Portland’s Fred Eckhardt is a living legend, especially in his home city, having pioneered writing about and defining beer styles with his early book on the subject, The Essentials of Beer Style, published in 1989. A couple of years ago, Portland threw Fred a surprise birthday party for his 80th — called “FredFest.” It’s become an annual event, now in its third year. And this year, the charity event will raise funds for Parkinson’s disease in honor of fellow beer legend Michael Jackson, who passed away last August.
From the press release:
More than 15 rare and unique beers created by some of Oregon’s most celebrated breweries will be on tap at FredFest 2008. The event will take place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 10 — the actual date of Eckhardt’s 82nd birthday — at Hair of the Dog Brewing, 4509 SE 23rd Avenue in Portland.
The beer menu is still being firmed up, but brewers are promising to pony up something special for the event. The number of beers for FredFest will increase from last year, according to co-organizer and chief beer wrangler Preston Weesner. Some of the breweries that already have committed to the event include: Hair of the Dog (with a special keg of Jim 07), BridgePort, Deschutes, Widmer, Hopworks Urban Brewery, Rogue and Firestone Walker.
Attendees will be treated not only to a rare assortment of hand-selected beers, but also light fare including pastrami cured with Hair of the Dog Fred ale and a birthday cake — complete with a round of “Happy Birthday” — for Eckhardt. Cheeses, chocolate, candy and even cereal will be offered in abundance so attendees can experience some of Eckhardt’s famed beer-and-food pairings.
Cost for the event is $50 in advance and includes a souvenir glass, free ticket for a raffle of bottled specialty beers and four hours’ of sampling, sipping and story-telling with Eckhardt. Admission is limited to 200 attendees. Judging from previous years, the event is expected to sell out quickly. Tickets are available through Pay-Pal. E-mail fredfest@comcast.net to purchase tickets.
Additionally, this year, a silent auction featuring bottles of rare beers running in conjunction with FredFest, allowing Fred fans across the country to be a part of Eckhardt’s birthday and the FredFest celebration and fundraiser.
As always, proceeds from FredFest and the related online auction will go to a charity of Eckhardt’s choice. This year, Eckhardt named Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon, the local affiliate chapter of the National Parkinson Foundation, as the featured charity in memory of his longtime friend and fellow beer writer Michael Jackson, who died in 2007 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
What more could you ask for, great beer and a worthy cause.
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An nice item in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sipping News today reminded me that there’s only two days until the Celebrator Beer News’ 20th Anniversary Party.
This Sunday, toast the Celebrator at its Mardi Gras-themed 20th Anniversary Party, with more than 35 breweries pouring almost 200 beers - many of which were made especially for the occasion. Dixieland jazz and zydeco bands and plenty of Cajun and Creole food will also be on hand.
All profits will go to the California Small Brewers Association, a nonprofit advocacy group.
The event takes place from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway (near 11th Street), Oakland.
Tickets cost $55, and for $80, VIP tickets will earn you admission an hour early and access to some special limited-production beers.
For tickets, call (800) 430-2337 or visit celebrator.com
You don’t want to miss what promises to be the party of the year. I’ll See you there!
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The 2nd annual Slow Beer Festival, again sponsored by the San Francisco Brewers Guild, will take place on Saturday March 1st.
From the Guild’s website:
Saturday, March 1, 2008, noon-4pm, SF County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. Tickets: $50 ($75 VIP ticket includes gift bag and a tour of the participating brewery of your choice). Beer tasting of all 8 breweries of the SF Brewers Guild plus Marin Brewing, Russian River Brewing, North Coast Brewing and other local, artisan breweries. Food from Hog Island Oyster Company, Fatted Calf Charcuterie, Harley Farms Goat Cheese, Acme Bread, and more.
The festival is in association with Slow Food San Francisco and Slow Food USA. The slow food movement began in Italy and is a great organization if you love good food. Their philosophy is simple:
Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.
There also more information at the Slow Beer Festival website and tickets can be purchased online, too. See you there.
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Exactly one month from today, the 20th Anniversary Party for the Celebrator Beer News will take place at the Oakland Convention Center / Marriot Hotel. This should be a terrific climax to Beerapalooza week in the Bay Area. A lot of the attending breweries are either making something special just for the party or bringing something very unique. As a result, there will be a number of beers you simply can’t get anywhere else or at least are very difficult to find, especially all in one place. I know a number of other Celebrator writers will be in town for the event. If you’ve been to a Celebrator party in the past, this one is in a bigger space and will have far more different beers than ever before. This should easily be the one party ot to miss in 2008. I’ll see you there!
From the website:
The Celebrator Beer News will celebrate its 20th anniversary on February 17, 2008, with a Mardi Gras themed party from 4 to 8 pm at the Oakland Convention Center / Marriot Hotel, in Oakland, California.
More than 35 breweries will pour favorite brews. Meet Celebrator founders Bret and Julie Nickels along with Celebrator staff, writers and beer industry luminaries including pioneer figures in the craft beer movement. Cajun/Creole food catered by the Marriott Hotel, music from Dixieland Jazz and Zydeco bands and beer are included along with a souvenir Belgian-style glass! Breweries pouring will include some of the top breweries in the country.
Brewing memorabilia, special bottles and other items will be available to bid on at a silent auction benefiting the California Small Brewers Association. All profits from this event go to the CSBA to further the interests of the brewing community.
Tickets are on sale now at $55 per person which includes the banquet catered by the Marriott Hotel, nearly 200 different beers (some specially produced for this event), music and souvenir glass.
A Media-VIP session starts one hour early and will feature special limited production beers. VIP tickets are $80. The event takes place one day after the start of the Barleywine Festival at the Toronado in San Francisco!
Prizes for best Mardi Gras costumes! Discount rooms will be available at the Marriott Hotel at the Convention Center ($109 per night). Call 510-451-4000 and ask for the Celebrator rate. Take BART to the 12th Street station right in front of the Marriott Hotel.
For more information, call 510-538-2739. Ticket sales by Visa/MC, phone 800-430-BEER or purchase tickets below with PayPal’s secure ordering process. Mail checks to Celebrator, 20th Party, P.O. Box 375, Hayward, CA 94543.
General Admission $55 VIP Entry $80
2.17
Celebrator Beer News 20th Anniversary Party
Oakland Convention Center / Marriot Hotel, 1001 Broadway, Oakland, California
510.538.BREW or 888.430.BEER [ website ]
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I’m not entirely convinced of their claim of combating global warming, but Anderson Valley Brewing announced that they have begun brewing real ales and have added a beer engine to their tasting room, and that’s certainly good enough news for me.
From the press release:
Anderson Valley Brewing Company (AVBC) proudly added to their award-winning line of handcrafted beers, “Real ale”—a natural ale created in a traditional and environmentally-friendly style. Real ale is a beer that highlights Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s continuing efforts to make high quality beers in an environmentally responsible manner. Real ale is:
- * A truly “organic” ale with only four natural ingredients: malted barely, hops, water and yeast and absolutely no additives.
- * Served at 10-13 C degrees via a human-powered “hand pull” it’s naturally cool, resulting in far less energy being used for cooling.
- * Naturally carbonated through the yeast’s effervescence — no additional carbon dioxide is added.
- * Reducing packaging by using casks which can be reused for up to 20 years.
- * Created using solar power which provides 40% of Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s annual energy needs.
Though Real ale is environmentally responsible, the traditional method of brewcrafting also results in a more robust, stimulating, and fresh taste that can’t be found in traditional brands. Real ale’s unique flavors and aromas are partly due to the process of fermentation.
While a great many breweries remove yeast before the beer reaches the glass, Real ale differentiates itself by retaining the yeast in the container from which the beer is served. Though the yeast settles at the bottom of the cask and isn’t poured into the glass, the yeast is still active in the cask where the process of fermentation continues until ready to serve. Real ale is currently available in Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s visitor’s center.
In other Anderson Valley news, they will be having a special event on February 2 to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. And the 12th annual Boonville Beer Festival will take place in 2008 on May 10.
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Mark your calendars. The 5th annual Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival has just been announced. It will take place beginning at 11:00 a.m. on April 5 at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, California. The cost will be $25, which includes a commemorative glass along with a certain number samples (still to determined) with additional tastings available for a nominal fee. This event has quickly become “the” real ale festival in the Bay Area and I’m sure they’ll have something special lined up for their fifth anniversary. Last year there were two dozen breweries in attendance and I suspect we’ll see even more again this year. See you there.
4.5
Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival (5th annual)
Triple Rock Brewery, 1920 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California
510.843.2739 [ website ]
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The Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant in West Chester, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia) will again highlight local Belgian-style beers. The Belgium Comes to West Chester event will take place on January 26 at 4:00 p.m. In addition to head brewer Chris LaPierre, several other brewers will be on hand to discuss their beers and there will also be available a three-course beer dinner paired will a few of the available Belgian-style beers. The cost for the event will be $40.
From the press release:
“Belgian style beers are at the center of the craft beer movement right now and both male and female beer lovers are embracing this style,” says LaPierre, who will be pouring his Heywood; Quadfather and the award-winning Cannibal.
“This is a great opportunity for beer fans to see the unique Belgian style beers being brewed in the region, all in one place,” says Mark Edelson, Director of Brewing Operations.
Sounds like it should be a fun event.
Here’s a partial list of beers that will be poured at the event.
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Next week begins the eight annual Big Beers Festival in Vail, Colorado. There are quite a variety of different events going throughout the three-day festival. TO see for yourself, check out the schedule online. Tickets can also be purchased online.
From the website:
Imagine a World Class Winter Wonderland of fun activities in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado…and then top off your trip with a World Class International Beer Festival, complete with Brewmasters’ Dinners and Seminars by some of the world’s most innovative Brewers…
Join us for the Eighth Annual Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival Weekend! Come up to Vail to experience the event that beer connoisseurs are raving about. Homebrewers, Professional Brewers and Industry Gurus alike speak highly with regard to the unique format, the unusual international collection of beers, the organization and the overall quality of the event. For those of you who are Big Beers Festival veterans, this Eighth Annual event promises to be exceptional, touting two new seminars and an additional beer dinner!
1.10-12
Big Beer Festival (8th annual)
Sponsored by High Point Brewing in Denver
Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa, 715 West Lionshead Circle, Vail, Colorado
970.476.4444 (hotel) / 970.524.1092 (sponsor) [ website ] [ tickets ]
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Downtown Bar & Grill, located in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York at 160 Court Street, will be hosting a pretty spectacular tasting of Dogfish Head beers on the 27th of November, including the debut releases for 2007 of World Wide Stout, Pangaea, and Golden Era, along with seven other Dogfish Head beers on draft. The festivities will begin at 6:00 p.m.
I just got word that the Wet Hop Festival originally scheduled to take place this weekend at Tom Nickel’s place, O’Brien’s Pub, in San Diego, California has been postponed one week due to the fires raging through southern California.
From the press release:
I am going to postpone the Wet Hop Festival until next weekend, November 2nd, 3rd and 4th. I will have some wet hop beers on tap this weekend. Right now we have several from Sierra Nevada including Harvest Ale, 20th Street Fresh Hop Ale and the ESP — Extra Special Pale, which is the pale ale with wet hops added. I should also have the Port Brewing High Tide IPA on tap this weekend. I am still expecting about 25 beers for next weekend and we will have the Harvest and Riptide casks on tap on Friday, November 2nd.
Other word on the street is both Stone Brewing and Ballast Point are open again after being evacuated earlier this week.
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If you’re a regular Bulletin reader you might think I drink nothing except beer, but that’s not at all true. I enjoy many different alcoholic beverages such as wine, especially heavy reds and fortified wines like Late Bottled Vintage Port, along with sake, hard cider, gin and other spirits. But I’m especially fond of whisky and, naturally, single malt scotch though I don’t generally write about it because my knowledge of it is restricted to that of happy amateur. I’ve skimmed Michael Jackson’s book Whisky, Jim Murray’s and a few others but generally I leave it to the experts. Happily, I know a few of them. One is John Hansell who’s been in the business for going on twenty-five years now and for many of them has been publishing Malt Advocate magazine, undoubtedly the best American whisky periodical. He also recently started a blog on the world of whisky called What Does John Know? My good friends Stephen Beaumont and Lew Bryson also write regularly for Malt Advocate.
Malt Advocate has been putting on tasting and educational events called WhiskyFests in New York and Chicago for a number of years, and this year they’re finally coming to San Francisco. WhiskyFest is exactly like it sounds, a festival where you can sample whisky and other libations, but it also includes an educational component with a number of speakers. And not only that, it will be the biggest whisky event in the country. If you love whisky, join me at WhiskyFest. It should be a blast.
It will take place in three weeks, on October 23 from 6:30-10:00 pm at the Hyatt Regency at 5 Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco. Tickets are $105 for regular admission or $145 for VIP admission, which gets you in an hour earlier. Tickets include all sampling, speakers and a gourmet buffet. You can get advance tickets online at Malt Advocate or by phone at 800.610.MALT.
From the website:
What will be poured?
More than 250 of the world’s finest and rarest whiskies will be available for sampling, featuring premium single malt and blended Scotch whiskies, the best bourbons and Tennessee whiskeys, top of the line Irish whiskeys, Japanese whisky and the best from Canada. Visit Malt Advocate for an up-to-the-minute list of what will be available for sampling.
Who will be speaking?
The focus is on education, and many well-known distillery managers and distillery representatives will be on hand at the pouring booths to explain how the whiskies are made. Thirteen of the world’s leading distillery managers and master blenders will be conducting seminars throughout the evening including:
- Stephen Beal, Master of Whisky, Classic Malts
- Parker Beam, Master Distiller, Heaven Hill
- Simon Brooking, Global Brand Ambassador, The Dalmore & Laphroaig
- John Campbell, Distillery Manager, Laphroaig
- Ronnie Cox, Director, The Glenrothes
- John Hall, Whisky Maker, Kittling Ridge
- Lincoln Henderson, Whisky Expert, Suntory
- Ian Millar, Master Distiller, Glenfiddich
- Chris Morris, Master Distiller, Woodford Reserve
- Fred Noe, Jim Beam’s Great Grandson
- Richard Paterson, Master Distiller, The Dalmore
- John Scharffenberger, President, ScharffenBerger Chocolate
- Joy Spence, Master Blender, Appleton Rum
10.23
Hyatt Regency Hotel, 5 Embarcadero, San Francisco, California
800.610.MALT [ website ] [ tickets online ]
Fresh Hop or Wet Hop beers have been an exciting development over the last ten years, ever since Sierra Nevada created the first one with their Harvest Ale around 1996. The number of breweries making these beers has grown exponentially since that time and the limited nature of these beers make them something beer lovers eagerly anticipate each fall. This year, the Oregon Brewers Guild has paired up with Oregon Bounty, part of the state’s official tourism organization, “to produce a series of “Tastivals” to celebrate the release of Oregon’s fresh hop beers.”
From the press release:
These much anticipated seasonal beers are brewed only once a year during hop harvest, which typically takes place in late August and early September. Beers created using fresh hops instead of traditional dried hops are given unique flavors that simply aren’t available the rest of the year. Similar to a beer festival, each of the four “Tastivals” will offer visitors the opportunity to sample some of the more than 30 beers from across the state crafted using fresh-off-the-vine hops.
“Fresh hops are extremely fragile and need to be dried or used in a brew within 24 hours of picking — so this type of beer is uniquely suited to Oregon where we have the largest amount of aroma and flavor hops grown locally,” says Brian Butenschoen, Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. “Nowhere else in the United States are so many breweries located so close to the hop fields. The tastivals will give hop enthusiasts an opportunity to celebrate harvest by tasting the enormous variety of fresh hops grown in Oregon and made into beers by Oregon’s craft brewers.”
Fresh Hop “Tastivals” will be held every Saturday during the month of October with scheduled locations including:
- October 6: Hood River Hops, Hood River
- October 13: McMenamins Edgefield, Troutdale
- October 20: Ninkasi Brewing Company, Eugene
- October 27: Deschutes Brewery, Bend
Admission to the Tastivals is free of charge. Souvenir tasting glasses are required to sample beers and are available for $5. Beer samples are $1 each. Food will also be available for purchase.
That sounds like it will be a fun time at any one of those events.
More about Oregon Bounty:
If you enjoyed this post or the Bulletin generally, please consider buying me a pintEach October and November, Oregon’s winemakers, cheese makers, brewmasters, chefs, growers and producers come together for a celebration of Oregon Bounty. In addition to intimate food and wine events, visitors can purchase special packages that offer them one-on-one time with Oregon’s culinary talent. Visitors can spend the day making wine with an Oregon vintner, making suds with a craft brewmaster, foraging for chanterelles in Mt. Hood’s foothills-even cruising a farmers’ market with a local chef in search of ingredients for a private cooking class. It’s all part of the annual Oregon Bounty Celebration.
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