Beer dinners featuring Almanac and Social Kitchen

Mark next week’s calendar for a couple of special beer pairing dinners from two of the premier breweries in the Bay Area.

Almanac Beer and Tamales

On Monday, June 17, Almanac Beer will collaborate with Roosevelt’s Tamale Parlor in the Mission District for Cervezas y Tamales.

After the Frijoles Con Agua Soup, Almanac’s Honey Saison will be paired with a ceviche tostada with radish jicama slaw and avocado. The next course will feature Chef’s Seasonal Tamales with Almanac’s Extra Pale Ale. Puebla Chicken Mole with house-made tortillas, jasmine rice and beans will be paired with Biere de Chocolat. Dessert will be a Barrel Noir Float with Humpry Slocombe Horchata Ice Cream.

$45 prix fixe menu & beers, plus tax and tip.

Reservations available from 5:30-9

To make a reservation, contact Roosevelt’s at 

(415) 824-2600.

Roosevelt Tamale Parlor

2817 24th St.

San Francisco, CA 94110

Please no changes or substitutions.

Social Kitchen Brewmaster Dinner BBQ

Social Kitchen and Brewery in the Inner Sunset will host its second Beermaster Dinner of the year on Tuesday, June 18, with the theme, “Family Summer BBQ.”

Dinner will include such off-the-menu items as chili cornbread fritters, BBQ chicken with blackeyed pea and sweet pepper ragout and peach and nectarine cobbler. Featured beers will be the recently released Seventy Five Ale (with 75 ingredients, really), as well as West Side IPA, SKB Pilsner and Rapscallion.

Pairing Menu

First Course: 

Salad of gem lettuces, plums, cherries, feta, almonds and jicama in buttermilk-poppyseed dressing

Chili cornbread fritters

Paired with Seventy Five Ale

Second Course:

Slow-roasted BBQ beef brisket and BBQ chicken legs

Black-eyed pea and sweet pepper ragout

Yukon gold potato salad with green beans, celery, and whole grain mustard vinaigrette

Grilled corn on the cob with chili, lime and cilantro

Paired with West Side IPA & SKB Pilsner

Third Course:

Peach and nectarine cobbler with butterscotch and whipped cream

Paired with Rapscallion

The three course prix fixe dinner on the mezzanine will be hosted by Brewmaster Kim Sturdavant and Chef Christopher Wong. 

$50 per person

Social Kitchen


1326 9th Av.

San Francisco, CA 94122


Main: 415-681-0330

E-mail for reservations: info@socialkitchenandbrewery.com 

or call 415-681-0330

Historic 7 Mile House Meets San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing

Times have changed quite a bit since the historic 7 Mile House opened in 1853. During the Gold Rush, 49ers were prospectors seeking their fortune panning for gold, which they often spent having a good time in San Francisco. This was long before Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, and even John Brodie and Bob St. Clair.

One thing hasn’t changed, however: people still like to eat good food and drink good beer in San Francisco. Owner Vanessa Garcia Villacarlos is determined to bring the 160-year old stagecoach stop on Bayshore Boulevard up to date by transforming the former brothel, biker

and trucker hangout, and gambling den into a colorful sports bar, with live music and karaoke. Not to mention some pretty tasty food. Along with familiar pub fare like nachos, buffalo wings and burgers, 7 Mile House features authentic Filipino dishes like lumpia, salpicao and adobo.

During last week’s dinner with Anchor Brewing, we discovered that beer pairs just as well with these classic Filipino dishes as it does with burgers and fries—maybe better.

The dinner began with a nod to the Gold Rush days with a 19^th century brew: Anchor’s California Lager. Anchor says that this lager, now available year-round, is made with two-row California barley; Cluster hops, which were the premier hop in 19^th century California; and Anchor’s own lager yeast. It’s a refreshing yet flavorful beer that could easily become a summertime lawnmower favorite.

For the first course, sauteed tender New York steak in a la pobre sauce, called Salpicao, paired nicely with Anchor’s seminal Liberty Ale, arguably America’s first IPA. It’s hard to believe that this excellent single-hopped, dry-hopped ale dates all the way back to the pre-craft brew days of 1975. Brewed to celebrate Paul Revere’s historic ride, Liberty Ale ignited the craft brew revolution and continues to hold its own even in our very hoppy beer times.

Next, a Pacific Rim Salad with pineapple, mandarin oranges, cashews, Asian fried noodles and orange-ginger dressing was paired with Anchor’s seasonal Summer Beer, a light wheat ale that brought out the citrusy elements of the salad. Goldings and Glacier hops offset the sweetness of the fruit.

My personal favorite was The Famous Pork Adobo with Rice: tender marinated pork slowly simmered and served with Jasmine rice. It was served with Anchor’s classic Steam Beer, which for many of us was our introduction into the world of craft beer long before anyone knew what craft beer was. The Northern Brewer hops proved a nice counterpoint to the somewhat salty pork, and every bite and sip was delightful.

San Francisco tradition literally blended with new San Francisco in a beer float that combined Anchor  Porter (first brewed in 1972) with Bi-rite Caramel Ice Cream. Beer pairing generally suggests two flavor approaches, complementary or contrasting. With a beer float you get both. Before the ice cream melts, the bitterness of the beer is in stark contrast to the sweetness of the vanilla ice cream. As the ice cream melts and blends into the beer, however, the contrasting flavors meld, with the roasty Pale, Caramel, Black and Chocolate malts complementing the sweet and salty caramel vanilla ice cream. Try it at home some time.

The ambitious Garcia Villacarlos has lofty plans for the historic 7 Mile House, with special events and activities almost every night of the week. She is currently working on building a new outdoor patio that could make this out-of-the way historic landmark a popular destination for people who love food and drink and having a good time. Just like in the Gold Rush days.

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Home Brewing Is the Forerunner of Craft Beer

As America celebrates craft beer week, it’s important to remember that our current craft beer revolution owes a great deal to home brewing. Nanobreweries, microbreweries, brewpubs and commercial craft breweries for the most part hearken back to that fateful day on Oct. 14, 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed a bill co-sponsored by California Sen. Alan Cranston and Rep. William Steiger of Wisconsin permitting home brewing in the United States.

H.R. 1337 rectified a clerical error in the 21^st Amendment, which ended Prohibition but omitted the important words “and beer” from the statute legalizing home wine making. Specifically, it allowed “any adult (formerly only heads of families) to produce wine and beer for personal and family use and not for sale without incurring the wine or beer excise taxes or any penalties for quantities per calendar year of: (1) 200 gallons if there are two or more adults in the household and (2) 100 gallons if there is only one adult in the household.”

The law went into effect in February 1979, although states retained the power to regulate beer. Alabama and Mississippi finally legalized home brewing this year.

Many if not most brewers began brewing beer at home, using basic ingredients and rudimentary equipment. Home brewer James Morris recently made his home brewing video available. You can watch it here to get an idea about the basics of brewing beer and how to do it. Who knows? You might be inspired to brew a batch yourself.

Social Kitchen Celebrates Third Anniversary

It’s hard to believe, but Social Kitchen and Brewery in the Inner Sunset turns 3 on May 15. The third year anniversary celebrates the most recent and most successful iteration of the brewpub, which opened its doors in December 1997 as Golden Gate Brewery.

But the brewpub on 9^th Avenue near Irving struggled to find its footing for several years.

The first order of business for the current owners (some of whom came from Zebulon, which was displaced from the Financial District due to construction of the new bus terminal) was to get the beer right; if a brewpub doesn’t pour good beer, nothing else much matters. In 2010, Master Cicerone Rich Higgins stepped in as brew master and soon the 15-barrel system above the restaurant was churning out excellent beer in daring styles that were markedly different from the uber-bitter ales typically found in brewpubs. Higgins’ first beers were Social Kolsch, Old Time Alt, Rapscallion Belgian Dark, Easy IPA and L’Enfant Terrible Strong Belgian Golden.

The owners also turned their attention to the kitchen, which had been a bit of a revolving door. In the fall of 2011, they recruited Chris Wong, a co-owner from Luella, as head chef.

When Higgins left to become a consultant in 2012, he left the beer making in the capable hands of his handpicked successor, Kim Sturdavant of Marin Brewing, who had spent time in England learning to brew authentic English-style ales.

Some of Higgins’ styles continue to make regular appearances on SKB’s rotating beer menu, albeit with Sturdavant’s distinctive touch. Sturdavant’s current lineup includes the excellent SKB Pilsner, Manchester Session Ale, Beach House Blonde, Mr. Kite’s Pale Ale and Waterfront Porter. Sturdavant continues to explore the varied flavors of beer and last fall teamed up with his wine-making friend James Davids of Oro En Paz to make a saison with Semillon.

Almost from the outset, Wong and Sturdavant seemed to be on the same culinary page. Wong’s cuisine is a combination of upscale pub food and Asian-inspired comfort food, like his signature Pork Belly Fried Rice and Short-Rib Hash, featured on the Sunday brunch menu, and Sturdavant’s beer is a frequent ingredient in Wong’s recipes, especially during SKB’s Brewmaster Dinners.

Stop by on Wednesday to celebrate Social Kitchen’s third anniversary, during which the brewpub will feature its beers for $3.

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