On Day 4 of my January 2015 Bay Area trip I visited Triple Voodoo Brewery in the trendy, up-and-coming Dogpatch neighborhood. I also visited them on Day 5 because ten beers (even small-ish samplers) were just too much to try in one afternoon. I assumed Triple Voodoo was a new place, but found out they’d been around for about five years as a gypsy brewing outfit until they recently settled down into this slick new space and got their own brewhouse. They also have cool-looking logo tulip glasses for sale.

Sampler flight at Triple Voodoo — San Francisco, CA

Rob’s Picks
• Inception – 8% – Belgian tripel. Caramel, banana/clove, herbal hops. Bit of tannic finish. Light creaminess.
• Samurai Saison – 6.5% – Dry hopped with Simcoe and Sorachi Ace. Fun tropical fruit hop flavors with pretty solid saison base. Light lemon, spiciness, touch of funk. Great mix.
• Working Vacation – 6.9% – IPA. Big citrus aroma and flavor. Mainly grapefruit, but some tropical fruit, too. Supposedly some toasty malt but too subtle for me.
• EF YEA! – 9.5% – Imperial IPA. Big and dank. Piney, tropical, touch of earthy hops, with solid caramel base. Yum!
• Outlaw’s Gold – 5.5% – Blonde ale. Light malt, some honey. Grassy, herbal hops, with a hint of bitterness on the finish.
• Ultra Violet – 6.9% – Dubbel. Big malts. Caramel and fruity. Plum, raisin, bit of apple. Light underlying funk. Would go well with a dessert.

The Rest
• Phantom Empire – 5% – Grisette. Very light. Dry, fairly crisp, grainy. Light citrus, herbal, and grassy hops, with a hint of honey. Light bitterness on the finish.
• Stag Hop #4 – 6.4% – Single hop (Motueka) extra pale ale. Floral with some grassiness and tropical fruit. Light underlying breadiness. Bitter floral finish.
• Breaka’ Dawn – 5.7% – Belgian pale ale. Fairly crisp. Light citrus at the start. Funk, herbal hops, tannic, with a dry finish. Lingering funk.
• Symmetry Saison – 7% – Smooth, a little spicy. Some citrus, some bubblegum, some herbal hops, bit of funk. Touch of creaminess.

Dogpatch is shaping up to be a good neighborhood for a day of brewery hopping. Triple Voodoo is about two blocks from Magnolia Smokestack and about six blocks from the very new Harmonic Brewing. If you need some exercise, there’s a bouldering gym there, too. What more could you want? Oh yeah, Almanac to open a taproom.

2015 is the 50th anniversary of Fritz Maytag buying Anchor Brewing and giving a handy start date for the US craft beer movement. Thinking about it, it might seem a bit odd that I’d never visited Anchor before. I lived in the Bay Area for about seven years, but I wasn’t so much into beer way back then. On my periodic visits to SF after moving to Seattle I never planned far enough in advance for a spot on one of their tours – they were free and booked solid for several months out. But with this most recent visit, I figured I’d take a look and see if there was any possibility of getting myself on a tour. And lo and behold, Anchor had switched from self-booked free tours to a third-party, $15 tour-booking site. While a small part of me was bummed that tours were no longer free, I was much more happy that I could actually reserve a spot two weeks before my trip. And yeah, it was a great tour, with a healthy amount of beer sampling.

Sampling beer in the Anchor Brewing tasting room — San Francisco, CA

Rob’s Picks
• Double Liberty IPA – 8.2% – Caramel with light citrus, floral mix, touch of earthiness, and nice lingering flavors.
• Zymaster No. 7 – 7% – Portrero Hill Sour-Mash IPA. Sweet caramel and light honey with herbal and light floral and spicy hops. Bit of sour mash tang in aroma, very light in flavor at end. Quite drinkable.
• Zymaster No. 6 – 6% – Saaremaa Island Ale. “Estonian-style pale ale.” Something unique about the taste but hard to pinpoint. Herbal, tea-like, spicy, light caramel and toffee, hint of floral. Pretty fun. (After recently visiting Estonia (and Finland), I’m guessing the “hard to pinpoint” flavor was juniper, but I would need to have some more No. 6 to confirm…)
• Summer Wheat – 4.5% – Good balance of banana, light breadiness, touch of lemon and hint of herbal hops. Light bitterness on finish.
• Steam – 4.9% – Caramel and alcohol aroma and flavor. Touch of honey. As flavors fade, bitterness becomes more prominent. Very easy drinking.
• California Lager – 4.9% – Crisp and light, caramel, to a touch of honey on finish, with light underlying bitterness. Nice balance. Also easy drinking.
• Liberty Ale – 5.9% – Sweet floral aroma. Honey, caramel, floral, citrus. Sweet zing at end. Light underlying bitterness. Great balance.
• Brotherhood Steam – 5.6% – Dry-hopped Steam. Tour beer for Chris Robinson’s Brotherhood. Fruity, melon notes to the steam beer. Adds a good extra level to it. Smooth, a touch creamy, fairly sweet but with just enough bitterness.
• Porter – 5.6% – Lots of malt but not a big beer. Quite crisp and fairly light on the tongue. Honey, caramel, with coffee/chocolate on finish. Bit of dark choc bitterness. Very easy drinking.
• Christmas 2014 – 5.5% – Smooth caramel malts with nice spices. Nutmeg? Bit of spruce/birch/pine on finish. Pretty fun.
• Christmas 2013 – 5.5% – Big caramel malts with nutmeg. Touch of spiciness on the tongue. Very drinkable.
• Winter Wheat – 7% – Crisp liquid caramel with touches of chocolate and honey. Very subtle floral hops. Pretty big body.

The Rest
• BigLeaf Maple Autumn Red – 6% – Biscuit, light caramel malt and floral hops, with a little bit of herbal. A fair amount of bitterness on the finish, along with a bit of maple syrup.
• Saison Spring Ale – 7.2% – Made with lemongrass, lemon peel, and ginger. Lemony clove aroma. Light, with bready malt base and big clove, bitter lemon, pepper, and a touch of bubblegum and funk. Ginger is either too subtle for me or just blends in with the other flavors. Bitter finish.
• IPA – 6.5% – Caramel and honey, herbal and citrus, bit of melon. Little more lingering bitterness than Steam, Liberty, California Lager. Pretty good but not my favorite.

I sampled eight different Anchor beers on the tour, and in the eight months since then I managed to try seven more. It’s great to see they keep doing new beers in addition to their regular line-up, and while they’re not pushing too many boundaries these days, they’re still independent and making solid beer. And they really pushed the boundaries for US beer back in the 60s and 70s, so respect.

And so my Bay Area trip came to a close with a visit to Cellarmaker Brewing, and I have to say it was an excellent finish. They’d opened about two months previous, and I didn’t know much about them. One of their beers was on tap at the new Mikkeller Bar in the Tenderloin, which was a good sign. They weren’t too many people in the taproom when I showed up on a Tuesday afternoon. I parked my carry-on under one of the tables, ordered a taster flight, and was promptly blown away. Loved everything they had on tap. They’re making some of the best beer in SF.

Update! October 6, 2015: Went back for a second visit on my January 2015 Bay Area trip and got eight more tastes. Visited in the evening this time, and it was quite crowded. Good vibe, but I’ll have to remember to go in the afternoon next time. As I type this update, they’re celebrating their second anniversary. It’s a week-long event, and once again I’m wondering why I’m not down there. Will have to put the date on my calendar for next year, I guess.

Seven tasters of awesomeness at Cellarmaker Brewing — San Francisco, CA

Rob’s Picks
• Many Blessings – 4.7% – Saison. Lemony, dry, kinda grainy, a touch tart, with tropical fruit notes. Bit of a tannic finish.
• Hop Making Sense! – 6.4% – Fun mix of citrus, guava, herbal, melon hop flavors. Light malt base. Some bitterness on the finish.
• Admiration IPA – 6.3% – Big grapefruit and tropical fruit aroma and flavors. Light malt, bitter finish, a touch dry.
• Cellarmaker Porter – 4% – Dry, with coffee, chocolate, and roasty maltiness. Light citrus edge.
• Blammo! – 14.5% – Imperial stout with coconut. Big. Intense coffee, chocolate, alcohol, molasses. Light coconut on the finish. Appropriate name.
• Bourbon Barrel Vastness of Space – 11% – Barrel aged for 13 months. Bourbon and chocolate aroma and flavors. Smooth and rich, with molasses sweetness and fairly big oaky vanilla aspect.
• Coquette – 4.2% – Grisette, a wheat saison. Bready, a little funky, with some lemon and light spiciness. Light and refreshing.
• Taco Hands IPA – 7.2% – 57 ITU’s (International Taco Units). Collaboration with Tired Hands Brewing of Pennsylvania. Made with light cumin, coriander, cilantro, pepper, pasilla chile, lime zest and juice. Mashed with corn and corn tortilla shells. “This beer should suck, but is actually super drinkable.” Yup. Lots of cool spiciness and citrus and fruit. Unique and awesome.
• Questionable Origins #2 – 6.1% – Big tropical fruit hop blast, with light citrus and spicy hops, as well. Guess there’s some malt, too. Good lingering bitterness.
• Cage Free IPA – 6.4% – Big citrus, tropical fruit, and light piney hop flavors. Underlying rye spice. Zingy lingering bitterness.
• Are You Afraid of the Dank? – 8.5% – Even bigger tropical fruit hop flavor party. Some spicy and piney hops, too. Lovely lingering flavors.
• Jezebel – 7.5% – Cloudy, fruity, lightly funky saison. Really smooth, with bits of sweetness to dry and lightly bitter finish.
• Peach Nightmare – 4.7% – Light, lingering wheat sour with just enough peach flavor. Could drink this all day.

The Rest
• Saison des Flandres – 5.9% – Collaboration with Brasserie Thiriez. Good saison base with herbal hops to bitter finish.
• Tim’s Brown – 6.4% – Coffee and chocolate with some roastiness. Bit of floral and piney hops at the end. Interesting.

As I’m finishing up this post, Cellarmaker is celebrating their first anniversary. It was tempting to fly down and help them celebrate by drinking more of their beer. Yeah, why am I not down there? Will have to head back to the Bay Area again soon.