Magnolia Brewing - Haight
Dave McLean opened Magnolia in 1997 on the corner of Haight and Masonic and put the tanks in the basement. Astrid Kane of The San Francisco Standard calls him the godfather of the Bay Area's craft brewing scene. Kevin Kynoch, Brian Reccow and Brandon Phillips bought the place back from a Japanese conglomerate and reopened it in December 2024.
Why go
Jon Taylor brews Proving Ground IPA to a recipe from 2004. He worked here before the sale, and the new owners talked him into coming back.1 It is piney and malt-forward, an English-style IPA in a city of fruit. Blue Bell Bitter is back on too.
McLean was facing bankruptcy in 2017 and sold to New Belgium in Colorado. New Belgium went into Little Lion Beverages, which belongs to the Japanese brewer Kirin. Kynoch owns the Fly Bar. McLean went to Alameda and co-founded Admiral Maltings, and he is opening a brewpub called Excelsior in San Rafael.
The building went up in 1903 and has been Schumate's Pharmacy, the Drogstore Cafe of the 1960s Haight, and Magnolia Thunderpussy's.6 The Kalifornia Kolsch still comes up a pipe from the basement.
Order this / avoid
- Order: Proving Ground IPA.
- Order: the Kalifornia Kolsch, an ale-lager hybrid and the beer McLean built his name on.
- Avoid: walking to Third Street for the Dogpatch room. That door shut in February 2022.5
What locals & experts say
- Brandon Phillips, one of the three new owners, to The San Francisco Standard:
People actually care about the legacy, and now it's our turn to be the stewards.
He calls Magnolia super-sentimental.1 - Dave McLean, on putting the brewery in the basement:
People were like, 'Nobody's gonna see your tanks!'
he says.That was in 1997, and I didn't care then.
2 - The San Francisco Chronicle's brewery directory, on the founder:
Dave McLean was a titan in the local brewing world.
7
Good to know
- Where: 1398 Haight Street, at Masonic, in the Upper Haight.
- The calendar: Magnolia and 21st Amendment have long co-hosted two month-long punch-card runs, Strong Beer Month in February and the BRU/SFO Project in November, twelve beers each.8
- The bar: it holds a full liquor license again and the kitchen runs late.1
Verdict
should-visit — Walk in and take a seat at the bar, where somebody can tell you what came back on the board this month. Leave the cocktail list to somebody else.