Beers and Breweries

Welcome to the Beers and Breweries page where we will track our interest in brewing including tasting new beers, visiting breweries, meeting brewers and hopefully discovering some new recipes. Check back as we will be updating information and photos regularly.

2 Vancouver brewing veterans, Granville Island and Steamworks

While in Vancouver we managed to stop by two old favorites that have been around for more than 20 years a piece. Granville was founded back in 1985, making it a bit of a pioneer in local area micro brewing, while Steemworks launched in 1995, making it a younger, but still well established brewer. Both are in exceptional locations, Granville Island obviously for the former and historic Gastown for the latter. As always, we took in a good sampling of beers and got some excellent inspiration.

Fremont Brewing, Seattle

On our first full day in Seattle (and the one sunny day of our visit – well, to be fair, only partly sunny) we took the train up to the University of Washington and made our way along the water to Gasworks park and later Fremont Brewing, home of the Beer Patrol. We only stopped in to have a quick sampler on our long walk to the city center, but would definitely come back for the great beer garden (kid and dog friendly), some delicious beers and the free water, pretzels and apples (yes, a strange but welcome selection).

Three craft breweries in Austin, Texas

We expected to find a good sampling of local craft beers in Austin and weren’t disappointed. A great BLT washed down with a nicely balanced pale ale at Black Star Co-op Brewery kicked off our beer adventure Wednesday on the way downtown to explore SXSW. Then on Saturday we made the drive out of town to Jester King and Last Stand Brewing. The ambiance at Jester King was amazing on a sunny day. A big crowd of beer lovers playing Cornhole, snacking on pizza from Stanley’s Farmhouse Pizza and sampling Jester King’s latest release in the picturesque rolling hills made this quite a fun and memorable experience. We were impressed by the brewery’s barrel program and spontaneous fermentation project. But to be honest, we weren’t always happy with such a pronounced sour or tart character to all of their beers (they use a unique blend of commercial and wild yeast for all of the styles that they brew). On the other had, we had the complete sampler at Last Stand (8 beers in all) and really enjoyed a number of them. The Coffee Porter was especially memorable.

Stiefal Pub, San Jose

After a bit of a craft beer drought in Costa Rica (Imperial, Pilsen and Bavaria are great on a hot day, but all pretty light on the flavor front), we managed to track down a San Jose local bar and brewery on our very last night in the country. And so glad that we did. Great ambiance, delicious bar food, oh, and an amazing selection of the best Costa Rican craft beers. We tried a variety from Malinche, Treintaycinco, Perla Negra, Hop!!, Onix and Volcano and also got to have a look at Stiefal’s own brewing set up. San Jose is usually seen as a stopping off point for visitors on their way to the coasts or jungle and we’ll be the first to admit that you have to dig a bit to get past the city’s somewhat dingy and chaotic facade, but once you do, you’ll find great places like Stiefal’s, located just on the edge of the Amón neighborhood. Be sure to check it out if you are ever in the area.

La Rana Dorada, Panama City

La Rana Dorado, named after the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus Zeteki), is a great little microbrewery with two locations in Panama City. They offer 4 standard beers, the Blanche, Pils, Pale Ale and Porter which were all great and true to style. We particularly enjoyed the Pils and Blanche, but that may largely be due to the extreme heat and humidity 🙂 The Pale Ale and Porter were also very nice. Note that they have 1/2 off on all beer Monday to Saturday 12.00-18.00, a good reason to duck in for a quick refresher after exploring the old town on a hot day.

Casa Cervecera Altamira in Valparaíso, Chile

We spent 4 days exploring the winding streets of Valparaíso (see post here), and as luck would have it, there was a local craft brewery just down the Reina Victoria funicular from our hotel. As a side note, we have never been to a city with so many funiculars. Yes, maybe 1 or 2 (Porto and Wellington come to mind), but Valparaíso has had 26 working funiculars in the past, 8 of which are still in use today. We really liked the aesthetics of Altamira, from the vaulted brick interior to the colorful murals and little outdoor seating area. We tried 5 of their beers including the Deutsches Alt Bier, American Pale Ale, Tropical Fruits Lager, Sour Beer, and Irish Dry Stout. The Alt, Pale Ale and Stout were nice, but the Lager and Sour were a bit of a miss in our opinion.  

Drinking local beer in Bariloche

The area around Bariloche, Argentina boasts no less than 18 local microbreweries (or so the flight magazine on LAN Airlines tells us). Pretty impressive for a mountain town of a bit over 100.000 people. The crystal clear water, beautiful vistas and abundance of thirsty backpackers probably explain this phenomenon. In any case, we made a valiant attempt, but only managed to visit 4 breweries in 3 days, Berlina, Gilbert, Bachmann and Kunstmann. We guess that the German sounding names must indicate a wave of earlier immigration to the area. Generally we enjoyed all of the beer that we tried, but were most impressed by Berlina and Bachmann. The view from Berlina’s beer garden, the beautiful weather and friendly local dogs just added to the experience.

Buller Brewing Company

Part of one of the earlier waves of microbreweries, Buller has been around for a while (founded in 1999) and is still brewing up some good beers in Buenos Aires. True to form, we went straight for the sampler and tried their Pilsner, Hefeweizen, Honey Beer, Red, IPA and Stout. All were rather nice, with the IPA a favorite and the Honey Beer surprisingly enjoyable (neither of us expected to like an 8% beer flavored with honey).

Mastra Cerveza Artesanal

We spent one afternoon in Colonia del Sacramento waiting for the ferry to Buenos Aires. It has a beautiful historic town center (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), a number of nice cafés and restaurants, and low and behold, a brew pub 🙂 While we had already tasted a couple of Mastra beers in Montevideo,  it was great to try a more diverse sample of what the brewery has to offer, plus a nice air-conditioned break after exploring the old town on a hot day.

Bay Area Craft Brewing

Back in the San Francisco Bay Area for a couple of weeks, we couldn’t resist a few stops at local breweries both new and old. In all we visited 4 different craft/microbreweries – Triple Rock in Berkeley, Thirsty Bear and Woods in San Francisco and the now known worldwide Lagunitas in Petaluma. We forgot the camera at the first three, so some nice pictures at Lagunitas will have to suffice.

Angel City Brewery

After a delicious omelet at Kurt’s place, we kicked off our second day in Los Angeles with a brief stop at Angel City Brewery (breakfast beers, check). Located on the edge of Downtown and Little Tokyo in an old warehouse, Angel City got it start back in 1997 but only moved to its current location in 2010. It’s a very cool space with a huge bar area, old steal twisty slide (we weren’t allowed to use it at the time) and cornhole (bean bag toss) games for our amusement. One of the best beers we tried was the black(ish) IPA – Number of the Yeast.

Honolulu Beerworks

Back in the US, we expect to find many good craft breweries and Honolulu didn’t disappoint. A quick bus ride across town from Waikiki beech and we found the newish (started in 2014) Beerworks brewery and pub located in an old warehouse, complete with industrial chic aesthetic and an awesome beer keg Christmas tree. Overall, we really enjoyed the beers here, especially their 3 different saisons.

Hot Water Brewing Co, New Zealand

We had a great BBQ lunch and tasty beer sampler at the Hot Water Brewing Co. Yes, you guessed it, not far from Hot Water Beach at Mercury Bay.

Two microbreweries in Sydney

We were lucky to find a couple of great craft breweries not too far from the heart of Sydney. On our third day exploring the city, we took the train out to Newtown for a beer sampler at Young Henrys and then walked over to Batch Brewing company. We really enjoyed the beers at both and recommend you pop in or keep an eye out for Newtowner (Young Henrys) or Voyage of the Galaxy (Batch) next time you’re in the area.

The Carlton Brewery tour in Melbourne

Although we have been on many brewery tours over the years, we still never pass up a good opportunity. Carlton & United Breweries got its start in 1903 when 6 regional breweries formed into a cartel known as the Society of Melbourne Brewers. CUB is currently owned by SABMiller and produces most of Australia’s popular beers including Victoria Bitter and Foster’s. The tour was of a working industrial brewery including the filling, bottling and labeling lines (which were good fun to see). Unfortunately, no pictures allowed in the buildings, but here a few from the outside as well as inside the tasting room.

Bia hơi (drinking like the locals in northern Vietnam)

We got a real kick at of trying local street corner draft beer at two spots in Ha Long City. See complete post here.

Pasteur St Brewery Saigon (another surprise find)

After a hot day of wandering around HCMC, we ducked into Pasteur St Brewery. It was a very small place and would be easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it, but we were rewarded with some very tasty beers including an American style IPA with jasmin, a delicious brown ale, and a wheat with passion fruit. See how happy John looks.

Microbreweries in Cambodia (a pleasant surprise)

Continuing on our world beer tasting tour, we managed to find not 1 but 2 microbreweries during our time in Cambodia – the creatively named Siem Reap Brewpub in Siem Reap and the Himawari Microbrewery in Phnom Penh. The latter was, through an amazing stroke of luck, less than a block from our hotel. While the bar wasn’t much (essentialy located in a resort hotel lobby), the beer was great.

Oktoberfest in Copenhagen (yes, seriously)

So apparently Oktoberfest is a truly global phenomenon. Or at least, setting up a giant tent at Amager Strandpark and hiring a German band is about all it takes to export this tradition to Denmark. While it was more than a little cheesy and the hotdogs were surprising crap (Alex had high hopes for some German bratwurst), overall we had a good laugh drinking giant beers served by “Heidi” surrounded by a scarily drunk mob on a Thursday evening. Thanks Groupon 🙂

Kölsch coasters from Cologne 

Visit to MicroBo Beer Festival, Bologna (July 4)

During our 3 day stop in Bologna, we stumbled on a local craft beer festival (imagine our luck). A total of 16 different Italian breweries were in attendance including our old friends from Lambrante in Milan. It was a great afternoon of beer tasting where we got to sample such exotic concoctions as a lager with ginger and smoked malt, and a wit beer with peach.

Visit to Etxeko Bob’s Beer (May 22)

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Beer tasting in Bruges and visit to Westvleteren brewery (May 4-6)

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Kick off at Kafe België in Utrecht and then a tour of 3 Trappist breweries (May 2-3)

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# of breweries visited: 44

Granville Island Brewing, Vancouver • Steamworks Brewery, Vancouver • The Pike Brewing Company, Seattle • Fremont Brewing Company, Seattle • Last Stand Brewing Company, Austin • Jester King Brewery, Austin • Black Star Co-op Brewery, Austin • La Rana Dorada, Panama City • Casa Cervecera Altamira, Valparaíso • Guayacan, Diaguitas • Cerveceria Malta Chocolate, Puerto Varas • Bachmann, Bariloche • Kunstmann, Bariloche • Cerveceria Gilbert, Bariloche • Berlina Patagonia Brewery, San Carlos de Bariloche • Buller Pub and Brewery, Buenos Aires • Lagunitas Brewing Company, Petaluma • Woods Beer Co, San Francisco • Triple Rock, Berkeley • Thirsty Bear, San Francisco • Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co, Santa Barbara • Angels City Brewery, Los Angeles • Honolulu Beerworks, Hawaii • Hot Water Brewing Co, New Zealand • The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel, Sydney • Batch Brewing Co, Sydney • Young Henrys, Sydney • Carlton Brewery, Melbourne • Pasteur St Brewery Saigon • Himawari Microbrewery, Phnom Penh • Siem Reap Brewpub • WarPigs/Mikkeller • Nørrebro Bryghus • Mahnič Pivovarna • Birrificio Lambrante • BlackLab Brewhouse and Kitchen • Etxeko Bob’s Beer • Brouwerij de Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren (Westvleteren) • Brouwerij De Halve Maan (Straffe Hendrik) • Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle (Westmalle) • Brouwerij der Sint-Benedictusabdij de Achelse Kluis (Achel) • Bierbrouwerij Koeningshoeven (La Trappe)