{"id":180305,"date":"2025-04-10T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T12:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/beer\/historic-beer-birthday-bill-brand\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T12:02:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T12:02:27","slug":"historic-beer-birthday-bill-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=180305","title":{"rendered":"Historic Beer Birthday: Bill Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2444\/3663900886_120a140f67_o.jpg\" alt=\"bill-brand-logo\" width=\"71\" height=\"50\"\/><br \/>Today would have been Bill Brand\u2019s 87th birthday, if not for the tragic events of February 8, 2009. Bill, of course, was hit by a Muni Train that evening and passed away twelve days later, on February 20. He was a bastion of support for the local beer community for decades, and one of its most visible media faces. He did a staggering amount of good to help brewers throughout the Bay Area, and wrote about the beer he loved so much with an unmatched passion and zeal. His Bottoms Up blog was read by millions, the newest form of his What\u2019s On Tap newsletter that stretched back into the early 1990s. It was my great honor to take over his column and try to continue his legacy of support for craft brewers in the Bay Area and beyond. Drink a toast to the memory and legacy of William \u201cBill\u201d Brand today. Happy birthday Bill, you are most certainly missed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2572\/3664137334_b570cd8145_o.jpg\" alt=\"brandbill-2\" width=\"460\" height=\"345\"\/><br \/>Dueling laptops; Bill and me at Magnolia on February 6 for the tapping of Napa Smith Original Albion Ale by Don Barkley. Photo by Shaun O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5054\/5486319570_d986383158.jpg\" alt=\"116_1645\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"\/><br \/>At the Falling Rock during GABF week in 2004. Clockwise from left, Bill, Lisa Morrison, me, Tom Dalldorf, Stephen Beaumont and my cousin Mike, who lived in Denver at the time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2450\/3664137312_c0e7852a25_o.jpg\" alt=\"brandbill-1\" width=\"460\" height=\"345\"\/><br \/>Bill toasting with a pitcher of Oakland\u2019s new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lindenbeer.com\/\">Linden Street Brewery<\/a>, with Fraggle at the far right, whose birthday would also have been today. Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10508565@N00\/2918181688\/\">RRifkin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3309\/3664137806_df890ba0b6_o.jpg\" alt=\"bill-taking-notes\" width=\"307\" height=\"460\"\/><br \/>Bill taking notes at the Monk\u2019s Blood Dinner at 21st Amendment, February 8, 2009. Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jwfriedman\/sets\/72157613534362760\/\">Jesse Friedman<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/beerandnosh.com\/\">Beer &amp; Nosh<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3561\/3663336127_325fc2d50e.jpg\" alt=\"bill-brand\" width=\"460\" height=\"334\"\/><br \/>Drink a toast to Bill today, it\u2019s how he would have wanted to be remembered.<\/p>\n<p><!--<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/02\/22-rdf-syntax-ns#\"\n\t\t\txmlns:dc=\"http:\/\/purl.org\/dc\/elements\/1.1\/\"\n\t\t\txmlns:trackback=\"http:\/\/madskills.com\/public\/xml\/rss\/module\/trackback\/\">\n\t\t<rdf:Description rdf:about=\"https:\/\/brookstonbeerbulletin.com\/beer-birthday-bill-brand\/\"\n    dc:identifier=\"https:\/\/brookstonbeerbulletin.com\/beer-birthday-bill-brand\/\"\n    dc:title=\"Historic Beer Birthday: Bill Brand\"\n    trackback:ping=\"https:\/\/brookstonbeerbulletin.com\/beer-birthday-bill-brand\/trackback\/\" \/>\n<\/rdf:RDF>-->\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today would have been Bill Brand\u2019s 87th birthday, if not for the tragic events of February 8, 2009. Bill, of course, was hit by a Muni Train that evening and passed away twelve days later, on February 20. He was a bastion of support for the local beer community for decades, and one of its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":180306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[3171,6795,770,374,10874],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-180305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer","tag-beer","tag-bill","tag-birthday","tag-brand","tag-historic"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Historic Beer Birthday: Bill Brand - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=180305\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Historic Beer Birthday: Bill Brand - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today would have been Bill Brand\u2019s 87th birthday, if not for the tragic events of February 8, 2009. 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