San Francisco, CA — Experimentation with craft beer styles is at an all-time peak with San Francisco breweries producing an incredible variety of new brews. Craft beer enthusiasts are now more ready than ever to discover their latest favorite Bay Area beers and brewers are having a field day with the hyper-elevated degree of consumer exploration. Coinciding with ThirstyBear Organic Brewery’s 20th Anniversary year, Founding Brewmaster Ron Silberstein and Head Brewmaster Brenden Dobel serve up a constantly rotating lineup of specialty, seasonal and classic craft beers. Traditional, innovative or experimental, the beers are ever-changing.
For the final week of September and full month of October 2016, ThirstyBear introduces four new beers, including their 20TH ANNIVERSARY WET HOP HARVEST ALE, THE DECEIVER (American Tripel Double IPA), OATGRIST (English Brown Ale), and BLACK BEAR LAGER (German-style Schwarzbier). ThirstyBear always serves nine distinctive beers on tap plus two cask conditioned beers. For detailed information regarding ThirstyBear’s latest lineup of freshly brewed beers, please see the beer descriptions listed below.
20TH ANNIVERSARY WET HOP HARVEST ALE (6.1% ABV, 47 IBU)
The 20th Anniversary Ale is brewed with a cornucopia of grains and fresh hops. Rich barley malt couples with bright wheat malt, a touch of silky oats melds with spicy rye malt, and all blend with the smooth mouth-feel provided by nitrogen conditioning and dispense. This complex mash is spiced with fresh hop harvested the morning of the brew to provide a resinous, grassy, herbal character to this celebratory beer. The varietals used are Gargoyle with its mango notes and Ivanhoe with its herbal and floral aromas.
THE DECEIVER (9.7% ABV, 50 IBU)
Inspired by the strong and mischievous golden ales of Belgium, this brew is born as a Tripel and matures into an American Double IPA. The brew begins with a huge malt bill of lightly kilned, golden Pils malt for a honeyed, bready base with an added dose of candy sugar to keep it dry but with a healthy ABV. Magnum, Centennial, Ahtanum and Azacca hops are added in the kettle. The beer is dry hopped with Bravo and Ahtanum. This all leads to a fully grown beer ThirstyBear call’s THE DECEIVER, which has a massive bouquet of floral notes and ripe fruit. Fermented with ThirstyBear’s house ale yeast and coming in at a dizzying 9.7% ABV, the lines between Double and Tripel are deceptive with this bold brew.
OATGRIST (5.2% ABV, 21 IBU)
The base of this beer is modeled on the traditional English Brown Ale. ThirstyBear then adds a hearty amount of Malted Oats to the grist. The malted oats provide a sweet berry-nut flavor along with light caramel notes and a creamy, satiny finish. This malt is accompanied by Biscuit Malt for a toasty, warm bread aroma, along with Chocolate Malt for a light smoky, coffee flavor. The creamy mouthfeel of the oats is accentuated by the benefit of traditional nitrogen conditioning and dispense. The British hop stalwart, Fuggle, lends some mild woody/cedar and minty hop notes to round out this autumn elixir.
BLACK BEAR LAGER (5.2% ABV, 28 IBU)
ThirstyBear brews up several lagers, including the Helles (Light) and the Dunkel (Dark) on the current menu. The German-style Schwarzbier (Black Beer) is at the darkest end of the lager spectrum. A very important ingredient in Schwarzbier is the use of de-husked black malt. With no husk, this unique malt looses the harsher tannic quality found in the malts used to make Irish Stout. This provides a smooth tasting black beer, with a silky mouthfeel. It also offers a pleasant bittersweet chocolate flavor complemented by the use of “noble” heritage hops with floral and earthy notes. ThirstyBear also uses the Perle hop in BLACK BEAR LAGER, which has long been a favorite at ThirstyBear ever since it took home a Bronze medal at the 2004 World Beer Cup.
Come enjoy a pint of one of ThirstyBear’s newest brews. Come soon! These particular elixirs will only be available through September and October 2016.
ThirstyBear Organic, Small Batch Beers Are Available Fresh, Only On Draught, Only At ThirstyBear!
About ThirstyBear Brewing Co.
Established in 1996, ThirstyBear Organic Brewery is the first and only brewery in San Francisco to brew certified organic beer and become a certified Green Business. Born out of Founding Brewmaster Ron Silberstein’s commitment to support sustainable agriculture, ThirstyBear brews CCOF and FDA certified organic beer with the hops and grains carefully sourced from the world’s most renowned malt houses and premier West Coast organic hop farms to provide innovative, distinctive and always delicious flavors. ThirstyBear pairs its hand-crafted beers with equally exquisite Spanish cuisine. Since 2002, Silberstein has collaborated with Brewmaster and Certified Cicerone Brenden Dobel to define a singular German-influenced West Coast style of brewing, with a special emphasis on pilsners, ales, IPAs, stouts, Belgian-inspired ales, cask conditioned ales, session beers, and barrel aged brews. Dobel’s expertise with German beer styles is the result of his extensive training at Doemens Brewing Academy in Munich, Germany.
As one of the first critically acclaimed Spanish tapas restaurants to open in the Bay Area, ThirstyBear’s Executive Chef Robert McCarthy serves some of the City’s top paella, tapas, charcuterie/cheese and beer pairings, flatbreads, 100% grass-fed beef burgers, and specialty dishes prepared not only with beer, but with beers raw ingredients (hops, malts, yeast). In addition to its constantly rotating lineup of specialty, seasonal and classic craft beers, ThirstyBear also proudly serves local wines from kegs to reduce its overall carbon footprint.
According to the Brewers Association, which keeps the most comprehensive information on craft breweries in the United States, ThirstyBear brews and serves more craft beer in-house than any other brewpub in San Francisco. ThirstyBear celebrated its 20th Anniversary in September 2016 as San Francisco’s longest operating brewery-restaurant.