Temescal Brewing (Oakland) thread

What's wrong with the crowd?

 

Never had a beer by them that's impressed me yet.

 

Their beers are less in your face than Cellarmaker's but similar on a number of levels (no surprise). New Feeling and Mondo were great I thought, always happy to leave Liquid Gold or CBS with some of their fresh offerings!

 

Their nuanced approach is probably why I appreciate them. Nothing's been an explosion of juice or dankness. Nothing's been offensive to my palate. Just some nicely crafted beers that are enjoyable to consume. "Crushable" as the young bucks like to say.

 

I suppose I need to make a visit. I've had a couple of their beers at TRB, and have been pleased. I've seen cans occasionally poping up here/there.

It's starting to get a bit deep into Oakland for me though...

 

They have a can release today that I won't be able to attend. I'm sure they'll have some tomorrow though. I love their can labels.

 

Agreed on their can art. They & Fieldwork make the most beautiful labels I've encountered in craft beer.

I went to Temescal today for their release and although I prefer Good Feeling over Carried Away, it's a pretty good beer overall. I think I like Temescal IPAs over Cellarmaker IPAs, as I never thought that was their forte. Yes, CM's IPAs are more flavorful, but something about the balance doesn't work for my palate. But when they do it right (Hop Stuff, Are You Afraid of the Dank, etc), they are phenomenal. Their pales are consistently the best in the world though.

 

So ... head brewer Wade is apparently leaving California, and the new brewmaster is Mike Makris from The Rare Barrel.

It'll be interesting to see if Temescal goes in a different direction after this.

 

That is interesting. I was at Temescal Sunday and had Love Is Love which was pretty good.

 

Sad to see Wade leave, I love the brews that he developed for Temescal. I'll be interested to see how they change over the coming months but hope that some of the classics stick around.

 

I stopped by Temescal when I was in the area a few weeks back. I had the Dark Ritual Coffee Porter and Your Favorite Jerks Coffee Porter...I swear the beer played mind games with me. I remember that they were both kind of bland, and yet I realized that I strangely enjoyed them way more than I should have.

 

Huh! Cellarmaker collab! Posting here, since it's brewed at Temescal.

Interesting that this didn't happen when Wade was the head brewer. But maybe he wanted his own identity. Beers have been pretty good in the MIke-era. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

 

Cross-posted from WBAYDN, but with some additional comments for locals.



I don't know if this is Cellarmaker's thing, but there's a new style in SF that they made 3 of. (Social/Cellarmaker, Cellarmaker alone, now Temescal / Cellarmaker / Social). The Brut IPA. Imagine a clean, dry, crisp beer hopped like an IPA, and you'd be close. Kinda like a hoppy pils, where the hops come through more on the aroma than the taste.

This one, Three Cheers, has new-school hop aromatics. With Simcoe, Zeus and Loral, the flavor is actually a bit sweeter in the initial through mid palate than I was expecting, due to the very fruity and a vanilla-like note from the hops. But it definitely finishes dry, leading you to believe this is more like a 5% beer, not the 6.6% ABV it's rated at. Incredibly crushable.

Don't know if anyone has had Cellarmaker's take on it: Less Than Zero, but the difference between the two beers is that LTZ for me was much more subdued. Couldn't pick up the hops much in aroma or flavor, so that one was super crisp and better for a hot day. Crazy since it clocks in at 6.8% ABV! Three Cheers is much more overtly fruity and sweet, so it has more character in my opinion. But fruity/sweet can be a plus or a minus, depending.

Either way, I actually like the Brut IPA as a style, since I don't see too many clean, crisp beers in Cali anymore. Everything is pretty over the top. I'd love to see these come out in the summer (or Indian Summer) and become a big hit. Much more impressive to me than Session IPAs, which I haven't really been a fan of.

 

Social has done a couple so far as well (not sure who did it first, them or Cellarmaker). Hop Champagne and Puttin on the Spritz.

 

I have a bit of a strange relationship with Temescal, in that I REALLY want to love their beers and put them in that top tier of NorCal breweries, but they just seem to be close but no cigar. Very solid, but unspectacular beers that I'd not turn down if offered, but not seek out either. Of the 30+ I've tried they are pretty much all 3.75 or 4.0, with only a few 3.5 or 4.25 mixed in. I had high hopes for the Pure Project collab, but once again it's just short of "really good".

What are other's thoughts on Temescal?

 

What I've had was all good to great, nothing below a 4.0. I'm not local to the Bay Area, so have only sampled roughly 8 of their offerings, enjoyed every one of them for my palate and preferences.

 

So.

As described more in detail in this Eater Article , Temescal just opened up a brewing facility in Jack London Square a few blocks from Beer Revolution. It will only be used as a brewing facility and for parties, so there will be no taproom there. I went there for their inaugural party yesterday where they debuted 4 lagers, including their Temescal Pils flagship. The Temescal Pils is an evolution of the Dreamer Pils recipe. (Flashy is actually an IPL hopped with Galaxy & Motueka.)

Me personally, I enjoyed the Temescal Pils the most of the 4 lagers on offer. It tastes in-between an old school dry grassy Pils and a modern fruity hop Pils. Dry enough that it'd be refreshing anytime you want a cold beer, but with hints of the modern fruity hops that the current IPAs are known for. The dry-hops are German: Saaz and I think Hallertau, so not exactly "juicy". But you do get a little bright fruit character from it.





The owner, Sam Gilbert, led tours throughout the event. He explained that the original Temescal location will do all of the brewing up until fermentation. Then the beers get transported to this Jack London warehouse for the finishing steps. This increases their beer capacity to double their production right now, but with room to grow to triple.

What the Jack London space will give them is the ability and capacity to do beers that require longer processing/conditioning time, primarily lagers for now but also some barrel-aged stuff in the future.





For the people who don't really care for Temescal's stuff now (*cough* hazebros *cough*), this expansion won't change anything.

But I love how Temescal is committed to making tasty low ABV beers. (That being said, with the addition of a barrel program, Sam did indicate they will be offering more higher ABV beers in the future.)

 

I want Temescal to get more popular because I love them, but I also like not having to fight to get their beer haha. While they were mostly doing east coast/west coast hybrid-type IPAs for the first couple years, e.g. Post Coast, Magic Hour etc, their recent hazies, like Hula Hoop and the most recent batch of Wonder Why, have been fantastic.

 

They may have a flagship pils now but about 90% of Temescal beers are attempts at the hazy NE style. The reason "hazebros" don't like them is because they just aren't that great tbh.