SAN FRANCISCO — As SF Beer Week (SFBW) brings tap takeovers and special offerings from breweries with big footprints in the industry, the force of the homebrewing community is coming out again for one of the most unique events of SFBW.
Now in its third year, the Hops for Housing event will take place this Friday, Jan. 29 at Danzhaus aka the Gingerbread House (1275 Connecticut St., San Francisco). A partnership between local homebrewers the San Francisco Tenants Union (SFTU) — an organization that has been vying for SF tenants’ rights since the 1970s — Hops for Housing features an assortment of local homebrewerers and soon-to-launch breweries.
To add to the uniqueness of the homebrewed beer poured at the event, Hops for Housing this year has teamed up professional brewers with local homebrewers to homebrew beers in garages around the city.
“The thing that makes this special is that the collaborations are leading to some really cool spinoffs of some popular Bay Area brews,” said Heather Dominey, member of the Sirwisa Brewing Collective, and an organizer for the event.
“Some of the commercial brewers are brewing their brew house beers, but tweaking the recipes to something that they normally wouldn’t be able to do for mass production,” said Dominey. “A few haven’t home brewed in decades and jumped at the chance to use malts, hops and yeasts that they can’t really use in their brew schedules.”
A version of Mr. Kite’s Pale Ale — a 2015 Great American Beer Festival gold medal recipient — is being brewed by Kim Sturdavant of Social Kitchen and Brewery and homebrewer Matt Murray, modified with Belgian yeast and half of which will be served in a pin cask at the event.
ThirstyBear brewer, Brenden Dobel, is working with homebrewer, Ian Dunbar-Hall, to create a smoked robust porter. The beer will feature smoked cherry wood malts, something that Dobel jumped at the opportunity to use, as ThirstyBear exclusively uses organic ingredients for brewing.
Other beers that attendees can look forward to seeing are a collaboration with homebrewer Vivek Krisham and brewers of Method Brewing: a spiced milk stout with fresh tumeric and ginger. The beer recipe will also serve as a test-batch for when Method Brewing opens up in the SoMa. Magnolia and homebrewer Paul Duatschek are also brew an Imperial Kolsch.
An event that grows year-to-year, the first incarnation brought in “a little over $2,000 for the SFTU” and saw “215 in attendance (including brewers/volunteers),” according to Dominey. Last year, the event made “a little under $5,000 for the SFTU” and brought in “350 in attendance (including brewers/volunteers).” All proceeds from the Hops for Housing event go to the SF Tenants Union.
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