Sorry in advance that the pics are huge. I tried imgur and they were ridiculous, so I did Photobucket and they're still too big but oh well I give up.
Some awesome Bay Area adventures so far on Day 1 yesterday..
Faction Brewing was first.
It's in what I think is some sort of old aircraft hangar out in Alameda, with some awesome views of the Bay and over at the city. Beers were all very solid, with some great pale ales and IPA's and a really tasty coffee stout.
Then headed up to Berkeley and The Rare Barrel.
They've been open since just after Christmas in the tap room, and brewing for a little over a year. They do exclusively sours, and everything I had was excellent. Only negative is they don't do flights or half pours so I didn't get to try all of their beers, but everything was under 6% so I was able to have more than just 1 or 2. Super nice staff, too. Had some great convo about Texas and Cali beers.
Up the coast I went then to Petaluma to my hotel, and then wandered over to Lagunitas. It was packed around 6pm when I got there (they're open 'til 8) but I was able to grab a seat at the bar. I've had everything on their regular lineup, and I was hoping they'd have more one-off type stuff than they did. I got a flight of the only 4 unique things they did have, but none really blew me away. It'd be a cool spot to spend with friends on a nice afternoon cuz they have a big outdoor area, but after the first 2 places I went it was a bit of a letdown.
I ventured over to a super small almost nano brewery I guess called Baeltane in Novato.
Nice folks and decent Belgian style beers, but nothing super special either and they only had 3 on tap as a result of having used a lot of beer for a festival or something.
I ended the night at Moylan's.
I did a flight of 6, although I could have done all 13 or so that they had on tap if I'd wanted. Some solid offerings, and tasty fish and chips as well. I considered hitting a bar called Taps in Petaluma, but my body decided enough beer in 1 day was enough.
Today is Russian River and Bear Republic. I'm a bit excited. I'll check back in tomorrow to humblebrag.
[This message has been edited by aggiejz (edited 4/27/2014 12:01p).]
