Sacramento Brewers Showcase Is Largest Local Beer Event Ever
(SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA) – The Sacramento Brewers Showcase will make history on February 27th, 2014. Under the roof of the California Automobile Museum, 27 Sacramento area breweries will pour almost 100 different beers. Almost two dozen of these were brewed exclusively for Sacramento Beer Week, which follows this kick off event February 28th through March 9th. Breweries from Yolo, Sacramento, Placer, Nevada, El Dorado and Yuba Counties will attend the largest celebration of local beer in Sacramento history.
Examples of the exclusive brews to be poured at the Sacramento Brewers Showcase include three created by Sacramento’s Track 7 Brewing. Friendly Fire Barley Wine was brewed in collaboration with one of Sacramento’s newest breweries, Device Brewing, one of nine breweries to open in the Sacramento area in the past year. Friendly Fire is 11.8% ABV (alcohol by volume), full bodied with bready toffee and caramel, yet finishes super clean without any cloying sweetness. “I am super stoked for this one,” says Track 7 brewmaster Ryan Graham. Their most creative brew is a White Stout, which Graham has only seen brewed once before in Oregon. It uses cacao nibs and coffee to recreate the roasted grain flavor of a traditional stout, yet is light golden in color unlike a stout’s usual inky blackness. The third is the Beer Week (India) Pale Ale, which bursts with fresh hop flavor as it leaves the tanks this week and is hopped principally with CTZ, El Dorado and Chinook.
The latter brew is one of several which will compete for the People’s Choice Award at the Showcase. A contest sponsored by the Northern California Brewers Guild and Brewers Supply Group, local brewers are challenged to make a particular beer recipe, but add their own unique flair. Other breweries vying for this prize include Rubicon Brewing with the Capitol Session IPA, Woodland’s Black Dragon Brewing with the Moon Beam Jerry Pale Ale and West Sacramento’s Bike Dog Brewing, who made their Sac Beer Week Pale Ale exclusively with hops from New Zealand and Australia. The winning brewery will take home bragging rights and a two foot tall loving cup to keep until the 2015 Showcase.
The organizers of this event have partnered with Drink Safely, Sacramento to encourage responsibility. UBER is contracted as the Official Safe Ride of Sacramento Beer Week, offering discounts to riders. Dump buckets are provided to every brewery so guests can easily dispose of unwanted beer. The California Auto Museum is allowing drivers to leave their cars overnight at no charge to keep intoxicated drivers off the road.
The Sacramento Brewers Showcase benefits the California Automobile Museum, with a collection of more than 150 historic cars, and the Northern California Brewers Guild, which promotes the responsible drinking of craft beer with the assistance of almost 100 members between Fresno and the Oregon border.
