Autumn sure is packed with fun kids events, but that doesn’t mean you (mom and dad!) have to sit on the sidelines. Nothing screams grown-up fun more than a road trip through the Bay Area to visit some great breweries and taste delicious autumn-themed beers. Our friends at 7×7 have put together fabulous suggestions on places to try tasty brewskies that will make you feel the Fall Spirit in the best way possible. Sit, relax, and drink up…. adults need their treats, too.
Just as seasons vary from one part of the country to another, so do regional seasonal beers. In the east, the local brewpubs are all about pumpkin ales this time of year. On the west coast, we have the succulent orange squash as well, which is the subject of a future blog, but right now it’s the end of our hop harvest season and time to enjoy beer bittered with fresh or “wet” hops. We asked the experts for their tasty suggestions for autumn brews.
Dave McLean, brewmaster and owner of Magnolia and the owner of Alembic Bar, explained the concept of fresh hopped beers. “Hops are very fragile when picked and need to be carefully dried to preserve them for use throughout the year. Fresh hop beers eliminate the drying step and are made using just-picked hops that are taken from field to waiting brew kettle in as short a time as possible, before any degradation might occur. This usually means getting them from the grower to the brewer in less than 48 hours.” He adds, “Since the hops aren’t dried, the flavor profile manifests all of the hops. Essentially, none of the most volatile flavors and aromas are driven off during processing.” Dave notes that Magnolia still has a limited quantity of their wet-hopped beer, High Time Harvest Ale, available, but expects that it, like the season itself, will soon be gone.
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Written by Scott Mansfield
This is our weekly guest post from our friends at 7×7, a site that keeps you up on the best of SF. We’ve teamed up for an exciting partnership to bring you a fantastic Date Night idea each week. Be sure to check out their blog for hourly doses of the best of SF.
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