September. It’s a 7.4-percent alcohol by volume (ABV) beer with 55 International Bitterness Units (IBUs), and has resinous flavors with notes of pine and tropical fruit.
San Diego’s Saint Archer has begun canning its Mozy 7 IPA. Originally a special release for the brewery’s seventh anniversary, the beer is brewed with Mosaic and Idaho 7 hop varieties, giving it notes of tropical fruit, white peach, citrus and tangerine.
Beerventures
There may be no in-real-life beer events on the horizon, but virtual festivals and happenings are being planned in their place — until we can return to our regularly scheduled beer festivals.
The Great American Beer Festival, which typically draws 60,000 beer lovers to Denver each year, has been cancelled, of course, but it’s being replaced by an at-home version. Billed as “America’s Largest Virtual Beer Event of the Year” by the Brewers Association, the 39th annual GABF will be held Oct. 16-17 with a lineup that includes nine 30-minute online sessions on beer lore, brewery profiles and food pairings for GABF passport ($20) holders.
The virtual festival speakers include Sierra Nevada’s Ken Grossman, Russian River Brewing’s Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo, Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver and The Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur.
Grab that passport ahead of time for special deals, available from Oct. 1 to 18, from more than 1,000 participating breweries — everything from a free flight of tasters at Moraga’s Canyon Club Brewery to a buy-two-get-three crowlers deal at San Jose’s Clandestine and a GABF-in-a-box kit from Richmond’s East Brother. Find details at www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com.
Despite there being no public event, there will be awards. I’ll be flying to Colorado later this month to judge in a new socially-distanced format — I’ll tell you how that went later — with awards announced online at 4 p.m. Oct. 16.
