Spartan Daily

Suds and grub offered at Meet the Brewers

Raphael Kluzniok

Rabbits Foot Meadery Assistant Brew Master Mark Paterson pours a glass of Red Branch black cherry cider at the Meet the Brewers Beerfest in San Jose, Saturday Feb. 18.

The 3rd Annual Meet the Brewers event was hosted by the Tied House and Better Beer Blog at the Tied House and Hermitage Brewery Distribution Warehouse at 1627 S. 7th Street.

Carolyn Hopkins-Vasquez, director of marketing at the Tied House, started the event as a way for local brewers to show off their goods.

“I just realized in the South Bay, the craft beer movement here isn’t really discussed much,” Hopkins-Vasquez said. “There is such a thing as good beer in the South Bay and I wanted to promote the brewers.”

Despite the cool weather, 18 local breweries and five food trucks were present to satiate the attendees.

Food selections ranged from Oaxacan Kitchen's enchiladas drenched in mole sauce to seafood po’boy sandwiches from The Louisiana Territory food truck.

Beers offered at the event varied from a Baltic Porter from Santa Cruz's Uncommon Brewers, which had hints of chocolate, roasted barley, star anise and licorice to a light Belgian Blonde from Boulder Creek Brewery and Café with floral undertones.

One of the more unusual offerings at the event was from Sunnyvale's Rabbit’s Foot Meadery.

Mark Paterson, assistant brewmaster at Rabbit’s Foot Meadery, offered a beverage called mead to curious customers.

According to Paterson, mead is a type of wine created by a laborious process of fermenting honey, water and yeast.

“About three to five pounds of honey for one gallon of water is needed to produce mead,” Paterson said. “Mead is less common than wine and it is more expensive.”

The Rabbit’s Foot Meadery also offered a black cherry cider and a Belgian-style golden ale called Diabhal.

With about 1,000 attendees at the event, Meet the Brewers had people ranging from beer novices to connoisseurs.

Maricela Gonzalez, a San Jose native, attended the event with David Luzano, who is also a San Jose resident.

“I was checking Yelp to see what was going on in the area, especially since it’s my birthday,” Gonzalez said.

Both Gonzalez and Luzano said they enjoyed the variety of beers present as well as supporting the local brewers in the Bay Area.

Luzano had advice for those who are starting to try out craft beers for the first time.

“A blonde beer is much easier on the palette in contrast to an IPA or a Scotch Ale,” Luzano said. “The actual fermentation process of the beer can affect the taste depending if it’s aged in wood barrels or a metal tank.”

In an article on the website North American Brewers, IPA stands for “India pale ale,” which is a type of beer with higher alcohol content as well as more hops, the cone-shaped flowers that add a bitter taste to the product.

Attendees at Meet the Brewers received a souvenir glass for beer tasting, a list of brewers and a raffle ticket for prizes.

Prizes offered at the raffle ranged from T-shirts to a keg of beer from Tied House.

Patrick Naughten, restaurant manager at the Tied House in Mountain View, said the first Meet the Brewers was held two years ago with at least 500 attendees.

Over time, the number of attendees grew every year.

“The beer keeps people coming back,” Naughten said.

Naughten noted that the increased popularity of beer-related events in the South Bay originated from the microbrewing revolution in the mid-1980s.

Jo Panther, a volunteer from Mountain View, believes in the interest of supporting local breweries.

“It’s always important to support individual ingenuity and be aware of new ideas,” Panther said. “Beer is simple but complex.”