San Fran area beer trip

[MadBrewDoc]

Army, I need your help. Planning a last minute trip to the Bay Area next week. Will be in town 5-6 days. Need ideas on where to stay (SF vs Concord vs Sonoma/Napa)...want a nice place but don't wanna spend $500 a night either. Also will be spending most of each day touring Pubs/breweries...which ones do I HAVE to see and can I plan different area each day? Brewery tours? Bus tours available or do I need to plan on driving everywhere. I also want to stop by the Hop Grenade and MoreBeer at some point. Come on Army, especially you guys that live up there....gimme some ideas.

MadBrewDoc

[RanchCat]

I'm partial to the North Bay, there are many great breweries in the city and across the bay into Oakland and San leandro areas. However, to me, and yes I'm being a little bias here, there's nothing like a touring the breweries along 101 in the north bay. You can probly find a decent rate on a non-crackhead place in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park or possibly. San Rafael. If you start in San Rafael, you've got Moylan's and Marin brew co. Work your way up to to Petaluma and stop by North 101 brewing before the obvious landmark in Lagunitas (band starts @ 4:20, don't be late). Continue up 101 or redwood highway to Santa Rosa and check out 1st st ales which is just a couple blocks away from Russian River. The brats are great at 1st street, and the pizzas are always good at RR.

How many days do you have? You can keep going up the healdsburg and check out Bear Republics taproom or head to Sebastapol and go to The Hopmonk.

Rohnert Park has the Double Tree. Nice hotel but can be expensive if there's something goin on in the area. There's also the Hapton Inn and Suites in Rohnert Park. That's probably your best bet for a central location to all this spots.

Hope this helps!
Cheers

RanchCat

[MadBrewDoc]

Thanks RanchCat. Think I found a place to stay in Sonoma. Plan on hitting Lagunitas, RR, and Bear Republic. Have heard some good things about Redwood Curtain....any thoughts? Will make separate day trips to SF for Magnolia, 21A, Trappist?? (Any other recs?) Another day trip to Concord for the Hop Grenade and MoreBeer. Maybe a third day trip to Oakland/San Leandro/Berkeley area??

[RanchCat]

That sounds like a helluva trip to me! If you head to Oakland/San Leandro/Berkeley definitely check out Drakes. Good people and good beer. Don't forget to ask the story of how they came up with the name for Denogginizer! Sierra Nevada opened up the "Torpedo Room" in Berkeley recently, haven't been yet but here good things. Tasty McD would never forgive you if you don't check out Triple Rock when you're in Berekely. My one little nugget of knowledge is a brand new brewery that just opened in San Leandro called Cleophus Quealy. It's a small (7BBL) operation in the industrial area next to the Oakland Airport. One of the guys who started it is a friend of my wife's family and we were lucky enough to be invited to their "Super Soft" opening. They have a more traditional European spread of beers and the ones I tried were great. If you like sours, get the weiss for sure. They have some cool growlers and t-shirts too. Their only open on weekends though with limited staff so maybe call and make sure they're open that day before you head over.

That's about all I got. If you decide to head a little more East, I'm in Livermore and they have some great spots. Altamont Beer Works and Eight Bridges are the local favorites (also mostly open on weekends). PM me if you end up south of concord or east of Oakland.

-RanchCat

[RanchCat]

Madbrew,

How'd the trip go?