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BEER AND NOW Jeff Hammett


Jeff first noticed craft beer early in college when a friend introduced him to Stone Brewing Co.’s Pale Ale. After graduating from UCSD with a degree in Philoso- phy, he moved to Santa Cruz where he frequented Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing and Seabright Brewery. Jeff would journey up to San Francisco to visit Magnolia and Toronado every chance he got. He started blogging about beer in early 2009 while living in Durango, Colorado. For a town of only 20,000 people Durango boasts an impressive four breweries. Jeff quickly became a part of the brewing scene and in January 2010 was invited to work with Ska Brewing Co.’s Head Brewer Thomas Larsen to formulate a recipe and brew on Ska’s pilot system. In addition to his love of craft beer, Mr. Hammett is an avid cyclist and can be seen riding on the road or trails most weekends.


be an understatement. Anyone that took a look at the list of events (nearly five hundred when I last checked) and wasn’t overwhelmed is either not serious about craft beer, or a far better planner than I. I realized right away that I wouldn’t be able to drink nearly half the beers that I was looking forward to, so I sat down and planned out the events and beers I didn’t want to miss. The place I ended up going to the most was Blind Lady Ale House, specifically for their Brewmaster Series events.


SDBW @ BLAH T


By Jeff Hammett


o say that there was a lot going on during the second annual San Diego Beer Week last month would


For the Brewmaster Series Blind Lady Ale House (or BLAH) brings in a profes- sional brewer and hosts a guided flight tasting. The breweries that participated during San Diego Beer Week were Crafts- man Brewing Co., Firestone-Walker, Si- erra Nevada, New Belgium, Green Flash, Alpine Beer Company and Allagash. Each tasting was limited to about twenty-five people, which kept things focused and allowed for everybody to ask questions. The cost was $25 for six beers and plenty of insight. A few breweries even brought some extra special beer as an added bonus. The first was Craftsman Brewing Co. with owner/brewer Mark Jilg. Craftsman is a small brewery from Pasadena that doesn’t bottle their beers and sends a few kegs to San Diego every once in a while. Of the eight beers we sampled I had only tried two before, Triple White Sage and Fireworks Saison were the first two beers that got me interested in Craftsman and tasted just as good as the first time I had them. Sour Lavender was the standout beer and the favorite among the group. A tart sour with a strong lavender nose, the Sour Lavender is a fantastic beer. The bourbon barrel-aged 1903 Lager, a 5.7% ABV pre-prohibition adjunct lager was a crowd pleaser as well. It had a strong coconut smell and taste from the barrel- aging, with a good cereal finish reminis- cent of the non-barrel-aged version. The Green Flash tasting with brew- master Chuck Silva featured Le Freak, Grand Cru and Double Stout as well as


Blind Lady Ale House. Photo: Kristina Blake


each of their barrel-aged versions, Super Freak, Grand Mantis and Black Freak. This was an incredible way to learn about beer: tasting the base beer, and then tasting how much it can change with the right kind of bacteria, yeast and time in a barrel. The highlight of this tasting was Black Freak – it was very tart with less roastiness coming through and almost no chocolate flavors, but far


Green Flash Hop Head Red


more fruity. Black Freak is a pretty rare beer, so if you’re a fan of sour beers and you ever see it on draft, do yourself a favor and taste it.


The Brewmaster Series at BLAH was a great way to drink great beer and learn quite a bit about the beer from the people that make it all for a reasonable price. BLAH has said that they plan to do more events like this in the future.


4- BLAH, Adams Avenue


Jeff writes for San Diego Beer Blog at sandiegobeerblog.com, and you can also follow him on twitter @SDBeer


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