Bill Brand 1938-2009
Dammit. Bill Brand, after putting up an admirable fight, passed away last night at San Francisco General Hospital. I’ve only gotten to know Bill over the last year, but he was always amazingly encouraging to me and the work I was doing on this blog, as well as a pleasure to be around. He was a constantly supportive voice in the Bay Area beer community for creative and exciting beers, and an evangelist for the industry. As mentioned before, he was also always the constant professional, keeping a close eye on how much he had had to drink, and carried a designated driver in tow to many event. His friendly face, great palette, chicken scratch reporter’s notebook and friendship will be missed.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Really really sad. R.I.P. Bill.
February 20th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Less than 2 weeks ago. You showing up on the N-Judah. Realizing Bill was sitting right next to us. And that chicken-scratch notebook all night. Chilling. Sad.
February 20th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
[...] just heard that Bill Brand has passed away. Not much to say but that I will miss him. I only talked to him a few times but seeing him at [...]
February 20th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
RIP Bill. Never met him but I greatly appreciated his writing- particularly about beer! He was a quality writer and beer observer (he didn’t waste words on being a “critic” really- too much good stuff out there to do anything but appreciate it). He will be missed.
February 21st, 2009 at 11:44 pm
[...] where he had been covering an SF Beer Week event. Extended obituary here, some appreciative notes here and here by Jesse and commenters at Beer and Nosh, and here’s the comment stream on the [...]