Brewery Day Trip: Oakland’s Jack London brewing district
From award-winning barleywine to kimchi sour beer, beer columnist Jay Brooks highlights unique Oakland beer offerings.
The latest installment on my Bay Area brewery tour took me to two newer breweries inside what’s becoming known as Oakland’s Jack London brewing district: Cellarmaker Brewing’s Oakland outpost and Dokkaebier.
If you plan to make a day of it, you might check out some of the other breweries in the district, which I’ve written about previously, include Buck Wild Brewing (which makes all gluten-free beers), Black-owned brewery Hella Coastal, Line 51 Brewing, Oakland United Beerworks, and Original Pattern Brewing.
Cellarmaker Brewing Oakland
Founded by Connor Casey, Tim Sciascia and Kelly Sciascia in San Francisco in 2013, Cellarmaker opened its new Cellarmaker Oakland in August in the former Blue Bottle roastery. Their beers are unfiltered and dry-hopped, hazy before hazy was a thing.
Their vision has always been to make beer they want to drink, and one of their early successes was Coffee & Cigarettes, a lightly smoked coffee porter. Among the beers I tried at the Oakland taproom: Brass Boots, a very clean, tasty copper ale; Dobis, a hazy West Coast pale ale that’s well-balanced with a nose of cake frosting; and Mo’ Simcoe, a solid, dank IPA loaded with flavor. Czech GPT is a refreshing Czech pale lager brewed with a German Saaz hop variety. If you’re looking for a palate cleanser, try the refreshing Motueka Hop Water, infused with the New Zealand hop variety. Don’t miss their barleywine, which won best beer for a third year in a row at the recent Toronado Barleywine Festival.
They also serve Detroit-style pizza because, as they joked, “Detroit-style pizza is the hazy IPA of pizza,” alongside a menu that includes polenta fries, picked okra, salads, spare ribs and several desserts.
Details: Open from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and noon to 9 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 300 Webster St. in Oakland; cellarmakerbrewing.com.
Dokkaebier
First launched as a San Francisco pop-up by Korean-American owner Youngwon Lee, Dokkaebier debuted in April in Oakland’s former Federation Brewing. In Korean mythology, the dokkaebi is a mysterious, shape-shifting creature, often described as a playful and mischievous spirit who loves to eat, drink and be around people.
Lee’s work at the original Lost Coast production brewery in Eureka, after it was sold to a Korean company, inspired him to open his own brewery, one that was more authentic to his experiences as an Asian American, an underrepresented community in the craft beer world. He crafts beer recipes using Korean ingredients not typically found in beer — lemongrass, kimchi and more.
Dokkaebier’s flagship Lemongrass Witbier uses lemongrass and Szechuan pepper along with traditional witbier ingredients for a distinctive melange of flavors that is citrusy, spicy, floral and lightly smoky. The Rice Kolsch is a fun take on the traditional German beer with added jasmine. But the kettle-soured Kimchi Sour is something else entirely. It’s brewed with a kimchi culture, ginger and chiles, and it’s smooth, lightly sour and tastes different than one might expect.
The brewery also offers beertails, including a Kaloi, made with cucumber and their Mexican lager, and a Kimchilada, a twist on a Michelada with the Kimchi sour.
The taproom is fairly small, but there’s a larger outdoor space to enjoy too. The taproom serves a few light snacks, and guests are encouraged to bring in outside food.
Details: Open from 2 to 10 p.m. Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday at 420A Third St. in Oakland; www.enjoydkb.com.
Know a Bay Areabrewery or brewpub that’s knocking it out of the park? Drop me a line at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com and tell me why you love them.