Visiting SF: best local beers, bars, bottle shops, breweries, etc.

www.beerbybart.com

This will help you get around. Hop on BART & hit Oakland. Trappist, Beer Rev, Barclays & Triple Rock are all close to BART.

 

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/food-and-beer-in-san-francisco.99619/

 

You already have a good list. If you head to the East Bay, I'd also consider Drakes.

 

If you're looking for $4 pints of Pliny (before 8pm), Lucky 13 is a great spot on Market St right in the Castro. Supremely divey too.

Taking a look at the rest of the list, if you think you have too much on there I might throw out Church Key and Social. Church Key is great, don't get me wrong, but they mainly had Ballast Point and Stone when I was there, which you can get anywhere. I've heard nothing good about the beer at Social, and know the food underwhelms.

In terms of breweries, heading north on 101 will take you first by Lagunitas, then Russian River, then Bear Republic. Russian River is great of course, but you might want to check out the other spots. At the end of the day Russian River is really just a good bar because of the beer - long waits, relatively slow service, and okay food.

 

Looks like you've done your homework as that's a solid list. Based on your "Looking for things I can only get on the west coast and am especially into IPAs, farmhouse ales/saisons, Belgians, sours, etc."... if you're willing to drive an hour+ North to RR, you might consider driving an hour and a half South as well to Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, CA. Farmhouse/Saison/Belgian/Funk/Sour is right up there alley and you will not find their beer anywhere out of the area, at least not at the moment.

 

You've got a great list but I would definitely second the suggestion of hitting Trappist / Trappist Provisions / Beer Revolution over in Oakland. Easy enough via BART. Too bad the sour room at Mikkeller won't be open yet, but I am sure they won't disappoint -- I'm going to make my first visit tonight. Two more thoughts on your way to/from RRBC. You might like to stop in at Baeltane Brewing (http://www.baeltanebrewing.com/index.html) given your tastes, and it is right off the freeway in a kind of industrial park neighborhood. Beer Craft (http://beercraft.com/) is a bottle shop that is also right off the freeway and may have some things you don't see at City Beer and Healthy Spirits. Have a great visit!

 

Well if you are going to Russian River you gotta go to Lagunitas. If anything, the atmosphere is pretty pleasant and fun. Also the Noc Noc next door to Toronado sometimes has decent stuff available and they have these super cool thrones for bar stools.

 

This thread has some great advice...looking at heading to SF sometime soon, myself (and by myself) and wonder if there is any public transport to the breweries North of SF (Lagunitas, Red River, Bear Republic) or the one mentioned to the south?

I guess renting a car is easy...but when the point of your trip is to drink alcohol, driving doesn't really seem like an ideal solution...

thanks

 

There is. Google Maps has a public transit option so you can see what buses would take you up to the North Bay or South Bay. It would just take you a ridiculously long time (3 hours or so) and the buses are pretty infrequent. What is Red River?

 

lol. Sorry, meant Russian River.

Too bad, was hoping there was a shuttle, tour, train etc.

 

I used to know a girl that would take the bus from Santa Rosa to come kick it in the City. It would take her 3 hours. Best bet is to drive up and get a room somewhere close by to stay for the night.

 

There are various ride share and carpool referral services that are pretty easy to hunt down online.

I bet you can find someone on a weekday that will let you hitch a ride on their daily commute between SF and Sonoma County. The bus services within counties are reliable and frequent, once you are in Sonoma County, you could visit a few spots (Russian River and Lagunitas, to start) on the bus.