[Press Release:]
ThirstyBear Officially Releases Barleywine 2013, Aged to Perfection with Specialty Malts Including British Pale Malt & Biscuit Malt
(San Francisco, CA) – ThirstyBear Organic Brewery kicks off the holiday season with a rare vertical tasting on the menu showcasing the brewery’s CELLAR SERIES BARLEYWINES from three consecutive vintages: 2013, 2014 and 2015. Since opening in 1996, founding brewmaster Ron Silberstein has diligently dedicated a portion of his year-round craft beer program to the production of singular Barleywine. ThirstyBear’s cellar includes Barleywines dating back to the year 1999. Annually released on the day following Thanksgiving, ThirstyBear proudly launches its latest seasonal, CELLAR SERIES: BARLEYWINE 2013 (10.3% ABV, 65 IBU), along with a special 5 oz. tasting of vintages 2013-2015. The tasting is $15 for three 5 oz. pours of each 2013-2015 Barleywine. A very limited amount of 2013 bottles will be for sale at $25/bottle while supplies lasts.
Initially becoming prevalent during 19th Century England when strong ales were brewed to “the strength of wine” (10-12% ABV), Barleywine was first coined on a beer label by The Bass brewery (1870). The CELLAR SERIES: BARLEYWINE 2013 emulates an English style rather than its American counterpart; the latter embracing a hoppier and darker profile. ThirstyBear utilizes a large portion of British Pale Malt with a bit of Biscuit Malt to provide a toasty, bready character.
“My interest in U.S. craft beers grew out of my love of English ales and my respect for the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA),” says ThirstyBear’s Founding Brewmaster Ron Silberstein. “CAMRA is credited with saving from extinction traditional English cask conditioned ales served on a hand pump. Barleywine was an extension of my rediscovery of taste and tradition. Thus, on of the first beer programs I started at ThirstyBear in winter of 1996 was to brew a series of Barleywines – now a fixture of our Cellar Series – and aging them until the following winter.”
ThirstyBear’s brewmaster Brenden Dobel’s brewing starts with packing the mash tun to almost overflowing, providing as much malt sugar (wort) as possible. He then collects the first runnings, and with as little mash rinsing as possible, creates a rich wort in the kettle. This wort is boiled extensively to further concentrate the sweet liquid, and then generously hopped to provide the perfect hop bitterness to balance the full-bodied malt character.
CELLAR SERIES: BARLEYWINE 2013 debuts on Black Friday and will be available throughout the remainder of the year exclusively at ThirstyBear.
ThirstyBear Organic, Small Batch Beers Are Available Fresh, Only On Draught, Only At ThirstyBear!
About ThirstyBear Brewing Co.
Established in 1996, ThirstyBear Organic Brewery is the first and only brewery in San Francisco to brew certified organic beer and become a certified Green Business. ThirstyBear serves up an innovative, constantly changing lineup of nine draft beers plus two cask conditioned ales. Since 2002, Silberstein has collaborated with Brewmaster and Certified Cicerone Brenden Dobel to define a singular German-influenced West Coast style of brewing, with a special emphasis on pilsners, ales, IPAs, stouts, Belgian-inspired ales, cask conditioned ales, session beers, sours and barrel aged brews. Dobel’s expertise with German beer styles is the result of his extensive training at Doemens Brewing Academy in Munich, Germany. Born out of Founding Brewmaster Ron Silberstein’s commitment to support sustainable agriculture, ThirstyBear brews CCOF and FDA certified organic beer with the hops and grains carefully sourced from the world’s most renowned malt houses and premier West Coast organic hop farms to provide innovative, distinctive and always delicious flavors.
ThirstyBear pairs its hand-crafted beers with equally exquisite Spanish cuisine. As one of the first critically acclaimed Spanish tapas restaurants to open in the Bay Area, ThirstyBear’s Executive Chef Robert McCarthy serves some of the City’s top paella, tapas, charcuterie/cheese and beer pairings, flatbreads, 100% grass-fed beef burgers, and specialty dishes prepared not only with beer, but with beer’s raw ingredients (hops, malts, yeast). In addition to its constantly rotating lineup of specialty, seasonal and classic craft beers, ThirstyBear also proudly serves select local wines from kegs to offer complex, perfectly aged wines and reduce its overall carbon footprint.
According to the Brewers Association, which keeps the most comprehensive information on craft breweries in the United States, ThirstyBear brews and serves more craft beer in-house than any other brewpub in San Francisco. ThirstyBear celebrated its 20th Anniversary in September 2016 as San Francisco’s longest operating brewery-restaurant.
For more information, please visit:
thirstybear.com
facebook.com/ThirstyBearOrganicBrewery
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.