The Rare Barrel

I love sours so I wanted to taste a few; wish they had flights, but 5oz pours will do. I tasted four and they were hit or miss honestly. The orange and vanilla bean was my favorite and the sour IPA was not good (literally just ipa, no sour). The brewery was pretty full due to SF beer week and the live music was good, but WAY too loud to have a conversation with anyone. Glad I visited, but I've had better sours.

Rough first impressions but has amazing food for a tap room. Understood this is a brewery and not a restaurant but was here for Berkeley restaurant week. The dim set up, lack of signs and laid back arrangements made it really hard for guests to know whether they need to be waited for seating or walk up somewhere to order. Even worse, a staff walked right past me and a friend as we scan the room for service - without acknowledging our existence. There are few tables available for seating and some barrels that I assume are geared more toward casual drinking. When a place has such amazing food it's a bummer to find the stools were too tall, and the chairs to the tables were too low for a comfortable dining experience. It's these little things that breaks the initial impressions. Not to mention the unwelcoming vibes from one of it's staff member. Just want to offer some pragmatic pointers for an otherwise good experience.

*The Pork belly and Mushroom and spinach grits are must tries :)

If you love sours and want to try some good ones on tap this place has a nice selection to choose from. Definitely some variety to enjoy with friends and big groups you will be good too just call ahead to see if it’s busy maybe. My girlfriend liked the home, sour home, and the kerfuffle but I didn’t think the sours were the amaze.

They have some interesting seating in a warehouse style setup so the open space creates that big hall kind of vibe.
Worth checking out if you are in the area and for sure if you just want some tasty sours. I don’t know about some staff vibes but most are chillers.

Great place if you like sour beer.

The beers here tend to be a little fruit heavy and low on Brett funk.

Recent addition of a kitchen has greatly improved the tasting room experience.

I was an “Ambassador” for several years and recently decided to leave the bottle club due to changes that just made it not worth it for me.

Alex and Jay are very friendly and great owners.

You will be treated well here.