SAN DIEGO BEER WEEK 200+ EVENTS STRONG

San Diego, CA – November 4, 2009 –San Diego is about to be taken over by craft beer. For 10 days, breweries, bars, restaurants, and hotels across the county will participate in the first-ever San Diego Beer Week November 6-15, 2009. San Diego Beer Week is sponsored by the non-profit San Diego Brewers Guild with the goal of promoting the region’s thriving craft beer scene. America’s Finest City was recently named the top beer city in the country by Men’s Journal and San Diego Beer Week is sure to justify the claim.

“We already have more than 200 beer events planned throughout the county,” says Colby Chandler, SDBG president. Events run the gamut from beer dinners, cask nights, barrel aged tastings, to learn-to-brew classes and beer education seminars. “We really encouraged our local breweries to think outside the box and create engaging and interesting events,” says Colby.

The San Diego Brewers Guild Festival VIP session will kick-off Beer Week this Friday, November 6, 2009 at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park. The festival has sold-out for the past three years and this year the event will feature an additional two sessions on Saturday, November 7, 2009. “With so many great events planned, we wanted to offer the option of a daytime session so people can experience the Guild Festival and still attend other events at night,” says Colby. The Guild Festival will feature 80 beers all brewed in San Diego, as well as food prepared by Allied Members of the Guild. Admission includes 10 beer samples, complimentary food, live music, and a souvenir tasting glass. Tickets and more information can be found at www.sandiegobrewersguild.com.

Chef Celebration of San Diego Beers will wrap up the Beer Week festivities at the Irwin Jacob Hall on Sunday, November 15, 2009. The event is hosted by two non-profit groups, the San Diego Brewers Guild and Chef Celebration. The event will feature sixteen local chefs pairing food with eight San Diego breweries. Guests will enjoy all-you-can eat pairings of gourmet food with local craft beer. Admission includes a souvenir tasting glass, live music, and three beer seminars presented by local brewers and chefs. More information and tickets can be found at http://sdbw.org/events/2009-11-15/chef-celebration-of-san-diego-beers/.

For information about San Diego Beer Week, including a complete list of events, sponsors, public transportation, and accommodation specials, please visit the official website, http://sdbw.org. Follow on Twitter at @sdbeerweek.

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About San Diego Beer Week
San Diego Beer Week is sponsored by the non-profit San Diego Brewers Guild with the goal of promoting San Diego’s thriving craft beer culture by hosting a ten-day countywide festival that attracts beer tourism, fosters knowledge of our regional brewing heritage, and serves as a showcase for San Diego’s breweries, restaurants, pubs, and other businesses with ties to the craft beer community. For more information and a current list of events, visit sdbw.org and sandiegobrewersguild.org. Cheers.

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I love meat. LOVE IT. I have an almost shameful love of meat. However, many of you do not know that I do like myself a little tofu now and again (and I freakin’ love panko bread crumbs). So,  being that it’s football season and this is a healthy-eating town with loads of vegetarian peeps, this recipe seems perfect. (Thanks, @AshevilleRaised!)

Beer-battered Buffalo Tofu Skewers w/ Creamy Cucumber Sauce (via Rhymes With Vegan)
Serves 6-8

Buffalo Sauce
4 tbsp Earth Balance
¼ cup franks hot sauce

Creamy Cucumber Sauce
1 small cucumber – peeled, ½ chopped, ½ blended
1 cup vegenaise2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp garlic powder
½ tbsp celery seed
¼ cup fresh chopped chives
salt and pepper

Beer Batter
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup Brown Ale – enough to get the flour to a medium consistency, not too runny
1 tbsp Old Bay seasoning
1 tbsp paprika
½ tbsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

Tofu Skewers
1 large package of super firm tofu – excess water drained
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 cups rice flour
16 skewers
2 celery ribs, for garnish

In a small sauce pan, heat your earth balance on low to medium.  once melted, add your hot sauce and emulsify until combined.  set aside

In a medium mixing bowl, combine your creamy cucumber ingredients, doesn’t matter what order, and whisk gently together.  put in fridge to cool.

Heat your deep fryer to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl combine your batter ingredients. whisk together until blended well.

Slice your tofu into 2 in x ½ in fingerlings.  roll each skewer into the flour, to the batter to the panko.  add 2 or 3 into the deep fryer and fry for 4-6 minutes, or until golden brown.  remove, drain and let cool.  do this until you have approximately 14-16 fingerlings.  once they are cooled, you can slide the skewer into them.

Serve with buffalo sauce on the side as well as the creamy cucumber sauce, celery sticks and of course, a cold beer.

Enjoy!

Bruisin’ Ales hits #7 on The Beer Wench’s “Top 20 Beer Personalites on Twitter”
Who’s got two thumbs and ranked on this list? We want to give a shout to our girl, and lil’ sis, The Beer Wench (@TheBeerWench), for taking the time to put together this fantabulous list of the “most compelling” beer people on Twitter. And we’re honored to be ranked #7 in her book! If you’re not already, these are the people to be following for the best of beer. And other stupid funny stuff, because beer people are funny. Often intoxicated.

Edgy’s got a new seasonal beer story in the MountainXPress
Share your opinions and thoughts about Asheville’s seasonal brews, Highland Cold Mountain, French Broad Wee-Heavy-est, and the brand-spanking-new Asheville Brewing Christmas Jam Ale. (There’s also Pisgah’s Baptista, which beer spies tell me was bottled yesterday.) I like this quote about Cold Mountain: “The spices are a closely guarded secret. I have had people ask me how we get the marshmallows or the cherries in there. I can assure you we do not use either. What I can tell you is there are some very obvious flavors going on in this beer, some new and some old. We’ll let you be the judge.”

PBR is up for sale
Got a cool $3 million just lying around? You could buy PBR! Seems the hipster beer favorite is in trouble with a little agency called the IRS. You’d think a “marketing company” would know enough that a non-profit can’t own a for-profit beer company. For three years. After a warning. Oh, well. Learning curves.

Get your beer geek AND designer geek on
Brilliant post from Typophile which makes me truly giddy inside with a giant *kaboom* of my two worlds colliding. Enjoy: The Best Typographic Beer Labels.

And in the Halloween wrap-up…
If you are going to dress as a breathalyzer for Halloween, then don’t drink and drive. Or be underage. People are stupid.

Macro beer sales are up
Remember a few months ago when the mainstream media went batshit crazy and jumped on a story about a 30-35% increase in beer, and “how dare they do that in these tough economic times?” Yeah, well, it’s like we said then, it happens every year and won’t affect anything. And it didn’t.

Warren Haynes Unites With Asheville Brewing Company For ‘Christmas Jam White Ale’

~ All Proceeds From Limited Edition Beer To Benefit Families In Need ~

Warren Haynes—renowned guitarist and singer for Gov’t Mule, The Allman Brothers, and The Dead as well founder and producer of his world renowned Christmas Jam concert, of which the 21st annual installment will take place in his native Asheville, NC this December 12th—is proud to announce a partnership with hometown favorite Asheville Brewing Company to create a fantastic winter-time beer: ‘Christmas Jam White Ale.’ Like the Christmas Jam itself, all proceeds from the sales will go to the W&S Charitable Foundation, which works in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to provide essential housing for area residents in need.

The special-edition brew will be offered locally in Asheville—on draft at area restaurants and in bottles at selected retailers—as well as nationally thru mail-order, and will only be available from November through January.

The beer will be available at Greenlife, Bruisin Ales, Asheville Brewing Company and The Orange Peel exclusively on November 1st thru November 8th.

After that it will be available through-out Asheville.

Asheville Brewing has been making fantastic craft beers since 1998, and has won several awards for its beers. As an active supporter of local non-profit groups they are thrilled to be working with two great groups like the Warren Haynes folks and Habitat for Humanity.

Started as a way to bring local musicians together for a good cause, the Christmas Jam has since grown into an event that the London Times calls “one of the top ten concerts in the USA.” Composed of a multi-faceted series of activities including daytime concerts and art exhibits—and now with the support of Asheville Brewing, its very own limited edition beer of choice—the foundation has raised close to a million dollars for Habitat for Humanity in just the past five years.

An announcement on this year’s Christmas Jam line-up and ticket information will be made shortly.

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After our awesome trip to Atlanta the other week, we invited Jessica from Sweetwater Brewing Co. for a  tasting on Thursday! (That’s a photo of their Hop Cop car!) Here’s the short list:

SWEETWATER Blue: Blueberry, fruity goodness [4.8% abv]

SWEETWATER Georgia Brown: A classic take on the English Brown Ale. [5.1% abv]

SWEETWATER 420: Extra Pale Ale [5.7% abv]

SWEETWATER IPA: The very popular and highly-rated IPA! A- on BeerAdvocate! [6.7% abv]

SWEETWATER DANK TANK Wet Dream: Wet-hopped amber ale with freshly harvested Chinook hops from Washington State! [7.5% abv]

You know you’ve been waiting for it. Stone Brewing Company’s double-whammy of a bastard ale is out NOW. Come get your Double Bastard drink on!

Stronger than Arrogant Bastard for the extra Bastard kick! 10.5% abv.

Foothills Sexual Chocolate!

Please watch Abs of Beer TV! They say hello to Bruisin’ Ales! Rawk!

Almost forgot to post our awesome pics from the Atlanta trip last weekend. Good times!

ACHEL Brune
BALLAST POINT Sculpin*
BISON BREWING Gingerbread Ale*
CANTILLON Iris
DE DOLLE Oerbier Reserve* (very limited!)
DEL BORGO Ducchesic (Saison + Cantillon lambic!)
LAGUNITAS Brown Shugga’*
LAGUNITAS Hop Stoopid*
MOYLAN’S Hopsickle*
SMUTTYNOSE “Big A” Double IPA*
STONE BREWING Sublimely Self-Righteous*
SWEETWATER Wet Dream*