Fieldwork appreciation thread

I prefer Galaxy Sauce over Juice. The Galaxy hop is ethereal and light, and it seems to get buried under heavy malt and alcohol.

My beer pattern lately has come to this: wait for New Glory to have a massive can dump and pick up a bunch of those, then go to Track 7 for growlers to bring home. I normally can get to Fieldwork on Friday nights and they seem to rarely have cans then, so I have to get off the highway, park somewhere near-ish, walk and get growlers filled, carry those back to my car, and navigate back to 80. I've gotten tired of doing this. I'm sure at some point the pendulum will swing back the other way but it's quite a hassle to do a beer pick-up at FW.

 

I'm confused. Galaxy Sauce is a boozy mess compared to Galaxy Juice.

 

ah crap got them confused, yes I meant I prefer Juice over Sauce

 

You are much better at describing beer than I am. That's my only comment. Good night.

 

Well, I appreciate that, but I honestly never know if what I'm saying makes any sense. It makes sense to me, since I wouldn't say it otherwise, but that's totally different than it making sense to other people. I'll just say what I think and hope it doesn't make me look foolish.

 

I have the almost exact opposite experience from my location on the Natomas/Downtown Sacramento side of town...lol.

Fieldwork on Fridays at noon has now become my regular lunch spot. Always get whatever cans are released, never shut out. Even when there are no cans, we just go for draft beer at lunch. Only a few minutes from my office. Easy parking and no crowds or lines.

New Glory at 5pm is the pain in the ass for me. No way I am driving I-50 at rush hour to get cans on the Southeast side of Sac then head Northeast back to Roseville..... haha...

 

If I remember back to last year, they released Bad Conduct right before Thanksgiving. November 23, 2016. They hand numbered 750 cans of BC at the time. The 12 can limit was way to high and many in line were shut out. They also had Pulp & Fog Ripper that day for their first can release.

Hopefully they learned form last years demand and have some lower limits for Good Conduct. They also now have a whole year of experience doing can releases so they will be more prepared with staff. Not sure what the production will be this time?

 

Man, I remember that release vividly. They had one person on the register and one or two people sorting through cans. It took two hours for me to get cans. BC cans sold out like 15 people in front of me, and I was the second to last person to get cans of Pulp that day. As you can imagine, the people behind me were not too pleased. It was a bit of a shit show, but they learned the error of their ways pretty quickly. Every release that I have been to since then has been smooth. Fingers crossed for lower limits or greater can production.

 

i'm up in the area for work and I've been trying any of their beers I can find on tap at various restaurants. i'm thinking of going over to the brewery in Berkeley.

do cans get distributed anywhere?

does anyone know a good bottle shop/beer store in the Pleasanton or San Francisco area even? EDIT: just found the bay area supermarket/bottleshop thread so i'll check there but still curious about Fieldwork cans.

 

Cans are taproom-only, with very very limited exceptions not worth mentioning.

 

thanks! do you know if cans are readily available at each location or do they sell out all the time?

 

In my experience, because Berkeley is the original location and has far more established of a fanbase, I believe they sell out faster. Their first canned releases, everything was gone within the first hour. Now it's better, and cans can last a few hours. But certainly not days.

On the other hand, you can get Crowler fills of most of their beers, if you can't time your trip to coincide with a release.

 

Plus, you can pre-order your crowlers for pickup!

 

If cans of a release are available, they prohibit crowler fills of that beer. However, you can get a growler fill.

 

Nice arrangement! My deal is I drive right through Sac, coming in on 80 from the causeway and down 99 to Lodi where I live. So the West Sac breweries and Track 7 are extremely convenient. There's a convenient way to get to New Glory and Device and continue onwards afterwards. I happen to not like Device - tried them many times - I find their ales to be really austere, quite the opposite of crushable. Venturing off into Midtown is a big time sink and all I want to do is have one beer and get my growlers filled/cans bought. That said I've had almost every worthy FW beer of the last year and am a huge fan. I miss Night Moves.

 

I’m not sure if the advice about Berkeley versus the satellite is as simple as that. San Mateo is a new tap room but can releases have been getting worse and worse there as more people try to go there instead. Hopefully they’re paying attention and will send more supplies there but for anyone trying to figure out where the best chance is, it’s no sure thing.

More positively, I had several pours of One Star Review and found it delightful. All present enjoyed it and I thought it was the best-integrated use of Enigma hops I could remember. Frequently it doesn’t mesh for me and leaves the whole beer tasting artificial, but that was not the case here.

 

I've had a bit of a stained relationship with enigma hops as well. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try one star review

 

I think this is because San Mateo (and vicinity) is an area long starved for breweries, and Fieldwork is the only HOT one in the entire Peninsula and South Bay. It felt like a national holiday when they opened. Everyone between Santa Cruz and San Francisco has to go there to get their can on. Besides the limited accounts that Alvarado delivers to, we just don't have any other options. (Unless you count Strike's Rally Hat Pale Ale cans, always plenty of those available... )

 

Alpha Acid is pretty nice, but your point still stands. Not much happening in the South Bay or on the Peninsula

 

I agree, Alpha Acid is pretty nice and they usually have a couple solid beers on tap. I like stopping by there after my work week to pick up a pint and/or growler fill. But they aren't a great place for cans...too inconsistent of a schedule & overpriced (i.e. $24 for a 4-pack of a 6.5% NE IPA)