The 2013 winners for the Great American Beer Festival, just wrapping up in Denver, are out and our big winner locally was Third Street AleWorks, with two awards, including a gold. Russian River, Moylan's and Bear Republic each picked up one award. Here's the complete list for your reading pleasure, [...]
Bear Republic says its seasonal Racer X double IPA should be back on the shelves by the middle of the month. They describe the beer as the Big Brother of their flagship Racer 5, though the X is a little darker and more in line with a malt-forward English IPA [...]
Proving that Wine Country is in fact also Beer Country, the annual Sonoma County Harvest Fair is offering a lineup of local beers this weekend. The tasting pavilion, traditionally the stomping ground for wine, will feature brew pours from Dempsey’s, Fogbelt Brewing, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, 101 North, HenHouse, and [...]
Fourteen local breweries will be on display Saturday at the Petaluma River Craft Beer Festival, from 1-6 p.m. on Water Street in downtown Petaluma. There will be food from a variety of area restaurants, and music by The Fossils, joined by some other local favorites. Tickets are $30 in advance [...]
The annual Beer in the Plaza returns to Healdsburg on Sept. 7 for its 27th year, benefiting the Healdsburg chapter of Soroptimist International. From 2-6 p.m. in the lovely downtown plaza, there will be music, food, and beers from 25 breweries. The service club tells me they have an outstanding [...]
Bear Republic and North Coast will be among the brewers pouring at this weekend's Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park. The beer garden, known as Beer Lands, will feature 45 beers by 16 Northern California breweries. Bear Republic will be offering Racer 5, Cher Ami, Double Aught and [...]
Beer Advocates-in-Chief Jason and Todd Alstrom, founders of Beer Advocate magazine and website, will be hitting some locations in Sonoma County on Wednesday, part of a West Coast tour that started with a session at Sierra Nevada's annual Beer Camp in Chico. The brothers will be hitting Bear Republic from [...]
The financial website The Street gives Petaluma, and the rest of Sonoma County, some beery love in its list of five hidden gems for a beer vacation (which my wife has dubbed brewcations), following on a similar list they posted in June: So why are we dumping beer lovers into [...]
Our friends at the North Bay Business Journal (owned by the same people, located across the hall from the PD) have an interesting list this week: the region's breweries ranked by size. They list the 14 craft breweries they could identify and get information out of and the results give [...]
I'm not sure that Craft Brew's most popular style really needs a day of commemoration, but it has one anyway. And that's today - IPA Day. Ashley Routson, also known as The Beer Wench (@TheBeerWench for you Twitterheads), explains that today is a day to share your stories, pictures and [...]
Is there any craft beer list left in the universe that doesn't rank Lagunitas and Russian River somewhere near the top? Anyone? I didn't think so. Website The Daily Meal recently quizzed its readers on the best American craft brew outfits and, perhaps unsurprisingly, our two locals showed up on [...]
Bear Republic will preview its entries for October's Great American Beer Festival in Denver at its 5th Annual Cellar Party on Sept. 15 at the brewpub in Healdsburg. They will be tasting at least 20 beers, the same batches that have been sent off for judging at the festival, and [...]
Beer won't necessarily make you fat, but there is no arguing with the fact that it adds calories to your diet, from 100 or so per bottle for the lightest of beers, to 400 or more for the big thick monsters that the extreme beer craze of the late '90s [...]
As you have certainly noticed, beer companies have a long and not entirely dignified history of employing (or exploiting) breasts to sell their products in ads. Since 2000, however, some breweries have turned this partnership to a more noble cause, this time exploiting beer to help breasts, or at least [...]
Marin County will host the California Beer Festival on Saturday in Novato, with 70 beers on tap, music and a BBQ cookoff. It will run from 12:30-5 p.m. in Stafford Lake Park. Tickets are $40 in advance and $45 at the door. There is a shuttle to the site from [...]
A resident of Santa Rosa for most of his life, Peter Lopez Jr., 34, has taken over the duties of beer blogger for the Press Democrat. He has been a part of the beer and wine industry for almost his entire adult life and brings a wealth of knowledge. Currently Peter is a partner at the Healdsburg Emporium where he does the beer and wine purchasing. He is also the wine 
buyer at Fircrest Market in Sebastopol and the administrator of the NorCal Beer Geeks group on Facebook.
Beer is a big business in this part of the world, with some of the best and most sought-after brews made right in our own back yard. But too often that beer culture is hidden behind the iconic wine industry that defines the region. The Beer Country blog will bring you news and notes about our local brew scene, and maybe a little about cider while we’re at it. Have news, ideas, or questions that need answering? Drop a line in the comments section of the blog or email us at info@pressdemocrat.com