Completing my beer travelogue of my late summer trip to San Francisco…
It was the final night of my work trip to San Francisco. After three long days of meetings and business dinners, all that remained was a final half-day meeting and then the cross-country flight home to DC. But before I left town, there was one more brewpub to visit.
It was getting late after our group dinner at Tommy Toy’s, but my hotel, the Hyatt Regency in the Embarcadero Center, was less than a mile from the ThirstyBear Brewing Company – too close to pass up. My trek over was rewarded by a 9-beer sampler.
I lost my notes from this visit, but the house beer menu is available on the ThirstyBear website.
My favorites:
- Howard Street IPA (7.0%) is the “strongest house ale brewed with copious amounts of American hops to highlight their resinous, piney, citrusy flavors and aromas. Nuff said.”
- Golden Vanilla is “dry-hopped with pounds of whole vanilla beans to infuse the beer with flavor and provide an incredibly aromatic sensation.”
The concept for ThirstyBear Brewing Company is simple: “to pair the ultimate social beverage, beer, with the ultimate social food, tapas.” I’ve never tried the food, but I can vouch for the beer!
And I love the space too. I don’t know why I waited until my last night in San Fransisco to visit ThirstyBear — this is a must-visit when in San Francisco.
The final tally of my 2012 trip to San Francisco: 44 different beers sampled from 11 different breweries.
Boa Beer Blog 
We stopped in at Thirsty Bear a few years ago and loved both the food and beers.
There are very few breweries that have food as good as their tapas, Trinity in Colorado Springs would just barely edge them out in that regard.
I agree the IPA was good, but the Vanilla was very interesting, I was skeptical at first, but was won over after a few sips.