Hello Beer Friends, As 2026 SF Beer Week comes to a close, we want to begin with two simple words: Thank you. Because of your curiosity, your enthusiasm, your willingness to explore new neighborhoods, new breweries, new small businesses, and, of course, new beers, this year’s Beer Week was
Let’s start with the most important people to thank: you. Thank you to every single person who has chosen to spend part of their week celebrating Bay Area beer, community, and culture with us. Events like the amazing festival we enjoyed this past Saturday only exist because people like
One of the great joys of Beer Week is watching beer from small, independent breweries show up in places you’d never expect. For one incredible week each year, we expand our orbit and get reminded that great beer belongs everywhere. A Michelin-starred dining room. A one-of-a-kind neighborhood pinball museum.
Beer Week 2026 begins in just 10 days, and the countdown to the best 10 days of the year is officially underway. Beer Week works because, for one concentrated stretch of time, the Bay Area’s beer community moves together. Breweries, bars, retailers, and most importantly, beer drinkers align their
Sonoma County Models a Community-Grounded, Self-Renewing Beer Economy With FeBREWary underway and Beer Week on the horizon, Sonoma County’s beer advocates are once again showing us how thriving beer communities are built: slowly, deliberately, and together. In 2020, a national database ranked beer cities based on the quality and
Every February, as San Francisco Beer Week comes roaring back to life, it’s worth remembering how we got here. Beer Week did not begin as a marketing construct or a calendar placeholder. It started out more like a pilgrimage. Well before our app, before tap takeovers were passé, before
**Before we dive in, a quick reminder that our 2026 Beer Week collaboration brews begin this week, with public meet-ups following each brewday at the host breweries. You'll find details at the bottom of this email.** Roughly 18 years ago, the Bay Area beer scene experienced a paradigm
One idea we often return to at The Brew Deck is that beer styles are not fixed targets. They’re conversations — shaped by ingredients, technology, culture, and the people who show up to brew and drink them. That question was at the heart of a recent Brew Deck issue, “Should
The Brew Deck is back from our holiday hiatus, and with Beer Week approaching and clouds in our current forecasts, we figured now was a great time to dig into dark beer. The culinary world is fond of reminding us that we “eat with our eyes,” and the same is
Hello Beer Friends, As the year winds down, we just wanted to say thank you. In just a few short months, The Brew Deck has grown into a community of more than 20,000 Bay Area beer lovers, and we’ve been genuinely overwhelmed by your response. Together this year,
Last week, VinePair released its list of the 26 Best New Breweries of 2025. As usual, the Bay Area Brewers Guild was well represented, with two of our newest members, Livermore’s Heady Works Brewing and San Rafael’s Hidden Splendor Fine Beer Company, making the list. It was a
Guess what? You woke up this morning with just over seventy days between you and the country’s biggest and best regional beer celebration. SF Beer Week 2026 kicks off Friday, February 20th, and this year is going to be extra special. Your Subscriber-Only Perk Two years ago, the SF
As the holidays approach, many of us are searching for gifts that feel personal, thoughtful, and a little extraordinary. With that in mind, this year the Bay Area Brewers Guild would like to submit, for your gifting consideration, a category of beer ideally suited for the holiday season: The Keepsake
Last week, Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine released its annual accounting of the best breweries and beers, as voted on by the publication’s deeply knowledgeable readership and editorial staff. If you’re unfamiliar, Craft Beer & Brewing is the rare publication that blends technical rigor with genuine reverence for
There are more than 100 breweries in the Bay Area today. The best estimates indicate that we Bay Area residents collectively spend approximately $1 billion annually on craft beer. Those numbers are staggering enough on their own—but when you add the fact that just four decades ago, only 44
,“Lagers for many craft drinkers are like rediscovering a band you haven’t listened to in a long time. There’s a reason you loved them the first time.” — Phil Emerson, Owner/Brewmaster, Olfactory Brewing Jack’s Abby, a regional lager brewery based in Framingham, MA, sells a shirt in
"We joined the Hasta La Raíz movement because standing up for human dignity is our duty—especially in times of crisis. As one of the only Mexican-owned breweries in the Bay Area, we take pride in our family history and the sacrifices that made our work possible today. We
Two weeks ago, this newsletter explored several contemporary iterations of IPA. Our section on one of the newest variants, the Cold IPA, included this passage: “Where the Hazy IPA smuggled elements of a Bavarian Hefeweizen into the IPA tent—softness, turbidity, expressive yeast—the Cold IPA does the same thing
This past Saturday, the Brewers Association announced the 2025 Great American Beer Festival medal winners, recognizing the very best beers in the United States. The ceremony—held, as always, on the final day of GABF in Denver, CO—capped off three days of festivities celebrating the nation’s brewing community.
The Endless Evolution of IPA: As American IPA splinters into haze, clarity, cold, and more, one question lingers: how many IPAs does a beer scene really need? What does a great beer scene entail? A fair answer might be one where as much of the potential spectrum of beer flavor,
