8 Best Nightlife in The Bay Area, California

This chic taproom is California's first 100%-gluten-free brewery, specializing in craft beers made without rye, wheat, or barley. The brewery also has tempting gluten-free fare such as quesadillas and fish tacos.

Part of Oakland's Ale Trail, the brewery has a convivial tasting room in the Jack London District with plenty of games for extended sipping of their pilsners, saisons, sours, and hoppy IPAs. Their outdoor seating area includes booth areas made of repurposed shipping containers. The taproom hosts live music and events a few nights a month, so make sure to check their calendar.

This beloved gathering spot was one of the originals of the Bay Area craft beer scene and continues to be a popular spot for a pint or a full meal. Not surprisingly given the locale, there's a popular amber ale named for Mavericks, along with the Bay Area's favorite pumpkin ale in the fall. The food menu is definitely more exciting and seafood-focused than your average brewery fare.

The coast has a small but impressive roster of craft breweries, and the best of them is this IPA specialist. The charming taproom and its front patio offer flights and full pours of the beers produced in-house. Beyond the hoppy beers, the brewery also serves a range of styles, from cucumber wheat beers to vanilla coffee stouts.

This bright, airy, 7,500-square-foot brewery and taproom is a tribute to its early history, when the brewers hauled their kegs on public transit line 51 to their warehouse. Now, Oakland Ale Trail explorers can enjoy freshly tapped beer from a vintage 1971 AC transit bus that serves as a refrigeration unit for their brews. Fermentation tanks are on full display: the owners are passionate about their Red Death ale, IPAs, Short Dog ale, and porters.

Many baseball fans make the trip to Los Gatos just to visit this brewery owned by former MLB infielder Kevin Youkilis. However, the brewery deserves many accolades in its own right for producing some of the top beers in the South Bay, such as the hops-packed Greek God of Hops, a double IPA that riffs on Youkilis’s nickname in the book Moneyball. At this family-friendly brewpub, everyone can enjoy refined pub grub with or without the house beers.

The love for beer of all varieties is evident in the selection of award-winners at this employee-owned brewery. Original Pattern consistently produces the most satisfying and compelling offerings of any brewery in this beer-loving town.

In 2022, Sante Adairius opened a taproom in Old Oakland and the entire region rejoiced with plenty of barrel-aged saisons in tulip glasses and pints of intricate hazy IPAs. The intimate, refined saloon space also has a great rear patio. Even though the brews come from an hour away, no visit to Oakland for beer lovers is complete without a stop here.