This February, unlike previous Februarys in the Bay Area, thousands of beer-centric events from SF Beer Week will not be popping up across the region’s restaurants, museums, parks and just about every public space imaginable. There will be no beer-themed yoga classes, no homebrew competitions, no sour beer parties in Berkeley. And no hours-long wait for a sip of Pliny the Younger, that coveted triple IPA from Russian River Brewing Co.
Like all public gatherings in the time of COVID-19, the 2021 edition of SF Beer Week, the annual celebration of craft beer that started in 2009, has been canceled.
Instead, its organizer, the Bay Area Brewers Guild, is participating in a virtual, statewide effort called California Craft Beer Week. From Feb. 12-21, the calendar will include virtual beer tastings, special releases from individual breweries and some “Battle of the Guilds”-style competitions between different regions’ breweries. Full details about the schedule and specific offerings will be announced later at cacraftbeerweek.com.
In the past, some Bay Area beer bars and breweries have reported that SF Beer Week is their highest-grossing period of the entire year. The new virtual event is a way to help promote craft beer throughout the state, said Bay Area Brewers Guild executive director Joanne Marino, which is crucial in a moment when many of these businesses are fighting for survival.
“The biggest thing is to make sure we can have as large of an audience as possible,” said Marino.
There are over 1,000 craft breweries in California, many of them too small to have significant distribution in retail outlets. The average California brewery sells 50% of its beer through its taproom and 20% through restaurants, according to data from the California Craft Brewers Association, and both of those channels have remained severely restricted.
In April, the Brewers Association, which represents craft breweries across the country, released data showing that 46% of breweries believed their business could survive only one to three more months. Two mainstays of the Bay Area’s craft beer scene have gone out of business since the pandemic began: Cleophus Quealy in San Leandro and Triple Voodoo in San Francisco.
SF Beer Week is one of many events of its kind held throughout California every year. Normally, each of the state’s regional brewers guilds holds its own individual beer week. But this year, Marino said, it made sense to present a united front, so her guild teamed up with seven others including the Los Angeles Brewers Guild, the Sacramento Brewers Guild and the San Diego Brewers Guild.
The hope, Marino said, is that California Craft Beer Week can help boost public support of craft breweries during what is sure to be a difficult winter — which, even under normal circumstances, is the slowest time of year for breweries.
Among the many challenges, Marino cited the frustration that California’s reopening schedule has treated breweries differently from wineries, giving wineries fewer restrictions on holding outdoor tastings while breweries have been required to serve full meals — something that not every brewery permit allows.
For those who have been able to reopen for in-person service with full meals, the economics still may not pencil out. “To run a brewhouse requires three to 10 times the amount of labor as running a bar,” Marino said. “We just want parity between beer and wine manufacturers.”
That point may become moot soon, as wineries and breweries throughout the state are being forced to close their tasting rooms, or are expected to have to close them soon, under a new lockdown order from Gov. Gavin Newsom that will take effect in regions whose intensive care unit capacity dips below 15%.
As the pandemic drags on and the challenges for craft breweries continue to mount, there’s more than just the fate of individual businesses at stake, Marino said. “Craft breweries exist for their neighborhoods. They help people connect with each other and build community.
“If we can be there on the other side of this pandemic,” she continued, “I think we have an important role to play.”
Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley
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December 09, 2020 at 03:00AM
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S.F.'s popular and lucrative Beer Week cancels in-person events - San Francisco Chronicle
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