Craft Beer

Cellarmaker opened in 2013 on Howard Street in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood. Its founders, Tim Sciascia, Connor Casey and Kelly Caveney, all met at Marin Brewing Company, where Sciascia brewed for five years.

The name reflects their belief that a beer is shaped as much in the cellar, during fermentation and aging, as on brew day. The brewery made its name with hoppy pale ales and IPAs, in both clear and hazy styles, alongside small experimental batches.

Barebottle opened in San Francisco's Bernal Heights in 2016. The names on the cans are playful and very online; the beer inside is precise.

The range runs from crisp West Coast IPAs to soft, lush hazies, and the releases rotate often.

Fieldwork opened in Berkeley in 2015 and has grown to taprooms across Northern California. Its whole identity is rotation: new hop combinations, new techniques and seasonal ingredients, release after release.

The hazy and juicy IPAs built the following, but the pilsners deserve just as much attention.

Humble Sea brings a laid-back Santa Cruz attitude to some very serious hop work. Their double dry-hopped foggy IPAs lean into pineapple, mango and stone fruit.

Limited seasonal releases come and go quickly, so the lineup here changes often.

Pure Project opened in San Diego's Miramar neighborhood in 2016 with a focus on natural ingredients and sustainability. Their murky IPAs show off rare hop varieties with a bright Southern California character.

Look out for their limited farmhouse and fruited releases too.

Adair Paterno and Tim Clifford opened Sante Adairius in Capitola, just outside Santa Cruz, in 2012. SARA built its reputation on Belgian-inspired farmhouse and wild ales aged in wine and spirit barrels.

Those bottles are among the most sought-after in California, and the brewery's hoppy cans have a following of their own.

Alvarado Street opened on its namesake street in downtown Monterey in 2014. The brewery pushes hop-forward styles hard, with double and hazy IPAs built on Citra, Mosaic, Strata and more.

The music-inspired branding matches the creativity of what is inside the can.