Black Hammer Brewing Company, 544 Bryant Street, San Francisco, California
Bare Bottle Brew Co, Salesforce Park Beer Garden, 425 Mission Street, San Francisco, California
Bootleggers Brewery, 696 Randolph Avenue Suite B, Costa Mesa, California
Last year, on the penultimate day of my five-week visit to California, my friend Mistah Rick and I rode Caltrain from Vicky's house in Menlo Park into San Francisco. It had been a few years since I’d been to this great city, and I was really looking forward to it. After alighting at the 24th Street Caltrain station we headed immediately down the road to a truly magical find, Black Hammer Brewing. According to their website, Black Hammer was ”founded on the principles of balance, precision and creativity in beer making, while steadfastly promoting the principles of radical inclusivity and self-expression.” And that sounds to me like a pretty good reason to brew beer. The brewery’s name was inspired by co-founder Jim “Hammer” Furman as well as the Black Rock Desert, which is the setting of the yearly Burning Man festival. And the beers are all gluten-free.
Because there is also a Black Hammer Beer Garden over in the Castro Valley, this particular location is referred to as the SoMa Mothership. When Rick and I walked through the door I instantly fell in love with the place. It was quite empty, with a couple of men sitting together in the corner and nobody appearing behind the bar for quite some time. Just when we were wondering if perhaps we should just serve ourselves or else go somewhere else, a bar server finally appeared from the back where she had been preparing some snacks for the two men. Rick and I quickly perused the beer menu, and I was intrigued by the Pineapple Excess, which is a cannabis infused hazy IPA. (After all, this is California.) But as we were just starting out the day, we both went for safe pints of Kaleido West Coast IPA (6.0%). Brewed with Columbus, Sabro, and Simcoe hops, this had a clean and bitter taste and was just what I needed.
We took a seat at a table near the front open window, where I tried to clear my head from the excesses of the previous night by studying the kaleidoscopic lantern on our table. Suddenly inspired to indulge in some bizarreal artiology, I fished out Doug, the little plastic cat that I carry around in my handbag, and perched him on the lantern so I could take a photo. He didn’t seemed particularly impressed by the setting, but then he never really is. Or perhaps it was the residual effect of the Mescal margarita I’d had the night before, which was still lingering in my head.
But we had other San Francisco fish to try and pints to taste. After making a quick pitstop first, I noticed that the sign in the unisex sink mounted outside the toilets says “Wash Your Damn Hands” in six languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Filipino, and some other script I couldn’t identify. So of course Rick and I both complied.
On the way out, we first checked the beers in the fridge and ended up buying a can of Puck Futin Anti-Imperial Ukrainian Stout (9.0% ABV) to enjoy later on.
After an absolutely gorgeous lunch at the nearby Cafe du Soleil, we headed on to the Salesforce Building on Mission Street. Here we ascended the long impressive escalators to the top-floor Salesforce Park, which is basically a rooftop with a viewing platform which surrounds the beer garden of Bare Bottle Brew Company. This location of the brewery offers outside seating only, and the tables are wonderfully colourful. It was a sunny Friday afternoon, so we picked a couple of chairs that were basking in the dappled sun. All around us we could see a magnificent 365-degree panorama of modern skyscrapers which towered over us, even though we were pretty high up ourselves. It brought to mind my visit years ago to Interlaken, Switzerland, where we were very high up in altitude but still at the base of extremely high Alpen mountains.
At the brewery’s window we perused the beer choices, and I went for a pint of Muir Woods Hazy IPA (6.4% ABV), which imparted the flavours of citrus and pine. Rick had a pint of Rise of the Tartanic Imperial Sour Ale (8.0% ABV), which was flavoured with passionfruit, black currants, guavas, blueberries, and vanilla beans. Once again this was another gorgeous blueberry-vanilla sour. I mean, what a brilliant combination! In fact I was so inspired that I sent a message to a bar manager I know back in Sheffield asking if he could possibly talk his brewery into creating their own version of this. He did think it sounded pretty delicious.
The Bare Bottle Brew Company was started by three friends--Lester Koga, Michael Seitz, and Ben Sterling--who were all classmates at Cornell Business School in Ithaca, New York. In 2007 the trio moved to the Bay Area and began homebrewing, eventually becoming certified as beer judges. So naturally they opened their own brewery, creating interesting beers using local ingredients. The brewery has three other taprooms in Menlo Park, Santa Clara, and San Francisco’s Bernal Heights. This rooftop location also offers various nibbles and Argentinian empañadas, and outside food is allowed.
While Rick went to use the loo just before we left, I spoke briefly with Scott and Mark, who’d just sat next to us and were with some organisation called A23. (I only knew all of this because they were wearing massive name badges.) It turned out that they were both architects attending the American Institute of Architect’s A’23 convention, and they seemed a bit put off by the fact that I, a complete stranger, spoke to them. But hey, their badges were screaming at me, so why not?
A few weeks earlier, during the first week of my trip, I was staying at an old friend’s house in my home town of Long Beach, and somehow I managed, with the help of my friend and former bandmate Lisa, to arrange a reunion of four-fifths of our 1980s ska-new wave band Young Moderns. Since all of the band members except for me now live in various parts of Orange County, we selected a central point down the coast. On a Friday evening Lisa picked me up in Long Beach, and the two of us drove down to the Lab Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa, which is an open-air collection of shops, restaurants, bars, and art galleries--all very OC-trendy.
So naturally there is a brewery and tap there, so what better place to meet? Once Lisa and I located Bootleggers Brewery, we considered sitting inside; but as it was a very pleasant summery day, we settled at a picnic table out front. Eventually familiar faces arrived: guitar player Gary and his wife Eileen, followed shortly after by bass player Jamie. (I was the keyboard player and Lisa the lead singer--and drummer Jim was off playing a gig that night.)
As we sat catching up on our lives, which was really exciting because I hadn’t seen Gary and Eileen since the 1990s, I sipped a pint of Biking In Dreams IPA, which was nicely dank and tropical. Brewed with Citra and Mosaic hops and Belgian yeast, it was a perfect introduction to the pleasantly warm afternoon reunion. Lisa had a pint of one of the very unusual beers, but I’m afraid I can’t remember what it was because I was too busy catching up to take many notes.
Bootleggers was founded in 2006 by Aaron and Patricia Barkenhagen, after Aaron, who was a home brewer, took an Entrepreneurship class at university and ended up opening Fullerton’s first production brewery. They use specially sourced ingredients and produce a constant, rotating variety of unique brews.There are also Bootleggers tasting rooms in Fullerton and Redlands as well as this Costa Mesa location.
After our pints the five of us moved on to have some cocktails and sharing plates at the nearby Memphis Cafe, so it was a really fine night, started by some good brews.
Related Links
- A guide to Salesforce Park in San Francisco
- Everything you need to know about the Burning Man festival
- All about cannabis-infused beers (Beer Connoisseur)
- Guide to The Lab Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa