Our Bay Area brewery series heads to Livermore for hefeweizens, stouts and Tigers in Texas.
First stop: Sampling the beer at Rivers End Brewing Co. in Livermore
When I embarked on a brewery tour of the Bay Area last month in search of lesser-known but incredible breweries and taprooms, East Bay Times reader Mike Katen had a suggestion: Head for Livermore to check out Rivers End, one of five breweries in the Tri-Valley’s largest city.
Livermore was a railroad town when it was founded in 1869. Today, it’s better known for its vineyard-dotted landscape and its largest employer, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — and its brewery scene.
I stopped in at Rivers End Brewing Co. last week to have a few beers with its founder, Brandon Jefferis. Born and raised in Livermore, Jefferis started homebrewing at an early age and soon realized you could not only make a living brewing beer, you could follow the example of Altamont Beer Works and do it in your own hometown.
When Livermore’s Shadow Puppet Brewing Co. opened in 2015, Jefferis joined the crew as a bartender, eager to learn about the business from the inside. By February 2020, he was ready to open Rivers End, named for the Delta marina where he and his father went boating. Jefferis and his dad, a general contractor, built almost everything in the five-barrel brewery together.
“We had a soft opening, and everything went great,” Jefferis says, recalling those early days. “Then COVID hit and shut us down three weeks later.”
So he began creating to-go packaging. By August, he was selling Rivers End beer in 19.2-ounce cans and slowly rebuilding his interrupted business. The taproom, which initially reopened with limited hours, is back to daily service now.
Tucked at the back of an industrial park near Altamont, the brewery boasts a small indoor tasting area with a roller door to let in light and air, and an outdoor tent and bar with cornhole and other diversions. On weekends, food trucks are parked nearby.
Rivers End beer includes a nice range of styles, with an emphasis on dark beers and kettle sours, although there’s also a fair share of IPAs, too. The lightest beer is Wheat Sauce, an American hefeweizen, and the darkest I had was Roast of Flava Flav, a stout brewed with heavily roasted malt for a great coffee and chocolate flavor with hints of nuts and leather. They also regularly brew a coffee porter, Javva the Gutt.
Rivers End’s great double IPA has an ever greater name, Tigers in Texas, which was inspired by a story Jefferis read that said Texas’ tiger population is one of the largest in the world. (Seems Texas millionaires have a thing for the striped creatures.) The beer has some solid floral and citrus hop notes without being too harsh, and there’s no lingering bitterness in the finish.
The brewery also offers three kettle-soured beers: Shadow’s End, brewed with peach; Tropic Passion (passion fruit); and one I particularly loved, Recovery Juice. Brewed with blackberries, it has a delightful nose of berries and plums with well-conditioned tart and sweet flavors.
You’ll find Altamont Beer Works just around the corner. The brewery has expanded quite a bit since its 2013 opening, and upgraded the brewhouse to a 20-bbl system to keep up with demand for its flagship Maui Waui IPA. Founder Stephen Satori has made a name for himself with big, hoppy beers. It also brews Biano, a witbier, and Hella Rad Helles, but it’s the hops that people come to drink. And boy, do they have hops.
During my visit, nine of the 16 beers were IPLs, IPAs or double IPAs. And thanks to the near endless varieties of hops, every one of those brews has its own unique flavor profile. I was particularly taken with Juice Above the Clouds, a juicy West Coast double IPA, and Hella Hoppy, a West Coast double IPA.
Three minutes farther down the road, you’ll find Homegrown Hops Brewing Co. As the name implies, the property includes a small hopyard growing a few varieties of hops. There’s also a large grassy
area lined with pop-ups for shade, private fire pit circles that can seat up to eight, picnic tables with umbrellas, two bocce courts and a food tent. The day we were there, the tent was manned by YTG — Your Taco Guy.
On Thursdays, there’s a cornhole league and frequent tournaments, and on Saturdays, there’s music on the lawn. The beer is brewed in a simple metal building across the lawn, but the magic all happens outside. Check it out.
RIVERS END BREWING CO. » Open from 4 to 9 p.m. weekdays, noon to 9 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 7 p.m. Sundays at 2135 S. Vasco Road, Suite J, in ALTAMONT BEER WORKS » Open from noon to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, until 6 p.m. Sundays at 2402 Research Drive in Livermore; www.altamont beerworks.com.
HOMEGROWN HOPS BREWING CO. » Open from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, noon to 8 p.m. weekends at 3000 Mines Road in Livermore; homegrown hopsbeer.com.
If you have a local brewery or brewpub you think is knocking it out of the park, drop Jay R. Brooks a line at BrooksOnBeer@ gmail.com and tell him why you love it.