The Brookston Family Blog
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My Beer Blog got a nice mention in our local paper this morning. In the regular column, Brent on Beer, Brent devoted three paragraphs of his column to the blog and gave some nice praise to me and the blog itself. Cool. It will be interesting to see if I get a spike in visitors today.

PART

Hard to believe it was fourteen, fifteen years ago that Karen and I set out to visit every single bar in Santa Clara County. Over the course of several months, we visited over 500 bars. Some real gems, of course, but some scary dives, too and at least a couple where we felt in actual physical danger. But we perservered and at the end of it all we wrote up our findings in a book, The Bars of Santa Clara County: A Beer Drinker’s Guide to Silicon Valley. In preparing to promote the book, we took several rolls of film of the two of us at a couple of locations. We were trying to get some promo shots we could use in press releases. Unbeknownst to Karen, however, I still have all of the photographs from those photo sessions. And some of them are pretty funny. So here’s a sampling of them below. Enjoy. Maybe have a beer as you look at them.

I think this may be the one we ended up using.

Oh, nice smile Karen.

“Do I know you?”

“Are you touching me?!?”

“Did you drink half of your beer?”

“Yes. Yes, you did. And by the looks of things it wasn’t your first.”

Classic uncomfortable smiling.

More classic uncomfortable smiling.

The perfect look.

Tonight was the 18th Anniversary Party for the Celebrator Beer News, one of the magazine’s I write for. It was held in Berkeley at Trumer Brauerei on Fourth Street, the site of the old Golden Pacific Brewery. It was a great party with a mardi gras theme and three bands, 50 beers from 15 breweries and food by Jeremy Sowers’ Emergency BBQ. Jeremy is also a brewer at Jack’s in Fremont and Devil’s Canyon. There were tons of beer friends there and it marks the end of Beerapalooza Week.

Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator, and me in the hop head I was forced to briefly wear.

Tim, from Sierra Nevada Brewing, with his girlfriend.

Vinnie, from Russian River, and Chris, from the Falling Rock in Denver. (It was Chris’ birthday today)

Melissa and Rodger from Drake’s Brewing sandwich Cynthia from the Bistro.

Beer chef Bruce Paton and Pat, from Lagunitas Brewing.

Jen, from Magnolia, and Matt, from Big Sky Brewing.

The Rolling Boil Blues Band on stage.

Ken, lead guitar for the Boil, and the Celebrator’s Art Director.

At the end of the evening, from left: Shaun, from 21st Amendment, beer writer Fred Eckhardt, the woman who wanted this picture of all her beer writing “heroes” in the first place, me, Tom Dalldorf and dammit he introduced himself to me and I can’t remember his name but he’s from Brewmasters.

Saturday was the 13th annual Toronado Barley Wine Festival, probably the premiere barleywine festival in the country. I was fortunate enough to judge one of the early rounds this year (it’s generally easier to get season tickets to the Green Bay Packers). I had a great time and saw a bunch of old friends. I ate a yummy lunch at nearby Memphis Minnie’s with my friend Fal, who’s in town from Singapore this week. This is my traditional festival lunch place and it was great to share it with a friend I so rarely get to see these days.

Helping out behind the bar in the judge’s room after I finished judging.

The crowd in the main bar at the Toronado.

Raising a toast to the winning beer, Arctic Devil from Anchorage, Alaska’s Midnight Sun Brewing, after the final judging panel had chosen the winners.

Dueling cameras with Fal. The photo Fal took may show up on his blog, Brewing in Singapore.

Going in for the kill shot, camera-wise.

Chris Black is the owner of the Falling Rock, the best beer bar in Denver and the one all the brewers and beer people hang out at during GABF. Chris loves beer and his enthusiasm includes being a friend to like-minded beer geeks. I’ve known Chris for around seven or eight years, at least. Ironically, Chris is in town this weekend. I saw him yesterday at the Toronado Barley Wine Festival.

Chris and me toward the end of the night at last year’s GABF.

Pulling a pint at Falling Rock.

Chris with Celebrator publisher Tom Dalldorf.

Friday night Sarah and I went to a Chocolate & Belgian Beer Dinner at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco. Chef Bruce Paton, a.k.a. the Beer Chef, who I’ve known for several years has been putting on these sort of dinners for ten years and is rightly famous for them. The beers for the dinner were Aventinus and all of the imported Chimays. The chocolate was Scharffen Berger. Besides the cocktail hour of Aventinus and chocolatey hors d’oeuvres, there were four courses, each with a different Chimay beer paired with it and chocolate used in the dish itself. We had a great time plus there lots of friends there to make the time even more enjoyable. In paricular, our friend Fal was in town on business. He’s living in Singapore these days, building a microbrewery there.

Me and Sarah at the dinner.

Fal (from Singapore), Kate (rom Washington) and me.

At our table with Dave, Fal and Shaun.

Me enjoying my Chimay.

Fal and me again.

Tom Dalldorf of the Celebrator and Pete and Amy Slosberg. Pete’s now doing his own chocolates and they’re quite yummy under the name Cocoa Pete’s.

Two Marin brewers. James Costa (from Moylan’s) and Arne Johnson (from Marin Brewing)

Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment.

Chef Bruce Paton (in white) and someone from Scharffen Berger whose name I didn’t catch along with all the brewers present. From left: Arne Johnson, Fal Allen, Lars Larson (from Trumer Brauerei), Shaun O’Sullivan and James Costa.

You can read more about this and see more photos on my beer blog.

A friend of mine from the beer world, Tom, had a daughter a little over four years ago. I met her once at a Christmas party when she was around one, but I haven’t seen her since then nor have I seen Tom very often since then either. Anyway, we talked yesterday and there’s a chance we might be working together on a project in the next few months. He sent me a picture of his daughter and my has she grown since the last time I saw her.

Cate the adorable hiker.

On Valetine’s Day I took my sweetheart Alice to Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa. I wanted to sample their new February seasonal and I though Valentine’s Day was the perfect time to go. The new beer, a Belgian-style black ale, is called Rejection, which had me laughing the first time I heard it. We had a great time and the owners, our friends Vinnie and natalie, were as always, gracious hosts.

At first Alice was uncharacteristically shy and wasn’t sure what to make of the tomatoes on her pizza.

But that didn’t last long and soon she was laughing it up.

Feeding me sweet tarts.

And, for some unknown reason, sticking her fingers in her ears. (It was very quiet.)

Back in the brewery she separated her sweet tarts on the stairs.

Before going for a climb.

The money shot, from left: Vinnie, brewer/owner of Russian River, his assistant Travis, and Moonlight Brewery owner Brian Hunt, who’d stopped by for a visit. To read about the beer aspects of our day, check out the Beer Blog story.

Bruce has been at Anchor Brewery seemingly since time began. There’s a big picture of him when he was very young in the stairwell at the brewery that I see every time I’m there. He’s been doing the distilling for Anchor’s whiskey and gin for several years and plays bass with the Hysters (Anchor’s big band) and the Rolling Boil Blues Band (the Celebrator beer band that’s all industry musicians). If there’s a nicer person in the beer industry, I’ve yet to meet him. Happy birthday Bruce.

Jamming with Tom Dalldorf at the Englander for the Celebrator’s 13th Anniversary party. (The 18th anniversary party is this Sunday.)

On stage at the Northern California Rhythm & Blues Festival several years ago.

Saturday morning I judged at the Bistro’s 6th annual Double IPA Festival in Hayward. I’d missed the last couple of years and was happy to be back. Nine of us were sequestered in the cellar for a little over three hours sampling one of my favorite styles of beer. For a full report and many more photographs, check out the beer blog.

The judges in the cellar, clockwise from bottom left: Kenny Gross, me, Barry Marshall, Dave Keene, Tom Dalldorf, Grant Johnston, Josh Charlton, Paul Marshall and Mike Long.

Bistro co-owner Vic Kralj with my lunch buddy Dave Keene, owner of the Toronado in San Francisco.

Shaun O’Sullivan from 21st Amendment and me outside after judging was finished.

John is the only mayor of any city that I know personally. He started the Wynkoop brewpub in the LoDo (lower downtown) section of Denver when there was literally nothing but old, abandoned warehouses and one jazz club. He ended up revitalizing the entire neighborhood so that today it’s one of the most vibrant sections of the city and John is the mayor. And apparently he’s doing a great job as mayor. He was picked last year by Time magazine as one of the five mayors in the country.

Before his mayoral days, at GABF with Joanne and Jessica (both formerly of the Brewers Association)

I brought along to the party a very yummy beer: Cantillon Iris, a Belgian Lambic. Cantillon is one of the best Lambic producers available here in the states. All of the beers are just incredible. The Iris is all-malt (most Lambic have some percentage of wheat) and it’s aged in oak wine barrels. As a result, its sourness is more restrained but is still a delightful gueuze. It’s been my experience that Alice likes sour flavors so I sometimes give her just a miniscule amount from dipping my finger into the beer. Sarah gave Alice a taste of the Iris from her finger and let’s just say she liked it a lot. Sarah had to keep her at bay she kept trying so vigorously to reach her glass. It was pretty funny to watch. That’s my girl. She knows good beer when she tastes it.

Alice tries the Iris.

Then kept trying to get another taste.

Yesterday I had lunch with one of my editors, Tom Dalldorf, of the Celebrator Beer News. We had a nice lunch, tasted some beer and talked about the upcoming anniversary party that will be taking place on February 19 at Trumer Brauerei (German for brewery), which is off of Gilman in Berkeley. I’ll be volunteering at the party so we got together to go over my role at the event. The party should be a lot of fun and this year it’s a Mardi Gras theme. For $35 you get all the beer you want plus cajun food cooked on-site like pulled pork and jambalaya. Also, several bands will entertain the crowd. It’s from 4 to 8 on Sunday the 19th. I’ve got tickets to sell if anybody would like to go. Just let me know.

Pyramid Alehouse in Berkeley on Gilman.

Trumer Brauerei on Fourth Street in Berkeley where the Celebrator 18th Anniversary Party will be held on February 19.

Ralph Olson is the main man at HopUnion, one of the largest hop companies in the country, if not the world. He can be seen at practically all the important brewing industry functions, which is where I’ve gotten to know Ralph over the years, and over a pint … makes that pints. Happy birthday Ralph.

Ralph Olson (at left) with frequent partner in crime Ralph Woodall and Rob Widmer, the younger half of Widmer Brothers Brewing. This was taken at the 15th Anniversary Party for the Celebrator Beer News.

A contestant in the Celebrator Swimsuit Contest, held at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego.

Sandwiched between Jessica, the former event coordinator for the AOB and Christian Ettinger, head brewer at Laurelwood Public House & Brewery in Portland, Oregon.

With Natalie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing, who’s accepting an award at the Alpha King Hop Challenge at last year’s GABF. If you look closely, you can find the award money.

Yesterday’s beer tasting was to try all four examples of Poor Richard’s Ale as brewed by four Bay Area breweries. To read all about it, please visit my new Beer Blog. Not only did Alice have fun, but I had a great time, too.

The four brewers (from left to right) were Dave McLean, of Magnolia, Shaun O’Sullivan, of 21st Amendment, Emil Caluori, of Steelhead’s Burlingame brewery, and Alec Moss, of Half Moon Bay Brewing.