Making my way back on BART from the the 11th Annual India Pale Ale fest at the the Bistro in downtown Hayward, CA. Wow: 51 IPAs from all over the West Coast, liberal tastes, great music, more than 800 people.

A bangup day. It was hard to leave. The winners in the professinally judged blind tasting:

Gold: Hop 15, from Pizza Port, Solana Beach (San Diego County). 7.5 percent ABV..

Silver: 21st Amendment IPA, 21st Amendment, San Francisco: 7.2 percent, 80 IBUs ( by comparison: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale’s about 39 IBU). Yes this is the one in cans being sold at Beverages and More.

Bronze: Gold Digger IPA, Auburn Alehouse, Auburn, CA., 68 IBU, 6.7 percent.

People’s Choice: (A vote by everyone who cared to vote.) Rockslide IPA, Fifty Fifty Brewing Co. Truckee. Rocslide was 70 IBUs, 7 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

Events and more events…
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Friday, Aug. 8, 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. KFOG, 104.5 FM (and live streaming www.kfog.com), broadcasts live from the 21st Amendment, 563 Second St.in San Francisco. Co-founder, head brewer Shaun O’Sullivan usually brings beer to the morning show hosts once a month at the studio. This time, they’re coming to the pub. This event’s open to the public, Shaun and his co-founder Nico Freccia say. Shaun’s even goint to unveil a special KFOG Morning Show Beer. The occasion, of course, is release of the two 21st beers in cans: Brew Free or Die! IPA and Hell and High Watermelon Wheat. Great beers, they’re in Beverage and More stores everywhere.

Saturday, Aug. 9, 11:30 a.m. - Closing time. Toronado’s 21st Anniversary “Coming of Age” Party. An impressive on tap list indeed:
Bear Republic - Black Mamba – Dark Belgian style wheat beer.
Deschutes - Black Butte XX Anniversary – Imperial porter (11%)
Full Sail - Prodigal Sun IPA
New Belgium Brewing - Foedre 3 – Sour, wood aged barrel selection
Moonlight - Of Legal Age – A dark lager aged with pinot noir grapes
Oud Beersel - Framboise – Belgian lambic aged in wood with raspberries
Ommegang Grand Cru Rouge – Brewed by Bocker in Belgium for Ommegang, spontaneously fermented and aged in wood.
Port Brewing - 2nd Anniversary Imperial IPA (9.5%)
Schneider - Aventinus Eisbock (12%)
Stone - 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout (9.2%)
Russian River - Beatification – Oak aged sour beer from Vinnie

Limited cellar release of special bottles (available to go) including:
Lost Abbey Cable Car
Russian River Temptation
Russian River Supplication
Russian River Beatification
Toronado 20th Anniversary

21st Anniversary “Coming of Age” T-Shirts

No admission charge, just pay for your beer. See you there. Gonna wobble in after the Bistro’s 11th Annual IPA fest in Hayward earlier (11 a.m. - 7 p.m.)

It’s official: Firehouse Brewing is adding a second location in East Palo Alto. Russ, one of our regular posters spotted the burgeoning pub across from Ikea. Firehouse manager Edward Tamez confirms it. He said opening is scheduled for October, the third anniversary of Firehouse Grill & Brewery, 111 S. Murphy Ave. in Sunnyvale.

It’s in the Ikea East Palo Alto Shopping Center. Tamez said it’s a brewpub. But there will be no beer brewed on premises. Instead, it will be brewed at Firehouse, Sunnyvale. That’s hardly bad news. Brewer Steve Donohue does a great job. He has three regulars always on tap in Sunnyvale ad a rotating list of specials; I’ve had a few of them, includng an excellent high octane IPA and an Imperial Stout. Really liked both.

Quote of the day: A recent study found the average American walks about 900 miles per year. Another study found Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of beer a year. That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon. Kind of makes you proud to be an American….

Moving on…Ed Ledger, Ledger’s Liquor, 1399 University Ave., reports he just got in a new shipment of Pizza Port beers; Monument Wine & Spirits Concord and City Beer also have an excellent stock.

Events: The inaugural “canning out” (that catchy phrase comes from a poster to this blog) of the new 21st Amendment beers in cans, Live Free or Die! IPA and Hell or High Watermelon Wheat, begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 22 at the Toronado, 547 Haight St. A poster to this blog spoted the cans already on sale at a BevMo in San Francisco…

Speaking of canned craft beer – Skot Colacicco, co-founder with Alec Stefansky, of Uncommon Brewers, a brand new Belgian-style, craft brewery at 303 Potrero St. in Santa Cruz have canned their first beer and it’s most unusual: Siamese Twin Ale. It’s an 8.5 percent, Belgian-style double, spiced with lemon grass and Kefir lime. It’s “can conditioned.” That is, a bit of priming sugar’s added to each can so the beer will continue a slow, secondary fermentation. I tried it, found it surprisingly dry with a spicy edge. Their second beer, which will be canned sometime within the next year or so, is Golden State Ale. Loved this one, 6.5 percent, with toasted poppy seeds. Alec says Siamese Twins should be at New Leaf Markets in Felton and Bould Creek next week and other New Leaf stores later on. There are several around Santa Cruz.

The beer’s also going to pubs in the Santa Cruz area in unique KeyKegs, made by an industrial consortium in the Netherlands. They’re 30 liter, recyclable, but not reusable plastic kegs becoming popular in Europe for wine. Uncommon Brewers, which is certified 100 percent organic by CCOF, the Santa Cruz-based organic certification organization, likes the idea of disposable, but recyclable kegs. They’re much cheaper than standard kegs and aren’t subject to theft like regular kegs.

• MORE EVENTS: This comes from Jeannie at Northwest Brewing News… Tonigh in Portland, check out Fred Eckhardt’s Annual Beer and Cheese Tasting at Rogue Ales Public House in Portland, OR. There will be 10 microbrews and 10 cheeses. More information is available at: www.rogue.com.
• July 23rd Oregon Brewers Dinner & Pairing at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. This annual barbeque is to kick off the festival weekend: Reservations are required. More information is available at www.oregonbeer.org.
• July 24-27 is the 21st Annual Oregon Brewers Festival at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. This is a great festival and will feature beers from all over the northwest as well as other parts of the country. More information is available at: www.oregonbrewfest.com

Photo: Alec Stefansky with a disposable, but recyclable Euro KeyKeg.

I may be wrong, but I believe the Toronado,547 Haight St., San Francisco, is hosting its first-ever “Can Release Party” next week. Dare I call it a “can opening party?” The day is Tuesday, July, 22. The time is 6-9 p.m. and the event is the inaugural flight of 21st Amendment’s Hell or High Watermelon Wheat and Brew Free! or Die IPA in cans.

No admission charge, buy your own cans. Meet 21st Brewer-Co-founder Shaun O’Sullivan and business partner, co-founder Nico Freccia.

Be there or be square.

Oddbits…The canned IPA and Watermelon Wheat from 21st Amendment in San Francisco will be in stores in San Francisco next week and in Beverages and More stores in the East Bay, North Bay and South Bay in the first week of August. Live Free or Die IPA is dynamite, as good an IPA as you can find. Hell or High Watermelon Wheat is unusual, tasty…They’re brewed for 21st at Cold Springs Brewing, Cold Springs, MN.

…Don’t think beer festival benefits benefit anyone? Consider the 8th Annual “Fermenting Change” Microbreweries Battling Breast Cancer fest at, Marin Brewing, Larkspur, last Saturday. Fest organizer Jenn Procopio says they’re donating $40,000 to the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, a clinic offering cancer services to low income women, with offices in Berkeley and San Francisco. That’s up $5,000 from last year…

...A regular blog poster notes that Firehouse Grill & Brewery in Sunnyvale is opening a new pub across the street from Ikea in Palo Alto. Haven’t called ‘em yet. Will post something later…Going to the Great American Beer Festival, Oct. 9-11 in Denver this fall? Better buy your tickets now. The Brewers Association is predicting all sessions will sell out before the fest begins. Happened last year for most sessions…Get tickets at beertown.org. If you;’re not going, stay tuned to this blog. I’m gonna be there from Thursday, Oct. 9 through Saturday and will post constantly. Also, The Brewing Network plans to attend and Webcast live from the convention center where the GABF is held.

Last note,,,my spies tell me that Craig Wathen at City Beer, 1168 Folsonm St. in San Francisco has a stock of Alesmith (San Diego) beers including the luxe Speedway Stout…

Just heard from John Martin, who owns Triple Rock in downtown Berkeley. He confirms that he has hired fiormer Drake’s ace brewer Rodger Davis to be head brewer at Triple Rock.

Haven’t reached Rodger, but John says he starts Monday.

He succeeds Christian Kazakoff, who has really made a mark for himself as head brewer at Triple Rock for the last five years. Christian has signed on as headbrewer for Michael Altman at Iron Springs in Fairfax in Marin County.

It’s a win-win deal for beer drinkers. Christian is a great brewer and Mike Altman has won tons of awards at Iron Springs and previously in Boulder, CO. where he brewed at Mountain Sun.

Rodger was the longtime brewer at Drake’s in San Leandro; his experiments with barrel aged beer have been truly outstanding. He left with the idea of starting his own brewpub, with his wife, Claudia, who works at 21st Amendment in San Francisco.

They hit a roadblock: the worsening economic situation, so it remains a dream for now. But it will happen and when it does, wow. But for now, welcome to Triple Rock Rodger. We’re your fans. And welcome to Iron Springs Christian. I now have another reason trek over to Marin.

Photo: Rodger Davis ad Drake’s in 2005.

On the new beer beat….talk about a beer that’s under wraps — A Stone Brewing rep told me this about how Stone’s 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout is beiing protected before it’s July 7 release: “:Right now it’s in sealed pallets on the top shelves of my distributors coolers with strict orders not to open them until next week, not even for me!

About the beer…tasting notes…
This beer pours deep black with a rich brown head of foam. The aroma is dominated by roast malt and cocoa. Upon tasting, the cocoa (we used unsweetened, unprocessed cacao sourced through our friends at Chuao Chocolatier) really comes through with a deep chocolate flavor and a long lasting bitter finish. The roasted grains used add coffee and licorice accents. It is a thick beer, but not sweet, with the addition of oatmeal in the mash providing a rich, silky mouthfeel that adds to the creamy texture.

Meanwhile, there’s news on another beer, Jon Weber who writes the Beer Obsessed blog says Ed Ledger, of Ledger’s Liquors in Berkeley told him that Russian River’s Pliny the Elder in bottles will be on his shelves in August He’s also hoping to have the two new 21st Amendment beers in cans soon, Live Free or Die IPA and Hell or High Water Watermelon Wheat. They’re being made at Cold Springs Brewing, Cold Springs, MN.