California

Today is also Fraggle’s 45th birthday, or as he often refers to them, his 45th bornday. Fraggle, along with his wife Rebecca, own and operate the terrific Beer Revolution, their beer store in Oakland, near Jack London Square on 3rd Street. I first met Fraggle when I featured them in an article I did for [...]

Today I had a great experience that’s been a few months in the making. Last October, one of my newspaper columns was about the 35th anniversary of the date in 1976 when New Albion Brewery, the first modern microbrewery built from scratch, was incorporated by Jack McAuliffe. A homebrewer and beer collector in San Jose, [...]

Anchor Brewing today posted a new video about the history of California Lager, and their new Zymaster series which attempts to recreate the beer brewed by Boca Brewing in the 1870s. You can read more about that history on their blog, too, in Part 1 and Part 2.

The picturesque location on San Francisco’s Embarcadero of the former HillS Brothers Coffee building is home to the third Gordon Biersch brewpub, which opened originally in 1992. According to Inside Scoop SF, as of the end of April, that will no longer be the case. (And thanks to Pete S. for sending me the link.) [...]

The Atlantic online had an interesting post on their Cities Places Matter blog entitled San Francisco’s Temporary Beer Garden Takes Off, all about a couple of new beer gardens in the city, one of which is in a temporary space while it waits to be developed.

I assume many people already saw this, and the brouhaha seems to have died down, if not gone away. But the issue remains, lingering like a wound that won’t heal. The specific incident in question began a few days ago when a restaurant in Sacramento, Kupros Bistro, got a keg of Russian River’s highly sought [...]

Here’s yet another video showcasing SF Beer Week. This one is brought to you by the Top Shelf Society. It has great production value and music, including what I can only assume is an original song, Beer by the Bay, “written and performed by Jefferson Bergey.” There’s a lot from the opening celebration and then [...]

Today was my 53rd birthday, and I’ve once again been overwhelmed by an embarrassment of riches from well-wishers sending me notes via e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. My sincere thanks to one and all. As it’s usually me posting embarrassing photos of my friends and colleagues, for the fourth year in a row, here’s some howlers [...]

Our 61st Session is hosted by Matt Robinson — a.k.a. The Hoosier Beer Geek — and he’s asking us to consider the question What Makes Local Beer Better? Here’s how he puts it: The topic I’ve been thinking about is local beer. The term is being used by just about every craft brewer in the [...]

It’s been rumored for weeks, maybe longer, but I got the word a few days ago that the California Senate would vote this morning between 9 and 10 o’clock on SCR 66, introduced by Senate majority leader Ellen Corbett, a resolution to declare February California Beer Month. Rick Sellers, who writes at Pacific Brew News [...]