I just got a message from a good friend who is traveling through San Fran tomorrow and coming to visit some family in my hometown. He offered to grab me something on his way through SF, the only problem is ... I have no idea what to have him look for! Any help would be massively appreciated. I'm a fan of hoppy stuff, stouts, porters, barleywines, brown ales. I'd prefer something at least somewhat easy to find so he's not running all over town. With that in mind, let me know what you think I should ask him for. Thanks in advance!
Bottles, cans, growlers, cash limit, etc.... got to narrow this down otherwise just tell him to bring cash to Toronado and find something or else head to City Beer Store. A bit of research would help instead of basically saying "I like beer, help me get beer from city X, where find beer, beer is good, get good beer." We also get questions like this at least 4x/week, moreso with PtY on draft and ppl visiting. So..help us help you. Edit: Also where in the city...totally forgot to add this.
Sorry, I kind of panicked after I got off the phone with him and just slapped this thread together. Bottles or cans would be best in this instance. I'm not looking for a huge haul, just a few things he can pack up tightly in his check bag at the airport. Which brings us to the where - He'll be coming into town from the east (Lodi to be exact) and heading toward the airport. Anything in that general vicinity or along the way would be best. I'm really just looking for some solid regional/local shelf stuff that he'd be likely to find in a decent bottle shop. Any bottle shops that you fine folks could recommend would also be appreciated. I know you guys get hit with these kinds of inane questions all the time so I appreciate you taking the time to help a fellow BA out. I'd definitely do the same for any of you if you were ever venturing into my neck of the woods Also, I'm doing my due diligence and utilizing the search function for similar threads. It's just a lot to wade through so I figured I'd throw out a cry for help.
If he's coming from Lodi, he probably won't be passing through any of the usual suspects of SF bottle shops(City Beer, Ales Unlimited, Healthy Spirits, Liquid Gold.) Best bet is Grape and Grain in San Mateo, BevMo or Whole Foods.
I honestly think this is probably the best thing for your buddy to look for. Plain white labels on the bottles and cans makes them stand out plus they are very delicious.
They could also just stop in Berkeley (Berkeley Bowl or Ledgers) or Oakland: Good Hop, Trappist Provisions, Beer Revolution... There are probably other good east bay spots, but those are the ones I know. The benefit of the east bay spots if they are driving is that they're all easy to park at. If going to the city, 4th street Whole Foods has a very good selection and a parking lot.
In addition to Modern Times, should be easy to find Pizza Port cans, El Segundo, and Drakes Hopocalypse should have just hit shelves.
So, here's the thing. If your friend is going from Lodi to SFO, the most logical route one takes from there (I grew up there, BTW and lived in SF for years) does not go through San Francisco (that would be insane) nor does it go through Oakland or Berkeley. He should be taking I-5 South, 205 to Tracy, across the Altamont Pass through Livermore, Pleasanton, etc. Does your friend KNOW that he's going through San Francisco or does he THINK he is going through San Francisco because he's flying out of SFO?
Yeah I looked at a map before posting and it did look like through the city would not be the smartest route from Lodi. Probably easiest for OP's friend to just hit the Burlingame Bevmo.
If your buddy is taking the logical route - which is 580 through the tri-valley over 92 to the peninsula - then just tell him to stop at Whole Foods San Mateo or Mollie Stone Burlingame. Or maybe a Whole Foods in Livermore/Pleasanton. Whole Foods generally has a great selection of local/national crafts. If you're looking for Modern Times, see if he can pick up a bomber of Mega Fortunate Islands; they're still around. They probably have FW Sucaba, I saw it on the shelf yesterday. Maybe a Pugachev's Cobra? Sometimes hard to think about this stuff, because most of the west coast crafts are already widely distributed, save for a few. If you're lucky, you maybe can score a Pliny or two at Whole Foods, if they happen to have it in Livermore on that particular day. RR doesn't distro to San Mateo County Good luck!
I would say stop at 21st amendment brewing and see if they have some cans. Or hit up a bevmo they got everything
