California Craft Beer Week Returns This July

California craft beer week returns! Craft beer guilds across the state have come together to bring California Craft Beer Week (CCBW) to fruition. Read More

21st Amendment & CLS Hop Farms | Close Encounters of the Hop Kind DIPA

21st Amendment recently released their Imperial IPA collaboration with family-owned hop farm, CLS Farms. Close Encounters of the Hop Kind is a Double IPA using some of the new and innovative hops coming out of Yakima Valley. Eric Desmarais, co-founder of CLS, was on hand at a recent event to walk people through the process that brewers go through to chose certain hops. Using El Dorado, Cashmere, Zappa, and their new CLS-X14 as examples for what different hops evoke and express.

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Firestone Walker’s Mind Haze Light is the Perfect Low Cal, Low Carb Summer Crusher

As mindfulness and wellness continue to become a greater focus for beer drinkers, it often feels like having to choose one or the other when it comes to selecting beer. More often than not, drinkers are left deciding between full-flavor, full-body beers with high calorie and carb counts, or sacrificing flavor for lower-calorie, low ABV, better-for-you beers.

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Top Finds From the 2022 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival

Over the past decade, it has become a little easy to take certain elements of the craft beer industry for granted. During that time, the country’s craft brewery count has swelled from just under 2,000 to over 9,000. Similarly, beer festivals, which were once more thoughtfully curated, intimate opportunities to interact with brewers while exploring an exciting array of newly released beers, have grown to become commodities and in many cases, a cash cow for event production companies that rarely have any actual ties to the industry.

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Can’t-Miss Beers to Try at the Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival

This weekend’s Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival will once again boast one of the more impressive lineups of beer producers from across the globe. But despite being such a great problem to have, being presented with such a formidable lineup of all-star beers, can sometimes feel a bit daunting. So we decided to help sift through the sea of phenomenal beers to highlight a few that have particularly piqued our interest. More selfishly, while we could easily just stick to the incredible lineup of Lagers available at the FWIBF, this was more an exercise in helping us to plan our own routes so we’re not scrambling the day of the festival.

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Claimstake Brewing | Hit Me With Your Best Hops

Are you looking for some old-school dank bitterness with some new school hops? Hit Me With Your Best Hops, just might be the answer. Claimstake Brewing has definitely dialed up the bitterness but did it in a way without knocking you out. Read More

2022 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival Pour List Announced

We are just a week and a half away from the grand return of the 2022 Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival taking place in Paso Robles, CA on Saturday, June 4. Having built a reputation as one of the most celebrated festivals within the craft beer industry the FWIBF returns after a COVID-induced hiatus with another all-star cast of breweries.

Not only are some of the best of the best breweries represented from around the globe, but a festival of this caliber always brings out the rarest beers as well. In addition to the usual hyped barrel-aged styles typically found at destination festivals, it’s refreshing to see a wider representation of world-class lagers as well.

Be sure to check back as we break down some of the can’t-miss beers to try at this year’s Firestone Walker Invitational Beer Festival, but for now, enjoy a look at the initial pour list. Tickets are SOLD OUT for this year’s festival as last year’s ticket holders were offered first right of refusal. Keep in mind, as with all beer festivals, pour lists are subject to change, but this serves as a nice preview of what’s anticipated from each brewery.

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Brewery Showcase | Best Day Brewing

San Francisco-based Tate Huffard is an avid outdoorsman with a passion for craft beer. The two typically go hand-in-hand quite well – what better way to finish off a bike ride or a day on the slopes than stopping at a local brewery afterwards? However, over time, he noticed that the “question of a hangover” started to get in the way of the things he wanted to do.

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Ultimate 6er | Road Trip Regional Edition: Pacific

Join us as we road trip across the United States in what is to be a follow up article to the Craft Beer Across America article. In that article we explored a craft beer from every state (excluding districts and territories) to showcase some of the unknown, or lesser-known crafter beers that the U.S. craft beer scene has to offer. While that article focused mainly on the beers, this article focuses on specific breweries from a region we think would be fun to visit. We’re going to sprinkle in a couple of bigger craft breweries in each six-brewery regional section just to help spread the word for some of the not-so-big breweries in the mix.

This is by no means a “best of” brewery list. We just wanted to highlight some breweries that brew excellent beer and have great environments and to possibly fine out more about what they do other than brew beer. Please join us as we start our road trip with the Pacific Region which includes Washington, Oregon and California.

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Event Recap | East Bay Kick-off Party SF Beer Week

With Covid numbers surging yet again in the winter of 2021, the Bay Area Brewers Guild knew that they would have to go with an alternate plan for the kick off to Beer Week. The usual opening gala for the start of San Francisco Beer Week would have to be split up, five different venues, each one in a different region of the Bay Area. As I did not have the time or liver to do all five in a night, only one was attended.
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Wild Fields Brewhouse | Mountain Moonlight Oatmeal Stout

What comes to your mind when you think of a comfort beer? That beer you open and that first taste conjures up a feeling of relaxation. Maybe it brings back memories of sitting around a campfire with friends. Maybe just sitting on a patio watching the night sky or maybe just a quiet spot to relax. Read More

Modern Times Beer To Close Four Locations

Modern Times Beer announced on Monday via their Instagram accounts and a blog on their website that they will be closing four of their satellite taprooms. Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, and Santa Barbara will all be closed for good after Friday, Feb 18.

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Firestone Walker Brewing | Hopnosis IPA

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. released Hopnosis IPA today. This West Coast IPA is made primarily with Mosaic Cryo hops and is a product of years of work to perfect this style of beer.

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Event Preview | San Francisco Beer Week 2022

With somehow only a year without San Francisco Beer Week, this weekend marks its comeback. February 11-20 brings with it 10 days of beer fests, brewery activities, and beer releases. Although the usual grand, almost 150-brewery attended, gala that usually kicks off the week has had to be altered, it’s good to see that such an anticipated yearly event has returned.

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Brewery Showcase | Dokkaebier (Bay Area Craft Brewery)

What if we told you there was a Korean American owned craft brewery making waves in California? What if we went even further to explain that they use Korean inspired ingredients like bamboo, kimchee, Szechuan peppercorn and Asian fruit like yuza? If you find yourself intrigued like we were, then read on to find out more about DOKKAEBIER, a contract-brewery in the San Francisco, CA area.  Read More

Pennyweight Craft Brewing | Jefecito Milk Stout

With original plans to open in March of 2020 in downtown Livermore (California), Pennywight Craft Brewing quickly had to shift focus. Like so many other breweries, the constant change in recommendations and rules left them to think on their feet. As soon as local regulations allowed, they started selling growlers and crowlers and even managed to have a full kitchen up and running by late June of 2020. Tenacity and focus were requirements to stay afloat.
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Highland Park Brewery | Timbo Pils

Beer trends are a flat circle, or something like that. After years of being inundated with the thickest, juiciest, chewiest IPAs, it seems the pendulum might be swinging back towards the newest trends of the 1850s. Pilsners, hoppy Lagers, and other “cleaner” beers, like baggy pants and oversized sweater vests, are suddenly fashionable again, but what happens when you combine styles old and new? Highland Park Brewery Timbo Pils is here to show you the best of both worlds.

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Homeward Bound | A Head Brewer’s Uphill Journey

The role of Head Brewer is highly coveted in the beer industry, and for good reason. Sure, the job has its challenges. There are high-demand ingredients to obtain, brewing shifts to arrange, and equipment to tend to. There’s a leadership element, too, that’s critical to success – an area where many brewers have fallen short at best, or been willfully negligent, resulting in pain and trauma for others.

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Mother Earth Brew Co. | Cali Creamin’ Vanilla Cream Ale

Have you ever been asked to haul beer for someone because they know you can drive back to them? This was the situation for me just a month ago with Mother Earth Brew Co.‘s flagship beer, Cali Creamin’ Vanilla Cream Ale. I ended up driving back a case for my sister. This wasn’t the first time either.

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Revision Brewing Co. | Hana Vision West Coast IPA

As fall weather commences in parts of the country, Nevada’s Revision Brewing Co. invites you to take a vacation and gamble on a West Coast IPA. Brewed in collaboration with Honolulu-based Hana Koa Brewing Co., Hana Vision features both tropical and piney attributes, making this IPA ideal for both the tropical beach or the arid, desert-like ecology of Nevada. 

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