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A group of kids play in a sandbox, their parents cheers-ing in a state of benign neglect. On the AstroTurf-covered patio, people pour drinks from pitchers in between dealing hands of cards. Clad in a cap and sunglasses, a lifesize Yoda statue stands on a barrel, encouraging everyone who enters to “Have fun, you must.” Nearly every one of the dozens of canopied picnic tables is occupied.
This is not a city park or a street fair — this is an ordinary Saturday at the East Bay’s biggest brewery, Almanac’s Alameda Adventureland, where there’s so much to do that drinking beer is almost beside the point. Almost. There are pints of a hefeweizen called Hugs, frosty glasses of a citrus wheat beer called Afterglow, and steins of a West Coast pale ale called Love. (Notice a theme?)
Almanac leads with Love, in fact. According to Kevin Scoles, the executive VP of sales, that easygoing pour is the brewery’s No. 1 seller by far, accounting for almost half its total production by volume. At 5.5% ABV and $6 for 16 ounces, it’s light, hop-forward, and affordable — squaring the circle of the Bay Area’s ever-shifting beer tastes.
But you don’t have to like beer to enjoy yourself at Adventureland. There are adult slushies like the hard-seltzer-based Painkiller or grapefruit-y Paloma Frosé, along with half a dozen wines by the glass, ciders, and kombucha (plus nonalcoholic cocktails and beer, as well as juice options for the kids).
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This is no food desert, either. Food truck Scolari’s Good Eats has some wonderfully bad-for-you treats like pickle-brined chicken tenders and a deep-fried Niman Ranch beef hot dog in a toasted bun. There’s also a window through which Scolari’s spin-off Marley G’s Pizza serves slices and pies covered in pepperoni or meatballs. For more out-of-the-ordinary palates, there’s a pork-and-mustard Cubano pizza and Flammkucken, the Alsatian spin on quattro formaggio, with bacon.
All this activity is housed in a humongous, 1940s edifice at Alameda Point, the island’s western tip, where craft breweries Faction and Humble Sea and small-scale wineries and distilleries like St. George Spirits and Hangar 1 are all within walking distance. The building’s 50,000 square feet are given over entirely to beer-making: Almanac controls a little over half the space, while the artisanal malthouse Admiral Maltings occupies the rest.
Unlike many breweries, which feel like cavernous beer factories with small seating areas, Almanac doesn’t dwarf visitors with its industrial might. Rather, it’s a playground and an arcade seven days a week, with quirky pinball machines, a four-player Pac-Man console, and various lounge areas. “Usually, we’ll peak at 3,000 visitors in a given day,” Scoles says, which means as many as 2,000 people at once during the afternoon.
As family-friendly taprooms nationwide have begun to reconsider welcoming children, Almanac is plowing ahead. There have been wrestling nights with 350 attendees, and the nearby USS Hornet sometimes loans out a fighter jet as a backdrop for a screening of “Top Gun” or Disney’s animated film “Planes.”
Initially a “contract brewer” that relied on others’ facilities for production, the 14-year-old Almanac built its reputation on IPAs that were aged in oak for six to 24 months. Founders Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan, beer nerds to the core, emphasized the technical elements at a time when the future of craft brewing felt limitless.
Now, in a very different landscape, Almanac is leveraging its size with a gathering place that offers something for everyone. It’s de-emphasizing the geekiness — arguably, even the beer itself.
“In the Bay Area, where there’s so much great beer, we need to find things to differentiate and make it fun,” he says. “Beer is just the starting point.”