1/4/19 City Beer Store Update. Had: - Burger and Fries ($15 burger + $3 option of fries or salad) - First time eating here. I was kinda looking forward to this because during their transition to the new space, they took their kitchen team to try 10? different burger spots in SF so they could explore their recipe. The end result? Well, value is personal. But I will say that although I'm not a $15 burger kind of person, the end result is pretty tasty. The porcini-braised onions gave it a subtle sweetness and umami earthy character that went well with charred but slightly-pink-in-center patties, sharp provolone and toasted Acme bun. Really, it was well executed. Was it "worth it"? Again back to my statement on value. It's not something I'd regularly get, but I'd rather it be a good burger that is more than I'd prefer to spend than a crappy expensive burger, which there are plenty of in this city. - Modern Times/Humble Sea Mist Dragon - Nelson dry-hopped Pilsner. It's exactly what it sounds like and hit the spot. On-Topic: - Bottle Logic Fundamental Observation - They had 2 bottles. I'm not the biggest fan of vanilla-focused beers, but hey, it was here, I didn't have to chase it, and I might as well try it. I bought 1 for 27.99. They still have one more as of 2pm today. They also had 2 bottles of Leche Borracho in case anyone's interested. - Bourbon County 2018 - They had bottles of Brand Stout, Brand Coffee Barleywine and Brand Wheatwine. Didn't care enough to pay attention to the prices. - Alvarado Street - They still have cans of some recent releases. Halftime Treat, All Absolutes, Monterey Beer, Coconut Boogie, Terps & Caicos, Row Your Oat, Sippin' on Ginger Juice
To stay off topic, had the city beer burger tonight. Verdict: Way unbalanced. There was no acid, unless you count the pickle on the side. I had to take a bit of pickle with each bite just to counteract the onslaught of fat and salt. On a plus side, they got their cask up and running. In the down side it was way too cold.
That's true! There's no acidity element. Although as a person with pure savory-tastes, I didn't mind it. I don't even believe my order came with a pickle on the side LOL
How difficult is it to find FO in the wild. Will be down for a week beginning on 1/26, and will be all over the South Bay and North Bay. Any chance of finding FO at places like the Santa Rosa Bottle Barn, WF Coddington, or any of the WF's in Napa or Sonoma? Likewise, any chance of coming across a bottle at any of the BevMo's/TW's in the San Jose or Santa Cruz area? Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
I don't think tw and bevmo ever had any fo. Lots of places got it in SF and it's been pretty easy to pick up. Healthy spirits in sf had some last week. I checked untapped and there's a place near santa Cruz that says it has fo, some posted they saw it yesterday and another place in navato, beer craft. Those are near the areas you are going to be nearby. There's always the dreaded ip trade.
Yeah, I guess I'm just lazy or don't want it bad enough to go through that. It's just too big of a hassle to try to run down some limited release Holy Mountain, Fremont Bbomb variants or Great Notion crap, which is what I assume it would take to land a bottle of FO (and I'd just as soon not have to do any added driving in the city, east bay, etc.). Hence my hope that maybe I can find it at some odd store in and around Napa, Sonoma, Santa Rosa or the South Bay.
My guess is that you probably might get lucky with the untapped feature where it will notify you when fo is available. There are still cases coming up , not many, from bl. However a 4 pack of great notion ds would probably do it and you wouldn't have to drive anywhere. I'm positive someone would meet you. Good luck, fo is definitely worth trying, and I've tried both b3 and b4 and both are great. If you're driving, I'm assuming, from North Bay to South Bay it would be that much of a detour to head to SF. Just post again when it gets closer to your trip.
Thanks for the tips and advice. Unfortunately, GN hasn't done a DS release for a while, and so unless they happen to do another release this Saturday (always a possibility), that probably won't be possible. That being said, I'll take your advice on posting something as the trip gets nearer. Who knows. Maybe there's something up this way that someone in the bay area really, really wants (enough to part with a bottle of FO). Part of the problem I think, is that you guys get most of what we have available up here (MOAS, Cascade sours, Fremont BA stuff, etc.), so that tends to limit what I can offer I think.
If i wasn't traveling so much this week and next I would try to pick up a bottle for you and would do an IP trade for some GN Ripe. That's one of my favorite Northwest IPAs. As it is, while you are here I will actually be up in Seattle :-(
Appreciate the thought. If you like Ripe that much, why not just drive down to PDX while you're out here? Depending on traffic, it shouldn't take more than 2 and half hours to drive down. Not to take anything away from Seattle, but there's plenty to do down in PDX.
I think the new Bits and Bobs is out, plus I think their hazelicious is still available. So you should be just fine. Have fun!
Hey fellas, I think I’m allowed back in the pacific forums after my excommunication in the early 80s after being discovered trying to baby bird a pint of Pliny the Younger to the Midwest. Past being prologue, I got a SF buddy joining my out in CO on Thursday to ski that gnar gnar pow, and I want him to smuggle some calinectar to the high plains to loosen up my long muscles. He is near Dolores Park. He is a “doctor” and he is “busy saving lives” or playing sudoku or something, so I’m looking for something close to him that is delicious and local/regional (hops, sours, stouts) that he can snag from Mr Gus or a brewery real quick like and tuck in to his baggage so it can be flown direct to my mouth. I promise that I don’t talk like this and I’ll never pretend to y’all like this again. Thanks in advance!
Dolores Park area is great for food and bars, but not a big epicentre of bottle & can shops I'm afraid. There's Healthy Spirits (both the Castro and larger Valencia locations nearby), which can get some nice stuff in, such as Cantillon, but they're not a huge player if you're looking for specific California beers. He'd have to venture a bit further to like City Beer Store, Toronado, and The Crafty Fox if you want NorCal haze and sours, but all of them are more bars than bottle/can shops. Quite frankly, I'd argue that Bay Area/NorCal breweries tend not to distribute so you're more or less left to going to releases at the source.
What’s the word with The Abyss? I feel like it hasn’t made its way to the south bay at least. Did it fly under my radar? Am I wrong?
Definitely agree with Thuey about Bay Area breweries not distribution too much. On top of the places he mentioned: Gus' Community market in the Mission has a good selection. Big Rec in the Mission gets the Alvarado and Temescal stuff and occasionally Moonraker (it's expensive for To Go stuff though, much like Crafty Fox - same owners). Liquid Gold is nice too, but that's in Nob Hill and not the easiest to get to. Maison Corbeaux in lower Pac Heights is decent as well.
I got the 2014 and 2015 versions at Ales Unlimited - which I should've included in my previous post as a good spot for a wide beer selection.
Abyss was released back in November. It's all the over the place here in PDX (grocery stores, bottles shops, Costco, you name it). Deschutes made quite a bit of it I believe. I'm surprised you can't find it down in the South Bay. I would think you could find it at BevMo or TW.
Again, I'm really surprised to hear you're having any difficulty finding this. It's still pretty easy to find here in PDX; they even had bottles available at the airport pub when we were there around Thanksgiving (it was on tap there as well). Hopefully you can find some, as the XXX version is terrific. One of the best Deschutes has put out in many years (IMHO).
I think the only place I ever see The Abyss in the bay area is BevMo. But they don't always have the numbered Black Butte beers. The thing about the Bay Area is we have so much great CA beer that I think a lot of bottleshops and the like don't really carry much OR / WA / other state beers like they may have used to.
This has been my perception over the last couple of years. Of course, I'm part of the problem as Abyss and other Deschutes were farther up my list, but have dropped in the past couple years to the point that I don't buy much. On a side note, they do continue to have a good availability in Hawaii, but I think that is because California beers haven't really focused on Hawaii (beyond SN, BallastPoint, Stone, and a few others).
And IMHO, you can't really blame them. That being said, Deschutes stuff sees such wide distribution now (nearly country wide), I just assumed you would be able to find things like the Abyss and BB XXX almost as easily as we can up here. The last couple of years, the Abyss in particular has become a complete shelf turd up here. There was still an awful lot of the 2017 available around town when the 2018 was released this year.
I had a The Abyss on tap a couple months back and was reminded of how good that beer is. I'm gonna get a lot of crap for this but I prefer it over BCBS, CBS and Fundamental Observation. They're different beers, I know. But I very much believe hype seems to be what most people judge their beers on.
I'm not a fan of the licorice flavor from abyss, but I do enjoy dissident especially with a few years on it.
I haven't tried FO so I can't comment. I have a hard time comparing the abyss to CBS and BCBS, just because the beers are SO different. That being said, the last couple of years Deschutes has backed off a bit on the Wine Barrel aging (more bourbon and/or whiskey barrel aging), which I thought a smart move. The 2017 and 2018 were both more enjoyable I thought, than some of previous years when the beer was seeing a lot more wine barrel aging. Have had it every year since back in 2006, and it's been fascinating to see the changes over the years.
Hey all, I'll be visiting San Francisco in a few weeks, mainly looking for DeDolle, Fantome, DeRanke, AuBaron, Ale Apothecary, and other fun weirdo Belgiany things. Sounds like City Beer Store, Healthy Spirits, and Ales Unlimited are my best bet for bottles? I'll be in the Mission for several days. In addition, any under the radar places worth checking out in the Mission? Can be food, beer, music, coffee, murals, whatever. Cheers!
BEER: Zeitgeist (cash only but super cool beer bar with outdoor patio) Crafty Fox Ale House / Big Rec Tap Room (same owners, have awesome taplists all the time) Almanac Taproom (SF taproom of the east bay brewery, great sours) Amnesia Music Hall (usually has live bands in the evening esp. on weekend and again, hidden gem of a taproom with a great selection) Beer Nerds ( a little new to the scene but some awesome beers both on tap and to go) FOOD : Tacos - El Farolito (lives up to the hype imo, if there's a long line at the main one on 24th and mission there's a 2nd, more lowkey location a few blocks east on 24th) Taqueria Guadalajara (my personal favorite, awesome shrimp tacos) More Upscale - El Techo (one of the best rooftop bars in SF, and good food) Lolinda (downstairs from el techo, again awesome food) Foreign Cinema Can't remember more off the top of my head as I just got into the office, but feel free to pm me for more recs, I currently live in the Mission !
For MIssion Mexican, everyone has their preferences. I hate El Farolito, and I've tried them probably 10x now. I think it's more quantity than quality, but in general people do like them. La Taqueria is even more hyped, but is much better in my opinion. I prefer Taqueria Cancun for non-hyped taqueria fare. But we can agree on Taqueria Guadalajara.
The mission is nice spot to stay a few days, good choice. Most people already mentioned the good spots so I won't add to that. I would definitely talk a walk up and down 24th St, lots of little shops, cafes and murals. Valencia st and mission st have a lot to offer as well. I did want to add 3 spots. La Palma has some really good Mexican food, especially tamales. Also there's a Mexican bakery that my family has been going to since I was a kid, La mexicana. Lots of good sweet bread, but get there early as many of the good stuff goes early and all the locals go there. Both these spots are within blocks of each other on 24th near alamanc taproom( their $15 burger is delicious). One last spot is cellarmaker pizza (same as cellarmaker brewery on Harrison) which just opened not to far up on mission from 24th.
