Three vintages of Orval at the 2011 Monk’s Kettle Trappist dinner. Photo from Flickr.

Hope you’re in town during San Francisco Beer Week 2012, the upcoming 10 straight days of beer-filled festivities. You’ve got a lot to look forward to February 10th–19th. As always, the schedule is filled to the brim with beer tastings, beer release parties, and food pairing dinners all over town—and outside of town—so check out the full schedule online. We’ll just mention a couple highlights to get ya started.

The beer starts flowing on Friday February 10th with the SF Beer Week Opening Celebration at the Concourse Exhibition Center (635 8th St. at Brannan) in SoMa, hosted by the San Francisco Brewers Guild. From 6pm–10pm, 50 NorCal (aka Northern California) breweries, from new nanobrewers to craft brew legends, will be pouring unlimited samples of new, rare, and classic beers into your commemorative glass. You can also purchase from a range artisan choices and food options, and there’ll be live music. Tickets are online for $65.

The Monk’s Kettle (3141 16th St. at Albion, 415-865-9523) is hosting events throughout SF Beer Week, notably the second annual Dinner of the Trappists, an extensive seven-course dinner paired with beers from the monks of the seven Trappist breweries. Starting at 6:30pm on February 13th, guests will have a rare chance to try beers like the Westvleteren 12 (not available in the U.S.) alongside a course like duck fat-roasted beets with lamb’s lettuce and fromage blanc croquette. Other courses include seared spot prawn with roasted chanterelles and bison two ways; see the full menu here. $195 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Reserve by email.

For Valentine’s Day, Tuesday February 14th, visit Monk’s Kettle for a “Sweet and Sour Valentine,” featuring a sour beer known as Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus. Rosé like the wine, yes, but it’s a beer. They’ll also have sweeter offerings, like Dieu du Ciel! Aphrodite, to represent the other end of the beer spectrum.

In honor of SF Beer Week, Anchor & Hope (83 Minna St. at 2nd St.) is holding a Shrimp Boil on Thursday February 16th, 4:30pm–7pm. It’s an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-draft kinda thing with three brewers (Anchor Brewing, 21st Amendment, and Pacific Brewing Laboratory) and 16 of their drafts. $30. Give ‘em a call to RSVP: 415-501-9100.

Marcia Gagliardi writes a popular insider weekly e-column about the SF dining scene, “the tablehopper.” Subscribe for free at www.tablehopper.com.