26th Birthday In San Francisco

As time goes on, we all get older and wiser, for the most part. I turned 26 last Wednesday and decided I wanted to go to some of the better breweries and tap rooms out in San Francisco that I have heard are must tries but just haven't made the time to go out there and try them, until today.

My roomate Oli and his new girlfriend had the day off so also so we all went out there (45 min drive) for the day to drink some beer and see some cool shit.

I grew up and around the Bay Area and I have been to SF more times then I can count but I have yet to truly know what it meant when someone would say "I live in the Financial District". Call that what you want, but we ended up going to Haight street.

Talk about a trip! This a street where most of the stores on the street are very carnival based I got the feel of. Tibet stores, Wild West stores, Irish pubs, whatever you want, they got it.It is not soon a place I will be forgetting.

Our first stop was sorta random as I stumbled upon Magnolia Brewing simply walking up and down Haight street in amazement. I walk in and I still get the sort of carnival, old time, feel to the brewery which I thought was pretty cool. I go in to the brewery and I start talking to the bartender and turns out this guy lives in marin county and is actually in the process of starting his own brewery too!

Anyways, I got two pints here, one was a belgian tripel that I thought was wonderful! I could have drank that 9% beer all night long before I would pass out LOL! I then had a shooter of there Kolsch which was traditional and very good!I didn't get any food here but loved the beer and atmosphere!

If in SF, this is a great place to go for some good German and Belgian beers. 4.1/5

Thank God Oli's girlfriend was driving because it was my birthday and I just wanted a lot of good beer haha

The next stop we went to was Toronado, which isn't a brewery (meaning they don't make their own beer), but rather a taproom that has other peoples beer. This was my favorite place that we went on our beerscapades this day. They had rows and rows of old tap handles from good craft beer for over the last 30 years. They had stickers that anyone can thrown up on the wall, it made for a lot of looking around in amazement. I had a sour there that was really good from Mraz Brewing Company, three berries I believe it was called. I then had what I think might have been the best "Hazy Juicy" that I've ever had from Fieldworks and I think it was called "Clouds in the Sky" or something like that. Double NEIPA and it hit exactly what I was looking for in that hazy juicy with a big mouthfeel, bigcitrus, peachy, velvety flavor that just tasted amazing!

Hands down have to try this place if you go to San Francisco! Cash Bar only!!! 4.7/5

After Toronado, we end up heading to get some food where I tried my first ever Mediterranean food, Schwarma! It wasn't too bad!!

We then headed over to Mikkeller where we met up with a couple friends. Oli wanted to show me their sour, barrel, room downstairs and so we went down there and I ran in to an employee, so I started talking to him, told him I ran a brewery, and then he proceeds to open a $20 bottle of a sour beer from their special bottles and shares it with me and my friends. That was an awesome gesture that doesn't go un-noticed! We had some bomb ass sours from Mikkeller! They had what seemed like 100 beers on tap to choose from too. This place got so packed and it was a little pricey but the food (fries) and beers were all good! A little too high class for my personal liking though. I would definitely hit this place if you're sour fans! 4.2/5

At this point I'm about 6-8 beers in and as one might imagine, I start forgetting shit. I know that, as night was beginning to fall, we had to park, in what I felt like, in the hood. Walking down the street in our super normal jeans, shirt, jacket and seeing everyone else on the street in used up sneakers and sweat suits and shit... It's all about perspective man... So after we make it through the hood safe and sound we arrive at Cellermaker Brewing.

This is where we met up with a good friend of mine I haven't seen in a year and a half and we share a couple pints and catch up on life. It is always good seeing an old friend. I tried everyone's beers that we were hanging out with and I remembered them all being pretty good! It was open seating and the atmosphere was like that of Mikkeller, a little more high class, most people were in their after work business suites, but damn good beer! I want to go back here when I'm a little more sober next time!

Overall I would give this place a 4.0/5

The final stop on this awesome adventure was some kinda dive barish sorta place that had some music playing, open bar seating, a pool table in the middle of the walk way, tons of people were here and it was called Tempest. It was more of a mixed drink based place but they did have a porter on tap from somewhere, so I went with that. I remember that being pretty fuckin good actually! They also have a little food side door thing that you can order from their kitchen as well. 3.0/5

I think I forgot to mention I was drinking a little shots of stuff along the way too haha. I had a shot of Underberg for my brewing mentor LoLo at Toronado, and I had a shot of something else at Tepest that tasted just like Underberg to me.

After we said our goodbye's to our friends, we head back home. I had brought a cooler in her car for filling growlers and buying beer and shit you know, but I had totally forgot about that along the ride, but I did remember I had brought some bottles to give away too. So I had two homebrews on the way home too. Do what you want.

After we finally make it home safe, I bring the cooler in to the garage, walk in to the house, pound some water, and go on the couch to get ready to KO. It was only 8pm.

Goodnight everyone!

Stay safe out there in this life, you only have one.

-Ty Stevenson