Beer - trading & discussion

[kansasbbq]

Hey guys,

Going down to NOLA in May. Are there any good breweries worth checking out? I'l google it too, but wanted to get some first-hand experience.

I'd suggest a trip to Parish Brewing if you have the time.

[sidewaysscott]

Hey guys,

Going down to NOLA in May. Are there any good breweries worth checking out? I'l google it too, but wanted to get some first-hand experience.

I'd suggest a trip to Parish Brewing if you have the time.

Yup. Never had any of their stuff, but man it makes me thirsty!!!

[phishstix101]

This was fantastic!!

[dero316]

Hey guys,

Going down to NOLA in May. Are there any good breweries worth checking out? I'l google it too, but wanted to get some first-hand experience.

I'd suggest a trip to Parish Brewing if you have the time.

Agreed, very tasty stuff.

[sigma722]

Ack, I don't think I'll be able to make that drive.. It does sound great though.

[phishstix101]

For anyone in the Tallahassee area, I’ll be tapping tonight at 5pm when we open Angry Chair Space Grass IPA, Angry Chair French Toast and still have some Angry Chair Rocky Road! Pm me for other details thanks!

[kansasbbq]

Ack, I don't think I'll be able to make that drive.. It does sound great though.

Bummer! I'm sure you'll be able to find some of their brews in NOLA though.

[sidewaysscott]

Ack, I don't think I'll be able to make that drive.. It does sound great though.

Bummer! I'm sure you'll be able to find some of their brews in NOLA though.

Do they distribute Ghost In the Machine?

[kansasbbq]

Ack, I don't think I'll be able to make that drive.. It does sound great though.

Bummer! I'm sure you'll be able to find some of their brews in NOLA though.

Do they distribute Ghost In the Machine?

Yes

[FrankBooth]

Going to Cali on the 15th for a few days.

Stopping down the coast (Santa Cruz, San Jose, Carmel etc)

Any spots for drinks or food would be appreciated. On a beer break for almost a month and think I'll hold off until this trip.

[kansasbbq]

SpindleTap has been cranking out some fantastic IPAs recently (Heavy Hands, Cosmic Clouds, etc.).

[mistersmith]

Going to Cali on the 15th for a few days.

Stopping down the coast (Santa Cruz, San Jose, Carmel etc)

Any spots for drinks or food would be appreciated. On a beer break for almost a month and think I'll hold off until this trip.

Sante Adairius is in Capitola, hard to find so pay attention to your GPS...you gotta wrap under the freeway and then cut through a neighborhood...it's worth it, of course, as it's some of the best beer on Earth. There's also a brand new taproom in Santa Cruz but I've never been, but I can't imagine it sucks. The taproom is probably a better experience than the brewery (since you're on vacation you'd prob rather be in Santa Cruz proper than in a business park next to a trailer park 5 miles out of town) but I can't say for sure.

Alvarado Street is right off the 1 in Monterey and everything they make is outstanding and flawless. They kick the fudge out of a lot of places with more beer-forum hype. Seriously they were a top 3-4 CA brewery over the last year or two. Go.

Societe in San Diego does everything right. Killer stuff.

If you need to stop for lunch in the San Jose area, go to Harry's Hofbrau. The food isn't spectacular, but the beer list is always amazing. Draft and bottle, you'll be surprised. As a beer tourist it's a guaranteed good trip, and they'll sell bottles to go I'm 99% sure. They have a few locations - San Jose, Redwood City, San Leandro.

And if you end up in the Bay Area, I can give you a lot of info on breweries and bottle shops, just let me know.

[FrankBooth]

You're the man Mister Smith

Send me the Bay Area stuff too when you have some free time.

[phishstix101]

A couple of new ones for me today

[mistersmith]

You're the man Mister Smith

Send me the Bay Area stuff too when you have some free time.

If you go to the north bay, obviously hit Russian River. If nothing else it's a pilgrimage.

The best brewery in the city of SF, absolutely, is Cellarmaker. They open at 3 most weekdays and that's when you'll want to get there, the SOMA tech bros with logo backpacks all descend pretty heavy at 4:30. But their beer is incredible and their vibe is not at all tech bro...always a good day.

Take the ferry to Alameda and take a mile's walk/bike ride for Faction, they have a massive facility with a massive patio and it's a great place to spend a sunny day.

My favorite brew day right now is to BART over to MacArthur, cross the street to Temescal Brewing. Their beer is incredibly well done (generally, a hazy IPA-type of place, but super clean) and right next door is Church's Chicken...and you can bring the chicken to Temescal...just kill me now.

If you like sours, obviously you can't miss Rare Barrel in Berkeley. If you're all the way up there, there's Fieldwork and a Sierra Nevada taproom nearby, but those places generally bore me to death so, meh. FWIW locals go apeshit for Fieldwork, but I don't see why. I think it's local pride a lot more than it is the beer. It's good beer, but for me it isn't destination beer.

Also mostly sour: Almanac has a taproom now, with (word is) really good food.

If you go to a Giants game (always recommended, sit on the 3rd base side for the view and the food) you can also hit up 21st Amendment on the walk back downtown. Again, this isn't destination beer, but they've been around forever so it might be kinda cool to stop there and revisit last decade's hip beer

It's kinda out there and tough to make it a day trip, unless someone's driving or you want to spend $20 on a cab each way, but Bare Bottle Brewing is the other spot that makes really great beer but doesn't yet have a rep, that I know of, outside of NorCal. They aren't Sante or even Cellarmaker but it's really good.

You can't really talk SF craft beer without mentioning Fort Point, but their beer is forgettable as fudge. They have more handles in SF than any other craft brewer, but it's beer for the happy hour bar crowd, not the beer nerds.

You also can't talk SF craft without talking Anchor. If you're into them, the brewery tour is cool, their brewery taproom is cool, and they just opened a taproom with food across the street, but it's all very Anchor: time-machine stuff.

The last brewery-affiliated spot I'll mention is, if you're going to the Haight, hit Magnolia. Another stalwart, old-time brewery...they're going through a restructuring but have been saved, and deserve to feel the love. Get a burger and their Blue Bell Bitter ESB and transport yourself to a timeless, hype-free zone of awesomeness.

On the bar front:

- Toronado is forever the king. Amazing lists daily, good prices, metal AF jukebox, cash only, filthy bathrooms, friendly regulars, gruff bartenders. If I had one day left to live and my wife were otherwise occupied, I'd bring a pile of Memphis Minnie's bbq (across the street) into Toronado and leave everything else behind. I went with Tapecat like two years ago and he said Memphis Minnie's was the best brisket he ever had, so either the bbq was that good or Toronado got him that drunk You can also get an awesome sausage next door at Rosamunde. Pro tip: check the bottle list, absolute gems are lurking for nowhere near what they should cost. But ask if they have it, don't order it, lol, the success rate for bottles is about 70%

- Other beer bars with high-end tap lists are Crafty Fox and Monk's Kettle, both of which are in the Mission and will impress you with the draft list, and little further past that is Holy Water...they get a lot of love from the beer folks, I went once and it was ok. If you're in North Beach I love a spot called Church Key, super small and only about 8 taps but they're always good, and further up is La Trappe, a traditional Belgian beer and food joint with amazing European bottles and lots of really good local stuff too - hanging out in their basement bar is an underrated experience. Finally, there are two spots near Union Square worth mentioning: Mikkeller, even though I just find that place boring AF, and up the hill, Hopwater Distribution (great food and 31 taps of only NorCal craft beer...they don't often get the A#1 amazeballs kegs but it's a great place and I'm there like 2-3 nights a week lol). I should also mention Beer Hall on Market & Polk, they have like 20 taps and a bottle shop and seem to try really hard I just never get there and that area is basically owned by Twitter and tech dorks, so, drymount it, and then at Polk & California is a spot called Liquid Gold with a try-hard taplist, but they don't really know what they're doing (it's always fun to see how they butcher names and styles on their LCD taplist) and their bottle shop is insanely overpriced, but occasionally they'll have something on tap that makes it worth a trip.

- East Bay beer bars you shouldn't miss are The Trappist and Beer Revolution (both Oakland). Oh, and there's a liquor store in Oakland/Berkeley that looks like fudge from the outside but has one of the best selections in the Bay Area: Ledger's Liquors (keep it secret, keep it safe).

- City Beer Store deserves mention all to itself, a great bottle shop and a dozen taps that are always killer. But they're moving locations, and may be closed, so check ahead. They're only a block from Cellarmaker, that's a great double-whammy. But again, I think they're dark for a few months while they move a block away.

- Other good bottle shops are Jug Shop in Russian Hill, any of the Healthy Spirits locations, PlumpJack will have great stuff but be $$$, and since you're traveling in don't overlook BevMo, our big-box booze shop, as they'll have all but the highest tier of local stuff (you can always get the Firestone barrel aged stuff, things like that).

Finally, since a lot of this is my personal preference, here's the schedule from last month's Beer Week: I say, sort it by venue and look at what spots were doing, if a place was playing your song, head on over. There are so many places I didn't mention (Amnesia, Old Devil Moon, Woods, Willows, Pi Bar, etc.) because there's too much to do! https://sfbeerweek.org/schedule/