pininex's Profile
Root Beer -- housemade or good bottle selection??
Iron Springs in Fairfax makes a great root beer. Pretty sure they will do growlers of it.
Sausalito Lunch Recs
I would go to Bar Bocce. Good food and it has a great outdoor area.
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Bar Bocce
1250 Bridgeway, Sausalito, CA 94965
Somewhere along the way between Napa and SF
Sol Food is always a zoo with people hovering for the few available spots. I would do Boca in Novato.
Napa Bars Help!...
Without a doubt the best place for beer is Billco's Billiards in Downtown Napa. They have 60 beers on tap from breweries like Moonlight, Russian River, Moylans, Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, and Deschutes. The best place for bottles would be the Whole Foods in Napa.
Best pizza and beer in Bay Area?
How is the pizza at Bobby G's in Berkeley? They carry some good beers and usually have Pliny the Elder on tap.
Best pizza and beer in Bay Area?
The best brewpub in the country is Russian River Brewing Company in downtown Santa Rosa. They make a pretty good pizza and make incredible American and Belgian style beers. If you put your focus on going to Russian River, you could also easily visit Third Street Aleworks in Santa Rosa, Bear Republic in Healdsburg, and Lagunitas' Beer Sanctuary in Petaluma.
Outdoor Brunch north of San Francisco?
The Station House Cafe in Point Reyes has a great outdoor area and the food on my visits has been good.
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Station House Cafe
11180 State Route 1 N, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
Robert Lauriston's New Restaurant in East Bay - "Locanda da Eva"
Seems there may be a Locanda to the west.
http://www.bloglovin.com/m/1692906/85899639/f/7245
Looking for Best Craft Beer Bars in the Bay Area
When is the last time you went to Triple Rock? Rodger Davis has been brewing there for over a year now. I would say Rodger and Vinnie at Russian River make the hoppiest beers in the area. Rodger recently did a barleywine called Orion that used a massive amount of citra hops, the hops used in SN Torpedo. I would never describe his beers as being malty, or as I prefer to call them, East Coast style.
Iron Springs is doing some good stuff. They bottle 5 beers and usually have at least one beer on tap at the Toronado. Their pub is worth visiting and they usually put on a new cask every Thursday.
Looking for Best Craft Beer Bars in the Bay Area
I think you meant Martins West, which I have not visited. If the tap list from their website is any indication, I'm not missing much.
Looking for Best Craft Beer Bars in the Bay Area
I agree with the recs for SF and the East Bay. I would definitely focus my time in the North Bay, SF, and the East Bay. The Peninsula for the most part is a beer wasteland. There is one good beer bar, the Rose and Crown in Palo Alto, and one good beer store, K&L Wine Merchants in Redwood City.
As I do most of my beer drinking in the North Bay, here are my recs. All of these places are focused on locally made beer.
Bear Republic Brewery (Healdsburg): They have a lot of brewery only beers. Racer X frequently is on tap.
Russian River Brewing (Santa Rosa): THE best brewery in the US.
Flavor (Santa Rosa): It is not a brewery, but they always have six beers on tap from Moonlight, a great local brewery.
Bottle Barn (Santa Rosa): Best bottle shop in the North Bay.
Lagunitas (Petaluma): They do a good tour and recently opened up a nice beer garden. Usually have a few brewery only beers on tap.
Taps (Petaluma): Great new beer bar in downtown Petaluma. Have roughly 30 taps.
Mondo (Sonoma): Laid back restaurant with really good taps.
Sonoma Springs Brewery (Sonoma): New brewery that makes some good German style beers. They also make a tasty Rye Pale Ale.
Moylans (Novato):Usually have around 15 of their beers on tap and usually have 2 solid cask offerings. Look for the Wet Hopsickle.
Marin Brewing (Larkspur): Good brewpub that puts out a great DIPA called White Knuckle. Their porter, stout, pale ale, and IPA are all very good.
Iron Springs (Fairfax): Another solid brewpub that makes some tasty ales. I like their stout, coffee porter, and DIPA.
Micros in Chicago
Almost all of the beers made by Founders and Bell's are outstanding. The Map Room is a great beer bar.
Beer Revolution - New Beer Bottle/Tap Room in Oakland
@MaddyK: If memory serves right, you are a recent transplant and I am going to guess you never visited CBS when they first opened. It took them some time to become the store they are today.
I like the fact that Beer Revolution is emphasizing some of the lesser known local breweries such as Iron Springs, Ale Industries, Santa Cruz Mountain Works, and Linden Street. They also are carrying stuff from Odonata, a great up and coming brewery from Sacramento. The couple that runs it are both really nice people too.
Heck, if you're feeling homesick, they even have DFH 90 Minute if you want to have a malty east coast style double IPA.
Maryland Brews
I really enjoy the beers from Brewer's Art. I like Ozzy and the Green Peppercorn Tripel.
Beer Growlers in SF Bay Area?
The vast majority of brewpubs do growler fills. In CA breweries are only allowed to fill their own growlers. The old days of a brewery filling another breweries' growler have stopped. You also can't go to a bar and have one filled like you can in a lot of other states.
I can't think of any places in the Easy Bay that do growlers. Triple Rock in Berkeley sells beer to go but it is more like beer in a bag than a growler. You could try calling Pacific Coast (Oakland), Linden Street (Oakland), Pyramid (Berkeley), or Drakes (San Leandro) to see if they do growlers.
Here are some breweries outside of the East Bay that definitely do growlers:
Marin: Iron Springs; Moylan's; Marin Brewing Co; Broken Drum.
SF: Magnolia; 21st Amendment.; Rogue.
Sonoma: Russian River; Bear Republic; Dempsey's; Sonoma Springs.
Looking for a good sports bar in San Francisco, please
You could go to 21st Amendment in SF. The upstairs area is good for watching sports and they will have a lot of good beers on tap for Strong Beer Month. The food beats most sport bars.
Looking for a good sports bar in San Francisco, please
There never was an ESPNZone in SF.
Maui Brewing Company - coconut porter
You should be able to find it at any local BevMo. Usually priced around $9.00 for four cans.
Favorite SF Microbrew Beer Bars
I second the Moonlight Brewing suggestion. When you are in Santa Rosa there is a restaurant two blocks from Russian River called Flavor that always has 6 Moonlight beers on tap. Toronado usually has 3-4 Moonlight beers on tap at all times and Monk's Kettle usually has a few.
Favorite SF Microbrew Beer Bars
In CA, you don't buy your beer through a distributor like it is set up in PA. You also don't have to buy beer by the case or go to a bar to get a six pack. Beer can be bought at liquor stores, super markets, and convenience stores. A good beer/liquor store should be able to order a keg of Ommegang Rouge. We don't get Bell's in CA. DFH only sends out a few beers to CA. Festina Peche is one that is distributed, but kegs may be tough to order.
Since you like sours you need to go to Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa. If you know beer, I shouldn't have to tell you this. Best IPAs and Belgian styles made in the US. They also will have Pliny the Younger on tap at the brewery starting 2/5/10 and at places like Toronado the following week.
In SF I would go to Toronado, Rogue, La Trappe, Monk's Kettle, 21st Ammendment, and Magnolia. Anchor Brewing does a great tour but it gets booked up early. City Beer Store and Healthy Spirits are good for bottles.
If you do go to Russian River, you can also stop at Marin Brewing, Moylans, Lagunitas, and Bear Republic.
Life & Limb Beer in SF
I liked it. It's definitely sweet with maple syrup, chocolate, and vanilla tones. It reminded me in some ways of Dogfish Head's Palo Santo Marron.
Whole Foods Potrero Hill should a few left. BevMo on Geary lists one being available.
Toronado had the second runnings beer, Limb and Life, on tap late last week. Not sure if it is still on.
Beer delivery to San Francisco?
Healthy Spirits is an SF store that specializes in craft beer. They also ship beer. They do a good job of updating their beer list. Here is a link to their website.
http://healthy-spirits.blogspot.com/
SF - BYOB not allowed any more ?
While trying to find the code that states BYO is illegal, I actually stumbled upon the Bauer article. I think the story is a bit strange. Why would an ABC rep contact the writer of the story before contacting the restaurant? The writer also did not mention the name of the ABC contact and the specific code that was being violated.
SF - BYOB not allowed any more ?
Does anyone have a link to the specific CA ABC code that covers BYO?
where to find home beer making kit between napa and sf
Since you mentioned Napa, there is an excellent homebrew store located at the fairgrounds in Napa called Napa Fermentation Supplies.
http://www.napafermentation.com/
All 3 stores mentioned above are great and have excellent staff that can guide you through what you need. MoreBeer in Concord has the largest selection of supplies and equipment, but I find Oak Barrel has better hop varieties. MoreBeer is also down the road from Monument Wine and Spirits which IMHO beats out City Beer and Ledger's as having the best beer selection and prices in the Bay Area.
***EDIT-Meant to reply to the OP.
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Morebeer
995 Detroit Ave, Concord, CA
