The Beer Thread

Are you staying IN SF or outside? Off the top of my head: Mikkeller in SF has an amazing list of sours, as well as good food. Of course if you're up for the drive Russian River north of SF is awesome. Then there is: Rare Barrel, Cellarmaker, Alvarado Street, Fieldwork, Sainte Adarius Rustic Ales.

Ao- said:

Nice. We'll be in Noe Valley near Twin Peaks, so in actual SF. It'll be a few days (5?), and we're renting a car to head out of town for a bit (I do want to visit Petaluma). I might try to make it to Anchor just for the history.

Click to expand...

If you do go down to the pier, Boudin bakery is a cool stop too. They have dinner, but their sourdough is second to none in my opinion. I actually have two loaves a month overnighted to my house (as a gift to my GF).

Mikkeller is definitely the best beer spot in the city. The food is pretty damn good too. Legit reuben. Be prepared to spend some cash though. Almost as good as Mikkeller is Monk's Kettle. And the food there is even better. They have less taps than Mikkeller but the bottle selection is ridiculous. It's like a full blown wine menu. Multi page book.

I would also recommend Toronado. It's not pricy like the two above but the tap selection is always very respectable. Same with Gestalt. It's next door to Monk's Kettle so you can grab pre dinner brews if you need to wait for your table - which is likely if you're going for dinner.

As for breweries, my favorite is Woods. They make some extremely interesting beers. Go to the location on 18th and Church, get a couple crowlers to go, and jam them in Dolores Park across the street. A true SF experience. I also am a big fan of Cellarmaker, Laughing Monk, and Barebottle. Good thing you'll have a car because getting to Laughing Monk and Barebottle blows via public transit. Takes forever.

If you make the trek to East Bay it opens a lot of possibilities. Fieldwork and Rare Barrel kick ass.

If you're a Belgian fan you can check out La Trappe. Never had the food there but I've heard it's good.

Hit me up if you have any questions or want more specific suggestions. I've lived here for almost seven years so I've been around the block a time or two.

I am going to do it, I will be that guy!

Pumpkin Beer!!!!!!!
2 of my favs are Pumpkin Down -Ballast Point and believe it or not BJ's Brewery has a great pumpkin beer as well.

Pagan said:

I am going to do it, I will be that guy!

Pumpkin Beer!!!!!!!
2 of my favs are Pumpkin Down -Ballast Point and believe it or not BJ's Brewery has a great pumpkin beer as well.

Click to expand...

Southern Tier Warlock is usually good. In Texas, St Arnold Pumpkinator is good though it gets a lot better if you give it 6-12 months (or longer) before drinking it.

ToeMissile said:

I haven't found a pumpkin beer I really liked, though I haven't really tried very many. There's never enough pumpkin flavor, I want a pumpkin pie and a beer to have a baby in my mouth.

Rich, creamy, not too much spice, and on the sweet side. Probably needs to be an imperial milk stout.

Click to expand...

I'd give Southern Tier Pumking a shot. It has a little vanilla mixed in with the usual pumpkin beer flavors. It always reminds me of a piece of pumpkin pie crust that's had the filling scrapped off.

Yeah I really dig that one.

Ao- said:

made it to veil brewing in Richmond, and god damn was it good. Cinnamon Streusel Hornswaggler was amazing, so pissed I missed out on the cans. I managed to get some PRBLMS cans to take home (and a t-shirt). Their collab with trillium (Adult Human) was pretty great also.

Click to expand...

I got to try Double Chocolate Hornswaggler at a share/release last weekend up here in CT and really enjoyed it.

Hebendanz Weizen ist where it's at, currently. Amazing.