MARCH 1998

VOL.3 NO.3

Four Days in San Francisco

(In February, World of Beer Update subscribers read about the 5th annual Barley Wine Festival held at that terrific San Francisco beer bar, Toronado, located at 547 Haight Street. But that was hardly the extent of my beer tasting travels in the City by the Bay, and some of the rest are recounted in the following story. If you missed the Update, scroll down to the bottom of this page and sign up today so that you won't miss another word.)

While the Toronado tasting was indeed the highlight of my four-day trip to San Francisco, it by no means represented the full extent of my beer tasting activities. It had been a year since I had last journeyed to the Bay area, even longer since I had spent any significant amount of time in San Francisco proper, and a lot of beer developments had taken place during that time. I had a bit of catching up to do.

My attempt to get myself up to speed on the latest in Bay area beer began at the Thirsty Bear Brewing Company (661 Howard Street), a stylish brewpub and tapas bar. This is a combination I have only seen once before -- at a Madrid brewpub called Naturbier -- but it is one which works well for the Bear. When in Spain, one quickly discovers that the preferred drink at tapas time is beer, and it has always struck me as odd that North American tapas joints seem to insist on putting their emphasis upon wine instead.

Stand-outs on the Thirsty Bear's slate of beers included a heavily coriandered Valencia Wheat, an earthy Meyer's ESB, a pleasantly roasty Brown Bear Ale and a well-balanced Howard Street IPA. Notable for a different reason was the Golden Vanilla Ale, which with its heavy vanilla scent was interesting enough in a taster size, but made me question whether I would want to have an entire pint.Of the four tapas I was able to try, the outstanding Kokotxas Donostiarra, or fish cheeks sauteed in sherry and garlic, were by far the most delicious -- so much so, in fact, that I returned to try them again later on in my visit!

My lunch the next day at the E&O Trading Company (314 Sutter Street) was less successful from both a food and drink perspective. The Bailey's Brown Ale was to my taste the best of the five house beers available, with a chocolaty nose and roasty, slightly thinnish body, while hop and malt balance problems afflicted the flavours of each of the stout, Golden Ale and IPA. Things only got worse when my seared tuna arrived with a thin strip of pink down the middle instead of the requisite thick band of deep red, although their second try (following my refusal of the first) did improve matters somewhat. The rice was excellent, though.

My last downtown beer stop was the Magnolia Pub & Brewery (1398 Haight Street), recently opened in the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the only time I had to visit the pub was after my stint as a judge at the Toronado, and so my barley wine-besieged palate was in no shape to pass judgement on the three cask-conditioned ales and numerous other house-brewed beers available. In general terms, however, the cask ales did impress and I was left with a very positive overall impression of the pub. I look forward to visiting again in the near future, preferably not following a couple of hours spent sipping strong ales.

As always, I bade adieu to San Francisco with a goodbye pint of Anchor Steam at the airport. And although it was served to me in an embarrassing, Coors Light-emblazoned plastic cup, I felt no shame because I knew and appreciated what I was drinking and enjoying. I only hope that Bay area beer drinkers feel the same about the craft brewed bounty they have at their disposal.

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