Running Diary of a Day in: San Francisco & Berkeley
The Bay Area has no shortage of fantastic breweries and beer culture. It’s hard to beat a $6 pint of Blind Pig at the Toronado, or a $60 Cable Car for a special occasion. Having dated my wife long distance for many years between San Francisco and Chicago, I got to know the area intimately. Our wedding ceremony took place in Golden Gate Park and the featured beer at our reception was Anchor Steam. Each visit back, I’d always sneak over to Cellarmaker to gaze up at their colorful chalk board of boundary pushing IPAs. Nowadays though, just like so many of our friends from a housing perspective, brewing beer in San Francisco became a lot less practical. Anchor is currently shut down (with hopes to reopen soon) and Cellarmaker has moved their production to Berkeley & Oakland, but craft beer’s presence was still felt everywhere I went on my quick visit earlier this month.
Caliente Bistro Kitchen (4828 Geary Blvd)
Great Mexican food is not hard to find in San Francisco, but a craft beer on those menus is. I don’t macro often, but when I do, it tends to be over tacos and enchiladas. We discovered a great new (to us) spot and after ordering a half size of ceviche at what I thought was a very reasonable price, a family sized-looking bowl arrived that spoiled our lunch. The biggest portions I’ve ever seen. Highly recommend.
Neon Signs “Anchored” in Place ⚓️
The term permanent POS (Point of Sale) is used in the beer industry for items that don’t get used up or given away, instead remaining in place indefinitely. Examples can range from the tin takers that hang on the wall of bars, all the way up to neon signs & LEDs. Permanent took on a whole new meaning for me as we walked through different parts of San Francisco. I don’t think I noticed a single liquor store who didn’t still having an Anchor Brewing neon shining in the window, just waiting for the city’s original craft brewery to come back online. When Chobani’s owner & CEO Hamdi Ulukaya purchased the brewery earlier in the year, he wasn’t just buying a physical brewery and brand, he bought the brand’s equity. These neon signs are a less-thought-about, but shining (sorry) example of what that means.
If you missed my reaction to the Anchor Brewing sale in late Spring, here it is:
Cinderella Russian Bakery & Cafe (436 Balboa St)
Last time I was in town, my wife ventured off to find us some breakfast and brought me back one of these Beef Fried Piroshki’s. It was one of the most heavenly breakfasts after a big night, so on this trip I needed to see the place for myself. Despite beer not being their primary business, they had 4 thoughtful beers on draft and even rocked an Old Rasputin Neon in the window. Very on brand for a Russian Bakery in Northern California. In Chicago, which is very much a stout town, I can’t think of any stouts that have gained the cache to the point that they get neon signs around town.
A New Era Coming to Shore
Since coming home and compiling this post, the SF Gate announced the closure of beloved beer bar and bottle shop City Beer Store. I used to always swing through after visiting Cellarmaker since they were located right around the corner. A broader article two weeks later summarized the challenges that SF craft beer, which they call a “millennial trend”, has faced. While some factors are the reality of all breweries and markets in 2024, some are especially unique to the dynamics of San Francisco.
The article highlights the following brewery and retail closures of the past three years: Sunset Reservoir Brewing Co., Barrel Head Brewhouse, the New Belgium taproom on SF’s waterfront, Harmonic Brewing’s Dogpatch brewery, HolyCraft Brewing Company, Seven Stills, Magnolia Brewing’s Dogpatch location, Old Devil Moon, ThirstyBear Organic Brewery and, Anchor Brewing.
As some of these concepts go away, new ideas are still coming into town like Humble Sea, which has seen a lot of success expanding up the coast from its Santa Cruz beginnings. They have plans unfolding that make San Francisco’s Pier 39 their 5th location in the state. It’s more likely that craft beer locations simply need to stay fresh and relevant to the changing demographics and clientele of the SF neighborhoods they’re in.
Production in the city remains very challenging, which is partly why my long time favorite Cellarmaker moved theirs across the Bay, keeping a pizza and beer concept in San Francisco that doesn’t need to worry about pallets of grain in tight city spaces. Time to check out their new digs:
The Rare Barrel becomes Cellarmaker-Berkeley
I’m a creature of habit when it comes to visiting breweries. If I was blown away on a prior visit, I’m more likely to want to go back and revisit than I am to roll the dice on something new. Cellarmaker is on a pretty short list of untouchables that I never pass up even when there’s a “new hotness”. Thankfully my wife’s alma mater is in Berkeley where they acquired The Rare Barrel brand, taproom, and production space in 2022.
Pictured on the left is me in 2014, showing up to The Rare Barrel and it being closed. As a sour beer fiend back then, this was my Clark Griswald moment, but there was no moose to take my frustrations out on. On the right, is me delighted to return to Cellarmaker last month for the first time since COVID.
Side Note: I threw these two static photos up on Instagram with the caption “Life comes at you fast” and the post experienced a significantly wider reach than 95% of the Reels that I post. I’m a big believer that the old tools of Instagram like photo carousels can still get great engagement on the platform if you can find new ways to use them to tell a story, even if a quick one like this.
There’s only one brewery in the country where I’d walk in and the first beer I order be a Porter. It’s a fine style, but there’s almost always something I’d rather have with one exception, Coffee & Cigarettes. Despite the fact that Cellarmaker’s reputation centers around hop forward beer and they’re widely credited for popularizing the juicy / new school evolution of the West Coast IPA, it’s this beer for me first, every time. They had it on nitro making my decision even easier. Paired with their Fresh (Fresh!) Hop, Centennial Fresh Hoped West Coast IPA, at a drinkable 6.6%. Perfect pair, both tasting perfect.
I do have one insignificant gripe from my visit to the Cellarmaker-Berkeley location. I miss the colorful chalk beer menu in their original location that you couldn’t help but stare up at and drool over. That board became iconic and is what I would visualize on my way to visit their taproom. The new Berkeley location projects a digital menu onto a projector screen which makes a ton of sense operationally, allows significantly more detail, and has the flexibility to be updated on the fly without throwing the rest of the menu off. I don’t care, I miss the vibrant chalk board.
Go Bears!
Time to go watch Cal Berkeley take on San Diego St. with my beer marketing x-ray vision goggles on. Before getting through the gates, I already saw a brewery tent handing out samples, but how is that legal on campus? Because it’s non-alcoholic of course. Athletic had a nice little setup and what looked like a steady crowd coming up, asking questions, and tasting different brands.
The night before we were at a wedding in San Francisco that had Athletic’s Golden Ale as one of the choices and I saw no less than 5 people drinking it. I talked to a few of them and each cited a different reason including 1) giving up alcohol, 2) taking it easy that night, and 3) driving home after wedding.
Once inside the game, the Trumer Pils branded drink stations were hard to miss and appropriate with their production being local to Berkeley. Notice that there’s still all sorts of Bud Light Seltzer and Athletic Brewing cans available from this station, but local Trumer gets the spotlight on their brand to draw beer drinkers in.
It was also really cool to see East Brother Beer Co.’s branding around the stadium. They’re based in nearby Richmond, CA and center their portfolio around tradition and brewing classic styles. From prior conversations with their co-Founder Rob, I know his family has deep ties to Cal having met his wife there, his parents met there, and four generations of women from his wife’s grandma to his own daughter. A partnership with the university is thus an obvious fit from a personal standpoint, coupled with with both of their logos being very classic and their low-ABV, easy drinking styles being a natural fit for watching sports. Love to see it.
Pretty solid hyper local selection here for an ACC (yes, ACC 🙃) football game with locally made Trumer Pils for a wide-appealing, premium “macro-alternative” (my words not theirs), East Brother’s IPA and Blonde, and Fieldwork’s Pulp IPA which always tricks me into thinking it says “Pils”.
A town like Berkeley with its affluent population and alumni is naturally going to skew heavily toward local, craft beer, but looking around the stadium to conduct the eye test, I saw literally nobody drinking Bud or Mich Ultra.
Missed Connections: Wondrous Brewing
I love posting Instagram stories and posts while traveling because it always leads to some great recommendations in the DMs. There’s countless great places that I don’t have time to get to especially on a quick trip like this one, but one miss that rose to the top from messages and comments isWondrous Brewing in Emeryville. An overwhelming number of recommendations came through, so they’ll be on the list for my next visit. From reading their background it sounds like technical chops is a strength, with a focus on “Lagerbiers, stainless/barrel-aged beers and hoppy beers”. Anybody been?
Back to Reality…
The craft beer landscape is evolving quickly, and the Bay Area exemplifies this dynamic shift. Iconic breweries like Anchor Brewing hit an impasse under global ownership, yet a visionary individual is committed to revitalizing this storied brand with a fresh strategy. While some brewery concepts have struggled to sustain their initial momentum, others, such as Humble Sea have found hype in their own unique style and continue to show aggression. Established breweries of all sizes are recognizing the value of strategic partnerships, leveraging shared passions to deepen connections with their most loyal customers. As the craft beer industry continues to adapt, it is clear that resilience and creativity will be key to navigating this transition.
Great write up!
Nice scene report, Doug. I share your sentiment towards a well-executed chalk board!