Color and clarity are often terms used to describe diamonds, along with carat and cut. But beer isn’t cut. It’s brewed, and its weight isn’t that important. What is important is the taste experienced when consuming it. And the closer to home it’s brewed, the fresher and more flavorful the taste.

Not many know that San Francisco is home to about ten breweries—eight of which belong to the San Francisco Brewers Guild—with even more breweries found in the greater Bay Area. Of these San Francisco breweries, one of the closest facilities to SF State is Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant off the Great Highway, where Brewmaster Aron Deorsey creates a batch of one of their specialties about two to three times a week.

“Last year we made 1,627 barrels, which might be the highest in San Francisco for brewpubs,” Deorsey says. An establishment qualifies as a brewpub when the beer is brewed in-house and food is served.

Along with the Beach Chalet, most breweries in the Brewers Guild serve food, ranging from Spanish cuisine and tuna tartar to Buffalo wings and sausage sandwiches. The combination makes these places perfect hangouts with repeat customers.

“The regulars really like the Presidio India Pale Ale. It accounts for twenty percent of sales,” Deorsey says.
“The VFW Light is about twenty-five percent of sales. Most people who like pilsner would like it.”

A pilsner is a pale lager characterized by its light golden color. It has a mild taste, which can be slightly sweet. Some breweries concentrate on either lagers, which utilize bottom-fermenting yeasts and take longer to make, or ales, which are brewed with top-fermenting yeasts and are ready to drink sooner. Other brewpubs exercise both techniques, leaving more variety for the customer to pair with food.

“Beer goes with everything,” says Brew Master Brenden Dobel from ThirstyBear, a tapas restaurant and brewery near the Metreon. “We serve it with our tapas and paella, but what you’re drinking depends on what you eat. IPAs go well with steak, pilsners go well with salads, and stout goes well with deserts.”

Although beer is great with food, it can be appreciated without food as well.

“There’s no time not to drink beer… unless you’re operating heavy machinery,” says brewer Rich Higgins of Gordon Biersch, located on the Embarcadero. “Our garlic fries go with hoppy, acidic beer, like our Hefeweizen, as well as pizza. Sweet beers go well with salty foods. On a hot day, I would drink a beer with lots of hops and less sugar. Bock is a more filling beer with higher alcohol content that keeps you warm.”

If you don’t know what to choose, most brewpubs offer sample sets called flights, giving customers a handful of smaller portions of the uniquely crafted brews they create. Because brewpubs offer a variety of beer from light pilsners to amber ales and even rich, dark stouts, this is often the best way for customers to test their preferences. At Gordon Biersch, patrons can only get German-style beer, which tends to be a lager-type beer.

“That’s what the American palate prefers,” says Higgins. “Lagers sit for six weeks, rather than two [weeks] for ales. They offer a crisp [taste], with less yeasty flavor left over,” he says. “We also follow the German purity law.”

This law, called Reinheitsgebot, was established in Germany in 1516. It states that beer can only be made with water, barley, hops and yeast. Nothing can be added to preserve the brew, since beer should stay preserved on its own, and nothing should be added to alter taste, like sugar or fruit. Not only do some brewpubs follow German laws, but many also obtain their equipment directly from Germany.

Crafted stainless steel vats, copper boiling vessels, and various temperature and pressure meters are often displayed behind walls of glass in each brewery, built specifically with artistry in mind. Despite their use of foreign machinery and regulations, these local brewers believe that beer, when locally crafted, is kept under higher quality control and yields a better product for the customer. The resounding message among many San Francisco breweries is simple: local beer is better.