MUST stops for beer near Sacramento?

My (very awesome) SWMBO got me a great present for my 30th birthday. She booked a trip to California to do some beer tasting. We fly into Sacramento, stay one night there, drive to Chico, stay one night there, then back to Sacramento for another night before flying back to Chicago.

Obviously while in Chico we're going to hit up Sierra Nevada. Where else should we stop while we're in Sacramento and anywhere else near or between Sacramento and Chico?? I've never been north of LA in California- so it's all new to me.

I would recommend hitting up Rubicon Brewing Co. for sure.
Good stuff there. Also, River CIty Brewing Co. at the Downtown Mall.

Welcome to Sac-o-tomatoes!

My favorite pub is the Bonn Lair in East Sac.

And I've heard great things about http://www.jackrussellbrewing.com but have never made the 1+ hour drive to find out.

Hit up Samuel Horne's tavern in Folsom for a great tap and bottle selection. If you take one of your nights and hit up the bay area (including Marin county), there is more good beer than you could possibly try in the time that you have.

Jack Russell is GREAT, not good this time of year though. You wanna go when Apple hill is alive and kicking in the fall, or summer when they cook outside and have live music. In the fall, the wineries are open for tasting, outdoor shops are alive, and apple pies and apple treats as far as the eye can see!

Most of the other places around here can be found across the country, like budweiser, gordon beirsch, etc. though there are some nice breweries which may be a little out of your way: Mendocino Brewing Company (Ukiah), Blue Frog (Fairfield).

Hit up Hoppy's Brewing, and Brew It Up (also good for a good bite to eat - just disregard the sometimes crappy service). There are alot of other smaller places around here as well.

It's cool you're coming to this area, bad time of year though, hopefully you're heading out here in between spring and summer, or fall, that's when the California weather REALLY makes outsiders jealous. My wife and I LOVE Chicago, we honeymooned there 5 years ago, and will be going back very soon hopefully.

My question is, of all places, why choose Chico and Sac? If you're here on the weekend, let me know, you can come see yours truly at a local improv comedy club, two tickets for you on me.

I'll offer up a +1 for Rubicon -- really good beer, great atmosphere, sidewalk tables in a great neighborhood, and who can argue with a beer named "Monkey Knife Fight"?

If you can manage a drive to Santa Rosa, you could check out Russian River. It's about 2 hours from sac.

Weird thing is I grew up in Folsom, but I don't know too much in terms of beer offerings here since I moved away for college before I could (legally) drink. When I come back to visit, I have no idea where to go!

2 hours away and u can have russian river, lagunitas and bear republic in addition to several others.

Go to "The Grad" (Graduate) in Davis. They have about 100 beers on tap. Jack Russell is good, but a long drive and the weather is going to be cold. Rubicon is okay. I like their Stout. I think Monkey Knife Fight is mediocre.

The only other suggestion I have is The Owl in old Roseville. It is the ONLY place that I know of that has Pliney in bottles and on tap. They often have Sculpin on tap as well.

We're really not a 'beer' town, just lots of corner bars and hard alcohol.

I had no idea this many folks came to HBT from the local area!

Where else is there to go?

gregger said:

It's cool you're coming to this area, bad time of year though, hopefully you're heading out here in between spring and summer, or fall, that's when the California weather REALLY makes outsiders jealous. My wife and I LOVE Chicago, we honeymooned there 5 years ago, and will be going back very soon hopefully.

My question is, of all places, why choose Chico and Sac? If you're here on the weekend, let me know, you can come see yours truly at a local improv comedy club, two tickets for you on me.

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We're coming April 4 to 7... which is during our spring break (the fiancee and I are both teachers).

Why Chico and Sac? My SWMBO knows I have a special fondness for Sierra Nevada, especially in the winter when I can get Celebration Ale. I also must have said something about their eco-friendly brewing practices after listening to a Brewing Network session where they interviewed the SN head brewer. She filed away the idea of a Chico trip as a good 30th b-day present for me.

We're actually visiting the west coast more extensively over the summer for our honeymoon. We're flying in to San Fran and then spending three weeks driving up the coast until we get to Vancouver. My head will be spinning planning out all the beer stops for that trip.

BmillaTheBrewzilla said:

We're actually visiting the west coast more extensively over the summer for our honeymoon. We're flying in to San Fran and then spending three weeks driving up the coast until we get to Vancouver. My head will be spinning planning out all the beer stops for that trip.

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Beautiful... stop and smell the air if you pass through Wine Country.

If you are in to German beers there is Sudwerk in Davis. I still have fond memories of dollar beer night there.

Oh, college.

I enjoyed my visit to Hoppy Brewing in Sacto. ( hoppy.com) especially the stony face red ale. Have a great time here in CA!!

The Sierra Nevada Brewery is fantastic. If you are going to do the brewery tour you need to sign up early. When I went there were two tour times and they want to have I think 20 People per tour. Knee Deep Brewery has also started brewing in the old Beermanns Brewery in Lincoln.

All my favorite places have been mentioned already.

I'm realizing that there's quite a few HBT'ers in this area.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I should mention... I have never tasted Pliny despite all I have read about it. We don't get it in IL.

But... I plan on changing that very soon!

We don't get much Pliney here in Sac either. Total Wine, Whole Foods, and BevMo all have carried it in bottles at times, but never seem to be able to really keep it in stock for more than one day a month at best. I found Ballast Point Sculpin last week at the Davis Co-op (grocery store), and it is a Pliney rival. Call ahead to The Owl to make sure you'll find it there. My sister bartends at Lucky 13 in San Francisco, they and Toronado in SF always have it and much more.

If you want Pliney, go to Pangaea on Franklin Blvd near Broadway. They have Pliney on tap there. Also several Belgian ales as well.

Otherwise, I think you have most of the other places. You just missed Sacramento Beer week.

I would highly recommend taking a day and going to Russian River. There are several top notch breweries there and some outstanding restaurants.

Rubicon, River City, Hoppy Brewing, and pangaea (all around downtown/college).

Never been to Pangaea, I'll have to check it out, looked at their website, and they had a list of local beer resources. Oh yeah, I forgot about the Fox and Goose Pub, and Streets of London Pub (where I met my lady nearly 12 years ago).

What's up fellow Sacramentans. Thanks for the tip on Owl in Roseville. I also highly recommend both Rubicon (Glynn the owner is a great guy) and Pangaea. They are only about 15-20 mins apart and offer a great selection of west coast craft beer.

This thread makes me think we need a Sacramento HBT meetup.

You should go to the Owl Club on Thursdays. They bring in a different brew each week. Sacramento meetup sounds good to me.

I'm down for The Owl. I started another thread in Brewing events & local gatherings section below titled:

Thursday evening March 31,2011 -- The Owl -- Roseville, CA

Hex said:

My sister bartends at Lucky 13 in San Francisco...

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Nothing to add here, just surprised to see a reference to the Lucky 13. I haven't been there in years!!!

She's (6-3 redhead named Laura) been there over 15 years, Noe Body's Inn, Rat-n-Raven before that. I was a bouncer (cordial deterrent to violence) at DNA Lounge SF when it first opened circa 1987, got her her first job, coat checking at the DNA, I left, she stayed...Oh yeah, I ride Buell.

When we lived in the Mission we spent most of our time at Amnesia on Valencia, but every once in a while we would wander up to the Lower Haight, my wife like Noc Noc and I wasn't going to complain about stopping by the Toronado. Every now and then we would duck into Lucky 13 for a round. I always enjoyed basking in the black light!

There's a new brewery at Feather Falls Casino in Oroville thats about 20 mins away from Sierra Nevada. I can't vouch for it yet but planning to go in a couple of weeks.

MrSnowman said:

There's a new brewery at Feather Falls Casino in Oroville thats about 20 mins away from Sierra Nevada. I can't vouch for it yet but planning to go in a couple of weeks.

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Checked out the website. It would be hard to imagine a better combination than craft beer and gambling. So now to go off topic from my own thread... are craps not allowed at casinos in California?? I checked out several website of casinos near Chico and Sacramento and noticed there was a lot about blackjack and other card games, but no mentions or pictures of craps??? If I'm going to stop in a casino, I wanna roll some dice!

The Auburn Ale House is a good brewpub. It's right off of 80 in Auburn, you could take the scenic route back to Sac from Chico.

No craps in Cali. Just slots, and card games.

Just got back to Chicago earlier today and wanted to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped me with some nice beer tips for my trip to Sacramento and Chico. My fiancee and I had a great time, met some great people, and drank some great beer!

We started off with lunch at Pangaea. It was a beautiful day out, and this place was amazing. The windows were wide open, people were sitting outside, the owner / bartender was very friendly and helpful, and the other customers here were 100% quality people. We had a gueuze and a hefeweizen. And I had a wonderful turkey with cranberry sandwich. If you are living near Sac and haven't visited this place, I cannot recommend it enough. Great beer selection, great people.

Later that day we went to Rubicon. Again, very friendly people and an all around enjoyable experience. We actually ran into a dude we had met earlier at Pangaea. Great man. I had a couple Monkey Knife Fight pale ales and thoroughly enjoyed them. Really well balanced.

We then made a drive out to Folsom. I should mention my fiancee did most of the driving on the trip, as I maintained a pretty steady buzz for most of the three days we were out there. In Folsom, we went to Samuel Horne's Tavern. We really loved this place. Great variety of beers on tap. I was disappointed not to see Pliny... I said something to the bartender- and she said they had a keg ready to go! So I got to taste my first Pliny and was not disappointed. I kept sticking my nose in the glass and inhaling. The aroma was insane!

The next day we made the drive up to Chico and took the Sierra Nevada tour. It was a great, informative tour... but no beer tastings! I'm used to places like Lakefront in Milwaukee, where they keep you well lubricated throughout the tour. But it was cool to learn about their sustainable brewing practices and to see all the hops! The restaurant was amazing. Delicious food and we drank plenty of SN beer. They had quite a few I had never tried before, including stuff that I'm pretty sure you can't get anywhere other than the restaurant.

For our final full day in Cali, we drove back toward Sacramento, making a detour to check out the Auburn Ale House. Like everywhere we went, this place was great. Their beers were all really well made. I can say the IPA, pale ale, and brown ale are all outstanding.

When we made it back to Sacramento, we checked into our hotel and then walked over to BonnLair. On a trip full of great places, this was one of my favorites. It had an awesome neighborhood feel to it and a couple ales on cask. The Fullers on cask was awesome.

Our final stop was Streets of London. I had never tried a Deschutes Mirror Pond pale ale, so I got one here. My fiancee got a Sierra Nevada PA. Check out the pic and notice the difference in head and lacing. Any guesses as to which is which??

Anyway- we had a fantastic time. I was really impressed at how friendly and helpful everyone was. And I was not let down by any of the recommendations all you Sacramento area HBTers gave me. So thanks again for that!

Glad you had a great time! Come back soon!

BmillaTheBrewzilla said:

When we made it back to Sacramento, we checked into our hotel and then walked over to BonnLair. On a trip full of great places, this was one of my favorites. It had an awesome neighborhood feel to it and a couple ales on cask. The Fullers on cask was awesome.

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