February will provide plenty of time for winged, haloed mercenaries of Cupid to take aim on our pink, fleshy hearts, rendering us victims of love and captive to its all-enveloping power, but loving beer should be easy to do all month long thanks to the spotlight events provided below. Check them out, then keep checking back to the full list of happenings on our events page.
February 7 | Stone Calm Before the Storm: Stone Brewing Co.’s annual anti-Super Bowl event has been reimagined. Now it’s a vintage- and rare-beer festival in the gardens with six food-pairing stations and beers from 2003 to two-thousand-and-now, including StoneWall Ale, 2003 Stone Imperial Russian Stout, 2005 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine and Stygian Descent. | Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, 1999 Citracado Parkway, Escondido, 10 a.m.
February 13 | San Diego On Tap Festival: More than 100 beers will be, aptly enough, “on tap” at this food- and music-enhanced event in the heart of Mission Valley at the Town and Country Resort. That venue has hosted numerous Craft Brewers Conferences, so they know how to do right by beer and the people who love it. | Town & Country Resort, 500 Hotel Circle North, Mission Valley, 12 p.m.
February 13 | Brewbies Festival: Brewers revel in lending their skills and wares to helping out worthy causes, and few are as worthy as the fight against breast cancer. Proceeds from this beer festival—which, with dozens of custom beers brewed especially for this event is way more than “just another brew-fest”—will further the good work of the Keep A Breast Foundation. | Bagby Beer Company, 601 South Coast Highway, Oceanside, 1 p.m.
February 15 | Stone Beer Pairing Dinner: Each month, The Cork and Craft closes while simultaneously opening its doors to members of the epicure intelligentsia eager to try gourmet, next-level food-and-beer pairings. February’s guest brewery will be Stone Brewing Co. and feature vintage ales plus an in-house collab beer with Liberty Station brewing manager Kris Ketcham. | The Cork & Craft, 16990 Via Tazon, Rancho Bernardo, 6 p.m.
February 19 & 20 | San Diego Winter Brew Fest: This beer festival will celebrate winter, albeit later than one might expect, closing out the cold season (which was actually cold this year) exactly one month before it expires care of ales and lagers from more than 40 breweries in the unfamiliar but rather cool confines of the San Diego Hall of Champions. | San Diego Hall of Champions, 2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, Times Vary