BEER, BEER, BEER, BEER...[sung to your tune of choice]

(L) David McDuff of McDuff's Food and Wine Trail and (R) Cory Cartwright of Saignee

I'm looking forward to whatever beer blogging project Saignee and MFWT (not to be confused with MFSB, also of Philly) are cooking up. These are two knowledgeable people when it comes to wine, food, and of course, beer. They also write with the best of 'em, so gents don't keep 'em waiting too long now, alright?

In other beer related news, I must admit that any 'coverage' (if you want to use that term in connection to any 'reporting' that happens here) of SF Beer Week was fairly non-existent on these pages. Sadly, I did not check much of anything out. I did go to Humphrey Slocombe for a tasting of all of their beer flavored ice cream on offer that day. The Lagunitas Brewing Company Hop Stoopid and bacon combo was solid, the others, well, they just tasted too much like beer. I think I (re) learned a valuable lesson: Beer is delicious, ice cream is great, but beer flavored ice cream does not really do it for me.

SF Beer Week is an extraordinarily busy time for participating venues. Apparently, Russian River Brewery ran out of Pliny the Younger early one night. That likely would have happened independent of any SF Beer week promotion, however I'm sure that the extra hype did not help matters. I wanted to check out Pi Bar's Russian River Brewery event, as it's close to my neighborhood and it seemed like a great way to taste many of the "-tion" beers. It was packed, though. It looked as though there was hardly any room to stand and, if necessary, use hand gestures (which I admittedly use more than many others). I would have dealt with it, but a certain pretty girl who spent all day on her feet in a kitchen baking nixed the idea and rightfully demanded a bar with a place to sit. We went to the Dovre for a terrific, proper, 20 oz pint of Guiness. Don't these look delicious?

So though I did ramp up the beer consumption last week, I did not make it out to any events. While SF Beer week is a wonderful way to support local brewers, promote their efforts, and galvanize the local beer afficionado community, I would make the suggestion to its organizers that it may not be a bad idea to tie in even more venues, to give people the option of communally celebrating without feeling cramped in any participating venue that one might visit.