Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco

I was recently in San Francisco and since we were there to visit my sister in law and not for me to go around drinking everywhere, I didn't get a chance to get to too many places. A shame I know, blame my wife. However, I did get her to agree that we'd have lunch at Magnolia, a brewpub I've been meaning to visit for a while now but never had the chance. Lucky for me, February is also strong beer month for them so they had a whole lineup of unique stuff for me to try! I mean, look at this list, very cool right?

They had six of their normal beers on draft as well, but I stuck with a sampler of the strong beers since that was by far enough beer for lunch. And when I say plenty, I mean it, since their sampler was kind of hilariously huge. I guess they expect people to share but I was there with two pregnant women and my brother in law only wanted a few sips. What's a guy to do but dig in and work his way through them.

Starting from the top of the triangle and moving clockwise, we have: Delilah Jones Rye, McClean's Wee Heavy, Old Thunderpussy (yes, that's the name), Quadlibet for Tenderfeet, Promised Land Imperial IPA, and Smokestack Imperial Stout. Interesting names, that's for sure.

I actually wrote notes on all of them, but well, I'm not sure how interesting they will be to read so I'll just comment on a few of them. My favorite by quite a bit was the Quadlibet. Raisin nose with a little alcohol and a body full of caramel, raisins, plums, and a sugary sweetness. Very solid quad and very tasty especially for its strength. The Promised Land was really well balanced for 10.5% with a grapefruit and pine nose followed by a thick body full of grapefruit. The others were okay though the Old Thunderpussy had a buttery flavor that put me off a bit. I'm glad I got to try all of them at least. Nice, solid sampler.

We got a growler of their IPA to go and enjoyed that during the Superbowl. Tasty IPA and pretty decent though nothing to write home about. The food at Magnolia was pretty good, too. Solid visit all in all and glad I finally got a chance to do it. Some of my friends really like this place and I'd definitely suggest visiting if you're in San Francisco.