Sorry it's been a while; I've been fairly busy these days.

Also, which one of you nerbs was the one that said hi to me at Drake's this past Friday? Sorry I wasn't more talkative; it's been a while since I was on the front lines of customer service.

Some day, I will go to GABF, and I will return knowing the legends and secrets of the Colorado beer scene, and will share them with you when the Rockies come to town. Until then, you're going to keep getting what I can pull out of my ass.

For this one, I'm gonna repurpose something from my old site- the Haight-Castro beer crawl:

[imagine there is an embedded map here. A pox on ye, SBNation]

View GGBB: Haight & Castro in a larger map

Alembic's primarily a cocktail bar, but it's owned by the same folks as Magnolia, and they do have a respectable beer selection.

Magnolia & Dave McLean- as you locals should goddamn well know by now- is one of the big boys in Bay Area beer. Good, local, sustainable food, and damn good beer. I recommend just hitching up at the communal table near the front door, otherwise you're probably looking at a wait. Also, Magnolia makes Public House's Billy Sunday Bitter.

Down on Divisadero is the Page. It's essentially a neighborhood bar, but it has a surprisingly good selection both on tap and in bottles. Fri & Sat nights are hit-and-miss. Sometimes it's a nice, chill night out for the regulars & neighbors, and sometimes the bus from Bar None brings out the dudebros in droves. But overall, it's definitely worth checking out. Bonus- GREAT place to watch a weeknight Giants game.

Healthy Spirits is probably one of the best-kept beer-nerd secrets. It's at 15th & Castro, and it is absolutely packed with awesome beer; second only to City Beer Store. There's no bar, so there's no tastings, but the guys who works there know their shit. There's also a Beer Of The Month club, and they also carry a good selection of bourbon, along with a bunch of other things like Mars Bars, ice cream, hummus, Nosh This, etc.

Toronado is Toronado, and everything you've heard about it is true.

Mad Dog sucks as a beer bar, but I feel obligated to mention it here because they do have an astonishingly good selection of bottles, and, obviously, it's a sports bar. It's expensive as shit, though, and they have no idea what to do with the beer they sell. Once I ordered a bottle that had a wax top, and I had to pick at it with my thumbnail for 10 minutes because they (apparently) didn't have anything that could open it. Toronado across the street is a better bar in pretty much every way, and they always have the Giants on.

Lucky 13 is kind of a beer bar. Definitely better beer than your average SF bar, but definitely lacking compared to dedicated beer bars. It'd be an amazing beer bar in a lot of cities in this country. That said, you can always get a Chimay or a Pliny the Elder or a Little Sumpin' here. There are also often more dogs than people during the day.

So… what'ch'all been drinkin' lately?