San Francisco Cocktail Week: Turning Beer into Whiskey and More

San Francisco has long been a nexus for experimentation and innovation with alcoholic beverages, from wine and craft beer to creative cocktails. The Mimosa, Mai Tai, Irish Coffee, Pisco Punch, Cosmopolitan and even the venerable Martini are all reputed to have early ties to the Bay Area.

In May 2007, three San Francisco bar owners—H. Joseph Ehrmann of Elixer, Jeff Hollinger of Comstock Saloon and Duggan McDonnell of Cantina—concocted San Francisco Cocktail Week to celebrate San Francisco’s ongoing love affair with mixed drinks. Now in its sixth year, the San Francisco Cocktail Week benefits the Barbary Coast Conservancy for the American Cocktail (BCCAC), a non-profit organization begun by the founders of Cocktail Week dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of saloons and cocktails in San Francisco. It’s located at The Boothby Center.

Craft Beer Into Whiskey

All alcoholic beverages undergo a fermentation process to convert sugars into alcohol. For beer, the journey typically ends with the addition of hops, while whiskey continues to distillation, a process that separates alcohol from water. But some distilleries are experimenting with making whiskey from craft beer.

At Cocktail Melee on Sept. 17, Marko Karakasevic of Charbay Distillery in St. Helena will talk about his “hop whiskey,” called R5 Aged Whiskey, made from Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA. According to Charbay, 6,000 gallons of Racer 5 was distilled in double copper alambic charentais pots for nine days before being aged for 22 months in French oak to produce 590 gallons of whiskey. K&L Wine Merchants describes R5 Aged Whiskey as “a wonderful crossover for the beer geek/whiskey geek.”

Another whiskey maker, St. George Spirits of Alameda, which also will be at Cocktail Melee, distills Sierra Nevada ale into a single-malt whiskey.

Cocktail Melee should be a good opportunity to learn more about spirits, with educational spirit and cocktail classes throughout the event. In addition to Charbay and St. George, distilleries will include Hangar One Vodka, House Spirits, Craft Distillers and Oxley Gin.

Karakasevic will also present a seminar discussing his R5 Whiskey at The Beverage Academy on Wednesday.

Bottle-Ready Beer Distilled into Whiskey

The Story of R5 Whiskey, Clear and Aged Styles

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 5-8 p.m.

The Beverage Academy, 501 Jones St., San Francisco

$25

Cocktail Melee

Saturday, Sept. 22, 2-5 p.m.

Cigar Bar & Grill, 850 Montgomery

$35 in advance, $45 at the door

The Artisan Tasting

Cocktail Week actually kicks off, appropriately enough, in a brewery: the seminal Anchor Brewing Company, one of the pioneers of craft beer and still going strong. At the Artisan Tasting event, patrons will explore Bay Area artisan spirits paired with food. Distilleries, including Square One, Hangar One Vodka, St. George Spirits, Craft Distillers, Oro Pisco, Old World Spirits, Sgt. Classic Rum, Tempus Fugit and Charbay, will show off their spirits along with special cocktails.

The Artisan Tasting

Monday, Sept. 17, 6-9 p.m.

Anchor Brewing Company, 1705 Mariposa St.

$45 in advance (no tickets sold at the door)

PROMO CODE FOR 20% OFF

The promo code ALLBREWS is good for 20% off of tickets to The Artisan Tasting at Anchor Brewing Co. (http://sfcocktailweek.com/artisan_tasting.html)

Spirited Food Trucks

The spirits/food pairing theme continues on Tuesday with Spirited Food Trucks, which combines two Bay Area’s obsessions: food trucks and mixed drinks. Rye on the Road will serve bottled cocktails, Elixir will dispense carbonated cocktails out of soda siphons, Jasper’s Corner Tap will provide kegged cocktails and 15 Romolo will serve cocktails canned onsite from the Can Van. Patrons will get a food voucher for the food truck of their choice.

Spirited Food Trucks

Tuesday, Sept. 18, 6-9 p.m.

SoMa StrEat Food Park, 428 11^th St. San Francisco

$45 in advance, $55 at the door, with food from the trucks available for purchase.

Best of the West

Wednesday will feature some of the best bartenders from San Diego to Washington State, including Kevin Diedrich of Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen in San Francisco, Annalisa Huante of Cincin in Reno, J.R Starkus of RM Seafood in Las Vegas, Christian Siglin of Craft and Commerce in San Diego, David Shenaut of Ronin-Mercenary in Portland, Naomi Schimek of Spare Room in Los Angeles, Chris Sinclair of Red Rabbit in Sacramento and Andrew Friedman of Liberty in Seattle.

Best of the West

Wednesday, Sept. 19, 6-9 p.m.

Tradition, 441 Jones St., San Francisco

$45 in advance, $55 at the door; VIP table for four for $100 per person.

Totally Awesome East Bay to the Max

Thursday will highlight the best bartenders from the East Bay creating “classic” concoctions from the 1980s (Slow Comfortable Screws, Fuzzy Navels and Slippery Nipples) reimagined for contemporary drinkers. A DJ will re-create an ‘80s ambience with music from the decade. Period costumes are encouraged.

Totally Awesome East Bay to the Max

Thursday, Sept. 20, 5-8 p.m.

The New Parish, 579 18^th St., Oakland

$45 in advance, $55 at the door

The Legends Awards

On Friday, the second annual Legends Awards will recognize the Bay Area’s top cocktail innovators, influencers, mentors and historians. The event will re-create a 1960s experience with special tableside cocktails and punches, dinner and show.

The Legends Awards

Friday, Sept. 21, 7:30-10:30 p.m.

The Swedish American Hall, 2174 Market St., San Francisco

$85 in advance and $95 at the door

The California Altered State Fair by Jupiter Olympus


On Saturday, Jupiter Olympus will hold an adults-only state fair-style event that will feature games, food and contests “from the midways of our youth, finally made inappropriate for children.” Cocktails will be inspired by the bounty of California and “the fried crap of the county fairs”: a Salt-Water Taffy Old Fashioned, a Manhattan Sno-Cone, Smoked Watermelon Punch and Jupiter Olympus-made vegetable liqueurs in kale, radish/fennel and corn on the cob flavors. The winner of the California State Cocktail will also be announced at the fair. Festive attire is encouraged.

The California Altered State Fair by Jupiter Olympus


Saturday, Sept. 22,
8-11pm


Mission Dispatch, 1975 Bryant St., San Francisco


$45 in advance and $55 at the door

St. George Spirits: 30 Years to Life

The grand finale of Cocktail Week will be held at St. George Spirits, which is celebrating its 30^th anniversary with a prison theme in which “the Bay Area’s most dastardly outlaw bartenders will be serving up criminally delicious cocktails using St. George’s stolen-from-Kentucky Breaking & Entering Bourbon and in-the-clear gins.” Expect outdoor games in “the yard” of St. George Spirits, a prison tattoo station, squirt gun target practice and live music by Hot Pocket. Food will be available from food trucks. Shuttle buses will be available to and from the Ferry Building and West Oakland BART ($5).

St. George Spirits: 30 Years to Life

Sunday, Sept. 23, 1-5 p.m.


St. George Spirits, 2601 Monarch St., Alameda


$45 in advance and $55 at the door.

In addition to these main events, Cocktail Week will feature Spirited Dinners at Michael Mina, Twenty Five Lusk and Millennium.

Black Lily

The official cocktail of SF Cocktail Week is the Black Lily, an homage to legendary San Francisco eccentric Lillie Hitchcock Coit (1842-1929), created by Remy-Cointreau mixologist Kyle Ford.

Ingredients:

1.5 oz Cointreau

1 oz Fernet Branca

.75 oz fresh lime juice

Method:

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake into a rocks glass. Garnish with orange peel.

For a complete list of San Francisco Cocktail Week events, including updates, visit sfcocktailweek.com.

 Photos courtesy of Gamma Nine (http://gammanine.com/).

Social Kitchen Is on the Rise

One of the most difficult maneuvers for a neighborhood restaurant to execute is “the turnaround.” After investing heavily in startup costs, a restaurant gets off on the wrong foot and despite repeated attempts just can’t seem to get its footing, year after year. The people in the neighborhood eventually lose patience and the restaurant just sort of sits there, mostly empty.

Such is the case with the brewpub that a couple of years ago was re-christened Social Kitchen, on 9^th and Irving in the Inner Sunset. Bringing in talented brewmaster and cicerone Rich Higgins seemed to signal brighter days ahead. But even though Higgins made some very good beer, the kitchen still seemed out of step, stuck in the fried bar food formula that’s almost become a parody of itself. Despite promises of cuisine a la biere, the stereotypical pub grub from a revolving door of chefs never lived up to Higgins’ L’Enfant Terrible and Rapscallion Belgian-inspired ales and his German-style Social Kolsch and Old Time Alt.

That may be changing with the arrival of chef Chris Wong, who left Luella in an attempt to resuscitate the dining experience at Social Kitchen. Even though Higgins moved on earlier this year, he left the brewing in the very capable hands of Kim Sturdavant. Over the past several months, Sturdavant, who had previously made beer at Marin Brewing, has put his own stamp on the brewery. Whereas Higgins worked mostly in the German and Belgian traditions, with a nod to English-style ales, Strudavant brews unapologetically in the tradition of English session beers, like bitters, milds, pale ales and porters. Sturdavant, who honed his craft brewing beer in England, is a big fan of British malt and hops like East Golding, which are more subtle and less assertive than the West Coast varieties that have risen to prominence over the past few years. And he’s even importing English ingredients to make his tasty brews.

Most importantly, chef Wong and brewmaster Sturdavant are on the same culinary wavelength. Recently, Social Kitchen introduced a Sunday brunch menu that reflects Wong’s culinary ambitions for comfort food paired with Sturdavant’s delicious interpretations of British-style ales. Together, they are inventing a New World twist on British pub food, pairing dishes like Wong’s beer-braised short rib hash or pork belly fried rice with Sturdavant’s food-friendly Ramsgate Rye PA pale ale. American pale ales, and especially IPAs, are frequently too bitter to pair well with many dishes, but the Ramsgate Rye tastes like it might complement just about anything on the menu. And typical of English session beers, it is relatively low in alcohol while still being full of flavor.

In the short time that Wong and Sturdavant have been collaborating, they’ve managed to finally accomplish the cuisine a la biere that Social Kitchen aspired to but never quite attained. They’ve got a huge challenge ahead of them in changing the perception of a much maligned neighborhood restaurant and in finding their audience. In the past, Social Kitchen tried to be everything to everyone and ended up being unsatisfying.

But if management sticks with their talented chef and brewmaster and lets them evolve together, they might establish Social Kitchen as a beer/food destination along the lines of Belgian gastropub Monk’s Kettle or brewpub Magnolia, which is heady praise indeed. Social Kitchen definitely deserves another look from beer and food lovers, and not just those residing in the Inner Sunset.