Brewery day trips: West Oakland’s Temescal and more beer havens

My brewery day trip series has taken me across the Bay Area, from Santa Cruz’s bohemian trail to Martinez’s beer scene. This time, I headed for Oakland, where at least a dozen breweries beckoned, including one named for its neighborhood — Temescal — and another that pays homage to something rather unexpected.

Temescal Brewing

Temescal founder Sam Gilbert had a home brewing background — he co-founded the BrewLab SF collective in 2011– when he opened his own brewery six years ago. Soon after, he made Ryan Hammond his head brewer. Temescal has a production brewery nearby, but on this particular day, I head to the original brewery and taproom to check out their beer — and the food truck rotation, which ranges from Diggy Dogs to Satay by the Bay.

The brewery makes four year-round beers, including the flagship Pils, a clean, modern take on a German-style pilsner. They also make Hazy, a hazy IPA brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. There’s Especial, a Mexican-style lager, a light-bodied, easy-drinking beer made with Eraclea barley, an Italian variety, and West, which is a West Coast IPA.

You’ll also find quarterly seasonal releases, every-other-month collaborations and a new one-off beer every week — such as the 49 Mile West Coast Pilsner, which won a bronze medal at this year’s World Beer Cup. June brings a new Anniversary Ale, and in July they’ll release Crowd Favorite, a hazy IPA featuring Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo hops.

Details: The taproom is open from 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday at 4115 Telegraph Ave. Find details (and that food truck schedule) at www.temescalbrewing.com.

Ghost Town Brewing

This part of Oakland used to boast several coffin factories — hence the name. But the brewery’s backstory is a musical one. Back in 2012, home brewers Ryan Nosek, Sam Carr-Prindle, Adam Hill and Jason Gehman were members of a heavy metal band, when they hit upon the idea of brewing beer to help pay for their rental practice space. They started brewing with a tiny 1-bbl system. Eventually, they were selling enough beer that the side gig became the main gig. They built a 15-bbl brewhouse in their present 8,000-square-foot digs, which includes a taproom and a canning line now.

Brewmaster Justin Burdt keeps about 20 beers on tap or in bottles at any given time, helpful divided into light, malt forward, IPA and sour/wild. The stand-outs include Cave Dweller,” a tasty West Coast Pilsner using Mosaic hops, and Inhumane IPA, their best-selling beer, a classic West Coast IPA brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Centennial hop varieties.

But I was also pleasantly surprised by Undoing Bruin, a Belgian-style sour brown ale, a beer notoriously hard to make well, but that was sour loveliness. One of their malt forward beers, Ossuary, a robust porter, won a silver medal at this year’s World Beer Cup.

Details: The taproom at the original West Oakland location, where they make their beer, is open from 3 to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and noon to 10 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 1960 Adeline St. Ghost Town’s beer garden and kitchen in Oakland’s Laurel district is open daily from noon to 9 p.m. or later (1-9 p.m. on Mondays) at 3506 MacArthur Ave.; www.ghosttownbrewing.com.

Original Pattern Brewing

This Jack London Square brewery, which opened in May 2018, was founded by two couples, Ryan Frank and Caitlin O’Connor and Max and Margie Silverstein. Frank and Max first met at the Siebel Institute, a Chicago brewing school, and afterwards, Frank worked at 21st Amendment, helping to build their San Leandro production brewery.