[Press Release:]
(San Francisco, CA) – The San Francisco Brewers Guild and Northern California’s finest breweries are hard at work planning for an incredible week of craft beer celebrations throughout the Bay Area during SF Beer Week 2017. With the return of the country’s premier Beer Week, the ever-increasing innovation and creativity taking shape in breweries across the region will be on full display like no other SF Beer Week before it. The SF Beer Week Opening Gala, the top-tier regional invitational festival that kicks off the festivities at Pier 48 on February 10, will spotlight flavor-driven brewing innovations glass by glass. Revelations and discoveries will continue through hundreds of thirst-quenching events around the greater San Francisco Bay Area, wrapping up on February 19. Tickets to the Opening Gala will go on sale in early December 2016.
Over 100 breweries operate in one of the world’s most creative regions. The Bay Area continues to be a hotbed of beer innovation, where trends and techniques are created, rediscovered and riffed on. Flipping beer styles on their heads, wielding a growing influence on celebrity chefs’ dishes and renowned restaurant’s beverage menus, adapting beer-making techniques, creating specialized businesses like fermentation-only facilities, embracing entrepreneurial endeavors as with California’s first artisan malting company — innovation continues apace in the City by the Bay and the broader area.
San Francisco is America’s first craft brewing region. Craft beer — along with its runaway international hit, American IPA — was born of the Bay Area’s spirit of innovation. In 1975, SF’s Anchor Brewing Co.’s breakaway Anchor Liberty Ale — the crisp, dry-hopped ale that foreshadowed the modern American IPA — created a flavor benchmark for the growing ranks of homebrewers and brewers. Up in Santa Rosa, Russian River’s Vinnie Cilurzo created the world’s first Double IPA, the acclaimed Pliny the Elder, followed by the now-legendary prototypical Triple IPA, Pliny the Younger, set for a Friday, February 3, release, and on tap through most of SF Beer Week.
Northern California brewers are proud of their regional heritage and the trends they have given rise to but are not insular. They not only forge new paths, but adopt new approaches and, like jazz impresarios, constantly riff and refine. The explosion of beer substyles on tap during SF Beer Week will attest to that exchange.
The Bay Area has also shaken the world’s culinary assumptions ever since Chef Alice Waters famously led the charge for local, seasonal cuisine at Chez Panisse in Berkeley starting in 1971. Many top restaurants in the region, from The French Laundry to State Bird Provisions, devote welcome attention to their beer lists and pairings. Gastropubs and beer-centric eateries — such as Smokestack at Magnolia and Hog’s Apothecary — bring kitchen cred to casual and bar top dining as well. During SF Beer Week, dozens of beer dinners take it to another level.
The rise of hyper-local breweries entirely focused on serving community first through their taprooms has created a new neighborhood hangout across the Bay Area. Dozens of breweries are selling fresh-brewed beer on site and hand-delivering kegs to just a few trusted bars. These breweries are embracing near-continuous rotation and experimentation in their taprooms, moving away from year-round flagship brews. Innovative design and graphics flourish throughout the region with brewery t-shirts replacing rock ‘n’ roll shirts, and beer labels destined for the walls of fine art institutions, such as the newly renovated SFMOMA.
As is true across the country, collaboration beers are all the rage throughout the Bay Area. The San Francisco brewing community innovates together, cooking up collaboration beers with colleagues from near and far, for the camaraderie, the creative challenge and just to mix things up. For SF Beer Week 2017, the members of the San Francisco Brewers Guild participate in the annual tradition of brewing an original beer to be tapped at the Opening Gala on February 10, and served at select venues throughout Beer Week. Specialty ingredients donated by Whole Foods Market will be a highlight, further inspiring brewer creativity.
This February, let the region’s leading craft beer sherpa, SF Beer Week, guide you through ten days of craft beer discovery. More than a week’s worth of compelling experiences will be waiting for you, thanks to a craft beer community devoted to innovation, experimentation and never sitting still.
The Current List of San Francisco Brewers Guild Members:
21st Amendment Brewery, Almanac Beer Company, Anchor Brewing Company, Barebottle Brewing Company, Barrel Head Brewhouse, Bartlett Hall, Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant, Black Hammer Brewing Company, Black Sands Brewery, Cellarmaker Brewing Company, Ferment. Drink. Repeat, Fort Point Beer Company, Harmonic Brewing, Headlands Brewing Company, Holy Craft Brewery, Laughing Monk Brewing Company, Local Brewing Company, Magnolia Brewing Company, Old Bus Tavern, Pine Street Brewery, Pizza Orgasmica & Brewery, San Francisco Brewing Company, Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery, Social Kitchen & Brewery, Southern Pacific Brewing Company, Southpaw BBQ, Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, Sufferfest Beer Company, Sunset Reservoir Brewing Company, ThirstyBear Organic Brewery, Triple Voodoo Brewery & Taproom, and Woods Beer / Cerveceria de MateVeza.
SF Beer Week, presented by the http://sfbrewersguild.org/ and http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/, would not be possible without the additional support and generous contributions of our amazing sponsors:
http://21st-amendment.com/
http://www.almanacbeer.com/
http://www.anchorbrewing.com/
http://www.dbibeverage.com/twenty_one
http://drinkdrakes.com/
http://www.magnoliapub.com/
http://www.matagrano.com/
http://www.sierranevada.com/
http://www.goodbeer.com/
http://www.trumer-international.com/
https://www.visitoakland.com/
http://www.visitsantarosa.com/
As well as…
Brewers Supply Group
Burr Pilger Mayer
Country Malt Group
Eat Drink SF
The Printed Image
White Labs
Along with the following venues, brewers and additional supporters: Ale Arsenal, Barrel Head Brewhouse, Bartlett Hall Brewing Co., Bear Republic Brewing Co., Best Label, The Can Van, City Beer Store, Cleophus Quealy Beer Co., Diving Dog Brewhouse, GigaYeast, The Jug Shop, Resolute SF, Rosamunde Sausage Grill, SF Adventure Tours, Social Kitchen & Brewery, Sudwerk Brewing Co., Sunset Reservoir Brewing Co., Whole Brew World, and Woods Beer Co. With special thanks to the California Craft Brewers Association and Celebrator Beer News.
About San Francisco Brewers Guild
The San Francisco Brewers Guild formed in 2004 as a non-profit 501(c)(6) during a renaissance in American craft brewing. Our mission is to restore and preserve San Francisco’s brewing heritage and unite those who make local beer with those who love it. The Guild achieves this by educating the public about craft beer, organizing and hosting events such as SF Beer Week, Brews on the Bay and Meet the Brewers, advocating for the craft beer industry in city government, donating services and product to local charities, and partnering with artisan producers in the food, beverage, hospitality and agricultural industries.
For more information, please visit:
sfbeerweek.org
@sfbeerweek
facebook.com/SFBeerWeek
sfbrewersguild.org
This coverage is made possible in part thanks to the generous support of Visit California, which flew us out to Northern California to tour one dozen breweries across San Francisco, Sacramento, Berkeley, Oakland and Sonoma. For more information on California’s craft beer boom, visit here.