Beer Geeks of the World Unite!
4th Annual Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival
Triple Rock Brewery
Saturday April 7, 2007
11:00 a.m – ?
1920 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94701
(510) 843-2739
Beer geeks and brewers will tell you that the firkin is the vessel of beer in its purest form. It is the beer that the vikings drank, the ale of Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci. In short, it's beer without the modern convenience of such things as canned CO2 and gas lines and Glycol to push it around, give it its delightful little bubbles and keep it cold. Basically, before the 18th century, all the beer was warm and flat.
All of that said, the 4th Annual Bay Area Firkin Gravity Festival is being held at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley on Saturday, April 7, starting at 11:00 a.m. Triple Rock is a great destination and it has some killer burgers and great beer on a regular day. But crowd in with a couple hundred of your beer-loving brethren and you've got quite a party.
What is a firkin beer? Here's the short version: After primary fermentation, the beer goes into an 11 gallon vessel, the firkin, as opposed to a serving tank, where the beer will age. This green beer (beer fresh out of fermentation, with no days of aging on its flavor profile) is siphoned into the firkin with a few ounces of gyle, a compound that contains active yeast, or dextrose, a corn sugar. Both of these prolong the fermentation of the beer and create a nominal amount of CO2.
The beer is then left to its own devices in the firkin for as long as the brewer deems fit. It is then brought to an ambient temperature and served. A firkin beer flows on gravity, meaning the little pig-shaped kegs that hold the beer are positioned at such a tilt that the beer flows easily out of the spigot without the help of CO2.
This means that yes, the beer will be room temperature, low on the bubbles, but will pack flavors that you may have never ever experienced in beer before. It also gives brewers some fun leeway in creating some beery concoctions you may not find in your ordinary pale ale or amber.
Some of the finest breweries in the San Francisco Bay Area will be represented at the festival, including:
Beach Chalet
Moylans
Sierra Nevada
Farmhouse
21st Amendment
Magnolia
Thirsty Bear
Black Diamond
Russian River
Hoptown
and a whole bunch more.
$25 bucks gets you a take-home taster glass and as many 4-ounce pours as you can drink and the proceeds from the event will benefit the Jane Goodall Roots and Shoots Program.
So, what are you doing on Saturday?
Beer geeks of the world unite!
