Drinking in California

[Yeast Infection]

Just bought a plane ticket to San Francisco and then onto San Diego to visit some compadres.

I would like to do some good drinking...which involves some good beer...which means I need to goto some good breweries.

Where shall I go....any suggestions?

 

[Willsellout]

Where are you going to stop?

Central Cali- go to the Firestone Brewery and if you happen to stop into San Luis Obispo, the SLO Brewery is good food and beer.
If you are there, you might at well do some wine tasting!
Southern Cali- Sierra Nevada
San Diego- Stone


Some good choices.


Dan

 

[david_42]

The first question, will you have a car? If not, head for the Toronado 547 Haight St., San Francisco [even if you have a car, they carry most of the craft beers made in the area.]

Otherwise, http://beeradvocate.com/beerfly/city/17

 

[Big Al]

San Diego - Stone is a must! They just opened a new brewpub there instead of just the brew store. I can't wait until the next time I'm in town to check it out.

http://stonebrew.com

 

[Brewing Clamper]

In San Francisco, The Thirsty Bear has some pretty good brews and the food there is great too. It is a bit pricy, but so is everything else in that city.

 

[DeathBrewer]

The first question, will you have a car? If not, head for the Toronado 547 Haight St., San Francisco [even if you have a car, they carry most of the craft beers made in the area.]

Otherwise, http://beeradvocate.com/beerfly/city/17

That list is awesome.

I'd definitely goto Anchor Brewing in San Francisco. Take the tour.

Drake's Brewing company, in san leandro, is pretty cool. On Friday nights, you can goto the brewery. You buy tokens for drinks and they'll grill up anything your bring for you. Bring a marinated tri-tip!

I enjoy Triple Rock, in Berkeley, sometimes. If it's a nice day you can sit outside upstairs and enjoy the sun while you sip some of their excellent beers.

If you're looking for a nice selection for a short tasting session or to take back to the hotel (or even have sent home), City Beer is one of my favorites. I think it's only been around about a year or two. The guy who owns it is constantly changing his selection and i stop by every couple of months to see what type of Belgian ales he has in stock. excellent selection.

Whatever you do, don't waste your time going to Pyramid. That place used to have great deals on drinks and snacks, but now they just have mediocre dinner plates and less than decent beer.

Definitely take a look at the list and hit up as much as you can while you're in San Francisco.

Ahh, the bay area

 

[Brewtopia]

When in San Diego, be sure and hit O'Brien's I stopped in for a beer and didn't leave until 3:00am!:rockin:

I also dig The Live Wire and The Liar's Club

 

[Blender]

In San Francisco check out "The 21st Admendment","Anchor Brewing" and "Speakeasy Brewery".

 

[AleHole]

Southern Cali- Sierra Nevada

just a correction....Sierra Nevada is in Chico CA located about 2.5 hours north of Sacramento. Northern CA

 

[Brewsmith]

There's a ton of micros and brewpubs along the 101 north of San Francisco. Marin Co., Moylan's, Bear Republic, and if you want to go further north there's North Coast in Ft. Bragg, Russian River, Anderson Valley and Mendocino Brewing.

Down in San Diego there's Stone (in Escondido), AleSmith, Coronado Brewing on Coronado Island and Port Brewing in Carlsbad

 

[Brewtopia]

Other breweries in the San Diego area = Oggi's, Pizza Port, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Alesmith, Alpine Beer Co. and Ballast Point.

 

[Yeast Infection]

Well...let the drinking commence!
Thanks for the great recommendations.
I may end up doing more of the wine thing in San Fran. area, which would be A-OK with me.
And then San Diego....i see it being a drunken sloppy mess of brewery and pub hoppn', which would also be A-OK with me.

 

[Willsellout]

Well...let the drinking commence!
Thanks for the great recommendations.
I may end up doing more of the wine thing in San Fran. area, which would be A-OK with me.
And then San Diego....i see it being a drunken sloppy mess of brewery and pub hoppn', which would also be A-OK with me.

Do the wine thing in San Luis Obispo...it's much better than Napa/Sonoma.


Dan

 

[Bsquared]

There was one recommendation for Liars club in SD, I second that! I go the Liars quite a lot and they have a lot of local brews on tap that you can't get at the brewers. if you go try to get there on local beer night 2.50 a pint! Plus they do a special keg conditioned draft that sells out early and the food there is killer! I recommend the seared Ahi on the Jalapeno cheese bread!


The stone brewery is awesome, but the food is pricey and it is HARD to find even if you know the area. don't trust mapquest, that area is growing so fast you will never find the place with out calling them for directions. believe me I drove in circles for an hour before I found the place!

Cool bars of San Diego= Land lord Jim's (LLJ), Whistle stop, live wire, zombie lounge, ken club, live wire, latitude 32, silver fox, but Liars is the best for getting a beer and good food.