Brewery Day Trip: The Barlow in Sebastopol
For this month’s Bay Area brewery visit, I headed for Sebastopol and the former apple cannery known as The Barlow. It was built in 1939 by Thomas Barlow’s family as an applesauce canning facility, but by the start of the millennium, wine grapes had overtaken apple production and the buildings were vacant. In 2012, Barney Aldridge acquired the property, then renovated its eighteen buildings spanning four city blocks, opening to tenants the following year. Today, there are nearly a dozen shops, including an arcade and around twenty eateries that include a liquid nitrogen ice cream shop, a cheesemaker, coffee and pastry shops, and full restaurants. In addition to a cocktail bar, four wineries and wine shops, there are also two breweries and a cidermaker.
Crooked Goat Brewing
Crooked Goat Brewing was founded in 2016 by six friends, Paul Vyenielo, Rich Allen, Andy Erickson, Andy Cook, Scott Tieman and Will Erickson, who built their own brewing system and moved it from each other’s garages as it expanded and grew. Eventually, they were good enough to turn pro and pooled their resources to buy a brewhouse and opened for business in the Barlow.
Since then, they’ve continued to grow, and opened a second location, a taproom in downtown Petaluma. The original location in the Barlow has been expanded three times, and it’s a great space with a large covered outdoor garden, a main bar, and a lounge area.
The head brewer these days is Shawn Cochran, who cut his teeth at several northern California breweries, including a long run brewing at Indian Valley Brewing, before joining Crooked Goat last year. He keeps around eight core beers on tap, plus another eight that include rotating seasonals, one-offs and a house-made hard seltzer. While his beers are uniformly excellent, the Mountain Goat IPA, a solid IPA made with Mosaic, Citra and Galaxy hops, is their most popular beer. I was also a big fan of the Clear Skies West Coast Pils, a tasty pilsner with more American hops; Full Nelson Single Hop Pale, which lets its signature New Zealand hop really shine; and Silver Lining, a vanilla Bean stout loaded with flavor. If you’re a fan of hazy IPAs, their Mystic Society is particularly nice.
The comfy sofas are nice, but the real action takes place outdoors. From there, you can order food from any of three nearby restaurants (Acre Pizza, the Farmer’s Wife and Osito Style Tacos), and they’ll be delivered right to your table at the brewery. That’s also where they host trivia nights every Tuesday. It’s easy to see why the place is packed most days.
Details: Open 11:30 a.m. daily at 120 Morris St #120, Sebastopol; crookedgoatbrewing.com.
Seismic Brewing and Golden State Cider
Seismic Brewing was launched in 2017 by Chris and Ariel Jackson, and was originally located in its own building in the Barlow. But after the Jacksons’ wife bought Golden State Cider in 2022, it made sense to consolidate the two. Both are now available from the Golden State Cider taproom, while brewing moved to a separate facility in Santa Rosa.
The cider and beer taproom is a large, spacious building with high ceilings with plenty of seating. There are five Seismic beers available on tap. I was particularly taken with their Kolsch, a solid version of the refreshing beer from Cologne, Germany, along with the Pilsner, an authentic rendering of a German pils. They also have a solid stout called We L.A., for which all proceeds are donated to Los Angeles fire relief. Rounding out the lineup are two lagers: Tremor Lager and Red Lager, both easy-drinking beers.
Of course, beer isn’t all you’ll find there, and a variety of Golden State Ciders from both their core series and harvest series are available, along with a few specialty ciders only available in the taproom. The also have a separate menu of cocktails made with Golden State Cider Co. Apple Brandy and Pommeau, a sweet apple dessert wine.
Pick up food nearby at The Farmer’s Wife, Acre Pizza or Osito Style Tacos. Thursdays are trivia nights and every Sunday is Cidermosa, featuring live music on the patio.
Details: Seismic Brewing is open 12-9 p.m. daily, while Golden State Cider is open 12-9 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday and 1-8 p.m. Monday-Tuesday at 180 Morris St #150, Sebastopol, CA 95472 ; seismicbrewingco.com.
Know a local brewery or brewpub that’s knocking it out of the park but isn’t getting the recognition they deserve? Drop me a line at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com and tell me why you love them.