month, plus occasional “secret” events called Brewer’s Burps that are only announced a few days before hand and only attended by serious beer lovers. The Devil’s Canyon folks invited Wired to one of these gatherings to decide which of their beers should move on to challenge another brewery.

The brewery is proudly local, taking its name from Belmont’s original name,”la Canada del Diablo.” Many of the names of the beers and their labels are nods to the area as well. And the locals definitely love the home town brews: When they discovered that the occasional Hades Habanero was on tap, the requests for pints and growlers filled with “the Hab” drained the keg before I even got a taste.

And speaking of growlers, Devil’s Canyon has an imported Russian growler filler (shown at right) that is the envy of many other local breweries.

The Location/Brewery: Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company, Belmont, CA

The Beer: Full Boar Scotch Ale and Silicon Blonde Ale

The Method of Dispense: Draft beer poured into 4-oz plastic taster cups or into people’s personal Devil’s Canyon pint glasses by a lovely and charming bartender named Kelsie.

How They Fared: The Silicon Blonde label pictures a golden woman with the steel and glass buildings of today’s Silicon Valley on one side and the orchards that used to dominate the landscape on the other side. The beer won at least one vote for the beauty of the woman, but most of its fans noted that it is refreshing and some were swayed by its light hoppy flavor and lack of bitter aftertaste. One voter said Silicon Blonde is his favorite beer ever.

It was the Full Boar Scotch Ale, however, that stole the match, continuing the trend of darker beers beating out their paler rivals. This brew is named after the wild boars that still roam the ranges in the Bay Area. This ale surprised a lot of tasters who normally prefer paler beers and expected not to like it based on its dark, reddish brown color.

VP of sales and marketing for the brewery, Daniel Curran says he sees this time and time again, particularly with women. People go in with an idea of which beer they’ll like based on its color and come out with Full Boar at the top of their list. One taster took it a bit further even: “Always smooth and refreshing, I’ve given it to people who don’t like beer, and they enjoy this one a lot,” Jason Enos said.

Coming up: Join us Oct. 13, at 5 p.m .at The Hotel Utah in San Francisco for Ninkasi Brewing beers; and Oct. 14 at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park to kick off the second round of October Madness and celebrate Sharktoberfest. And stay tuned for more opportunities to drink beer with us throughout October.

Images: Dave Mosher/Wired.com

Stay tuned to @wiredplaybook and @beerrobot for updates on attending future October Madness events in the Bay Area. Follow us on Twitter at @betsymason and @wiredplaybook and on Facebook.

See Also:

• October Madness Kicks Off at Modern-Day Speakeasy
• Eye of the Hawk Ale Swoops In for Early Win
• Beer Battle at Twitter HQ Goes Black Butte’s Way
• Hopeful Giants Fans Score One For Ironwood Dark

Authors: Betsy Mason

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