November 2015

We are proud to announce that we have opened our third San Francisco location in the wonderful, vibrant and friendly Bernal Heights neighborhood.

Those of you familiar with our two other stores in the Castro and Richmond districts will recognize the wide variety of craft beer and artisinal spirits we are known for. And, of course, we will be serving up Rami’s Mommy’s delicious hummus, lebani and baba ghanoush.

We will also be bringing our beer, whisky and mezcal clubs to Bernal, providing members with access to some of the finest and rarest varieties available.

To whet your appetite, here are a few of the breweries and cidaries we have in stock:

Almanac Beer Co., featuring beers from its barrel-aging program including: Pumpkin Sour, a spiced brown ale (there’s a certain holiday coming up- just sayin’); Wakatu Sour, a blonde ale with New Zealand hops; Saison de Brettaville, which is Saison Dolores with beer-lovers fave wild yeast, Brettanomyces, added; Dogpatch Grand Cru, a sour red ale with red grapes and Farmers Reserve Grand Cru, a sour blonde base with white grapes added.

San Francisco’s Triple Voodoo Brewery, featuring: Inception, a Belgian golden strong; King Leo Belgian Stout; Carcosa Belgian Quad and Triple In The 5th, a big ol’ Belgian-style ale to warm your innards at 11.2 ABV.

Cider your thing? We got you covered with about fifteen different cideries stocked including farmhouse cidery, Millstone. They specialize in barrel-aged dry ciders. Hopvine is dry- hopped with Cascade hops and bottle conditioned with wildflower honey; Gingeroot , made with baby ginger and infused with raw blueberry honey; Cherrykriek, oak- aged cider with dark cherries and Farmgate, a traditional cider with tart cider apples.

Our coolers are filled with beer, wine and cider and our shelves are stocked with a broad array of spirits featuring fine bourbon and mezcal.

And we even have ice cream!

Come on by and say hello. Bring your friendly dog, too.

M-Th 11:00-10:00

Fri- Sat 11:00-11:00

Sunday 11:00-9:00

249 Cortland Ave. at Bocana

Howdy folks, hope you’re all doing well…better than well actually. I hope you’re doing fan-freaking-tastic!

Here’s the scoop on the new whiskies we have here at the shop.

Mckenzie Whiskey: We have the Bourbon, Rye and Pure Pot Still Whiskey. These are distilled in New York in an area known as the Finger Lakes and all their ingredients come form in and around the local area.

The Pure Pot Still is aged in a 53 gallon cask for 3-4 years. The Bourbon is 70% corn, 20% rye and 10% barley and aged in 53 gallon casks with a heavy char for at least 3 years. The Rye is a blend of 3 year finished in sherry and 5 year rye.

Blade and Bow 22 year: We didn’t think we’d get our hands on more of these 22 year olds but the whiskey gods deemed us worthy.

From their official website:

The award-winning Blade and Bow 22-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a limited-release whiskey inspired by the passion and craftsmanship of the legendary Stitzel-Weller distillery.

Inclusive of whiskies distilled at both the distillery historically located at 17th and Breckinridge in Louisville, Ky. and the distillery historically located at 1001 Wilkinson Blvd. in Frankfort, Ky., this limited release offering was most recently aged and bottled at Stitzel-Weller.

Smooth and smoky, this limited-release bourbon’s taste is accented with notes of torched sugar and apples baked in honey and spices. Its aroma is one of toasted oak mixed with vanilla bean, fig and just a touch of caramel.

Blade and Bow 22-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was named the “Best Straight Bourbon” and received the DOUBLE GOLD MEDAL at the 2015 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Bone Snapper Rye: We’re excited about this Rye but also fearful for our bones…

Bone Snapper Rye Whiskey is a straight-forward rye made in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. It is distilled from a mash of 95% rye, 5% malt, and limestone-filtered water drawn from the deep aquifers underneath Southern Indiana. It is put into barrel at just under 120 proof and aged for 24 months in new American oak barrels.

Once the whiskey is ready, 20 barrels are selected to be batched together – truly a small batch – and fresh water is added to bring the proof down to a potent 108 proof. This takes the sharp edges off the whiskey while maintaining its full flavor and power.

Bone Snapper is bottled without chill filtration and hand labeled to let you know which batch you’re lucky enough to sip.

Backbone Bourbon Uncut: Drink this stuff when Biff calls you ‘yella’ or when your disk slips. Not to be combined with Bone Snapper Rye as that would negate the strengthening effects of this spirit. Here’s the scoop from the horses mouth..

No two batches of Backbone Bourbon are ever the same because we only bottle in small batches to create a unique Bourbon, molded by the quality of ingredients and and the barrel in which it was aged.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

AGED

4 years or slightly less

ABV

~57-58% depending on batch

PROOF

~114-115

MASH BILL

70% corn, 25% rye, 5% malted barley
(NOTE: This is a sample only taken from Batch #01 as each small batch has slight variation)

SOURCE

Distilled in Lawrenceburg, IN
Bottled in small batches in Bardstown, KY

Garrison Brothers Whiskey: Straight Outta Texas! Made from #1 Panhandle White Corn harvested in 2010 from farms in Dallam County and aged 2 years in Oak. This was a previous entry in our infamous Whiskey Club and one of my personal favorites this year.

Last but not least is the special edition Maker’s Mark with the Golden State Warriors wax job. This juice was distilled with the ambient sounds of the Warriors winning on Youtube video loops*

*This may not be true