Nice article. Sadly, I live in the South Bay which is not "hopping" as much as SF and Oakland. Being a family man, it's not often that I can get to SF and Oakland to try the new breweries. I did attend the SF Beer Week Gala this year which helped introduce me to a lot of the Bay Area breweries which I have wanted to try...
I feel ya man...I'm in Mountain View. The bar scene helps a bit but just wish there were some good breweries to hit up on the regular. Drake's and Cleophus Quealy in San Leandro are a bit easier to get to at least.
Wow, those brewery numbers per capita really make one appreciate the density of great breweries in locations such as Bend! And I truly agree, Cellarmaker is spectacular.
Agreed. I can usually get my fix at ISO Beers, Original Gravity, Fibar McGees, etc. I would love to get to Faction and Discretion more often.
This article actually highlights one of my biggest annoyances with the SF beer scene: every place with a good tap list is busy pretty much all the time. I know, boo hoo for me, but I'm unable to go to Toronado at noon on a Wednesday since I have a job. Living in Philly before moving west, I had become accustomed to having a number of places where we could go on, say a Tuesday night and not have it be 3 deep at the bar, but that's not the case in SF. If anything, this is proof that we could go a long way in having more places that serve good beer.
I've noticed Toronado on the weekends has died down a lot in recent times. 1-2 years ago it was nearly impossible to get in on a Saturday, now it is fairly easy to grab a beer and a seat. Seems like a lot of the younger/tech crowd has gotten tired of the surly nature of the place or just migrated to Mikkeller. But I agree on the general beer scene in SF. Cellarmaker on a Saturday is almost unbearable. The main issue is most bars just don't have enough space because San Francisco. Zeitgeist is always a good balance...
Good info, thx. I think we need more bartenders to be assholes then Yeah, I work in Marin but was in the city on a weekday for training about got out at 3:30 one of the Thursday. Walked down to Cellarmaker and every seat in the house was already taken with a lineup at the service part on the right side of the bar! (note: I get really annoyed when people loiter there. Why can't the bartenders tell them to move? When people do that I just shove my way in front of them with a disingenuous "excuse me"). I have found that if you go near closing that it's often more chill there.
