SF Beer Week 2010: Sour Monday at Triple Rock
Rodger and Claudia Davis at Triple Rock's Sour Monday.
Sour Monday at Triple Rock Brewery and Jupiter in Berkeley was one of the most anticipated events of SF Beer Week, featuring 60 bottled and draft selections from brewers fond of the funk. Brett, Pedio, Aceto, and Lacto were all in attendance, as well as numerous craft beer industry heavyweights including Joe Tucker, Tomme Arthur, Jay Brooks, Stephen Beaumont, Steve Altimari, Rick Sellers, Phil Lowry, and Peter Hoey. Ratebeerian sightings were high. And four members of Ratebeer’s Hop Press managed to make it out: myself, Mario Rubio, Ashley Routson, and even Mark Dredge (all the way from England!).
The event was actually surprisingly low-key, with Triple Rock manager Jesse fluidly taking care of ticket sales and the magical blue money (the only minor hiccup being a delay in setting up the draft selections). And it was nice to see a significant range of beer availability, with local breweries like Odonata bringing out their Rosa and Beersel kegs, and Valley Brew’s Bill-Brand tribute Calambic making an appearance. Lost Abbey brought down a number of different sour selections, including Duck Duck Gooze, while Portland-based Cascade Brewing brought down their Winter Gose and incredibly fruity Kriek. All of these were highlights for me, to say nothing of the numerous classic imports upstairs.
Joe Tucker and I arrived early and ended up assisting with setup.
Sour Monday featured some amazing American sours...
...along with plenty of imported funk upstairs (Doesjel anyone?).
Another personal highlight for me (and certainly something that gets to that rare-beer-hunting itch) was a surprise appearance from Ithaca Beer Company in familiar upstate New York called Le Bleu. This beer combined blueberries, brettanomyces, and a finishing champagne yeast into a rather impressively sessionable sour that presented its finicky core fruit quite beautifully.
And, just before we starting prepping to head out into the elements to sample Jupiter’s additional sour offerings and a rare Moonlight Brewing event at Bobby G’s Pizzeria, we were treated to the surprise appearance of a couple BrewDog offerings provided by Mark Dredge. While Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Tokyo* aren’t exactly session beers, it at least gave us a chance to de-sour.
Hop Press writer Mark Dredge and a Peculiar Radiative Bird
One Comment to “SF Beer Week 2010: Sour Monday at Triple Rock”
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Good times had by all.