San Francisco Brewing Company

[whatdahec]

Just got back from San Francisco and got to visit the San Francisco Brewing Co. Cool little spot. I guess it opened in 1907 as the Andromeda bar and has the same ornate mohogany bar as it did when it opened back then. My wife and I had lunch there, good gumbo. Tried the taster 8 and was a little disappointed. For the most part the beers were very bland, not much hop character or mouthfeel at all. I had an IPA, about as hoppy as Sierra Nevada, not bad, but the main complaint I had was the temperature of the beer. Now, I know about Great Britain and all that about serving temperature and what not. I know 55 F is about right. This stuff had to be like 65 F or more. Practically room temperature beer. They need to fix the fridge over there. I enjoyed the flavor of the IPA, though it would have been very nice had it been a little colder. Anyone else drink there?

[hops99]

I spent an afternnon there about three years ago, when I was in SF on business. I remember the bar was very cool, the bartender was this obnoxious guy from Ireland who thought he was funny when he wasn't, and the beer was average. I recall a malt lager (Emperor Norton, or something like that) that was ok, and a Pale that was decent, but nothing to go crazy about. All in all, I remember thinking that I'd go back if in the area, but I wouldn't go out of my way.

Actually, one other thing about SF brewing - I've been collecting logo pint glasses now for about 6 years, and have over 300, but my daughter accidentally broke my SF glass last year. So, I do have a compelling reason to return....

:rolleyes:

[L.H.H.H.Brown]

Many years ago SF Brewery was the first m.b I went to in San F. It was the last time. Yes the place was cool but the beers were the worst. Twenty Tank ( R.I.P. ) was the place to go. Glad to hear some things don't change.

[hopjack13]

if you're going to visit cali come on down to the south side we've got more and better everything! including surf and weather. about the only thing they have up north we don't is the vineyards (napa,sonoma, ect) if your in to wines , but the beer ....well your better off down here, particularly the san diego area has a lot of good brewing co. including stone & the alesmith. north coast is good but i like stone better. socal rocks!!!!

[L.H.H.H.Brown]

Hey Hopjack, since your in the same " neighborhood ", are you planning to go to Stone VII on Aug 23rd. ?? You go to Lucky Baldwins in Pasadena ?

[hopjack13]

i stay more in o.c. im not real familair pasadena, used to live in eagle rock though. aug. 23 we're sure planning on it unless some freak accident , natural disaster , or mishap occurs we (my wife and i) should be there. never heard of lucky baldwins ,??? 411

[L.H.H.H.Brown]

Lucky Baldwin's is a " British " pub that has one of the best selections in the entire southland. The owner has festivals on a regular basis. One of the largest Belgian festivals on the west coast. Currently - this week - he is having an IPA fest. It is located on Raymond St. half a block south of Colorado Blvd. Just up the street from Crown City Brewery. The Celebrator usually has an ad for it. As for O.C. , I graduated from UCI back in the dark ages. Not much there. Now..... ? Oh, I also agree with North Coast and Alesmith. Alesmiths new brewer seems to be doing fine.

[hopjack13]

have you been to hollingshead in orange? they have a good selection there as well i just picked up two bottles of Achel there...WOW. thats a pretty rare beer. im waiting for him to get the westmalle in so i can grab some of that. i got a thing for trappist ales. there right off the 22 on main in orange.
i'll have to look in to lucky baldwins, sounds like im missing out!
thnx for the 411
yhea ur right not much in irvine, although i think the steelhead brewery is there, as well as rock bottom and backstreet brewerys then at the spectrum there's the yardhouse. actually i think there has been a few brewerys springing up around irvine lately. there may be more there then we both think.
cheers

[L.H.H.H.Brown]

Funny how S.F. Brewing takes you somewhere else. I believe it was Westvallen 12 that I tried. Mmmmmmmmmmmm... I am partial to trippels. No I have not been in Orange. Just like you and Pasadena it's a ways from me. Prost. Oh, forgot one thing.... have you been to the Pizza Port ( Carlsbad )festivals??

[hopjack13]

i have a bottle of westvleteren 12 in my cellar im going to open at my wedding reception (the hell with the champiagn) i too am partial to tripples. hollingshead is not really a pub it's more of a sandwhich place but they have good beers on tap and an excellent selection of bottle beers. pizza port? well im headed there soon im anxious to try something on cask for the first time.
can't seem to find anyone who has it locally.

[L.H.H.H.Brown]

That's the stuff, Westvleteren. Much better than champagne in my book. As for cask, you are correct, it is difficult. Have you gone to B.J.'s pizza in Brea? They sometimes have some very enjoyable stuff and their beer appreciation nights can be exceptional.

[hopjack13]

i was there once but ended up at taps fish house and brewery.
maybe i'll give it another shot. taps was a great place! oatmeal stout was outstanding! have you been there? it's just about a mile or two west on the 90 past b.j.s. do they ever have anything on cask at b.j.s? i never even thought fo checking in to b.j.'s
i may be able to aquire some more westvleteren 12 currently im after the westmalle as it is the only trappist beer i have not had or have . isn't there a vindome liquor store out your way somewhere? they have a real good selection of beer there.

[dawg]

I liked the temp. of the beer at SF Brewing Co.-- I was just up there for the Fourth, and that pub was a close second to my (all time) favorite pub, the Toronado.

I live in Pasadena, and I go to Lucky Baldwins about once a week or so. Their IPA fest a month back was stunnning!

-TJ (dawg)

[warmstorage]

Pizza Port, both the Carlsbad and Solana Beach locations, rock my world. (an amazing cask last time i was at Solana Beach: the Santa [something or other] imperial stout -- deep, sweet, with some amount of hop presence, but appropriate and not overpowering.) also a wonderful cask special: double red ale (a double version of the Sharkbite Red, i think), so strong and sweet and hoppy that it was almost a Bigfoot taste.

Carlsbad (last week) had a great imperial stout (Russian Czar or something like that), a great barleywine (Blonde Bombshell) also in the robust, Bigfoot style, and a great Olde ale. amazing stuff.

also, for those interested, i've seen a decent amount of the 3-3-03 Stone special in loca liquor stores (Newport Farms, and Olive Branch market, both in Ocean Beach.) not super recently, but it's still floating around. and i have some in a cool storage in Sacramento, if someone wants to offer a barter.

and after a long respite, the thing that got me to post again (i've been... uhhhhh, busy?) is the below:

Originally posted by dawg
I liked the temp. of the beer at SF Brewing Co.-- I was just up there for the Fourth, and that pub was a close second to my (all time) favorite pub, the Toronado.


with due respect, i just went to the Toronado for the first time in April, and i have to say that i was quite disappointed. the bartender was super holier-than-thou, and when my companion asked for guidance in the hefeweizen styles, he literally sneered, and asked what kind of beer she liked, "Bud? Coors Light?" it was a huge turn-off. i ordered an Alaskan Smoked Porter (which was super exciting, since i've only had it on tap once before), and enjoyed it, but the snootiness of the bartender was a big turn off. it almost seemed like he thought we didn't... belong there. when we ordered a second round, he acted actively put out to answer a simple question between two of the Belgian dubbel styles available. and he was telling regulars a loud, pointed story about "fucking assholes" who don't tip enough.

now, i've worked (a lot) in the restaurant and hospitality industries, and i do get that it sucks when you rely on tips, and i generally tip 20-30% at most restaurants (including at least a buck each on all beers, often a buck plus whatever change remains). but this was totally over the top (and felt like he doth protest too loudly), especially here in california, one of the few states that i'm aware of without a "waiter wage".

ahhhh. gotta get back to work. more to follow soon!

i'm baaaaaack,
warmstorage!

[warmstorage]

i almost forgot to plug my near (maybe top) favorite brewpub in history, located in the always interesting Haight:

http://www.magnoliapub.com : Magnolia Pub & Brewery. i particularly love the Proving Ground IPA, Prescription Pale Ale, and Thunderpussy Barleywine. also had a fascinating gruit (sp?) at last year's Great American Beer Festival that i am pretty sure was from Magnolia, but maybe was Wynkoop. it was a long night.

love,
warmstorage

[dawg]

Don't let the bartender put you off-- some of them like to act shitty towards non-regulars (of which I'm NOT and never have been) but the crowd there can be pretty cool.

I'll have to check out that Magnolia place next time I'm up. I saw it, but didn't go into it last time.

[warmstorage]

Originally posted by dawg
Don't let the bartender put you off-- some of them like to act shitty towards non-regulars (of which I'm NOT and never have been) but the crowd there can be pretty cool.

I'll have to check out that Magnolia place next time I'm up. I saw it, but didn't go into it last time.

thanks -- i will give the Toronado another try.

but this weekend i only had time for one place (drove up to the bay area friday evening, left this morning) so it had to be Magnolia. absolutely do go give them a try. it's at the corner of Haight and Masonic, served by a couple of buses, and there's easy enough parking down on the park strip.

and as i noted in another forum, they have a great seasonal on: Nuptial Ale, a fascinating brew made with yarrow flowers, and served on cask. also Proving Ground Pale on cask (100 IBU, 7.0%), and a lovely Summer Wheat Wine, which the bartender said was 8.4%, but which drank much more easily than that. also a lovely CO2 Proving Ground, and a thick, sweet, robust Stout of Circumstance.

see, only time for one pub, but i made it worth my while! (and woke up this morning with my worst hangover in recent memory, not so nice when i had to drive back to san diego...)

-warmstorage

p.s. those kind folks over in the Midwest section seem to be patting themselves a little much on the back for the heavy traffic in that forum -- let's see some activity here! (i mean, sheesh, everyone knows california has more, better beer than any other state or region! heh. =)

[jsmurphy]

Pizza Port (Carlsbad) has some awesome selections. Was down there last month.

I used to go to Crown City in Pasadena at least once a week, but it's been a while. Haven't been to Lucky Baldwin's, but I'll sure check it out.

[hm2mcq]

Hello,

This may be a bit late but the page opened up to your letter and I was just talking about SFBC to a friend so I could not resist writing...Your assessment is correct, not the best beer in the City.Their beers are barely fair examples of the styles they claim to be BUT they are the only brewpub in SF and maybe the area that still does brewing the old fashioned way...no grain silos, no water pumps no fancy cleaning-in-place gadgets etc. Imagine the largest garage home brewery you've ever seen and multiply it by 10 or so...Being in SF they can't get permits for the wonderful modern gadgets that make other breweries so sweet and shiny...they lug 50 lb bags of malt up creaky wooden steps 50 or 60 times a day on brewing days and due to space considerations they must brew on two levels. Even the next most primitive brewing company in SF brews on one level.

Sounds like I'm defending them now...That wasn't my plan but when I'm sitting at my favorite local brewing company (not SFBC),
I contemplate many aspects of beer styles and I must admit I rarely think about the labor it took to get that beer to me...the thing I have to give SFBC credit for is that a trip there is truly a trip back in time when you tasted a man's muscles and sweat in each beer (maybe literally). I recall back in 1982 when the only brewpub in the bay-area was operated my the mad-monk Bill Owens in Hayward...he only had one beer on tap at any time and everyone drank the same thing and we all thought it was so good and how could things GET any better....Well times change and now I can be picky about what I drink...SFBC was the first in SF, and were the best while they were the only one BUT I still go there once in awhile to see if I might stumble upon a diamond in the rough. In some weird way it pleases me to know about the amount of work it took to bring me that glass AND to know that while it may not be the best beer, it is honestly and diligently produced for my pleasure. And sometimes. that's enough. As to the temp of the beer, it does vary but chalk it up to the pleasures of imperfection...

Mike Mcq

[Stodbrew]

First of all, welcome to the boards! Everyone here is very cool and very helpful.

Now, being a brewer who has the grain silo, the pumps and the fancy cleaning in place gadgets, I can tell you that we still put our blood, sweat and tears into every beer we make, sometimes (often), literally. I have respect for the guys up at SFBC. They certainly do it the "old fashioned" way, but please don't discount the rest of us just because we have all of the "fancy gadgets." We work our asses off, too to bring our customers the very best beers we can.

[Beaver]

Originally posted by Stodbrew
First of all, welcome to the boards! Everyone here is very cool and very helpful.

Now, being a brewer who has the grain silo, the pumps and the fancy cleaning in place gadgets, I can tell you that we still put our blood, sweat and tears into every beer we make, sometimes (often), literally. I have respect for the guys up at SFBC. They certainly do it the "old fashioned" way, but please don't discount the rest of us just because we have all of the "fancy gadgets." We work our asses off, too to bring our customers the very best beers we can.

I hope you are not literally putting blood, sweat and tears into every beer! :D

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Beaver
I hope you are not literally putting blood, sweat and tears into every beer! :D

Thats the special sauce!

[chazwicke]

The Guinness secret ingredient?

[Stodbrew]

Originally posted by Beaver
I hope you are not literally putting blood, sweat and tears into every beer!


How do you think we treat our brewing water? :p

[Beaver]

Originally posted by Stodbrew
How do you think we treat our brewing water? p

Mmmmmmmmm...salty! :p

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Beaver
Mmmmmmmmm...salty!

Ok thats just gross. :eek: