In search of a midday drink, I found myself at ISO Beers Beer Bar & Bottle Shop.
This downtown taproom has six categories of beer to choose from, ranging from darks to sours, to ciders.
For this tipsy trip, I decided to have some newsroom companions join me to help try a full range of beers.
Upon entering the taproom, rows of tables lined the right side of the room. To our left, a hoard of kegs stood in front of eight fridges filled with different kinds of canned and bottled beers.
To my surprise, three of the eight fridges housed a variety of wines and champagnes.
Approaching the bar at the back of the room, a bearded man greeted and pointed us in the direction of some menus.
I picked up a menu and my eyes lit up.
The selection of beers was one of the largest I have ever seen, not to mention the beers all averaged about 6% alcohol content.
After ordering our beers, we headed to the outdoor patio and grabbed a seat at the picnic bench style tables.
To add to the fun, ISO Beers has games on hand. We opted for UNO, because the game is best played drunk.
Let’s begin this review with the Ghostwood Beer Pale Ale, #pgesucks. Now this is pretty ironic because the brewery is based in Redwood City, where PG&E was pulling most of its shenanigans.
#pgesucks has a 7.2 alcohol percentage. I wouldn’t say there was anything special about the taste. The flavor is that of an average beer, think Modelo or Stella Artois.
Next up was the Alvarado Street Sour, Sorbae. The Sorbae has 5.5% alcohol content and lives up to its categorization. This beer is sour – like “handful of Sour Skittles to the
dome” sour.
Nonetheless, this drink was a worthy mention.
Alvarado Street has another sour beer on the menu, the Double Haole Punch. Unlike the Sorbae, the Double Haole Punch had a sweeter underlying flavor of Guava and 8% alcohol content.
I’m not usually one for sweet beers or guava, but this was more enjoyable than I’m willing to admit.
Now let’s move on to another Pale Ale: the Ghost Town Underhanded.
This beer was on the tart side and had a 6.4 alcohol percentage. Honestly it was your average beer – nothing special.
And now for the shining stars of our taste test.
The Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is a dark beer with an alcohol content of 9.6%.
You’d think a dark brew with a percentage this high would be upsettingly bitter, but the flavor of this was pure chocolate. I mean this in the most literal sense of the word. This beer tastes exactly like a beautifully hand-crafted Belgian chocolate bar, so I would 10/10 recommend.
Our last exploration on this trip was the Central Coast dark, P-nut Butter Breakdown.
Peanut butter and beer aren’t exactly two things I’d think to combine, but boy did they do something special with this.
At 6.5% alcohol content, the flavor of literal Reese’s Pieces sent me into shock in the best way possible. I know I said this about the Bigfoot beer, but I would 10/10 recommend the P-nut Butter Breakdown.
If you find yourself searching for a midday beer with friends, colleagues or even family, check out ISO Beers.
There’s something for everyone, so it’s sure to not disappoint.
