Review: English Ales Brewery

I hate to trash a microbrew place but I have no choice with this place.
Their beer just isn't good.
I got the Dragon Slayer IPA and it was not to my liking.  It wasn't that it was bland; it had a flavor.  It just wasn't what I would call good.
My friend had a four beer taste flight of their porter, pale ale, and corkscrew ale beers as well as the Dragon Slayer.  All of them were a bit off. 
The one redeeming factor was the fun collection of beer mugs hanging from the ceiling.  Regulars buy mugs and are served from their mugs when they come.  Nice idea.

English Ales Brewery
223 Reindollar
Marina, California 93933 USA

Pyramid IPA @ roller derby

Alright, I admit that I am just writing this review so I can talk about the awesome time I had at the roller derby match last night. It was a sold out match, first of the season, between the San Francisco ShEvil Dead and the Richmond Wrecking Belles.  We were obviously good luck to the ShEvil Dead.  When we arrived, they were behind by 30 points.  At the end of the night they won 158-119!
My favorite player was tiny Trixie Pixie.  She just slipped past the defenders and scored over and over.
As for the beer, I was a bit disappointed.  I had Pyramid Ale's IPA.  It was far to sweet for my tastes. (BTW That is not my hand in the photo.)

The Craneway Pavilion
1414 Harbour Way South
Richmond, CA

Steelhead

We did the sampler here and, boy, that was the right decision.
Our favorite by far was the one the 3 seasonal beers they gave us.
Since these are not listed on their website, I'll have to go from memory.
It was a strong ale.  Very nice.  At first I thought I had a bit of an aftertaste from the excessively chocolatey-flavored stout, but I realized that was part of it's complex flavor.  (Just thinking of it makes me wish I wrote down it's name.) 
As I mentioned, the chocolate stout was a bit much.  Great, but we were very lucky to get just this small glass of it.  It was more like hot chocolate in flavor than beer. 
Of their standards, I liked their IPA the best. 
Although I am not really a big guy with blondes (not just the beers), I did like their blonde.
As expected, their Hefeweizen was not to my taste despite it's fun name: Hairy Weasel.

Steelhead Brewing Company
333 California Drive
Burlingame, CA 94010
 

Sweetgrass of Grand Teton Brewing

Sweetgrass is a very smooth and drinkable APA (American Pale Ale).
Good one to have with a meal; not too strong as to interfere with the taste of what you are eating.
For an APA it is not too hoppy, which makes me happy.

Maven
598 Haight St
San Francisco, CA 94117

Laguinitas Maximus

I was at a geo geek meetup last night held at Trulia's offices.  They offered stacks of pizzas and ice cold beer.  Nice spread!
I tried Laguanitas IPA Maximus Ale.  It was quite good.  It didn't have that acidic taste that I get with many high alcohol beer even though it was a good 8.2% alcohol.  But, thanks to this alcohol and the fact that I drank two bottles, I had a nice buzz going by the time the presentations started.

Racer 5 @ Alices

Ooops!  I meant to shoot a photo before drinking it but it went down so well after a hard mountain bike ride!  Bear Republic's Racer 5 is quite good on tap.  I have had it in the bottle before and it seemed pretty standard but on tap... let's just say it went down very quickly and was greatly enjoyed.
I did not know until I went to Bear Republic's own brewpub earlier this year that Racer 5 is a reference to Speed Racer (a.k.a. マッハGoGoGo).

I consumed this at the wonderful biker bar Alice's in the hills above Woodside.
I strongly recommend their Norton Burger with blue cheese and bacon.
Alice's
17288 Skyline Blvd
Woodside, CA 94062

Ale Arsenal

We tried two IPAs here.
101 North Heroine IPA
and
Palo Alto Brewing Nelson Rye IPA.
Both were pretty awesome. The Heroine IPA (on the left in the photo below) had a great first impression. She was attractive, sweet red head. I am looking forward to trying more beers from this new brewery. (101 North Brewing)
The Nelson Rye IPA did not create as strong of an immediate impression but really improved over time.  It had a very sweet, almost butterscotch flavor.  Similarly, I am looking forward to seeing more from Palo Alto Brewing Company.

Ale Arsenal
971 Laurel Street
San Carlos, CA