Today is my last day at my “real job”.  As of tomorrow, no more regular paychecks, no more desk, no more safety and security.

Starting today, I’m turning to food and beverage related pursuits full time.

How did I get here?

This blog was originally started as a creative outlet, an escape from the drudgery of a day-to-day IT job.  I naively assumed that this little side project would be a fun distraction, and an appropriate place to post some photographs.  I liked to write, and even from time to time felt like I had something to say.

Fast forward to today: Beer & Nosh has expanded to more I ever imagined.  It’s become a (semi) respected part of the local food community.  I’m still amazed when people who aren’t my mom (Hi Mom!) tell me how much they like it, read it, and follow up on ideas and suggestions I make.  Without getting to soft and squishy about it, I’m very proud of the impact this blog has had.

It’s also reached beyond the computer screen and into the real world: I’ve sold out every beer dinner I’ve ever planned, and am constantly hounded for when the next one will be (specifically,  Notoberfest.  I’m working on it.)

Which brings me to today, and my newfound status as “self employed”.

So what will I be doing?  SodaCraft and Almanac Beer.  These are what will be my “real” job now.  I’ll be brewing beers and sodas and then taking the city of San Francisco by storm with my fermented treats.

First up: SodaCraft

The reception to SodaCraft has been nothing short of phenomenal. I suspected there was a market for sodas made in the style of local, seasonal ingredient driven San Francisco cuisine, and so far my sales have supported this theory.  Starting in June, I’ll be brewing these kegs full time, and selling directly to the public.  Where will you find me?  Thanks to the unbelievable support from Hapa Ramen, I’ll be jerking (yes, that’s the real term) sodas at Ferry Building Farmers Markets on Tuesdays and Thursday (and the occasional Saturday), inside the Hapa Ramen stand. Look for a rotating selection of seasonal flavors, as well as more floats featuring Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream.   We’ll be growing fast, and are already laying plans for addition markets and food cart meet ups to host us. Keep an eye on the SodaCraft blog and twitter feed to see where we’ll be popping up next.

Oh, and then these’s my other project: Almanac Beer. Damian and I have been hard at work building our brewery from scratch, and are very happy to report that our beer is in the bottle, and nearly ready for it’s public release.  In fact we can even put a date on it.  June 30th.  We’re extremely proud of what we’ve made and hope you’ll love it as much as we do.  It’s dry, with a fruity aroma and a sturdy malt and oak structure to hold it all together. Head on over to the Almanac Beer Blog to see us blending the final beer together and putting it in bottles.  We’ve got some great events up our sleeves, and are busting at the seams with excitement.

Lastly, there this blog, the one you’re reading right now.  For better or worse, things are going to change around here.  Now that we are licensed, I have to observe a set of rather strict (and yet at the same time amorphous) legal guidelines regarding what I can and cannot say publicly. I’d love to use this blog as a billboard to tell you exactly where to get our beer, but I’m afraid I can’t.  A slew of post-prohibiton laws designed to protect consumers and business from the alcohol production side of things means that Beer & Nosh will be changing.  To what exactly, remains to be seen, but a lot of what I’ve done here in the past, especially involving restaurants, is going to have to be evolve on a new tighter leash. (Not speaking my mind has never been my strong suit, so we’ll see how this works out.)

This isn’t goodbye to Beer & Nosh, so much as it’s a new chapter and evolution.  Of course you’ll have no shortage of places to hear from me moving forward.  I’ll be writing on the Almanac Beer Blog, The SodaCraft Blog, and maintaining a presence on twitter under my handle @beerandnosh.

So to you, loyal Beer & Nosh reader – I owe a huge debt of gratitude. This is the place where I evolved my voice, my vision and lasting friendships and relationships I’m building my new ventures on.  You’ve suffered through my typos and convoluted grammar over the last 3 years, through 290 posts and left 1,172 comments.  You’ve left feedback and questions, engaged in debate with me, and come out to dinners where my heady ideas about beer and food come together into an actual meal.  Without the community that’s grown around this blog I’d never be able to take the jump off this cliff I’m doing now, and land safely as the bottom.  So thank you, family and friends, for all of your support on this journey so far, and I hope to you soon for a soda or beer.

- Jesse

PS – Please, please buy my sodas and beer.  The wife doesn’t want to be homeless.

For the past few months, I’ve been regularly brewing sodas for the New Taste Marketplace, each month combining sugar, fresh hand-squeezed juice and yeast to create fermented sodas.  These sodas had a light sweetness character, loads of fresh fruit flavor, and were a great compliment for the creative and unusual wares of the market. To my delight and surprise, I found myself selling out of sodas and even garnering a little bit of local media attention for them.  Each month I refined my process, improved my recipes, until I had something I think I think is really great, and worth putting a name on.  Which brings us to now.

Introducing SodaCraft.

We make handcrafted sodas using local and sustainable produce. All of our draft sodas are lightly sweetened with cane sugar.  We aim to be on tap at local farmers markets and street food events in San Francisco.

With the help of the always delicious and foul-mouthed Hapa Ramen, I’ll be floating a little soda making test balloon this Saturday at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market to see how they fair in the big leagues.  So stop on by – I’ll be in the back at the Hapa Ramen stand, dodging flying pickles and noodles to pour my sodas.

On tap this Saturday: my Ginger Beer, made with fresh juiced ginger, eureka lemons, cane sugar and bakers yeast. The fresh ginger juice provides a floral bite (this is not a ginger beer for the faint of heart.  Ginger lovers only.)  Along side it will be Fennel & Navel Orange, a bright soda bursting with spring flavors – a great match for a bowl of ramen or a Ryan Farr cheeseburger.

So come on by the Ferry Building this saturday for a soda and bowl of ramen.  You won’t be disappointed.

PS – My outstanding logo was designed by Damian Fagan, who also happens to be the other half of Almanac Beer. Speaking of Almanac – our license was issued by the ABC this week!  We’re now scheduling our first bottling run, and WILL have bottles on the shelves this summer. For reals.  Check out Almanac’s twitter feed to stay on top of upcoming launch events and dinners.

Every once in a while, I end up working on a project where I look around at the people I’m working with, and think “how did I sneak in here, and when are they going to find out I’m an impostor?”  This is one of those projects.

This collaborative six course dinner is a virtual who’s who of up and coming San Francisco chefs.  Over the six courses, these chefs will be refracting Japanese flavors through the lens of San Francisco food, putting their own personal spin on classic, and not so classic dishes. Each course will be paired with either wine, beer, sake or a cocktail from some of the most exciting drink slingers in town (plus me.)

For my part, I’m working on some very exciting beer pairings for the occasion, along with some of my homemade sodas, for those who want something a little less boozy.

Want a peek at the future of San Francisco restaurants with a Japanese twist? Come join us at the CCA for an unforgettable dinner for a great cause.

Essential details:
May 7th & 8th
$150 per person all inclusive

6:00pm Cocktail Reception
7:00pm 6-Course Japanese Inspired Tasting Menu
with Wine/Sake/Beer/Cocktail Pairings

100% of proceeds will go to the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund created by the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California (www.jcccnc.org) where all the proceeds will go to local non profit and community organizations in Japan.

Featured Chefs
Chad Newton, FK Restaurants & Hospitality
Danny Bowien, Mission Chinese Food
Richie Nakano, Hapa Ramen
Michael Black, Sebo
Robbie Lewis, Bon Appetit
Jordan Grosser, Stag Dining Group
Jake Godby, Humphry Slocombe

Cocktails, Beer and Wine by:
Scott Baird & Josh Harris, Bon Vivants
Jesse Friedman, Beer and Nosh
Erik Ellestad, Underhill Lounge
Alex Fox, Bar Tartine
Alex Finberg, Farina

To reserve your seats, visit sfchefsunite.com

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend Eat Retreat, a new food-themed retreat weekend at a ranch in the hills north of San Francisco.  Modeled on Phoot Camp, the goals of the weekend are at once nebulous and incredibly simple: gather a bunch of creative people together for a weekend around a central theme of food, shake well, and serve.  Thirty-three of us arrived for the weekend, a bit unsure of what exactly to expect.  I had volunteered for beer czar duty, and came with a car overflowing with local craft beer, along with a few kegs of yeast fermented soda.  I also came prepared to teach an “intro to beer course” with a tasting, walkthrough beer styles, and ingredients.  Others came similarly prepared with their own areas of expertise. Gastronaught brought a suckling pig and yogurt starters. Inna Jam came prepared to explain pectin and how it works. Others brought cameras, guitars, and their own knives.

A sense of community and consensus permeated the whole weekend.  Teams were assigned to each meal and worked hard to produce a mountain of food for everyone to share.  Each team put together a menu that showcased talents, passions, and the logistical challenges of feeding a large group.  The weekend opened with a raw seafood bar, followed shortly there after by a whole roast pig.  Clearly, we would not starve.  Every time you looked up from your cutting board, there was someone with a camera, capturing the moment.  Food bloggers are relentless like that.

So the food was great, the company exceptional, and the views spectacular. Really, enough good things can’t be said about the location at Anvil Ranch.

But hanging over our heads, just out of view was a larger question: what of it?  Why were we here?  What is the point of all of this? (Maybe it’s just the time of year, but this seems to have taken on a distinctly “Passover Seder” vibe.)   Clearly there were personal upsides in abundance.  I learned how to make a great citrus jam, had lengthy discussions on the coming obesity epidemic with a food focused doc from Chicago, and learned that you can roast coffee on a bicycle-powered coffee roaster. Yet there was a clear mandate for the weekend to reach beyond us sharing knife sharpening tips and networking.  What was the outcome of the weekend?  What could be taken away, replicated, expanded, and learned be a larger group than just those there. Rosie, of 18 Reasons, put it perfectly while we were sitting around the camp fire, discussing an 18 Reasons art exhibition of the weekend: “It has to be more than just documentation of what we did and what we ate.”  It’s an issue i wrestle with (on a much smaller scale) on this blog:  am I showing more than just pictures of “here is a great meal I ate?” Is there a message, a theme, and take away that offers learning, and sustenance beyond the soft focus food porn?  Cue the self-defeating food porn.

We went into the weekend with the question hanging over us, and I’m not sure we came to a perfect answer.  If anything, we moved backwards, expanding the scope for he question we were trying to answer until it was too big to possibly be distilled into a simple recipe, art installation, photograph or sandwich. Yet that feels about right: taken as a whole, the group is a cross section of food thinkers and makers, brining a lot of perspectives to a open ended idea like “food.” Sustainability, food justice and a savory bread pudding are all linked though the common thread of food, but they are expansive topics all on their own. I suppose there is some value in simply beginning the conversation, but it feels like an empty victory, akin to moving the goal post and declaring victory.

My topic of choice, beer, can be seen through the same refracting lens.  The sourcing of the ingredients, the carbon footprint, the waste water and transportation costs, the cultural history and traditions, the rising ingenuity and flavors of a new generation of brewers all reflect the changing dynamics of the current food world. We aren’t looking for a Michael Pollan level crusade, which would be a lot of pressure to put on a 48 hour retreat.  More appropriate I think would be a clearer sense of purpose from a weekend like this.  All of the creative energy of newly minted Eat Retreat community was felt in the food, the conversations, and the kazoo solos around the camp fire.

None of this should be read is a dismissal of the value of community: in fact, I think it’s the strongest output from the weekend.  I certainly plan on continuing the friendships and relationships started over the weekend, and can’t wait to find an excuse to rope some of the creative minds there into collaborating on a beer dinner. And maybe I’m being too callous in dismissing starting the conversation as an empty victory, if the conversation is really the germination of a longer standing community, one that outlasts the discussion of “what does all of this mean?”  If I managed to open a few eyes to the possibilities of local craft beer, and in return I’m made more aware sustainable seafood choices, the effects of the weekend will play out in more subtle, ongoing ways.  Which in many ways takes the conversation out of Eat Retreat and into the larger sphere of the our communities: all of these issues are related.  And if Eat Retreat can help move a more modern, sustainable and healthy relationship with food forward, even in a small way, it’s value doesn’t have to be calculated in outputs and tangibles.

Put more directly: If Eat Retreat is a snapshot of where food culture is going, it’s a future I can’t wait to get to.

PS: I have lots and lots of great picture I just can’t fit in the body of the post, so I’m including them here.   Enjoy.

On tap, I have an particularly great line up this week:

My usual “take no prisoners” Ginger Ale, made with eight pounds of fresh squeezed ginger and eureka lemons, Good ‘ol Southern Boy Sweet Tea Soda, and Meyer Lemon and Fennel Fizz, made with backyard meyer lemons.  Not my backyard mind you, I don’t have one.

All of my sodas are handmade with fresh ingredients, and naturally carbonated using yeast, just like fine champagnes and craft beers, but without the alcohol. They’re served fresh on draft for $3 each.

But, what to eat with these fine beverages? If you’re anything like me, there is only one real answer: Barbecue.  At this particular market, there is a whole lot of it, an abundance of riches.  The New Taste Market is going to be overflowing with the greatest food since the creation of fire: real barbecue, cooked slow over real hardwood smoke until it’s falling apart tender.  Yum.

Photo by Sonya Yu

Selling smoked deliciousness will be:

Dontaye Ball with Good Foods Catering.  Dontaye will be serving BBQ pulled pork, BBQ chicken and his Modern BLT with tomato jam and spicy mayo.  I love that BLT.  I’m starting to drool on my keyboard a bit while typing this. I interviewed Dontaye on camera a while back - you can check it out here.

More into texas style smoked brisket? Then Dan has you covered with his Slow Hand BBQ.  Look for it parked out front, perfuming everything in sight with smokey goodness. He has some great BBQ sauce on hand, but his brisket doesn’t need it – they’re perfect the way they are.  (The ribs are great too.)

Or maybe you want a more international flare? De Humo Mexican Smokehouse Cuisine by Molly Raney (pictured above) is the new kid on the block, and she’s been making great sandwiches at every New Taste Market since the first one.  She tops her smoked pork shreds with a homemade mole sauce, and a spicy slaw with just the right amount of heat. Sure it isn’t traditional, but I dare even a purist to try this and not smile.  The smoke shows through, and is enhanced by the addition of the mole sauce.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll end up trying a little bit from all three.  I love a good BBQ throw down, where the real winner is me, since I get to eat a mountain of BBQ.  And If you’re still hungry, you can try the public unveiling of 3.141 Pies.  I’ve tasted some of his early test pies, and they’re tasting great.

Looking over this week’s line up, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few others I’m particularly excited about: Lamb belly tacos from Gastroclub, Pickles from Rachel & Rachel (We’re hardcore pickle fanatics in my house, and these are exceptional,) House-roasted coffee from Old Skool Cafe, and artisan pasta from Baia Pasta.  Oh, and Bacon Crack from Nosh This.  That stuff is just as addictive as it’s name implies, and is particularly good with a dark beer.   I could go on listing here, but you get the idea.  The full lineup is online here.

Now I’m hungry.  Saturday can’t come soon enough.  See you there!

This month’s installment of the New Taste Marketplace with be a night market, running from this Saturday, the 5th from 4 to 9pm at the usual location at 500 DeHaro at Mariposa, SF 94107.  I’ll be hawking my yeast-brewed sodas, and this month I’ve got some exciting new flavors.

Photo by Jordan Ching

On tap this week:

Ginger Ale – You want a real, spicy ginger ale? This batch is made with nine pounds of juiced ginger, eureka lemons and cane sugar.  This is take no prisoners, in your face, real ginger-lover’s ginger ale.

Blood Orange Soda – Made with Blood Oranges, cara cara oranges, and zest-infused cane sugar.

Toasted Cel-Ray – An old fashioned celery seed soda, made with toasted celery seeds and cane sugar.  Yea, it sounds weird, but it’s a classic for a reason.

All of my sodas are naturally carbonated the old fashioned way with baker’s yeast.  After they have fermented for forty-eight hours, I chill them, dropping all of the yeast out of suspension.  The result is a refreshing, bright soda with balanced sweetness and a touch of earthiness from the yeast. All of these sodas are brewed for the adult palette, although kids love ‘em too.

Of course, I’m not the only one at the market.  There one great line-up of local food hawkers this month:

Nana Joes – Michelle Pusateri = Granola and Cookie Gift Baskets (pictured)

Urban Chef – Kevin Kroger =  Cincinnati Chili Spaghetti and Mint Chocolate Pop Rock Bars

Dante’s Eggferno – Juliet Gardner = Flavored deviled eggs

Casey’s Pizza – Casey Crynes = Old New York Style, totally hand-crafted, thin crust pies

Aunt Kitty’s Kreations – Kitty Myers = Assorted jams & jellies, including lavender jelly and kiwi jam

Peter’s Sausage – Peter Gardner = Chicken and Pork Sausage

Nute’s Cupcakes – Nute Chulasuwan = Gourmet Mini Cupcakes with a touch of Asian flair

Snapdragon Baking Co. – Hway-ling Hsu = Chocolate brittle hearts (ginger cashew, Dr. Pepper peanut, sesame and more); tres leches cake

Morgan’s Menu – Morgan Woolley = Pickled Grapes and Mochi

California Native – Cheryl Hendrickson = tamales, drinking chocolate, and honey walnuts

Sataysfied –   Authentic Indonesian chicken and pork satays marinated with many herbs and spices, derived from a secret family recipe.

Slow Hand BBQ – Daniel Frengs = Smoked meats

Sumana’s Soul Tasting – Sumana Pathis = Organic, therapeutic South Indian spreads called Rote Pacchadi with kale, sesame, eggplant and organic green tomato flavors.

Gourmet Creations – Ellen Romano = Vegetable Dip Mixes

Churn – Andrea Barton-Elson = Home made, lightly salted and flavored butter and buttermilk

Dulceria – Marisa Williams = Cookies, ice cream + ice cream sandwiches

Mexican BBQ – Molly Raney = Pulled pork sandwiches

A Humble Plate – Rathsamee Ly = Laotian inspired street food

Sweet Jo’s - Joanna Karlinsky = vegan chili  and niman ranch beef & red bean chili

Sugar Mommie Cookies - Ke’ren Fromayan = Decorative cookies, cupcakes and tasty cakes

Jamaican Flavors – Donna Goodson = Jamaican Curried Goat with white rice

Shachi’s Sweets and Savories - Shachi Mehra = Chutneys and mini grilled cheese paired with chutneys

SFQ - Michele Manfredi = Jars of SFQ BBQ sauce

Meat Baller - Kat Illera = meatball (pork/beef/spinach) and mushroom ball (not vegan) sandwiches in tomato-basil sauce

And more…

The essential details: The New Taste Marketplace is this Saturday from 4-9 pm at 500 De Haro Street, across the street from Anchor Brewing. Admission is a sliding donation to The Food Pantry, from $0-10.

Beer & Nosh and The Summit are very excited to present “Outside the Lines.”  A collaborative beer dinner dedicated to creativity and breaking rules that were only made to be broken anyway.  We’ll be featuring food from Chef Eddie Lau, and desserts from Maison Mitchell, paired with a very special assortment of style-breaking beers.  We’ll have brewmasters from the breweries on hand to talk about one you go about making a beer that doesn’t follow a style, and the inspiration for the liquid in your glass. I’m also especially excited that this will also be the first beer dinner featuring Almanac Beer Co.

A portion of the proceeds from the dinner will be donated to The Food Pantry of San Francisco. The Food Pantry’s mission is to increase access to food for hungry people. We provide food directly to the hungry through food pantries. They also provide funding to new and existing food pantries in the San Francisco Bay area. Learn more about the Food Pantry and their work at thefoodpantry.org

This Saturday night will be the second appearance of the New Taste Marketplace at St. Gregory’s.The marketplace is a melange of homemade specialties, both to go and to be eaten hot, on site. Homemade tofu, bacon chocolate, SF’s own BBQ sauce or pickled grapes – this market is overflowing with culinary treats you never knew you loved.  The market got the ball rolling, but the second one is looking even better, with an expanded line up of vendors hawking their stocking stuffers (or in my case, very belated 6th night of Chanukah gifts.)  And I’m not just saying that because if I don’t the market director will make me sleep on the couch, it’s a great time with other community minded shoppers and local handmade edible goods.

Photo by Jordan Ching

For my part, I’m going big time with my sodas.  Expanding on the success of my fresh squeezed ginger ale, I’ve I’ll be serving it again, along with two new flavors: Maple Vanilla, and Lemongrass Kaffir Lime Leaf.  All of these flavors are made fresh by hand, then gently carbonated using yeast.  All three are non-alcoholic sodas that aim to balance bright, clean flavors with just enough sweetness to make them really pop. The natural carbonation gives the sodas a slightly earthly yeast note, as well as super-fine champagne style carbonation. Try the Thai flavored soda with Urban Chef’s Thai chicken stew, or the Gingerale with Mission Gastoclub’s head cheese tacos (I’m really excited about those.)

The essential details: The New Taste Marketplace is this Saturday the 18th, from 4-9 pm at 500 De Haro Street, across the street from Anchor Brewing. Admission is a sliding donation to The Food Pantry, from $0-10.

The full vendor list:

Jade Chocolates – Mindy Fong = Artisan chocolates blended with teas and spices from Asia and the Pacific Islands.

12/19 Natural Cookery; Cookery- Maggie Weber-Striplin & Kerry Allen = Vegan and Vegetarian Pierogies

Mission GastroClub – Neil Davidson = Goat cheese, head cheese, persimmon jelly, head cheese tacos, grain salad with goat cheese, and persimmon tarts.

Urban Chef – Kevin Kroger =  Thai chicken stew and chipotle chocolate bacon bar

Goat Hill Granola – Juliet Gardner = Spiced Granola

Morgans Menu – Morgan Woolley & Jason Henry = Pickled Grapes, Japanese Somen Salad, and more

Casey’s Pizza – Casey Crynes = Old New York Style Handcrafted Pizza

Nosh This – Kai Kronfield = Bacon Crack, Rocky Road and other artisanal sweets

Let’s Get Pho’d Up – Liz Tran = Chicken Pho, Cafe Sua Da, Lemon Mint Soda

Three Little Birds Sweet Shoppe – Elizabeth Shapiro = organic hot fudge sauce, vegan cupcakes, and cookie making kits

Nana Joes – Michelle Pusateri = Granola and Gift baskets with cookies and bags of cookies.

Snapdragon Baking Co. – Hway-ling Hsu = Hot Dr. Pepper peanut brittle, Ginger peanut brittle, Cashew brittle and Pumpkin seed brittle

Tutmak Coffee – Matt and T. L. Lipner = Small batch, whole bean organic coffee

Peter’s Sausage – Peter Gardner = Hot and Mild Italian Chicken Sausage

Beer and Nosh – Jesse Friedman = Ginger Ale and Maple Soda

Dulceria – Marisa Williams = Cookies, Cakes and Ice Cream

Neo Cocoa – Christine Doerr = Handmade Chocolate Truffles made @ La Cocina

Nute’s Cupcakes – Nute Chulasuwan = Gourmet Mini Cupcakes with a touch of Asian flair

PierogiSF – Ben Dudek = Traditional mashed-potato-and-onion-filled pierogi

SFQ – Michele Manfredi = The Original San Francisco BBQ Sauce

Rocket Ship Ice Cream – Sarah Smart = Vegan, organic ice cream

Rachel & Rachel – Rachel Reynaga & Rachel Mejia = jams, pickles, and baked goods

Cooky – Dario Barbone = bacon, pancetta, miso and more

Churn – Andrea Barton-Elson = handmade butter, flavored butter, and buttermilk

Red Circle Tea – Sina Carroll = Artisan, traditionally processed tea

Aunt Kitty’s Kreations – Kitty Myers =  chutneys, relishes, wine vinegars and assorted jams & jellies including lavender jelly and kiwi jam

PS – I’m taking suggestions for names for my new found natural soda production outfit.  Leave suggestions in the comments.

So, a funny thing happened on the way to opening our brewery. We found out, very late in the process, that our name — Old Oak Beer Co.— wasn’t quite as available as we thought.  After a lot of hand wringing, beer drinking, and careful consideration over how much legal risk we could bear, we decided to err on the side of caution and preemptivly change the name of our brewery. So…

We’re very excited to announce that from now on, we’ll be known as Almanac Beer Co.

The decision wasn’t one we took lightly, and now that it’s done, we feel great about it. In fact, we might like it even more than that old name that we don’t remember anymore. Just as a Farmer’s Almanac records the weather year after year, our beers are a reflection of seasons past. By integrating fresh-from-the-vine (or tree, or bush) produce into each limited release, we record each season’s unique character in a bottle. Our process allows the natural ebb and flow of the weather to influence the final beer, and our new name reflects this process even more.

Speaking of the beer—it’s doing just fine. Our first release has been quietly hibernating through the fall in wine barrels, slowly absorbing notes of vanilla and toasted oak, rounding out the flavors of the final brew.

Lucky for us, the name change didn’t hold up the licensing process. In fact we’re expecting our final permits very soon. We’re scheduled to bottle just after the New Year, which means we will (finally) be launching in early February—just in time for San Francisco Beer Week.

We’ve got some GREAT stuff up our sleeves for beer week. So be sure to check our website at AlmanacBeer.com for the latest updates and event details and make sure to sign up for our newsletter. So get ready, and come hungry and thirsty.

- Jesse & Damian