Almanac Beer Co.'s Jesse Friedman On Beer Week And Farm-To-Bottle Brewing

Originally published as part of My SF on Huffington Post SF

An innovator in the “farm-to-bottle” beer movement, Friedman is the co-founder and Chief Beer Officer of Almanac Beer Co.

In 2010, Friedman and his business partner Damian Fagan set out to create a beer to complement San Francisco’s booming farm-to-table food scene. The result? A collection of home-brewed beers incorporating Northern California fruits such as blackberries, blood oranges and plums.

There is no such thing as “disliking beer” in Friedman’s world. Non-beer drinkers are simply converts waiting to happen. Whether it be a sour brew, an IPA or a light lager, Friedman says there’s a beer out there for everyone. He loves the challenge of helping San Franciscans discover their own.

In honor of San Francisco Beer Week and Strong Beer Month, The Huffington Post caught up with Friedman to talk beer bromances, dark ales and the dangers of giving gender labels to strong brews.

Why did you decide to break into the San Francisco beer scene? I started writing a blog called “Beer & Nosh” here in San Francisco, so I'm a recovering beer blogger. While I was doing that, I was also very active in the local beer community. I went to beer dinners and I met Damian through a local home brew club. It was love at first home brewers’ sight.

So it was a bit of a beer bromance? That's exactly right.

Was there was a beer void you needed to fill? We both love the San Francisco restaurant scene; we’re both at the ferry building farmers market every single weekend. Out of that came the combined passion for local farm-to-table food and for brewing. We looked around and saw there was no one making beers specifically to serve the farm-to-table market. It is one of those ideas that once you have, it’s kind of appalling that it doesn't exist because it’s so obvious that it should.