Brewery Day Trip: 3 San Francisco neighborhood breweries to try

My brewery day trip series has taken me to taprooms around the Bay, from Gilroy and the Peninsula to Martinez and Oakland’s Temescal district. Today, we’re headed to San Francisco neighborhoods to visit a few more.

Olfactory Brewing in the Dogpatch

Open since November in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, this brewery hails from longtime friends Phil Emerson, Max Crango-Schneider, Trevor Allen and Bob Moyer. Emerson and Crango-Schneider met at UC Davis and ended up brewing together at Sacramento’s Sudwerk and, later, at Alameda’s Almanac Beer Co. Emerson, who was originally a food chemist, says the name Olfactory gives a nod to the sense of smell and its critical impact on taste.

The brewery makes a variety of lower alcohol, traditional styles along with mixed fermentation beers, with eight to 10 beers available at any given time. Pizzazz, an Italian pilsner created in collaboration with Temescal Brewing, is an especially fine beer — smooth, sweet and very drinkable. Another standout is their black lager, dubbed The Lamp Industry is Booming During These Dark Days, with beautiful roasted malt and chocolate notes.

The taproom also features several IPAs, hazy and West Coast varieties. The West Coast IPA, Grin Creeper, brewed in collaboration with Ghost Town, is quite tasty. The less hoppy beers are solid picks too and range from Phantosmia, their take on a Vienna Amber brewed without Vienna malt, to Twang, a California-style helles, and Velveteen, a Czech-style pilsner. I’m impressed that such a young brewery is turning out such clean brews.

The taproom space is industrial but appealing. Large windows bring in a lot of light, and there’s a long bar and handmade redwood tables all made from a single tree. They don’t serve food, but you’ll find news about occasional food pop-ups on their Instagram feed at www.instagram.com/olfactorybrewing/.

Details: Olfactory opens at 3 p.m. on weekdays and 1 p.m. on weekends at 2245 Third St. in San Francisco; olfactorybrewing.com.

Standard Deviant Brewing in the Mission

This brewery with a delightfully nerdy name was founded by Paul Duatschek, Mark DeVito and Dave Azzam in 2016. Duatschek was working in biotech, when he took his first plunge into home brewing, which eventually led to an internship at Magnolia Brewing. Meanwhile DeVito, who owned several San Francisco bars, was becoming intrigued by the idea of owning a brewery. The pair met through a mutual friend, who was taking turns crashing on their couches.

Lodged in a former auto repair shop, the taproom has a long central bar with the brewery operating behind it. Wooden picnic tables and benches and an outdoor parklet offer plenty of seating. You’ll find a shelf of games and several large TV screens tuned to sporting events. Empanadas, tacos, chips and similar light fare are available during the week, with pizza or barbecue on weekends provided by various food partners.

The brewers’ goal is to make the best craftsmanship style beers and focus on ingredients, especially local malt and hops. The 20 or so beers available reflect a wide range of brews from a Cuatro Lager, a tasty light Mexican lager, at one end of the spectrum and an 11-percent Nitro Bourbon Stout at the other. In between, there’s hefeweizen, Kölsch, English brown ale, black lager, saison and porter, along with pale ales and IPAs, such as Tree People IPA and Hazy Pale Ale.

Details: Hours for the brewery, which is at 280 14th St., vary by the day (closed Mondays). Find details at standarddeviantbrewing.com.

Laughing Monk Brewing in Bayview