WoW East Bay Brewery Crawl – June 2019
What do you get when a bus full of Worts descends on East Bay breweries? A whole lot of happy! On June 1st the club visited two breweries in Berkeley and one in Oakland.
The Rare Barrel was a perfect starting point where we enjoyed gourmet bites and an interesting and delicious range of sours. Their facility was filled up to the ceiling with repurposed wine and spirit barrels currently performing the task of secondary fermentation. Richie gave us a tour and explained how each barrel has its own ecosystem (for better or worse) and how the brewery got its name (you’ll have to visit to get the scoop). Bobby provided superior hospitality to the group and we felt extremely welcome.
Next up was Gilman where the group enjoyed some quality saisons, sours, IPAs and lagers and a bit of free range social time.
We ended our tour at Original Pattern in Oakland and found a rare site for drinking a Kolsch style ale from a proper “Stange” glass. Don’t miss out on having a hazy IPA while you’re there.
Some folks in the group discovered a little brewery just behind Original Pattern with its kitschy vinyl vibe and one-man brew team, aptly named Independent Brewing.
And if all that wasn’t enough to make a perfect day, bottle sharing on the bus even included Dark Lord and other hard to find beers. It was a perfect time to get to know each other even better, meet some new friends, visit some new breweries and enjoy great brews! Hope to see you on the next trip!
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