So part two begins on day two of the trip and we were heading for The Haight. Anyone who knows anything about the San Francisco beer scene knows that you have to get there during your trip if at all possible and we were no different.
After Lucille's great idea of walking up the very steep Buena Vista Park and nearly killing her new husband in the process I decided that we should now head for Magnolia. We walked through the door of this famous brew pub and you could smell the wort straight away, a more welcoming smell you couldn't wish to have. Now this place apparently used to be a pharmacy amongst other things and you could kind of see it in the decor of tiled floor and bare walls and so when we looked at the big blackboard I plumped for Magnolia's own Prescription Pale Ale on handpull, at 4.7% abv and 55 IBU's or BU's as Magnolia call them it was just what I needed after a boiling hot, asthma attack inducing walk up the park! It was light brown in colour, nicely hoppy and very drinkable. Lucille went for Wit Rabbit a 4% wheat beer on keg(or draught as it's know over there) and she really enjoyed it.
Because it was still early we got a seat at the end of a big table by the window and I preceded to give my jelly-legs a break(I'm so fucking unfit!).
I got talking to one of the Brewers, Ben , who was also sat at the table having his lunch and couldn't resist complementing him on the brews whilst we were chatting the owner of 21st Amendment walked in with another one of the 21a guys and all of a sudden a quiet drink turned into a nice sociable lunch time drink with beery people!
Next I went for the Prescription Pale Ale on 'draught' to compare with the cask version and in my humble opinion I preferred the draught, on a hot sunny day it was a lot more thirst quenching than the cask, it's very much like the Sierra Nevada Pale but I have to say I liked it better. I had a Cypress Brown last, another of Magnolia's own brews, not remembering too much about it though as I was chatting rather than taking notes.
It was then time to go, we said our goodbyes promising to come back to Magnolia and to visit 21st Amendment and headed for Toronado.
It's another one of those bars that absolutely has to be visited when your on Haight, Toronado looks from the outside like a bit of a dingy dive of a bar, but inside it's great, yes it's a bit grubby around the edges but the range is superb with 30-odd draught products and 3 or 4 cask handpulls at one end of the bar.
So what did I have to drink there? Started off with Bear Republic's Racer 5 to start with and it went down far too quickly so I found myself drinking Blind Pig, an IPA from Russian River at 6% abv and 72 IBU's it was, again, going down far too quickly so Lucille went to get us some lunch from Rosamunde, the sausage place next door to the bar, she came back with one beer sausage that we shared between us and that REALLY hit the spot, a beer food to beat all others!
Lastly, I couldn't leave without having a Pliny the Elder on draught, this beer is fast becoming one of my all time favourites and it was a real treat to drink it on draught for the first time, if you ever visit San Francisco be sure to get some!
Anyhow that was part two, part three to follow later.
2 comments:
These posts are bring back so many good memories! On a gorgeous sunny day I did the Anchor tour, walked to Magnolia (a long way!) for lunch and then on to Toronado.
They are just fantastic bars. Interesting that I found the keg to be more enjoyable than the cask too. Glad you got the sausages from Rosamunde - you can't NOT get them! The best pint of Pliny I had on my trip was in Toronado and it was as thick and opaque and fruit juice! Brilliant.
My first time in Magnolia was in 2003. The furniture was laminated MDF booths, while atop all four walls was a superb frieze.
I went for Sunday brunch so was drinking at 1030, and by 4pm that frieze was glowing and talking to me. I thought I'd better go home at that point...
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