SFHG Annual Brewery Tour

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
 

Saturday, we set out with some members of the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild on a whirlwind bus tour of three local breweries for tours, tastings, and of course getting to know fellow homebrewers over the course of the eight hour trip. Our first stop was FreeWheel Brewing in Redwood City, basically located in a strip mall. This brewer though has partnered with English craft brewers Iron Bridge & Green Jack to make some distinct English style ales here in California… and are also famous for their cask-conditioned ales. Here are some pictures...

 

I particularly liked their Hybrid Bitter & Pale Ale...

Next was Drake’s Brewing in San Leandro who pride themselves on making great barrel-aged brews (Jolly Rodger series) and are EXTREMELY well regarded in the beer community with a Beer Advocate score of 95 and you can find them in pretty much every bar in Northern California... but with their great brews, they've continued to expand and they mentioned that they'll be opening a new brewing & bottling facility in Chicago soon. Here are some pictures of their digs...

 

This food truck "Five Ten Burger" had some pretty legit burgers...

and garlic fries... and tater tots.

Last was Linden Street Brewing located in an 1890’s brick warehouse in Oakland… who pride themselves on keeping “Old California” Gold Rush style traditions in their brewing, being proud of their city & heritage as a pretty prominent player in the beer industry at the time, yet still keep it real. With brew names like Urban Peoples’ Common Lager, Deep Roots Red Lager and others… they’re holdin’ it down for The ‘Town. Despite being located near the West Oakland BART stop, they definitely have a nice cool down-to-Earth feeling. Here are the pics...

 

Again, D.O.G. food truck was legit...

Frito pie... basically fritos with chili, handmade hot

dogs, sour cream, cilantro, onions, etc.

On the drive home, we saw the robot dinosaurs off the Bay Bridge...

So yeah, all in all, a pretty fantastic little voyage... and we also met some great fellow homebrewers along the way. I highly recommend that if you get interested in homebrewing, find some peers in your local area... they can be full of great advice... or just a nice new person to chat with about common interested. Please patronize the fine establishments discussed in the this post... and let them know that I sent ya... and maybe drop the blog name too. It'd be great to hear from these cats.