HERE'S TO SF BEER WEEK!

And what a week it was!

Drake's was involved in more than a half-dozen different beer events over the week. Thanks to everybody who pitched in to organize the week, and to those that participated (breweries and beer lovers)! Also, thanks to Josh, Brian, Brad, & Dave for all the help during the week.

The week finished up with the great "Best of the West" Beer Festival put on by the Celebrator Beer News. (See photo.) Looking forward to next year!

-- John

BARREL-AGED LINE UP AT JUPITER & TRIPLE ROCK

SF BEER WEEK EVENT

TODAY! Tuesday, February 10th, at 4 pm

Here's the line-up for Jupiter & Triple Rock's Barrel-Aged Beer Night, starting this afternoon at 4pm. Rodger Davis and the gang has put together an incredible list of local, regional, national, and imported barrel-aged beers for you to try. Scroll down to a previous post, to get info on the Drake's barrel beers being poured.

Also, Sour Sunday went great! Everybody enjoyed the great variety of Sours that Rodger gathered. Special thanks to Josh, Brian, Jono, James, Jesse, George, Claudia & Rodger for pouring! The Barrel-Aged Night is going to be just as great!

Here's what's going to be poured today:

Allagash - Curieux
Ballast - Sea Monster
Beach Chalet - Dubbel
Blue Frog - XXX
Bruery - Blend
Dogfish Head - Palo Santo
Drakes - Frankenwine
Drakes - Impinoir
Drakes - (Anti?) Sideways Stout
Firestone Walker - Saucerful Secrets
Green Flash - Dbl. Bbl. Stout
HeBrew - Lenny on Rye
Hitachino - XHShochuCask
Iron Springs - Barleywine
Ithaca - Oaked Nut Brnown
Magnolia - Trippel
Mayfield - XXX
Moylans - Hopsickle
Sac. Brewery - Wheatwine
Schooners - Old Woody
Speakeasy - Hunter's Point Porter
Stone - 07 Vertical Epic
The Bruery - Blend
Thirsty Bear - Imperial Stout

Drake's barrel beers will be served with a variety of other local & imported barrel-aged beers at Triple Rock & Jupiter on Tuesday Feb 10th, from 4 pm til the beer runs out! Twenty bucks buys you a logo tasting glass and four pours of any style at either location. Four bucks per pour after that. If you attended the "Sour Sunday" event, bring your tasting glass! It's good for both events. For info on Jupiter visit www.jupiterbeer.com To learn more about Triple Rock go to www.triplerock.com For a flyer on the event click here.

Thanks for reading! -- The Drake

RAISE A GLASS TO BILL BRAND!

Last night at 7 pm, at the Drake's, Triple Rock, Iron Springs Beer Dinner, Tom Dalldorf lead us all in raising a glass to William Brand.

If you haven't heard, our great friend & "What's on Tap" blogger, Bill Brand, was critically injured Sunday night in a SF Muni accident.

We concur with Bobby G., who said in the comment section of Bill's blog, "we know you're tougher than a Muni train". Our thoughts are with Bill and his family. We are excited to hear this morning that his condition has stabilized.

Here's to a speedy recovery Bill! Can't wait to see you back out and about on the trail of great beer!

-- John Martin

SOUR BEER SUNDAY!

We just got the list of beers from Triple Rock Head Brewer Rodger Davis, for tomorrow's Sour Beer event at Jupiter & Triple Rock. Boy what a line-up! Here it is. And hey, congratulations to Rodger for just winning silver , for his IIMAXX ale, at the Bistro Double IPA Fest!

(If you checked this list Saturday night it included beers scheduled for the Tuesday Barrel-Aged Beer Night at Jupiter & Triple Rock, as well. This is the list for Sunday only. Thx.)

Ballast Point- Sour Wench
Bethelham - Framboise
Brewmaster - Signature Ale
Cantillion - Classic Gueuze
Cantillion - Kriek
Cherish - Rasp.Lambic
De Ranke - Cuvee
De Ranke - Kriek
Deproef - Seasonal
Desuhutes - The Dissadent
Drake's - Cherry Port
Drake's - Blueberry Port
Drake's - Brettamber
Drie - Gueze
Duchesse - De Bourgogne
Echte - Kriekenbier
Gordon Biersch - Hefe
Haandbryggeri - Haandbakk
Ithaca - Brute Golden
Jolly Pumkin' - Wit
Jolly Pumkn' - La Roja
Jolly Pumpkin - Stout
Monks Café - Sour Ale
Moonlight - 60 to life
Moonlight - Sourpuss
Petrus - Old Brown
Petrus - Aged Pale
Reinaert - Flem.Wild Ale
Rodenbach - Grand Cru
Russian River - Consecration
St.Somewhere - Dubbel
The Bruery - Blend
The Bruery - Berliner Weisse
Valley Brew - Effingreat
Zoetzuur - Flemish Red

Some great Drake's sours will be served with a variety of other local & imported sours at Triple Rock & Jupiter on Sunday, from 1 pm til the beer runs out! Twenty bucks buys you a logo tasting glass and four pours of any style at either location. Four bucks per pour after that. For info on Jupiter visit www.jupiterbeer.com To learn more about Triple Rock go to www.triplerock.com

Thanks for reading! -- The Drake

SF BEER WEEK EVENT - BARREL-AGED BEER NIGHT

Triple Rock & Jupiter to hold 1st Annual Barrel-Aged Beer Night!

This Tuesday some our Drake's barrel-aged beers will be coming out of the cellar, to be poured at the Triple Rock Brewery and Jupiter barrel-aged beer event, for SF Beer Week. Here's the line up!

Barleywine Aged in a Grenache Barrel (our "Frankenwinebarrel", Frankenwein in a wine barrel) Aged in barrels for 1.25 years. Strong raisin and brandy like aromas. Flavor is vinous with a little chocolate and cinnamon. Finishes strong at 10+% abv with a slightly astringent mouth feel from the wood. Served at Jupiter

Imperial Stout Aged in a Merlot Barrel (we call it "Anti-Sideways Stout")
Aged 1.25 years. Aroma of molasses and earthy red wine. Flavors of coffee and roasted malts with a full body and smooth subtle finish. Served at Triple Rock

Imperial Stout Aged in Pinot Noir ( a k a "Impinoir Stout")
Aged 1.25 years. Very vinous aroma of ripe fruitiness blends well with the chocolate of the Imperial Stout. Flavor expresses the character of the wine well with only a touch of oak from the barrel. Full bodied with crisp finish. Served at Jupiter

These Drake's barrel beers will be served with a variety of other local & imported barrel-aged beers at Triple Rock & Jupiter on Tuesday Feb 10th, from 4 pm til the beer runs out! Twenty bucks buys you a logo tasting glass and four pours of any style at either location. Four bucks per pour after that. If you attended the "Sour Sunday" event, bring your tasting glass! It's good for both events. For info on Jupiter visit www.jupiterbeer.com To learn more about Triple Rock go to www.triplerock.com For a flyer on the event click here.

Thanks for reading! -- The Drake

SF BEER WEEK -- "SOUR SUNDAY "

DRAKE'S BARREL-AGED BEERS AT TRIPLE ROCK & JUPITER

SF Beer Week Events! Drake's sister brewpubs, Triple Rock & Jupiter are holding two barrel-aged beer nights during the week. In this post we'll talk about the first one........

SOUR SUNDAY!

Both Jupiter & Triple Rock will be pouring a vast array of barrel-aged sours, this Sunday February 8th. Drake's will be there with some great beers that Josh & Brian have been aging.

Port Barrel-Aged Stout with Cherries This is Drake's Imperial Stout, aged 5.5 years on top of cherries in a port cask. Aromas of cherries, raisins and oak, with an earthy flavor and sour finish. This beer will be served at Triple Rock

Port Barrel-Aged Stout with Blueberries Same Imperial Stout brew, also in the cask for five and a half years, but aged with blueberries. Similar oak and aged characters as the cherry beer, but blueberry flavors stand out in the aroma & flavor. Full bodied, with a sour, and crisp, finish. This beer will be served at Triple Rock

Its Fity Part Deux Here's a description from Brian: "Fity % 2.5 yrs barrel-aged BrettAmber and Fity % 1 yr barrel-aged Belgian Tripel (aged in seperate barrels). Drake's BrettAmber is a lightly-hopped American Amber Style ale (5.8% original ABV) that is brewed with brown and chocolate malts, then aged 2.5 years in a Merlot barrel and infused with Brettanomyces yeast (in mid 2006). Its deep and robust mustiness is a result of taking on quite a bit of the barrel's characteristics. The balancing remainder of the mix in "It's Fity" is a Belgian Tripel (8.5% original ABV), which is brewed with additions of sugars, biscuit malt, and rye malt. The Tripel is aged 1 year in a Grenache barrel with no additional yeast infused. It is starting to really take on some sourness from the barrel as well. Together they present a perfect mixture of two distinctly different styles of beer." This beer will be served at Jupiter

These Drake's sours will be served with a variety of other local & imported sours at Triple Rock & Jupiter on Sunday, from 1 pm til the beer runs out! Twenty bucks buys you a logo tasting glass and four pours of any style at either location. Four bucks per pour after that. For info on Jupiter visit www.jupiterbeer.com To learn more about Triple Rock go to www.triplerock.com

-- The Drake

DRAKE'S AT HENRY'S

DRAKE'S, TRIPLE ROCK, & IRON SPRINGS GET TOGETHER AT HENRY'S IN BERKELEY FOR SF BEER WEEK

Henry's Beer Dinner, Monday February 9th at 5:30 pm

The brewer connections between a handful of great local breweries crash together on Monday, February 9th for Chef Eddie Blyden's Brewer Dinner at Henry's.  As some might know, Christian Kazakoff of Iron Springs brewed at Triple Rock for ten years.  Rodger Davis, now head brewer at Triple Rock, was head brewer here at Drake's until last year.  Josh Miner, former assistant brewer, came back to be head brewer after Rodger left.  At the top of the heap of this beer dinner is of course Eddie Blyden, who is well-known for his stints at the great 21st Amendment Brewery and the Alembic in San Francisco.  

THE FOOD..... AND THE BEER

Eddie and the brewers have come up with a great beer dinner menu.  It starts out with a black bean & Scharffenberger cocoa soup with smoked ham & cinnamon black cream.  This is served with Drake's Hefeweizen & Triple Rock Pale Ale.

The salad course is Bitter greens with toasted walnuts, Reggiano parmesan, shaved milk chocolate & balsamic vinaigrette.  The beers served with this course are Iron Springs Boot Jack Brown & Drake's Amber.

There are two choices for entrees:  You may order the "Triple Rock Porter braised Niman Ranch Beef Stew" with winter root vegetables and house-made egg noodles.  The beers served with this entree are Triple Rock Brown Ale and Iron Springs Pilsner.  The other entree is "Wild Mushroom Risotto" with cocoa nibs and ricotta.  This is served with the great Drake's 1500 (an extra hopped pale, that's lighter in body & alcohol than a typical IPA).

Ah... Dessert!  it is vanilla pudding with English cookies, served with Iron Springs oak-aged Barley Wine (2006) & Triple Rock Chocolate Milk Stout.

The Henry's Brewers Dinner starts at 5:30pm with a meet & greet with the brewers.  Hors d'oeuvres will be served, and each brewery will present a style of beer for tasting.  Dinner will begin at 6:30.  The cost is $45 per person.  Reservations needed.  Call Joseph White @ 510-809-4126 or use opentable.  Henry's is in the Durant Hotel at 2600 Durant Ave. Berkeley.