SF’s quintessential brewpub is back and producing its most famous beer

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After years as a subsidiary of multinational beverage conglomerates, one of San Francisco’s most revered craft brewers is independent once again. Local beer mavens Kevin Kynoch, Brian Reccow, and Brandon Phillips wrested control of Upper Haight institution Magnolia Brewing from its corporate parent last year, reopening the brewery and taproom in December. Now, with brewmaster Jon Taylor, they’re dusting off old recipes and recapturing the craft producer’s glory days as the city’s quintessential neighborhood brewpub.

“People are really pumped on our beer,” Phillips says, pointing to the re-emergence of classics like Proving Ground IPA and the long-discontinued Blue Bell Bitter. The decision to woo back Taylor, who worked at the brewery before it was sold, was easy, Phillips adds. “Somebody already familiar with the systems, replicating the beers of the old times? It’s a no-brainer.”

Take Proving Ground, brewed using a recipe from 2004. It’s a piney, malt-forward English-style IPA, an alternative to the galaxy of fruitier West Coast IPAs that pack the market.

Standing out from the crowd has been in Magnolia’s DNA since the day in 1997 when founder Dave McLean opened the brewery’s doors on the corner of Haight and Masonic. Unlike the hordes of hangar-like spaces that rode the craft beer boom from more industrial parts of town, Magnolia set up shop in a one-time corner pharmacy in a walkable, bohemian neighborhood.

By meticulously sourcing his hops and malts, McLean won acclaim for beers like the golden-hued, ale-lager hybrid Kalifornia Kolsch, which was piped from the basement brewery to the brewpub upstairs. The Haight is arguably associated with other substances, but for two decades, Magnolia reigned unchallenged as its destination for beer. 

It didn’t last forever. Facing bankruptcy by 2017, McLean sold to Colorado-based New Belgium and went on to co-found Alameda malt producer Admiral Maltings. New Belgium was later absorbed into Little Lion Beverages, which is, in turn, part of the Japanese brewing giant Kirin. As San Francisco’s beer industry entered a period of contraction, Magnolia settled into a complacent middle age, a craft brewery no more. New Belgium went on to open another, decidedly cavernous outpost in Mission Bay that closed in 2024.

Now once again under local ownership, Magnolia has returned with a full liquor license and a menu of upscale pub fare like $9 sausage plates, $11 servings of roasted fennel with capers and lemon, and $14 double smashburgers topped with salsa fresca. The Summer of Love-themed cocktails ($12 to $14) are more than respectable, the standout being the bright, lavender-forward “LSD (Lemon Safe Daiquiri).” But people go to Magnolia for the beer, and the team plans to keep on delivering, paying homage to old favorites like Kalifornia Kolsch while releasing original, contemporary beers, including a forthcoming hazy IPA. 

Given craft beer’s ubiquity these days, the enduring attachment to Magnolia is remarkable. “Magnolia is super-sentimental,” Phillips says. “People actually care about the legacy, and now it’s our turn to be the stewards.”