Eclectic is how one can describe the fare at Thirsty Bear Brewing Company. This 10-year-old brewery, features a tantalizing list of handcrafted brews, a full bar with an extensive selection of single malt scotches and Spanish brandies and fine liquors, which complement a menu of authentic Spanish tapas and main dishes made with the finest specialty ingredients from Spain.
Head Brewer, Brenden Dobel, taps a cask in the cellar, which is filled with the latest special brew that will debut in January.
By Joel Williams
Published: January, 2007
Thirsty Bear is located in a 19,000 square foot brick building on Howard St., half a block east of the Moscone Center, in San Francisco. There are nine different Thirsty Bear beers on tap on any given day.
The beer menu reflects some of the tastes and style of the Head Brewer, Brenden Dobel. Dobel has an extensive background in both brewing experience and education, which include studying at Domens Brewing Academy in Munich, Germany, undertaking journeyman positions at several Bavarian brewhouses and working in a German malting house.
Thirsty Bear offers seven house beers, including a very crisp and clean Bohemian style Pilsner with nice, malty character that is accented by Czech Saaz hops. For anyone looking for traditional British style ales, the Brown Bear Ale and Meyer ESB are two fine examples of British favorites that are always available on tap, and occasionally as cask-conditioned ale. One of the more distinctive of the house beers, and a cult favorite, is the Organic Golden Vanilla, which is light and smooth. Its unique flavor is created by adding whole vanilla beans in to the post-fermentation cycle. The Kozlov Stout is an excellent example of a Dry Stout that gives Guinness a run for its money. Much more than a Guinness imitation, this smooth and mild stout has an outstanding character with its chocolate and smoky elements, and almost 6% ABV. It also lacks the some of the sour bitterness that you find in the Irish favorite.
Two specialties on tap in mid-December were a Robust Porter called Winter Warmer, and the tasty Barely Legal Barley Wine, which will be available for a limited time. But the real news is what Dobel was working on then for January.
I was invited to try this work in progress, which was yet unnamed — a specialty beer still stored in the cellar. It is 106 gallons of the Robust Porter mixed with 100 pounds of raspberries and special wild Belgian-style yeast to establish secondary fermentation in 12-year-old Bourbon barrels. The yeast produced a distinctive Belgian lactic characteristic to this complex ale that I was able to sample right from the barrel. Dobel is not yet done with this concoction though. He plans to blend a portion of this unique ale with a popular Thirsty Bear seasonal called Golden Hallucination, a strong Belgian Golden Ale. I was also fortunate enough to sample this ale from the conditioning tank as it was reaching its final stages of production.
We sampled both beers alone, and then tested a mixture to get an idea of what the final product would taste like. Dobel asked for my opinion on the ratios that would best complement the unique characteristics of each brew. That really made me feel like I was back in the brewing saddle again. We agreed on what blend would work best to create the optimum finished product, which was a little different than he originally had expected. The final product is planned to premiere in January, and I highly recommend checking in often to not miss this limited offering. I know I’ll be back.
Joel Williams was a professional craft brewer for over seven years at several breweries. He earned a Diploma in Brewing Sciences in 1996 from the world-renowned Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Photo by: Joel Williams
