The Brewtal Yeti Beer Blog: SFBW Day 3: Town & Country

on sunday we headed into the city to do some sightseeing. the weather was great again, perfect for bumming around beautiful San Francisco.

The Rock (aka: awesomely terrible Nic Cage movie)

made a friend by Ghirardelli Square

the Ferry Building is a really cool indoor market place in SF. tons of cafes, shops, restaurants. we had a great lunch here at Boccalone.

The Ferry Building

mmmmm........pig

our muffuletta sandwich from Boccalone, AMAZING!

nice little beer shop inside the Ferry. lots of PTE is always a good sign

had to stop by Kara's cupcakes for the gf. she was so supportive of my beer endeavors all weekend, so it was the least i could do. if you like cupcakes, go to Kara's, they are AWESOME.

ohhh, yeeeeah

after Kara's we headed north out of the city. rural Northern California is home to some of the best breweries you can find anywhere. first stop, Lagunitas brewery, taproom, and beer sanctuary in Petaluma, Ca. i had always wanted to go here, and it did not disappoint! as you enter the brewery, you find yourself in the middle of a huge beer garden. there is also a bar area inside but we sat on the patio. i started off with a Fusion V, which was fantastic, and then moved onto a 4 beer taster flight. i should also mention that i ordered a sausage plate and was pleasantly surprised to learn that that came with a side of two taster sized beers as well...thumbs up.

if you are ever in the area, Lagunitas is a must-stop brewery, great beers, great staff, and very reasonable prices. also, their take-away growlers are 64oz mason jars. c'mon, thats just cool.

entering the 'sanctuary'

lots and lots o' beer

part of the beer garden (couldn't get it all in one shot)

my beer Vanna White

4 great beers for 5 bucks. can't beat it

next stop, Santa Rosa, Ca about 14 miles up the road. this is the home to Third Street Ale Works. i was really impressed with their 15th anniversary DIPA at the festival, so we popped in to check it out. this was actually just a pit-stop on the way to the brewery that we really wanted to hit, but Third Street was nice enough. i got the DIPA again and it was as good as i remembered. they also make a killer slider here. our server kind of sucked but whatever, you can't win them all.

the Third Street big board

the 15th anniv., a very solid double IPA

now onto the really good stuff. about a mile up the road is one of my all-time favorite breweries, Russian River Brewing Co. it is amazing to me how many world class beers come out of this little brewpub in the middle of tiny Santa Rosa. when we arrived it was packed, as every Sunday is all-day happy hour! my first beer was a Mortification, possibly the best Belgian-style quad i've ever had. this was followed by Rejection, a really spectacular Belgian dark ale.
everything about Russian River is great, the beer, the atmosphere, the food(pliny bites), the service, the prices. as far as brewpubs in America go, i'm not sure you could do much better. check it out if you ever have the chance.