These photos were taken Wednesday morning, March 22, the final day of the California Craft Beer Summit, put on by the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA) at the Safe Credit Union Convention Center. While there were a couple panels/workshops held earlier in the morning, I waited a couple hours and headed over for the final “Tap Talks” featuring the Pink Boots Society and the closing keynote featuring Sierra Nevada’s Ken Grossman and Russian River’s Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo.

The morning also included a pretty nice brunch and several of the breweries that had booths on the expo floor seemed to bring out special brews that may have been leftovers from earlier events that they did not want to lug home. And by “leftovers” I mean beers that were probably left over from Sunday’s Rare Beer Tasting, but no one was complaining.

The Pink Boots panel primarily focused on what The Pink Boots Society does and the importance of getting involved in order to enact change. This was followed by a brunch featuring fruit, breakfast burritos, Beermosas and Micheladas. Coming from someone that very rarely eats that early in the day, those chorizo breakfast burritos paired very nicely with the Micheladas.

The day ended with the closing keynote with Ken Grossman and Vinnie Cilurzo, with Natalie Cilurzo moderating. While it was cool listening to three old friends and business associates reminiscing, the highlight for many (me included) was the opportunity to try vertical tasters of Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot Ale, vintages 2010, 2017 and 2023. Then the Cilurzos, not to be outdone, brought out the second batch of 2023’s Pliny the Younger, which had been bottled on Tuesday and driven to Sacramento that night for us to sample on Wednesday morning. It was a delicious treat.

And with that the 2023 California Craft Beer Summit was over. Congratulations to the CCBA, the participating breweries, vendors, and volunteers for putting on a nice event. It had been a while since the last one (2019), but for the most part, they picked up where they left off.

Thank you to the California Craft Brewers Association for the media pass and to everyone else that made this visit to Sacramento an enjoyable one. Cheers!

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