Sip your approach by San Ramon

For this month’s brewery day journey, I adopted a tip from a Contra Costa County reader, Bob Skok, who instructed I discover San Ramon. There was an underappreciated brewery there I wanted to take a look at. Be part of me!

Canyon Lakes Brewing

The Canyon Lakes Golf Course is one among solely two golf programs in the USA with a brewery on-site — and Canyon Lakes Brewing was the primary. The opposite is at North Carolina’s famed Pinehurst.

The course first opened in 1985 as a personal membership, however Don Naumann purchased the property in 2015 and reopened it two years later as a public golf course with its personal brewery. Naumann can be the winemaker and proprietor of Cupertino’s Naumann Vineyards within the Santa Cruz Mountains, so that you’ll discover his wine on the golf course restaurant.

In the meantime, brewer Dave Scott was working at a succession of well-known Michigan breweries — Arcadia, Darkish Horse, Grand River — when he noticed a job itemizing for a brand new brewery on a golf course. As an avid golfer (he usually performs in two tournaments every month), it regarded virtually too good to be true.

As Canyon Lakes’ brewer, Scott retains 18 housemade beers on at any given time together with his flagship, Inexperienced Jacket, a stable West Coast IPA with nice natural flavors. Participant’s Premium Lager is a lightweight lager that’s simple to drink and full-flavored.

The core lineup additionally consists of Knee Knocker IPA, a clean, not-too-sweet, hazy; Pinseeker Pale Ale; and Fairway Gold, an amazing throwback cream ale. The remaining eight faucet handles are made up of rotating seasonals and experimental beers, permitting Scott to mess around with the choices. I used to be particularly taken together with his O.B. Brown, a nutty brown ale, and Stroll or Ryed, a rye IPA that was deliciously spicy.

The brewery is adjoining to the golf course professional store and its restaurant and bar, which provides an intensive menu — and also you don’t must be a golfer to test it out.

Particulars: Opens at 11 a.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday-Sunday at 640 Bollinger Canyon Means; canyonlakesbrewery.com.

Fieldwork Brewing

The opposite brewery on the town is a taproom for Fieldwork Brewing. Fieldwork was based by East Bay native Barry Braden and his brewing accomplice, Alex Tweet, whom he met whereas working in San Diego. Tweet was brewing at Ballast Level Brewing, and the pair determined to open a brewery within the Bay Space, with Tweet in control of the brewing finish, and Braden managing the enterprise facet.

The unique brewery opened in Berkeley in 2015, and all their beer remains to be brewed there in the present day. They at present have eight areas throughout Northern California, together with the San Ramon taproom which opened in 2018, with outposts set to open later this yr in Santa Rosa and Roseville.

The San Ramon taproom is at Metropolis Heart Bishop Ranch, the large procuring heart that opened in 2018 with an array of eating places, outlets and leisure venues. Fieldwork taproom takes up a nook of the advanced with three rooms and a big beer backyard. The again room is named “The Links at Fieldwork” and has two High Golf simulator stations and interactive video games reminiscent of zombie baseball, dodgeball and digital hockey, all with ample seating for spectators.

The taproom serves all of Fieldwork’s practically two dozen beers organized into a number of useful classes, together with Gentle & Lager, Bitter, Belgian and West Coast. Its line of Drink Fieldwork drinks provide a mixture of craft N/A beers in numerous types and Supertonics, glowing non-alcoholic fruit drinks. And the taproom’s menu ranges from starters and salads to pizza.