La recensione a 4 stelle di Alan:
I have some history with this place; I was there for their opening day in 1996. At the time my office was around the corner on Hawthorne Street, and, for a couple of years, until my employer moved to the East Bay in 1998, I was a regular. Alas, I somehow never got back until this week. Looks pretty much the same: a long, narrow two-storey space, bar along one side, tables and booths around the room. More tables, three pool tables, and restrooms up a long stairway, with no elevator option. If accessibility is an issue for you, keep this in mind.
Friendly bartender, well-informed about the house brews.
The food menu leans to Spanish, with a lot of tapas options. I had a large and quite good pulled pork sandwich, with patatas bravas.
Nine excellent organic house beers (two flagships, seven rotators) are on tap; sampler tray of three-ounce tasters is $15. I went with that, and the bartender was good enough to throw in two extra variants on the barleywine for a sort of vertical tasting. Items included:
- Admiral Maltings Lager. 5.4% ABV, 32 IBU. Thirsty Bear is affiliated with Admiral Maltings, in Alameda. Clear bright gold, light head. Mild perfumey nose. Good balance of Admiral's Maiden Voyage malt and Perle and Sterling hops.
- Alt Bier. 5.1%, 30 IBU. Clear red-brown, light head leaving lace on the glass. Taste dominated by lightly-roasty malt; again, Perle and Sterling.
- Panda Bear. 4.5%, 15 IBU. One of the two full-time flagship brews. Clear copper, light head. Described as a golden ale with cocoa nibs and vanilla beans, both of which are prominent in the nose and taste. As the bartender said, a beer for people who don't especially like beer.
- Whitecap Wheat. 5.7%, 20 IBU. Clear gold, halo-and-patches head. Not much nose. 40% wheat in the grain bill, but this isn't very evident in the taste.
- Sonoma Strong. This is TB's contribution to the range of beers from many Northern California craft breweries produced to raise funds for fire relief. 5.6%, 50 IBU. Clear bronze, halo head. Weak nose, hop-forward taste.
- Fruit Salad. 5.9%, 34 IBU. Pale Ale aged four months in oak, with lactobacillus, watermelon, strawberry, and pineapple. Sour and melon-y nose. Taste likewise has lacto sourness, but fairly hoppy for a sour.
- Howard Street IPA. The other flagship. 7.0%, 70 IBU. Clear dark gold, halo-and-patches head. Mild citrus and grassy hop nose. (Magnum, Centennial, Cascade, Citra, Simcoe.) An excellent rendition of the traditional West Coast IPA style.
- Pelican's Porter. 4.4%, 26 IBU. Dark but clear ruby-brown, tan head. On nitrogen, giving a creamy small-bubble mouthfeel. Nose has Concord grape and tobacco notes. Deep roast malt taste, with a hint of bitter chocolate.
- Barleywine 2013. 10.2%, 65 IBU. Slightly hazy dark gold, halo-and-patches head. Mild sweet malt nose. Strong taste of sweet malt and ethanol, with a peach note, and hops developing in the finish.
- Barleywine 2014. 10.5%, 65 IBU. Clear copper, darker and redder than the 2013 vintage. Halo-and-patches head. Mild, perfumey malt nose. Deeper and perhaps more bitter than the 2013. Ethanol as a flavor element. Antihistamine note. Fairly still mouthfeel.
- Barrel-Aged Barleywine 2014. 10.5%, 65 IBU. Clear copper, halo-and-patches head. Aged six months in French oak red wine barrels. Some wine shows up in the nose; also a hint of black-pepper sting, and a more distinct ethanol aroma than the previous two barleywines. Wine also shows up in the taste, and a salty note, and again, of course, alcohol warmth. More complex than the "regular" 2014, but I'm not sure I like it as much.
Located two blocks from the Montgomery Street BART and MUNI Metro station. Within reasonable pub-crawl distance of 21st Amendment and Mikkeller.