San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
So that's where all those taster glasses went!
I started penning this column from the lobby of The Lodge at Torrey Pines, mere steps away from the Beer Garden / Chef Celebration event that closed San Diego Beer Week (SDBW).
The cool embrace of the lobby’s air conditioning perfectly countered a belly warm with the pairing of beef and kidney pie and Stone Brewing’s Smoked Porter with chipotle peppers. Most days I’m content to avoid both organ meat and peppered beer, but this week has rewarded reaching for the unfamiliar, time and time again.
AleSmith led this year’s charge with a stunning Speedway Stout crafted with kopi luwak coffee. For the uninitiated, this is a coffee bean whose preliminary processing occurs in the colon of an Indonesian weasel. Avery Breweing Co. produced a potent Imperial Pumpkin Ale aged in rum barrels that weighed in at 13.2-percent alcohol by volume. Stone provided a dry-hopped version of their Double Bastard ale for the Guild Festival, a perfect selection for those who ordinarily feel cheated by the paltry amount of bastard it usually contains.
And that was just the first two days. I was far from alone in this revelry. SDBW, employing the metric 10-day week, summoned more than 477 events across the county, up from roughly 300 the previous year. The hype was substantial enough to attract 63 different breweries (33 from San Diego, 30 from elsewhere) to participate. With all that expectation built up, it’s no surprise the SDBW Guild Festival (the kick-off event) consumed its entire supply of 2,000 taster glasses, requiring coordinators to hustle more to the site. There is no denying that SDBW is becoming a certified phenomenon.
If this event continues growing at present rates, I estimate that next year, they will have more than 5,000 events with upwards of 2 billion participants. You may want to check my math, though. It was never my strongest subject.
