SOMETHING'S BREWING
Explore these Santa Cruz locations For this month's brewery day trip, I visited four Santa Cruz taprooms — Humble Sea Brewing, Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, Sante Adairius Portal and Gilman Brewing — on a route that took me from the coastal city's Westside
Humble Sea Brewing
My first stop was Humble Sea Brewing, the Westside brewery founded in 2015 by three locals and childhood friends, Frank Scott Krueger, Nick Pavlina and Taylor West. With a nautical-themed interior in sea blue and foam white, the brewery offers indoor seating in what feels like a ship's interior and a large outdoor beer garden with picnic tables and benches.
The brewery offers around 20 beers. Both Float, a German-style pilsner, and Paisley Pils, an Italian-style dryhopped pilsner, are tasty. But my warm weather picks have to include the Humble Sea Helles and Socks and Sandals, a double dry-hopped IPA offered in clear and haze versions. There's also Super Pops! Tropical Blue, a smoothie beer brewed with mango, feijoa, guanabana, vanilla and spirulina, which gives the beer a deep green color rarely seen outside St. Patrick's Day.
Inside, the brewery serves locally-made empanadas, and outside, there's a rotating selection of food trucks.
DETAILS >> Opens daily at 11 a.m. at 820 Swift St. in Santa Cruz. You'll also find Humble Sea beers at the brewery's beer garden on the Santa Cruz Wharf and at its taprooms in Pacifica and Alameda; humblesea.com.
Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing
Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing is just around the corner. It was founded in 2005 by Emily Thomas and Chad Brill as a small organic brewhouse in the former Bonny Doon winery facilities. As the brewery grew, they took over the space next door and recently added a large outdoor beer garden.
While they offer the requisite hoppy West Coast and Hazy IPAs, it's their old-school styles that really stand out. Bad Bear Brown is one of the best brown ales I've had in a while, and it's a style you don't see often. The top-notch Rye Pale, has spicy rye done to perfection, If you love lavender, try Pepe's Lavender IPA, a fragrant ale brewed with fresh lavender.
The taproom offers snacks, from corn dogs and pretzels to sandwiches and salads. COVID-era partitions and roofs at the beer garden booths give the space a private feel. It's an oasis with food, wine and beer all around — a perfect place to lose yourself for an afternoon.
DETAILS >> Opens daily at noon at 402 Ingalls St. in Santa Cruz. Many of their beers are available in cans to go; scmbrew.com.
Sante Adairius Portal
Sante Adairius Rustic Ales's main brewery is in nearby Capitola, but they recently opened a tasting room called The Portal in Midtown Santa Cruz. There, visitors can sample all the brewery's beers in a rustic setting and even get a slice of self-styled “inauthentic” Detroit pizza from Bookie's Pizza, which shares the space.
Sante Adairius is the brainchild of Adair Paterno and Tim Clifford, who founded the brewery in 2012. It's best known for saisons and sour beers. Anais is their house saison, and it's quite tasty, but I prefer Bernice, a mixed fermentation saison.
The atmosphere is modern and comfortably rustic — a great place for conversation, pizza and, of course, beer.
DETAILS >> Opens daily at noon at 1315 Water St. in Santa Cruz. Bottled and canned beers, plus some Belgian imports, are also available for purchase; rusticales.com.
Gilman Brewing
I've featured Gilman Brewing's original location in Albany in a brewery day trip column last summer, but the brewery recently opened a taproom in Santa Cruz. The new spot has a front and side beer garden and a full menu that includes all of Gilman's beers.
DETAILS >> Opens daily at noon at 817 Soquel Ave. in Santa Cruz. The main brewery is located at 912 Gilman St. in Berkeley; gilmanbrew.com.
Know a brewery or brewpub that's knocking it out of the park? Drop me a line at BrooksOnBeer@gmail.com.