The Bar Towel

[munrets]

Hi all,

I turn to y'all once again for some direction: we're tackling San Francisco and its environs in the next few weeks and would like some direction.

I've dug up the old San Fran thread and there isn't anything terribly recent.

Thoughts? Tips? Thanks!

[JerCraigs]

Wilco just got back from SF

[northyorksammy]

heading there early November. Spending most time in Santa Rosa and North.

[RayOhm]

Have you checked this out? There's a GPS waypoint map for SF.
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I don’t care what the U.N. says, I don’t recognize countries that don’t produce beer.

[cratez]

Can't speak to bars, but my girlfriend just got back from SF and grabbed me the following beers at The Village Market in the Ferry Building Marketplace:

Russian River Pliny the Elder x 2
Russian River Damnation
Russian River Redemption x 2
Deschutes Black Butte Porter x 2
Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale
Deschutes Obsidian Stout
Alaskan Baltic Porter (Pilot Series)
Lagunitas DayTime IPA
Allagash Tripel

So definitely worth a stop for bottle shopping IMO. There's probably several stores with larger and more diverse selections, but everything they carry is ridiculously fresh i.e. the Pliny was bottled the day before purchase and the Deschutes have BB dates of Spring 2013. Hope that helps!
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"This whole being pleasant (thing) is fucking exhausting. I'm running out of nice juice to spray at these shit-munchers" - Veep

[munrets]

And I'm back.

The trip took us from Santa Monica to Malibu, then Big Sur followed by Monterey (where my little guy trick-or-treated), and then finally three days in San Francisco. Snooped around as we travelled at various places and brought back a few bottles:

PtE
RR Blind Pig
Lukcy Basartd and Double Bastard - both just released while I was there. (Drinking the Lukcy Basartd as I type - it leaked during the flight and I lost about half of it. The remaining half is pretty damn good.)
Stone colab Mint Chocolate Imperial Stout
Stone Cali-Belgique
Stone's Bottleworks 13th Anniversary Ale
Ballast Point Tongue Buckler
Great Divide Fresh Hop
Knee Deep Simtra
Maui CoCoNut Porter
Oskar Blues Ten Fidy
Firestone Walker Double DBA
Widmer Brothers Kill Devil
Hair of the Dog Adam
Deschutes/Hair of the Dog Conflux No. 1 (Collage)
Bruery White Oak
Bruery Smoking Wood Rye Barrel Aged
Lagunitas Brown Shugga' (should have bought a billion of these)
Allagash Curieux (Bourbon Barrel-Aged)

I think that's it.

As for shops, I hit a ton of Whole Foods, which is great as selection varies tremendously from store to store but there's always good stuff to be found. (The location at 300 4th Street in SF was by far the best.)

Ales Unlimited in SF was a beautiful shop that smelled of old wood. Incredible selection - if only I knew my way around sours/funkiness.

Healthy Spirits was also worth a visit. I checked out City Beer in SF at night and it was packed with people drinking. It's set up with a bunch of taps much like a bar with a back section of coolers with a billion beers to be had. From what I understand Pliny is frequently on tap, but if not and you really wanted one, you can just grab one (or anything they have) from the cooler and they'll crack it and serve it to you.

And on a particular BT note: Deus was everywhere, ranging from $30-36.99. I feel fortunate that I snagged three from the 'BO before it disappeared.