Brewery Archives - The Six Fifty

What will it take for local restaurants to recover? Dan Gordon sounds the alarm after closing in PA

What will it take for local restaurants to recover? Famed Peninsula brewer Dan Gordon sounds the alarm after closing in Palo Alto In Q&A, Gordon Biersch co-founder on why he decided to close, the Catch-22 of federal loans and the fate of Bay Area restaurants Owner Dan Gordon (left), formerly of Gordon Biersch, extensively revamped the old brewery-restaurant space in downtown Palo Alto to open Dan Gordon’s in March of 2016. (Photo by ...

The Six Fifty’s full-bodied guide to Beer Week on the Peninsula

From sours to stout, we’ve got everything you need to know about what’s brewing and where it’s hoppin’ Oh, the choices—Beer Week 2018. (Photo by Charles Russo) It’s Beer Week in the Bay Area, and while the massive list of events throughout the region has us hastily scheduling functioning alcoholism onto our calendars, the 2018 incarnation of this festival reads to us here at The Six Fifty like a victory lap for craft brewing ...

How Devil’s Canyon became the Bay Area’s friendliest beer maker

Chris Garrett’s San Carlos brewery follows a community-minded mantra — aficionados, families and neighbors have noticed. By Nicole Ruiz Hudson Devil’s Canyon founder Chris Garrett pulls a pint at his San Carlos taproom. (Photo by Charles Russo) Chris Garrett needed an antidote to life in the tech world. Back during the first dot-com boom, Garrett’s work monitoring chat rooms for places like RealNames and Disney left him — predictably, perhaps — a little soul weary. As a result, he began looking for ...

5 Silicon Valley Beer Week events you don’t want to miss

SV Beer Week will be in full swing starting July 21, with tap takeovers happening all over the Peninsula. It’s an exciting time for Silicon Valley craft brewers: Our nano-breweries are growing in reputation, mainstays like Freewheel Brewing are expanding their repertoire and the whole brewing community is exchanging ideas, recipes and marketing know-how. The brewers we talked to about Beer Week were most excited for the (sold out, sorry) San ...

A kinder, gentler microbrew at Redwood City’s Freewheel Brewing

Cask lineup at Freewheel (Photo by Devin Roberts) On the border of Menlo Park and Redwood city, in a shopping center best known for its Sunday brunch spot, Squeeze In, lies a little brewery and public house made to transport you back to the English countryside, with beer that’s much smoother and slightly warmer than you’re used to drinking. Freewheel Brewery and Pub was the vision of four friends (Malcolm, Pete, Gary, ...

A temple to Bay Area craft brews rises at Santa Clara’s Taplands

Tapland’s owner, Matt Hartenstein (photo by Dale Swanson) Taplands Bottle Shop and Neighborhood Brewery in Santa Clara, open just under a year, is quickly becoming a favorite destination for beer tasters and tinkerers across Silicon Valley. The tap room’s founder and head keg tapper, Matt Hartenstein, is a self-proclaimed “beer geek” and homebrewer since 1991 (which he describes as the “Craft Beer 1.0” days). I sat down with Matt to talk about current trends ...