San Francisco is home to a lot of things. The NL West champion Giants, Alcatraz, Trolley Cars, Fog, Tony Bennetts heart… and two great breweries in Speakeasy and 21st Amendment. Sadly, the Beer Friends haven’t gotten to these fantastic breweries until Beer Review 126: Bitter American from 21st Amendment. This week we try Speakeasy’s Vendetta IPA. Now, we’ve had some great brews from Speakeasy, and enjoyed a live blog or two - but this is the first time we’ve been able to get our sh*t together to get in front of a camera and give praise. West Coast! Bootlegger! New Breweries!
In the spirit of competition, Beer Friends would like to invite everyone to our second season of NFL hashtag battles! Using hashtagbattle.com we will pit two breweries against each other when their NFL counterparts are facing off on the gridiron. Are you ready for some football? And drinking? And #hashtag battle?!?!?!
What’s a hashtag battle? When you’re drinking a beer of a brewery competing in the battle, throw a #hashtag of the brewery and tweet it (or setup your foursquare or untappd to push to tweet and include the #hashtag) and we’ll use hashtagbattle.com to declare a winner after the Monday Night football game on ESPN. Support your team, support your beer, drink local and hashtag battle!
Week Four – San Francisco 49ers at New York Jets (#21stamendment vs #brooklynbrewery)
With all the political ads flying around – this weeks beer was an inspired choice. Actually it’s just a delicious beer from San Francisco that we drink off camera a lot and wanted to enjoy on film for once. Editors note: This was filmed before 21st Amendment announced that Bitter American was now a year round offering… which led to much rejoicing by these Beer Friends. So kick back, download our podcast, and check out another great beer from some canning pioneers: 21st Amendment. Cans! Year Round! Bitter (hops)!
Fresh off (recovering) our Live Blog of Idle Hands Sierra Nevada Night we have this review and blind taste test of Sierra Nevada Torpedo. Now Torpedo was the first beer we reviewed and just recently they followed the latest trend in craft beer… canning craft beers. In this review we revisit Sierra Nevada Torpedo and give a rating based on the canned version along with a discussion of the pros and cons of canning beers. This is a little longer video – but a two parter! Consider this part of our “Ken Burns” series of reviews. Cans! Nostalgia! Famous Documentarians!
This video takes us back to our roots in a different way, when apparently we couldn’t frame a shot… Imagine that Graham is talking when you hear his voice (because you don’t see him often) and check out this review from Sierra Nevada. Sierra Nevada made the news this week by announcing a East Coast Brewery Site so we decided to toss up a review of their new seasonal, Ruthless Rye. Ruthless joins the recent rye brews (Founders, Sixpoint) but with a interesting twist – watch to find out! Be sure to check out our ever growing collection of Sierra Nevada reviews – Torpedo – Southern Harvest – Ken and Fritz 30th
This week we tried the Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale, which is Lagunitas apology for not being able to brew the Brown Sugga Winter Seasonal. We missed a week because our studio had the week off, but this is the second in our holiday beer series. Although late to the table, you’ll be able to find these beers for a while still, so watch and then crack open one for yourself and enjoy!
In the spirit of competition, Beer Friends would like to invite everyone to our NFL season hashtag battles! Using hashtagbattle.com we will pit two breweries against each other when their NFL counterparts are facing off on the gridiron. Are you ready for some football? And drinking? And #hashtag battle?!?!?!
What’s a hashtag battle? When you’re drinking a beer of a brewery competing in the battle (#stone vs #newbelgium), throw a #hashtag of the brewery and tweet it (or setup your foursquare or untappd to push to tweet and include the #hashtag) and we’ll use hashtagbattle.com to declare a winner after the Monday Night football game on ESPN. And because football needs beer, we’re starting on Saturday morning to include the brews consumed during College Football Saturdays. Support your team, support your beer, drink local and hashtag battle!
Hashtag Battle Week Five Matchup: Denver vs San Diego (#newbelgium vs #stone)
Remember when Sierra Nevada had their 30th Anniversary? They produced some amazing beers and today (or whatever day you read/watch this) the Beer Friends review the Fritz and Ken 30th Anniversary Ale. Fritz is Fritz Maytag, the owner and brewer of San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Company and joined with Ken to produce a brew “as a nod to the dark ales and stouts that seduced both in the early years.” Birthday’s are the best when the guest get gifts… Beer! Anniversaries! Collaboration!
For this weeks Six Pack of the Week we go down under… to New Zealand! This week we tried the Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest 2011. The world on the street (and Sierra Nevada’s website) is that this is the first American craft beer to use hops grown in the southern hemisphere, hand picked, dried and flown back to Chico, California and used in this Harvest brew. The three hop varieties are Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka and New Zealand Southern Cross Hops – none of which these Beer Friends have heard of or tasted! Southern Hemisphere! New Hops! G-Day Mate! Beer!
dingerc
Brad
Corporate Kerouac
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