SF Beer Week hosts a ton of beer related events within the span of about a week (duh). There are multiple events all over the bay each day of the week, but the majority of them take place in San Francisco. If I had my way, I'd go to at least one event each day and spend my beer week in a beery haze. Sadly, I only made it out to 3. 

SF Beer Week Kickoff -Mission Creek Brewery

San Jose

The new-ish brewery at the new-ish Whole Foods in San Jose has been on my radar since it opened. A short walk away from the SAP Center, this sweet new brewpub is on the second floor and is completely open so you can see out into the streets.

They advertised this as a carnival of sorts, but really the only beer week thing about it is the SF Brewers Guild collaboration Frontier. It's a Kolsch made by Fort Point in San Francisco, and it was a nice and clean tasting beer, but nothing really special.

All in all, Mission Creek has a chill space with some pretty solid hoppy beers. I will be back for sure!

• Fort Point - New Frontier Kolsch
• King Harbor - Coconut IPA
• Mission Creek - Retro Hops
• Mission Creek - Centarillo
• Mission Creek - Curry for 3 (Citra bomb!)
• Mission Creek - Plant 51 Porter
• Sierra Nevada - Rubotto Sour Saison

Firestone Walker Proprietors Vintage Takeover - Grape and Grain

San Mateo

My very first Firestone Walker tap takeover was at this awesome local beer bar, Grape and Grain. It was a DBA night featuring DBA, Cask DBA, and double DBA (now retired RIP). This was my first taste of anything from their Proprietors Vintage lineup and the double DBA just blew my mind. I've been hooked ever since and whenever I see one of their beers on the shelves I'm always tempted to just buy all the things since they're suitable for aging.

Firestone Walker's vintage line of beers are made up of barrel aged beauties that they release on their own or use in other blends. Seeing as they are in Paso Robles (underrated wine region), they partner with some really great wine blenders out there.  Their anniversary beer is the pinnacle of beer blending, and it's a different blend every year. If you drink one of these young, you can typically taste all of the components that went into the blend. If you sit on it for a few years, the flavors meld together. 

Grape and Grain had 2013 and 2016 anniversary on draft, as well as Parabola, Stickee Monkee, and a couple sours. Most of these beers were over 10% and a little dangerous, but I limited myself to four beers.   

• Parabola 2015
• Stickee Monkee 2015 (just a taste)
• Bretta Weisse 2015
• Agrestic 2016
• XVII Anniversary Ale (2013)

My Funky Valentine - Mission Cheese and Modern Times pairing

San Francisco

Nothing against wine, I love me a fine glass of wine. However, when it comes to food pairings, beer is a lot more versatile. Wine is pretty strict as to what can go in it, it's grapes. With beer you can throw whatever the hell you want in there and the adjunct the hell out of it. So when it comes to pairing with food, you have a higher variety of tastes available to you.

A beer and cheese pairing is something that I've been wanting to do with my friends, but I really didn't know where to start. Mission Cheese's Valentine's day beer and cheese pairing gives me a really good idea on how to pull this off. The beer, exclusively from Modern Times, ranged from sour to hoppy to chocolate/coffee. The cheese ranged from mild to funky. Every pairing was ON POINT. Some of the beer or cheese were just ok on their own, but the pairing really brought out new flavors in both the beer and the cheese.

Beer + Cheese Pairings

• Fruitlands Blood Orange & Hibiscus Gose & Martone cow/goat 
• Sleepless City Brown Ale (w/ coffee, cocoa nibs, and vanilla beans) & Donatello sheep 
• Triton Project IPA (w/ South African hops) & bandaged cheddar
• Symmetric Orchestra Sour & Fleur De La Vallee goat/sheep
• City of the Dead Stout (w/ bourbon barrel aged coffee) & Bayley Hazen Blue