Great Notion Brewing Company, 2031 4th Street, Berkeley, California
Tiger’s Taproom, 308 Jackson Street, Oakland, California
Heinold’s First And Last Chance Saloon, 48 Webster Street, Oakland, California
And now, back to more California pubs I visited early this year, starting in the East Bay. On one of my last mornings before flying back to the UK, my friend Mistah Rick and I met up for lunch at a fine Mexican place in Berkeley with my cousin Mark, whom I hadn’t seen in a few years, and his wife Meiling, whom I hadn’t yet met. Also in attendance was an old close friend of mine, Alan, who has lived in Berkeley for years now. After a great meal and some catching up, Rick and I then took off on our own to find some afternoon pints. Our first stop was the Great Notion Brewing Company, which was only a short walk away. As it was a bit difficult to decide on just two pints, we decided to share a flight of five 5-ounce tasters.
Our first taster was Key Lime Pie (6.0% ABV). This is a Sour Fruited Gose that’s brewed with key lime juice, vanilla, coriander, sea salt, and lactose, so there’s a lot going on there. And ooh, yes indeed! Surprisingly it had no sweet edge at all, and it was really totally yummy and outstanding. Having recently had another Key Lime sour that was brewed in Sheffield, I have to say that this one was much better.
Next was another sour fruited beer, Blueberry Muffin (6.0% ABV), brewed with Oregon blueberries. Once again it was a very good sour, with no sweet edge at all. Obviously Great Notion knows how to brew decent, tasteful sour beers, so what a great notion that is. We moved on to Hissy Fit IPA (7.0% ABV), brewed with Mosaic and Simcoe and double dry hopped. This is a gentle IPA, and I have to admit I detected no hissy fits going on in my glass. Then there was the wonderful Love & Ritual IPA (7.0%). Brewed with Nelson Sauvin, Citra, and Sabro hops, this was definitely my favourite of the IPAs, with that oomph! ooh-ness.
Finally, we experienced Power Struggle IPA (7.0% ABV). A collaboration with Bottle Logic in Anaheim, California, this beer was brewed with Citra, Galaxy, and Nectaron hops. I enjoyed sipping it and feeling the velour hops zip across my tongue. Once again I detected no power struggle between those quite unique hops. They obviously all became friends quickly.
Great Notion was started in 2016 in Portland, Oregon by three friends and neighbours, with the intention of specialising in hazy IPAs and sours. They currently have six locations in Oregon, Washington, and Canada, as well as this one in Berkeley.
As we sat and happily sipped our pints, I was reminded of Sometimes A Great Notion. I had read the novel and seen the film years ago, and all that really stuck in my memory was the rather shocking scene of Henry Fonda losing his arm in a lumber mill. So the Great Notion Brewing Company will leave me with much happier, tastier memories.
Later the same afternoon, after a quick break for a coffee, we stopped at Tiger’s Taproom where we each had a pint of Shades (6.5% ABV, MachineHead Brewing Company, Clovis, California). Brewed with a wonderful combination of Strata, Citra, and Mosaic Cryo Hops, this imparted a definite dank character that made me nearly swoon before I even tasted it. We sipped our pints out on the front patio where we watched lots of dogs walk by with their owners in tow, so I guess 5pm is local dog-walking time in Jackson Square. I couldn’t help feeling a bit weird about a white car that was parked near us, as the anonymous driver seemed to be watching us the entire time. But hey, at least the dogs were all quite friendly, so I didn’t feel threatened at all.
Speaking of dogs, although Tiger’s Taproom sounds a bit feline, it was actually named after the owner’s late dog, Tiger. I wonder if Tiger had his own favourite brew.
After having an evening meal at a sort of ultra-trendy Mexican restaurant, we decided to treat ourselves to one last pint in Oakland’s Jack London Square. As I was scoping the area for pubs, I noticed Rick had wandered over to an oddly out-of-place log cabin and was reading the plaque mounted outside which explained that it was the one-time home of writer Jack London. And just to one side of the cabin was another building called Heinold’s First And Last Chance Saloon, which looked as if one half of the building was sinking into the ground.
Built in 1880 from remnants of an old whaling paddle steamer, this building was originally used as sleeping quarters for workers on the nearby oyster beds. Four years later it was purchased by Johnny Heinold and turned into a saloon. The “First and Last Chance” part of the name refers to the fact that the Oakland saloon was a place for sailors to get drunk when they returned from a long sea voyage, and also their last place to down a few before departing on another, because at the time the port of Alameda, from which the ships sailed, had a prohibition against alcohol. Jack London used to come here as a schoolboy to do his studying, and later he frequented it to learn more about the sailors and their lives in order to inspire his novels. And in some scenes in Call of the Wild and The Sea Wolf there are actual references to the saloon.
Naturally we had to have a pint here. Ever since the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Heinold’s has been on a slant, but amazingly the pints and drinks don’t fall over. We ordered pints of Racer 5 IPA (7.0% ABV, Bear Republic, Cloverdale, California) and seated ourselves at a little round wooden table for a bit, admiring the rustic decor and the gravity-defying properties of the bar that ran along one side. When a couple of seats at the bar were vacated, we quickly grabbed them so we could experience the fun of our pints tipped slightly over but not spilling. We tried posing a couple of plastic companions we had with us for photo purposes; but Frightened Man and Doug the Cat simply weren’t able to stay standing. In fact, they looked as if they’d just come back from a long sea voyage themselves. But I suppose that’s just the nature of being made out of plastic.
Heinold’s also happens to be the last commercial establishment in California to have gas lighting. Two interesting relics in the saloon are the original pot-bellied stove and a clock in the corner that has been stopped at 5:18 ever since the 1906 earthquake struck. Oh yeah, and it’s said to be haunted, which is no surprise at all.
Related Links
- A directory of Jack London Square
- All about Jack London (Britannica.Com)
- All about the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (US Geological Service)