Cheers!
Richard.

A Tall, Cold Pint of NightLife
All about how beer is brewed with music by DJ Kramer and Tamo
July 15th, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

There’s nothing better on a summer night than a tall, cold glass of beer. Have you ever wondered how beer is brewed? What ‘hops’ are? What the difference between a lager and a pilsner is? Join some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s best microbreweries and beer experts, including San Francisco Brewcraft, MateVeza, Bison Brewing, Social Kitchen and Brewery, Elizabeth Street Brewery and others, to learn all about the art of brewing beer. All of these great beers will be available for sale tonight at NightLife.

Full details regarding the event can be found HERE. Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Richard.

Doors will open at 7am on Saturday for the Argentina v Germany match. We’ll stay open until the conclusion of the second match between Paraguay and the winner of the Spain v Portugal match later today.

Hope to see you at the ESB on Saturday! 7am – 3pm. (We’ll be closed on Sunday, July 4 to celebrate Addison’s 4th birthday).

Cheers,
Richard.

Apparently not…

That’s right folks, our little homebrewpub in our basement managed to snag Best Microbrewery of 2010 in SF Weekly. A true honor for us considering we’re not selling any beer yet.

Best Microbrewery – 2010
Elizabeth Street Brewery

Every month or so, Richard and Alyson Brewer-Hay invite friends, neighbors, and beer lovers in general to drop by their Noe Valley home and sample the brews they’ve been cooking up in 5- and 10-gallon batches since 2003. A few years back, their rumpus room was converted into a pub for the reality program. This friendly wood-and-brick nook, decorated with framed photos, armchairs, a dartboard, and many many beer bottles, is the ideal setting to enjoy free samples of Quincy’s Winter Warmer porter; Auntie Ben’s unfiltered, ultrahoppy IPA; Mummy’s Double Honey ale; or Daddy’s Chocolate Milk, a rich and creamy stout crafted from four varieties of malt, including chocolate. Brewing updates and information on the next open house are available via the ESB Web site or Twitter: @ESBale.

2010 has truly been a surreal year for the ESB. The 21st Amendment collaboration brew we made that took gold at World Beer Cup and now this.

My commitment and promise to all the folks that have enjoyed a beer at ESB over the past few years is that this will not be distracting, nor will it take away from the ultimate goal: a true family brewpub in San Francisco.

Thanks for your continued support and we can’t wait to welcome you into our wee homebrewpub over the Summer.

Cheers!
Richard.

Cheers!
Richard.

All,
Well, I’m still feeling numb from the whole experience in Chicago last week but the capper to it all was that the Imperial ESB called “Imperial Jack” named after my late Grandfather, that I brewed with the good folks at 21st Amendment Brewery, won Gold in the Other Strong Beer category at the World Beer Cup 2010 Awards Dinner. You can see the brew day report HERE.

It was such a shock at the time that neither Allie nor I were able to fumble the video camera quickly enough to capture the moment on film. However, you can check out pictures from the evening here.

I am traveling for work this week but have a number of other videos I can share with you soon. For now, enjoy the pics. You can read the 21st Amendment blog post, HERE. The plan is to brew it again during the week of April 26, so look for it in May at the 21st Amendment in San Francisco.

Cheers!
RIchard.

Shaun and Richard brewing the Imperial Jack, January 14, 2010:

Shaun and Richard back home with the Gold:

Enjoy and Cheers!
Richard

So now, yet another reason for me to A) play with my MacBook Pro editing tools and B) get back to work on finalizing that business plan, I give you my crude but fun highlight reel of yesterday’s appearance on NBC.

Cheers!
Richard

Feel free to stop by for a taste or two during the 4-hour window this coming Saturday. Can’t wait to see you.

Cheers!
Richard.

You already saw what happened on the first day.

DAY 2
We took Friday off from the Great American Beer Festival but that pretty much meant that we just drank beer in other places. Namely the Denver Chophouse & Brewery and Falling Rock Tap House. I had already seen the Chophouse and Brewery in Washington D.C. earlier this year and they are pretty similar. However, I’m always a fan of a brewery that puts its serving tanks right behind the bar in full-view. Here is a quick tour of Denver Chophouse & Brewery:

I didn’t want to be the dork who got the video camera out at Falling Rock so you’ll have to forgive me. Just know that the beers there are superb. It gives Toronado in SF and Gingerman down in Austin a good run for their money. I enjoyed a Russian River Brewing Sanctificaton, an unbranded cask milk stout and an Elysian Jasmine IPA. We then met with up Allie’s Uncle Mike and headed over to see the Colorado Rockies v St. Louis Cardinals. Even though we’re die-hard San Francisco Giants’ fans, even I couldn’t deny that the Rockies played a great, tight game that was ultimately won in the bottom of the 9th, in part by some pretty clutch pinch-hitting by Jason Giambi. Final score was 2-1. Followed by some pretty cool fireworks:

DAY 3
This was the moment of truth. Our first ever beer brewed on a professional system, entered into our first GABF. We were excited. We were going to get there early and get in line so we could try as many beers as possible on our last session in Denver before leaving for the airport. For those unfamiliar, there are two separate sessions on Saturday – a members only afternoon session from 12:30 – 4:30pm and then another evening session starting an hour later. We were signed up for the afternoon session because that is also when they announce the GABF award winning brews of the year. We showed up to the convention center at 11:50am. I decided to take a video from the front of the line to the rear. It took over 5 minutes…

The same goosebump-inducing entrance greeted us as we ascended the escalator. This time, the pipers were out in full force. Both here…

And inside the GABF, here…

Allie and I were determined to try some Dogfish Head beer before the awards were handed out (I’m so dorky I was fired up that Sam Calagione himself poured our samples for us) so by the time we got over to the ceremony, we had missed the announcement of the first 4 categories. What we didn’t realize for another 25 minutes is that we had already missed the announcement of the winners of the Pro-Am category – in which our Elizabeth Street Bitter had been entered. The build up was all washed away rather flatly to be honest. Allie had gone to the loo, and I recognized another homebrewer who had a beer in the Pro-Am. “We’ll get them next year, eh?” he said… “Oh, did they already announce? Who won?” I asked, non-chalantly. “No one I knew, but I hear the beers are great.” They were. Two were incredibly hoppy IPAs (so much so that I had to drink Allie’s for her) and the bronze went to a very well rounded Belgian.

So that was it. We spent the rest of the afternoon consuming as many rare beers as we could get our hands on and trying to find Shaun O’Sullivan and the 21st Amendment crew who had wonderfully won a bronze medal for the smoked porter… I had to stand on tip-toes to see he and Nico accept the medal but I think I must have been the loudest cheerleader in the crowd. It was great to see other local, favorite brewers win medals – golds to Magnolia, Marin and Bear Republic to name just three! The full list of winners can be found HERE. Interesting stat… of the 3,308 beers entered at the GABF this year, 234 of them were awarded medals. Meaning 93% of entries didn’t receive an award. Stiff competition indeed.

All in all, it was an experience I’ll never forget – and one that I want to be a part of again and again. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I can’t thank you enough for the support you’ve all given us over the past 6 years. One day we hope to be serving you our ales on a daily basis and entering our own beers into the GABF… encouraging other homebrewers to brew on our system and enter beers into the Pro-Am tournament.

2009 has been another step in the right direction for the Elizabeth Street Brewery and I like to think that there are much bigger ones to come in the very near future. Watch this space.

Cheers!
Richard.