Northern California: What Are You Doing This Weekend?

If you live in Northern California and you love good craft beer, then this weekend will be a tough one for you. Here's what's on tap:

1. Toronado Wet Hopped Beer Festival
2. Rubicon's 20th Anniversary / Hoptoberfest

Need more information? Well, let's take a look at the details for each event. First up, the Toronado lineup.

• Deschutes Hop Trip
• Drakes Brewing Co. Harvest Ale
• Bear Republic Confiscation
• Beach Chalet Hop Patootie
• 21 st Amendment Harvest Moon
• Half Moon Bay Green Gold
• Blue Frog Last Hop Standing
• Moonlight Brewing Co Sublimmminal
• Moonlight Brewing Co Greenbud Chinnook
• Moonlight Brewing Co Greenbud Cascade
• Sierra Nevada 20th Street Ale
• Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
  
• Marin Wet Hop Cask IPA
• Moylans Wet Hopsicle

OK, just a few notes on this mother of all wet hopped beer lineups. Oh, and according to the Toronado site, there were 5 other beers that didn't make the trip from San Diego.

Moonlight's beers have been getting way too much attention this year to not be worth the sampling. I mean, really, have you read a bad report on these, or even one that wasn't glowing? Brian out there went overboard this year with a bit of help from Russian River's expansion. You see, Vinnie just wasn't able to use his harvest, so he passed them on to Brian - and that seems to have been a great use of them.

Next up, did that say Wet Hopsickle? I don't know if I can even pretend to comprehend that one... I mean, just how many hops could they actually fit into this bad boy? Man, this sounds like a good time.

Then, of course, we have the celebrated Rubicon's 20th Anniversary Party, featuring no small lineup themselves.

• Rubicon IPA
• Rubicon IBA (India Black Ale)
• Mendocino Redtail Ale
• Triple Rock Red Rock
• Sac Brew Imperial Red
• Elk Grove Woody's Hop Head Red
• Hoppy Super Hoppy
  
• Marin White Knuckle
• Moylans Hopsickle
• Black Diamond IPA
• Anchor Liberty
• Lagunitas IPA
• Sudwerk IPA
• Auburn Gold Digger IPA
• Bear Republic Racer 5
• Green Flash West Coast IPA
• Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA
• Speakeasy Big Daddy
• River City Hoptumus Prime
• Deschutes Hop Trip

You would almost think, just by looking at this lineup, that the guys at Rubicon enjoy a well made IPA. I recently tried the still-young Imperial Red by Sacramento Brewing, and holy crap this is a monster... a hoppy, wonderful, fun loving monster. Another beer you may not know, the Gold Digger IPA from Auburn, is worth the trip to 2004 Capital in downtown Sacramento this weekend.

So, once again, what are you doing this weekend?

Now, check out the dope video from the 2006 Anniversary/Hoptoberfest.
Hoptoberfest 2006

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