Barebottle Brewing Company
Barebottle prints a five-gallon homebrew recipe on every can it sells. Lester Koga and his partners built the Bernal Heights brewery out of homebrew competitions. They pilot-brew the finalists and let drinkers vote a winner onto the line. In 2025 it took two Gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival.
Why go
Muir Woods IPA is the house order. Esther Mobley, the San Francisco Chronicle's senior wine critic, wrote that its bitter botanical flavors and aromas conjure thoughts of a hike through the redwoods.
3 Small Wonder Dust took Silver at the 2024 World Beer Cup against 98 other juicy pale ales.2
Koga will not move beer production out of San Francisco, and ninety percent of the staff live in the city. He also roasts coffee, makes kombucha and has made wine since 2019.4
The room is a warehouse with shuffleboard, pinball and one of four Killer Queen consoles in San Francisco.6 Kids run it on weekends. Dogs come too.
Order this / avoid
- Order: Dank Dank Revolution, the 2025 Gold in Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ale.1
- Order: Hella Jalapeno, which won its Gold in Chili Beer the same year.
- Avoid: counting on dinner. Whatever truck is parked out front is the kitchen.
What locals & experts say
- Gail Ann Williams, freelance beer writer and co-founder of BeerByBART.com, to SFGATE:
Barebottle Brewing has a dedicated spot for a food truck or pop-up kitchen, rotating popular providers much in the way that they rotate beers - almost all the time.
5 - Lester Koga, co-founder, on why a brewery roasts coffee:
People come in with a group of five, six people, and without fail, one person either doesn't like or doesn't want to drink beer.
Giving that one person something else is customer service.4 - Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF, on the lineup: juicy and hazy IPAs, tea-infused saisons, and
competition-winning beers crafted from recipes written by enterprising home brewers.
8
Good to know
- Where: 1525 Cortland Avenue, up on the Bernal hill. The brewery has four other doors, at Salesforce Park, Santa Clara, Menlo Park and Walnut Creek.9
- Getting in: walk up. No bookings.
Verdict
should-visit — Order a flight; the board turns over.