This is really an advertisement, but it’s for a worthy cause, rehabbing the Sonoma Communty Center. I’m going to be there with a couple of ace homebrewers and Sheana Davis of Epicurean Connection. There’s be a whole lot of beer, paired with Sonoma C0unty cheese and a chance to ask questions about beer and cheese.

The number to call for reservations is: 707-938-4626 ext. 1. The address is: 276 East Napa St., Sonoma, CA.

Here’s the scoop:

As the days warm up, the world of beer festivals gets into high gear. Here’s a listing of some noteworthy events…

Thursday, May 8, 6-9 p.m. The Trappist, 4608th St., Oakland, CA.  Achouffe & Ommegang Glass night. $6 for the first glass of Achouffe Houblon, refills are only $5. You keep the glass. And $5 for the first glass of Ommegang Rare Vos or Ommegeddon, refills are only $4. You keep the glass. If you’ve never tried Ommegeddon, this beer alone is worth the trip.

Thursday, May 8, 5:30 p.m., Anchor Brewing hosts Charles Bamforth, Brewing Sciences Chair, UC Davis, author of a new book: Grape vs. Grain: A Historical, Technological, and Social Comparison of Wine and Beer, (Cambridge Pess, $27) Here’s a note about the the book:

Charles Bamforth is a brewing scientist. One of the best. He’s been bothered for a while with a nagging question: why do many people consider wine to be more sophisticated than beer? Is it really better? Healthier? Why do most fancy restaurants have massive wine lists and a few token beer selections?

Bamforth picks apart the complex social, cultural, and scientific histories of both beverages. He has quite a few suprising insights about the (often highly scientific) production of both beer and wine. He’s not seeking to take wine down a notch, but to elevate beer to its proper place, right next to wine, demonstrating just how healthy and complex a beverage it really is.

Anchor Brewing, 1705 Mariposa St., San Francisco. Open to the public, no charge.

Saturday, May 10, 7 p.m. CD Release Party, Ray & The Detonators, The Bistro, 1001 B. St., Hayward, CA. Not exactly a beer event, but great music and the Bistro’s outstanding beer selection right at hand.

Sunday, May 11, Conversations on Cheese, Wine & Beer. Guest Speaker: William Brand (yes, that’s me). Guest Home Brewers Matt Ridge, Ukiah, and Sean Paxton, Sonoma. Craft Brew Bar including beers from Russian River Brewing Company, Lagunitas Brewing Company, Marin Brewing Company, Moylan’s Brewing Company and Rogue Ales. Cheese provided by Sheana Davis, The Epicurean Connection. 3-4 p.m. Conversations, 4-5 p.m. Beer and cheese tasting. Sonoma Community Center, 276 East Napa St., Sonoma, CA. $20. Reservations: 707-938-4646, ext. 1. All proceeds to the Sonoma Community Center Kitchen Rebuilding Fund. This will be a free-wheeling event, with questions from the audience welcome.

Tuesday, May 13, 6 p.m. Monk’s Kettle, 3141 16th St., San Francisco, CA. Sam Adams Beer Dinner celebrating American Craft Beer Week. Three-course beer dinner with Sam Adams Brewer Grant Wood, $50. Reservations: 415-865-9523. See you there!

May 16-17 SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, Washington DC, Andrew Mellon Auditorium. Sponsored by the Brewers Association, the Boulder, CO. craft beer trade group to mark American Craft Beer Week, May 12 -18. This is a BIG DEAL. There will be three dinners, featuring 96 craft beers from 48 craft breweries across the country and 35 foods, prepared by Federal City Caterers in tapas-size portions. Julia Herz of the Brewers Association says pours will be two ounces; the idea is to sample the tapas, sample a beer and go on to the next beer and the next tapa. Kind of like the Great American Beer Fest with food and no medals.

Here’s a partial list of some of the brewers who will be there: Tomme Arthur - Port Brewing Company, Adam Avery - Avery Brewing Company, Peter Bouckaert - New Belgium Brewing Company, Sam Calagione - Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Greg Koch - Stone, Jim Koch - Boston Beer Company, Garrett Oliver - The Brooklyn Brewery, Hugh Sisson - Clipper City Brewing Company, Carol Stoudt - Stoudts Brewing Company and Rob Tod - Allagash Brewing Company

Lots of California brewers and their beer will be present, including 21st Amendment (San Francisco), Hoppy Brewing (Sacramento), Port Brewing (San Marcos), , Russian River (Santa Rosa) . Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing (Santa Cruz) , Sierra Nevada (Chico) , Stone (Escondido). There are all kinds of presentations and events besides thje actual dinners. I’m going, it’s one not to miss. If you think you’d like to go, get tickets now. They won’t be sold at the door. You can buy them here. $85.

Because of all the brewers in town, there are going to be all kinds of events at local pubs and restaurant. Greg Kitsock writes about them in the Washington Post.

Dogfish night at the Toronado was a rousing success. By 7 p.m. when I left, the place was jumping. Toronado had (and most likely still has) six Dogfish Head beers on tap.

Three are being distributed in bottles/4 packs in the Bay Area (but not in the East Bay or in San Mateo County). Problem is supply. Dogfish has alloted the distributor here, DBI one container load a month. Period.

The three, as I said earlier are 90 Minute IPA, Midas Touch and Palo Santo Marron.

Besides those, the Toronado also has 2006 Chateau Jiahu, 2007 Immort Ale and 2007 Olde School Barley Wine.

Toronado proprietor David Keene with a glass of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA

Curious about this unusual trio. Here’s some info from the Dogfish Web site:

Chateau Jiahu: Let’s travel back in time again (Midas Touch was our first foray), this time 9000 years! Preserved pottery jars found in the Neolithic villiage of Jiahu, in Henan province, Northern China, has revealed that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit was being produced that long ago - right around the same time that barley beer and grape wine were beinginning to be made in the Middle East!
Fast forward to 2005…. Molecular Archeologist Dr. Patrick McGovern of the University of PA calls on Dogfish Head to re-create their second ancient beverage and Chateau Jiahu is born.
In keeping with historic evidence, Dogfish brewers used pre-gelatinized rice flakes, Wildflower honey, Muscat grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit, and Chrysanthemum flowers. The rice and barley malt were added together to make the mash for starch conversion and degredation. The resulting sweet wort was then run into the kettle. The honey, grapes, Hawthorn fruit, and Chrysanthemum flowers were then added. The entire mixture was boiled for 45 minutes, then cooled. The resulting sweet liquid was pitched with a fresh culture of Sake yeast and allowed to ferment a month before the transfer into a chilled secondary tank.
8% abv
Truly, a unique beer.Immort Ale: Vast in character, luscious & complex. Brewed with peat-smoked barley, this strong ale is brewed with organic juniper berries, vanilla & maple syrup. It’s aged on oak and fermented with a blend of English & Belgian yeasts.
11% abv
40 ibu

Olde School Barley Wine: Bold, yet smooth! Fermented with dates and figs, this bone-crusher has a completely unique flavor.
15% abv

But wait, there was more. With the help of a Dogfish staffer, the Toronado assembled three cheeses to pair with the beers, which were served in mercifully small white wine glasses. First plates and the beer went to employees of the two distributors DBI and Mesa in the Toronado’s back room. Then Sam Calagione and Toronado Proprietor David Keene poured out the first official glasses from the bar and it quickly became a wild, wild night.

Hint: Next time you’re in this amazing establishment, tip the bartenders well. They work their asses off. You’d have a bit of attitude to if you worked as hard as they do.

Everyone was glowing Monday night, including David Keene. Dogfish Head’s beers create some real excitement; people are interested and we’re glad to have them here, he said.

It’s passover and I didn’t taste the beers; friends said the 90-Minute IPA was dynamite, just about right for a strong IPA. Olde School was obviously big, but seductive with lots of sweetness that hid the alcohol. Immort Ale was very drinkable and Chateau Jiahu was wildly different, no one was sure what to think.

I remember tasting it last year at the Great American Beer Festival. Here’s what I wrote then: Hazy gold color, chrysanthemum nose, malty taste, wild, spicy follow. Besides, Greg Wiggins, of Mid-Atlantic Brewing News www.brewingnews.com, says, “It goes well with Chinese food. I know; I tried it,” he said.

Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head, says it will be bottled this month and some of it, no doubt’s headed to the Bay Area. Well, this will be one to bring to a party, huh.

It’s Monday night about 5 p.m. (April 21, 2008) and I’m in the back room at The Toronado in San Francisco in advance of the big event welcoming distribution of three Dogfish beers in the Bay Area for the first time: 90 Minute IPA, Midas Touch and Palo Santo Marron. But it’s Passover and I, curses, am drinking bottled water.

Sam Calagione, who founded Dogfish Head in 1995 after spending his college years as a homebrewer, devising stronger and stronger and weirder beers is also there. He’s tall, lithe, with a deep tan and a stubbly start of a beard. Women would definitely call him a hunk.

He’s drinking a soda. Sam was one of the featured brewers at Beer Chef Bruce Paton’s sold-out Five Guys and A Barrel beer dinner Sunday night at the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Van Ness. There was a whole lot of very strong beer consumed. More on that in a later post, hopefully tonight if I have the energy.

The San Francisco Chronicle is going to do a BIG DEAL on Sam. Jay Brooks is writing the piece and he has a sheaf of questions to ask. Chron photog Katy Raddatz is unwinding a roll of background paper and setting up lights. I told you it’s gonna’ be a big deal. So I have literally seconds to talk to Sam, whom I’ve interviewed many times before. He’s invariably polite and quite brilliant. Brilliant, hell, from a journalist’s standpoint, this guy’s a walking sound bite.

Me: You’ve been on a book and beer tour through California for the last few days. (The book is He Said Beer, She Said Wine. You can find my interview in the San Jose Mercury News with the authors here. How’s the sophistication of California beer drinkers compared with the rest of the country?

Sam: California is amazingly craft beer savvy…The beer IQ of the average California beer consumer dwarfs the average elsewhere. They not only understand craft beer, they have real preferences. They’ll tell me, ‘Yeah, I like hefes and ipa’s or I like imperial beers and extreme beers. They have a broader understanding of beer styles out here.

My friends with breweries out here, like Tomme Arthur (Port Brewing/Lost Abbey), Greg Koch (Stone), Vinnie (Cilurzo, Russian River) and Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada) have done great leg work in educating people to experience a wider breadth of styles. Because of what California craft brewers have done, breweries like ours that play on the outer edges of the craft beer world have a chance.

Me: So what’s the deal with Dogfish? Why’s it taken so long to get your beers out here?

Sam: We were in Southern California seven or eight yers ago. Our friends at Stone Brewing distributed us. But we grew so fast on the East Coast that we couldn’t keep up. The East Coast distributors got pissed at us. They said, ‘Stop selling beer out West until you can supply us around here.’

Well, we’ve just completed a $9 million expansion, We did 55,000 or 60,000 barrels last year and we’re on pace to do 75,000 or 80,000 this year. So we’re back.

Me: What are your biggest sellers?

Sam. We’re a little different than many craft brewers. We have four best-sellers: 60 Minute IPA is 40 percent of our sales, 90 minute IPA is 20 percent, Midas Touch and Indian Brown are about 10 percent each. 90 minute is 9 percent alcohol, 90 IBUs. It’s got big malt and hops and it’s our fastest-growing brand. It’s on track to pass overtake 60 Minute by 2010.

Here in California, we’ve come in initially with just three, 90 Minute, Midas TouchPalo Santo Marron and . They’re all in four packs, all 9 to 12 percent, so they have great shelf stability and can make that cross country journey in good shape.

Going into Georgia, we had great anticipation and within a month of opening distribution there Georgia became a top 10 market for us. The excitement here in California is even greater than it was in Georgia. I’m really hopeful and excited that our off-centered ales will be embraced by California beer drinkers.

LAST NOTE: Bob Stahl of DBI Distributing, the San Francisco distributor, says a four pack of 90 Minute IPA will have a suggested retail of $11.99, Midas Touch, $12.99; Palo Santo Marron, $13.99.

Are you a pub owner? Bob says a half-barrel will cost $200. For comparison, a half barrel of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is $110.

CORRECTION: I typo’d the name of the Dogfish distributor for Marin and Sonoma counties. It’s Mesa Beverages, Santa Rosa. Sorry about that. b

PHOTOS: Top - The crowd at the Toronado Monday night marking the beginning of distribution of Dogfish Head beers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Below: Sam Calagione hoists a pint of Dogfish at the Toronado. He’s standing in front of the Chronicle’s background paper. 

Credit: Photos by William Brand

It’s finally happening. Dogfish Head’s beers, well three of them, are officially being distributed in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting now.

The official kickoff is this coming Monday, April 21 at 6 p.m. at the Toronado, 547 Haight St., San Francisco.

Dogfish founder Sam Calagione will be on hand. The official name of the event is “Olde Beer and Moldy Cheese.”

Toronado will be pouring:

• 2007 Olde School Barleywine, served with Fiscalini Bandaged Cheddar (This cheese is a famous, raw, cow’s milk cheese from Modesto (Yes, Modesto).
• 2007 Immort Ale with Isle of Mull Cheddar. (This is a cheddar from the Isle of Mull in Scotland.) Immort Ale, Dogfish says…

Vast in character, luscious & complex. Brewed with peat-smoked barley, this strong ale is brewed with organic juniper berries, vanilla & maple syrup. It’s aged on oak and fermented with a blend of English & Belgian yeasts.
11% abv
40 ibu

• 2006 Chateau Jiahu with Berkswell cheese. (Berkswell is a very famous. sheep’s cheese from Coventry, England.) ….Well let me quote from Dogfish….

Preserved pottery jars found in the Neolithic villiage of Jiahu, in Henan province, Northern China, has revealed that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey and fruit was being produced that long ago - right around the same time that barley beer and grape wine were beinginning to be made in the Middle East! Read more…

There’s a tiny hitch about all this: Dogfish has a distributor for San Francisco, for Marin and Sonoma, but no one in the East Bay or the Peninsula or the South Bay Damn.For now those of us among the 2.8 million people who live over here who like Dogfish Beers will have to trek to San Francisco.

Oh yes…the Dogfish beers being distributed here initially are…
90 Minute Imperial IPA, Midas Touch, and Palo Santo Marron. Read about them here….

Late note: adding two more items…meet the brewer at The Trappist, SF Brewer’s Guild monthly sesssion

OK, I lag when it comes to calendar items. Hell, I was nearly late to my own wedding _ I was in San Pablo trying to strike a deal with the Salvadoran proprietor of a damaged goods store for a sports coat. This is truth. Twenty five years ago I was a free-lancer just back from Mexico and had no money. I got a deal and wore the sports coat for many years. And I got to the wedding with two hours to spare.

All right. Here we go. Got additions. Post ‘em here or shoot me an e-mail at whatsontap@sbcglobal.net

Saturday, April 12 Hop Rhizome Festival, Bistro, 1001 B. St. Hayward. 11a.m. until. Proprietor Vic Kralj will have a lengthy list of hoppy beers on tap, plus live music and barbeque all day. He’s also selling hop rhizomes at a nominal cost. Take some home and “grow your own.:” The Bay Area once was a big hop-growing region, but an infection spread through the hop fields and the last commercial hop fields — in Sonoma County — were plowed over in the 1940s. See you there! Info: www.the-bistro.com.

April 12, 2 p.m. Book Passage, San Francisco Ferry Building Store 1 Ferry Building, #42. San Francisco, CA 94111 Book signing, demonstrations, by He Said Beer, She Said Wine authors Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewing, Milton DE. and Marnie Old, director of wine studies at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. I caught them at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver last year. It’s quite a demonstration. Check out my interview with the authors and a couple of recipes in the San Jose Mercury News.

The book is absolutely excellent, discusses pairing both wine and beer with all kinds of food. Wine likes fatty food, beer can handle heat. I kind of sort of knew that, but now I really understand the concept.

April 1t, 6 - 9 p.m., Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, 1195A Evans Ave., San Francisco, CA. Meet the Brewers, San Francisco Brewers Guild, Meet the Brewers is a unique opportunity to get to know the local artisans behind the craft beers of San Francisco. These casual gatherings are held once a month (from 6-9pm) and rotate among
SF Brewers Guild breweries as well as a few other good beer establishments in the City. Brewery tours are given at 6pm, followed by an informal gathering of San Francisco brewers and beer lovers. Bring your questions and comments and learn more about San Francisco’s great beer-making tradition. Make it a monthly tradition of your own.

April 16-19 Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America, San Diego, CA,.this ends with announcement of the World Beer Cup winners, beers submitted by brewers around the world in many categories. Like the GABF, this Brewer’s Association event is professionally judgeed in blind tastings.

April 20, - Brewmasters’ Dinner: Five Guys and a Barrel featuring Russian River, Port Brewing, Avery, Allagash and Dogfish Head, Cathedral Hill Hotel, San Francisco, CA. - SOLD OUT.

Darren at bayareabrewing.com points out I’ve missed a couple of important events upcoming, one here in Oakland, one in San Francsaco:

April 21, 6 - 11 p.m. <strong>The Trappist - Meet the Brewer</strong>
The Trappist, 460 8th Street, Oakland CA 94607 Bee and Cold Plate pairing with <a href=”http://www.allagash.com/”>Allagash Brewing Company</a>
Founder & Brewer Rob Tod. This is a “Private” event and only 25
tickets will be sold. MAY BE SOLD OUT.

April 23, 6:30 p.m., Spring Brewmaster’s Dinner, Sacramento Brewing, Town and Country Village, 2713 El Paseo Lane, Sacramento, CA, $50. Five courses. Reservations: 916-485-4677.

April 25-26, 4th Annual Oregon Garden Craft Brewfest, Oregon Garden, Silverton, OR. Friday 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Saturday from noon to 11 p.m., $10. Includes food and live music. Participating breweries include Rogue Ales, Siletz Brewing Company, Lost Coast Brewery, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, Pelican Pub & Brewery, and Ram Restaurant & Brewery, as well as Fox Barrel Cider Company and Vitis Ridge Winery. Live music includes the Joe McMurrian Quartet with Jimmy Bott; Ty Curtis; John Koonce; Lloyd Jones; J.R. Sims & the Texas Special; and Franko and the Stingers. Info: (503) 874-8100.

April 26, Smithsonian, Washington D.C. , Behind the Barley Smithsonian Seminar with Jim Koch, (Boston Beer, Sam Adams), Paul Shipman (Redhook) and Charles Finkel, founder of Merchant du Vin and proprietor Pike Street Brewing. Info: www.residentassociates.org

April 26 25th annual San Francisco International Beer Festival, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA. This three-hour-long, (7-10 p.m.), $60 benefit at Fort Mason for a small private nursey school, Telegraph Hill Cooperative Nursery School, is sold out, the Web site says. Oh well. Always another fest, huh.
www.sfbeerfest.com

\

A recent Pleasanton Hotel dinner featuring the beers of Lagunitas.

April 30, 7 p.m., New Belgium Brewmaster’s Dinner, Pleasanton Hotel Restaurant, 855 Main St., Pleasanton, $50. Info: 925.846-8106. The hotel’s talented young chef pairs New Belgium’s eclectic beers with several courses.

Here’s the menu:

Frito Misto of calamari, rock shrimp and tilapia
with banana pepper butter sauce
Paired with Mothership WIT Organic Wheat Beer

Italian Sausage Calzone on balsamic dressed greens
Paired with Blue Paddle Pilsener

Fat Tire Marinated Bistro Filet on boursin whipped potatoes with broccolini and carrot-fat tire reduction
Paired with Fat Tire Amber Ale

Arugula Dressed with Goat Cheese-1554 Vinaigrette,
Herb marinated artichoke hearts and croutons
Paired with 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale

Pear and Apple Crisp ala mode with trippel caramel sauce.
Paired with Trippel Belgium Style Ale
www.pleasantonhotel.com

May 10, Oregon Micro Brew Festival, Corvallis, OR
www.oregonwi.com/events/events.cfm

May 10 Boonville Beer Festival, Boonville, CA 707-895-BEER www.avbc.com. This one is a lot of fun. You can camp out overnight. Beers from many craft brewers, live music. It’s a hoot. More info to come.

May 11, 3-5 p.m., Sonoma Community Center, 276 East Napa St., Sonoma, CA. Conversation With William Brand., and Northern California brewers, $20. Includes cheese and beer tasting, beers, cheese selected by Sheana Davis, The Epicurean Connection. Reservations: 707-938-4626. More about this to come.

(Why there are no photos – yet. I left my camera at the pub, haven’t picked it up yet.)

If you don’t think beer and cheese really go together, you should have been at the Rogue Public Alehouse in San Francisco on Wednesday (Feb. 13, 2008). All I can say is wow!
http://www.sheanadavis.com/
Sheana Davis, a chef who runs The Epicurean Connection in Sonoma did the pairings. Sheana did wine and cheese pairings for a long time, then her friends at the then-startup Lagunitas asked her to try a beer and cheese pairing for them. Those pairings also continue.

The folks at Rogue and Celebrator Beer News publisher Tom Dalldorf chose the beer. What a selection. The pairing drew about 50 people, from as far away as British Columbia, although that couple, John Dowling and his wife came here for the whole Beerapalooza weekend.

My top pairing? Easy: It was Magnolia Pub & Brewery’s Tweezer Tripel paired with Vella Fontinella and dried apricots. The beer is one of Magnolia brewer-founder Dave McLean’s contributions to Strong Beer Month. Both Magnolia and 21st Amendment brewed a string of strong beers which are on tap all month. Sample ‘em all and get a commemorative glass.

Tweezer (My rating ***1/2) , at 9.8 percent’s, no slouch of a beer. Made with a Belgian yeast, it has a fresh, earthy nose and starts out dry, but there’s a mounting sweetness and a lingering follow of ripe fruit. Delicious.

But then take a bite of the cheese – a raw milk cow’s cheese, which is Vella’s version of the Italian Fontina cheese – zap. Wowie! A ***** five star pairing. The cheese seemed to invade the palate and merge with the lingering beer follow, carving little pathways of sensory delight. I capped it off with a piece of dried apricot. Oh my. Heavenly. Vella has been in the town of Sonoma since 1931. You can find the cheese at any well-stocked cheese store in the Bay Area. It’s worth the hunt. Try it with a Belgian Trappist ale or perhaps Ommegang from Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY.

The next pair including one of my all-time favs, Russian River’s Pliny the Elder. At 8 percent, 100 IBU, it’s a hop bomb. Sheana paired it with Laura Chenel Cabecou, a creamy, nutty chevre (goat cheese). The acidity of the cheese did a nice job of balancing the hoppy, malty Pliny. A tough pairing to do. Nicely accomplished.

For non-foodies, Laura Chenel, single-handedly made goat cheese popular in the U.S., building her Sonoma County goat cheese company into a national icon before selling out in 2006 to The Rians Group, a French cheesemaker.

The next pairing also featured a stunning beer: The Beer Hunter, from 21st Amendment. Find more about this beer named in honor of the late English beer journalist Michael Jackson here. The beer, which is big and malty with lots of hops in our West Coast fashionm was paired with Bellwether Farms Crescenza, which is a soft and creamy cow’s milk cheese, also from Sonoma County.

Another super pairing: The beer envelops the cheese. It’s a pairing worth duplicating at home, one that will amzae and awe your friends, honest.

The piece de resistance was the closer: Rogue Chocolate Stout and bitter chocolate fondue, served with biscoti. Rogue Chocolate’s one of Rogue brewer John Maier’s signature beers: big, hoppy with a dry finish. It was a perfect counterbalance to the sweet-by-comparison bitter cocolate and the definitely sweet biscotti. What a night.

This one’s gonna’ happen again next year, so stayed tuned. Comments anyone. Question: Do you have a favorite pairing or a colossal failure, or do you think the whole idea’s way overrated. Post a comment here or shoot me an e-mail at whatsontap@sbcglobal.net.