Big Beer Weekend

There seems to be one weekend per month that is jam-packed full of great beer events.

This Saturday (1) Sid and crew from Best Damn Beer Shop (located inside KRISP) are throwing their Best Damn Bourbon & Beers Night, part three, down at The Beer Company on Broadway. Tickets are currently $57 but will go up day of/at the door. Click on that link to see the list of what’s pouring; if you’re a fan of super rare beers and bourbons then this is the event for you; (2) The Lost Abbey is again hosting a Christmas in July party to benefit the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots Foundation, with plenty of special beers on tap. Bring an unwrapped toy valued at $15+ for admission, and remember that you don’t necessarily have to sit on Santa’s lap for a chance to grab a bottle of this year’s bourbon barrel-aged Santa’s Little Helper Imperial Stout; (3) Mike Hess Brewing is celebrating four years in business with a Hess Fest block party that includes, by design, the breweries that helped the company get started. For the VIP portion (12-1:30) you can try 12 variations of Grazias on cask; each of the breweries — AleSmith, Coronado, Green Flash, Karl Strauss, Mission, Monkey Paw, Mother Earth, Rip Current, SanTan, Societe, Stone + homebrew club QUAFF — all contributed. Add that to great food, two bands, t-shirts made on site, keeper can glasses, and a big donation to Friends of Jefferson Elementary (PTA) and It’s All About the Kids, and you’ve got quite the party; added 7/18: (4) Brabant Bar & Cafe in South Park is observing Belgian Independence Day from noon to close with food specials (suckling pig, traditional sausages & ostend fish gratin) glassware giveaways from Delerium, Duvel, La Trappe and Ommegang, plus 20% off their bottle list.

This Sunday Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp Across America makes its second stop, here in San Diego at the Embarcadero Marina downtown. 94 (!) regional brewers will be pouring ($65 for unlimited pours) and proceeds benefit the San Diego Brewers Guild.

San Diego’s own Ballast Point had the opportunity to collaborate with Sierra Nevada on Electric Ray, an India Pale Lager that made it into the Beer Camp Across America mixpacks that have recently started popping up at area bottle shops, as well as on tap at various beer bars, restaurants and brewpubs. The beer’s name is a play on the fish’s scientific nomenclature — Torpedo californica — as well as Sierra Nevada’s signature Hop Torpedo through which the beer was run.

Additionally, San Diego Brewers Guild President Brian Scott sojourned to Chico in early June to help brew Guildy Pleasure IPA along with guild representatives from the other locales that Beer Camp is heading: Denver, Chicago, Portland (Maine), Philadelphia, and Mills River. That beer will be available this Sunday as well.