I love craft beer. I love learning about styles, visiting new breweries, and following the local beer news. Really, I’ll try any new beer I can get my hands on, (nearly) regardless of style.
I particularly enjoy hazy (Northeast-style) IPAs, which have dominated craft beer for the past few years. There’s something about this beer style that seems legitimately addictive — each one is different and enticing in its own way. And I’m not the only one who feels that way: hazy IPA moves millions of cans and makes bank for breweries across the country, each one hoping for dozens of customers lining up outside for the latest hype release.
I’m over the craze, but I’m also finally discovering the limits of what IPA can do while rediscovering just how good other styles can be, particularly unassuming ones like pilsners and amber ales.
I’m also lucky enough to live in a craft beer mecca: the San Francisco Bay Area, where beer is not only extremely good and very popular but has a deep history.
To mark the season and a renewed appreciation for the beers that helped build this industry into what it is today, here’s my list of 12 classic Bay Area beers, with a focus on style diversity.
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Note one
I’m being liberal with geography here, reaching to places like Chico and Fort Bragg. For this purpose, “Bay Area” means breweries that have historically attended the SF Beer Week Opening Gala, and whose beers are regularly available in the Bay.
Note two
I’m not including any nonindependent breweries here, with one exception. So you won’t see any Lagunitas, sadly.
On the first day of Beermas: Anchor Steam California common
The classic of classics. This beer is truly special.
Anchor is the oldest craft brewery in America, the oldest of the old school. Small, local breweries were common in the U.S. until the Great Conglomerate Watering-Down of American Beer through the latter half of the 20th century. Anchor managed to eke out its existence through this time and business began to pick up steam (ahem) again in the 1990s.
American craft beer was (re)born right here in the Bay Area! Blessings to Fritz Maytag.
The name of the beer is Steam, and so is the name of the style (aka California common). It’s made with lager yeasts at ale temperatures, and it’s one of the only (if not the only) beer styles to have been fully invented in the U.S.
Alternate: In this case, none.
On the second day of Beermas: Sierra Nevada Celebration fresh-hop seasonal IPA
Brewed since 1981, this beer is a fresh-hop IPA but an old-school Westie at heart. Sierra Nevada is a behemoth of craft beer (and still proudly independent). Celebration is their annual holiday seasonal that doesn’t match the traditional definition of a holiday ale, which is usually spiced and heavier. But the distinctive red packaging is a sign of the season in the Bay.
Alternate: Sierra Nevada Torpedo. For the more traditional holiday spiced beer, Anchor Christmas ale, or 21st Amendment Fireside Chat.
On the third day of Beermas: Moonlight Death & Taxes black lager
If you know, you know. Moonlight is one of the old-guard breweries around the Bay, now often overshadowed by the trendy newcomers. But they keep plugging away, making one of the only traditional British IPAs available plus this banger classic black lager. Perfect when you want the stout without the stout.
Alternate: Oakland United Beerworks black lager.
On the fourth day of Beermas: North Coast Pranqster Belgian strong golden
The Bay Area isn’t exactly known for Belgian styles. I moved here nine years ago from the East Coast, where real Belgians are more accessible, to find a lack of local Belgian selections. North Coast and its excellent Pranqster were one exception (now joined by Laughing Monk and select others). This beer is consistently one of my favorites to order on tap, but beware: It hides that ABV.
Alternate: Russian River Damnation.
On the fifth day of Beermas: Anderson Valley Boont amber ale
The decline of amber and red ales is one of the saddest things about today’s craft beer scene. But Boont, brewed in the quirky environs of the remote Anderson Valley north of Wine Country, is still going strong. As they say in Boontling, bahl hornin’.
Alternate: Speakeasy Prohibition.
On the sixth day of Beermas: A sour from Russian River or Almanac
I’m punting a bit here because I don’t think there’s one sour beer that truly stands out as a singular classic, partly because Russian River and Almanac have both made many great ones over the years. The closest is probably Russian River Sanctification, but Almanac’s 375 ml bottles of joy made quite an impression earlier this century too.
Alternate: Anything made by the Rare Barrel.
On the seventh day of Beermas: 21st Amendment Back in Black black IPA / Cascadian dark ale
This is one of my all-time favorite styles — offering the best of both the hoppy and dark worlds — and now it seems almost as rare as a good amber ale. “Black IPA” is the popular name but is technically a misnomer, since the “p” in “IPA” stands for “pale” (and who doesn’t love to be technically correct?). So, Cascadian dark ale, if you will, please. Back in Black isn’t the best of this style, but it’s good and available.
Alternate: Eat Brother Red IPA.
On the eighth day of Beermas: North Coast Old Rasputin Russian imperial stout
Only a few breweries are mentioned here more than once, and the northernmost is deservedly one of them. This Russian imperial stout from North Coast in Fort Bragg defines the style, a grizzled old giant of a beer for a cold night. Bonus points if you can find the exquisite barrel-aged version — or spot Gilfoyle drinking it several times in Silicon Valley.
Alternate: Drake’s Jolly Rodger.
On the ninth day of Beermas: Trumer pilsner
The night after Rasputin calls for something a bit lighter. Pilsner has gone through something of a renaissance lately, from the proliferation of hoppy pilsners like Firestone Walker’s Pivo to the emergence of Italian pils. I’m no pilsnerd, but it’s great to find a new appreciation for a style I’d formerly dismissed as boring.
Trumer is not a renaissance beer. It’s brewed in Berkeley by an Austrian brewer that has been making beer for 400 years and follows the Reinheitsgebot, or the German purity law. But Trumer’s is a refreshing, down-the-middle pilsner that’s ubiquitous in the Bay.
Alternate: Temescal Pils, my favorite of the new-wave pilsners.
On the 10th day of Beermas: Ale Industries Golden State of Mind gruit
This is a bit of an unconventional pick, but this “beer” is dear to my heart as a different yet quintessentially Bay brew. The gruit style has no hops. (So is it beer? Who cares!) Instead, it’s brewed with coriander, chamomile, and orange peel. Refreshing.
Alternate: I’d say 21st Amendment Hell or High Watermelon, a wheat-watermelon ale that’s on any “Bay Area classics” list, but it’s a summer seasonal.
On the 11th day of Beermas: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
The beer that started… a lot of it. Your favorite brewer’s favorite beer. Picnic beer. Camping beer. This beer holds up so well it’s benching 300. It’s the entire modern craft beer industry in a bottle (or can). I want to live inside its label. Strong contender for my forever beer.
Alternate: Drake’s 1500 dry-hopped pale.
On the 12th day of Beermas: Russian River Pliny the Elder Double IPA
This beer needs no introduction — if you’re into beer, you’ve heard about it and possibly had it. (Its younger, bigger cousin Pliny the Younger, on the other hand…) This beer started double IPAs, now one of the bestselling styles in craft beer. And it totally holds up. I’m gonna go pop one right now, in fact. Cheers and happy holidays.
Alternate: Drake’s Denogginizer (not Pliny the Younger because that’s only in February).
That was a trip down memory lane, a list of beers that we Bay folks are lucky to still have made nearby — beers that won’t be made nearby for long if we never buy them. So put down the DDHNEIPA for tonight and grab an Anderson Valley Winter Solstice.
That said, I wanted to also pay quick homage to the new school nearby, the younger breweries that I think are doing incredible things in the Bay Area:
- Fieldwork. I’ll put this brewery up against any other in America. Fieldwork’s beer is consistently, relentlessly outstanding. My Untappd comments have included phrases such as “this is unfair to other breweries.” I also love Fieldwork for their beer style diversity — try a bier de garde or Flemish red alongside your DIPA.
- Almanac. Few breweries manage to kill it at sours, IPAs, and barrel-aged beers, but Almanac does.
- Cellarmaker. Mostly IPAs, and some of the best in California. Each one is distinctly Cellarmaker. Also a few great dark beers like Coffee & Cigarettes (much better than it sounds!).
- Alvarado Street. These wacky neon-clad folks down in Salinas make seriously great hazebro fodder.
- Henhouse. They make this list mostly because of the excellent value of their beer. Very good IPAs that are consistently several dollars less than competitors. Appreciate it!
