heading to san fran oct1st? any reco's?

I will be traveling out to San Fransisco in the beginning of Oct for 5 days, is there any place I should go to or a beer that I need to try from the pacific northwest?

amishland said:

I will be traveling out to San Fransisco in the beginning of Oct for 5 days, is there any place I should go to or a beer that I need to try from the pacific northwest?

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You're heading to a world class beer town, there will be no shortage of places to check out! I hit up a dozen or so during my last trip, but my favorite was San Francisco Brewing, at Columbus & Kearny.

I sent you a PM with a link to a modifed SF transit map, that has all of the great beer spots marked. There is also a link to a companion PDF file with more details about each place.

There are about as many good breweries in the Bay area as in Portland metro. 21st Amendment is a good place to start & they package some of their brews in cans. If you are a hop head and have a car, get out to Bear Republic, it's about 45 minutes up the 101.

Thirsty Bear Brewing Company makes some pretty good brews. The food is pretty excellent as well.

Thirsty Bear

go to the Monk's Kettle in the Mission. Great food and great beer, with a menu designed to help you with the best pairings. They stock most, if not all, of the best local brews, as well as a great selection of the world's best.

amishland said:

I will be traveling out to San Fransisco in the beginning of Oct for 5 days, is there any place I should go to or a beer that I need to try from the pacific northwest?

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let me know when you are in town SHWMBO and I would bomb around with you if we have the day off If not, try the Rogue public House on Columbus and Speakeasy... forgot adress, I usually just stumble to it.

Nice thanks for the responses, I will have to study my maps and see where I can get to.

that aint chicken: i'll send you a pm that week.

You HAVE to go to the Toronado Pub

Great place to try many beers from all over. Each beer is served in its own individual glass. Its a strict Tap house nothing but beer!

Yes, Toronado, Toronado, Toronado!!! I made a three-day trip a few weeks ago, and this was my favourite. Lots of "character" and LOTS of really good beers. And mid-day, almost every person that walked in wanted Pliny the Elder.

Monk's Kettle had *excellent* taps, but try to avoid just after work, it gets crazy busy.

I wasn't so impressed with 21st Amendment. Nice place, the brews were good but not exceptional. Likewise Thirsty Bear. The one out in Haight-Asbury, I think it's called Magnolia? It was awful. Or maybe I was just beered out by then.

DryHopped said:

I wasn't so impressed with 21st Amendment. Nice place, the brews were good but not exceptional. Likewise Thirsty Bear. The one out in Haight-Asbury, I think it's called Magnolia? It was awful. Or maybe I was just beered out by then.

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I agree about the 21st Amendment...the beers were competent, but not spectacular. The environment felt kind of sterile and yuppified, and the servers didn't seem to have much knowledge of the products. The overall experience felt like a chain brewpub/restaurant, albeit a very upscale one. (IMO, it's more of a restaurant than a pub.)

The two times I visited, Magnolia was an absolute zoo...so over-crowded it was virtually impossible to reach the bar to order. It's clearly the hip and trendy beer spot in the city, and frankly I felt a little old for the room. The beer wasn't bad, but it's hard to enjoy a pint when you're fighting for enough space to even stand up...we were constantly shuffling around to avoid blocking the path of waiters and other patrons. To top things off, they were out of all the beers my friends had recommended, so we ended up drinking some very generic red and brown ales.

SWMBO and I went for a week at the end of 2005

Tried to hit as many bars as possible.

One of the best was Gordon Biersch - garlic fries are killer.
It's on The Embarkadaro (check that spelling)