Drake's Barrel House

Wow! This place is fantastic. I’ve been via all of the Bay Area breweries for the past few years, with a focus on new breweries, but I totally missed out on this gem. Located, almost concealed, behind a Walmart shopping center. It feels odd to drive around the back of a shopping center to get her.e. Plenty of easy parking. The taproom is huge: maybe 12 6’ tables. The walls are lined with barrels. Barrels are literally everywhere. The taps is 1/3 full on a Sunday at 3PM. 24 taps with 5 BA beers, of which 2 are sours. The non sours are fantastic. The sours are a bit harsh. So difficult to make good sours. It requires expert blending. 2023: No flights, but the BA beers come in 4oz pours for $5.

Big, airy warehouse with a large outdoor space and a captive food truck (which looked superb but I did not eat here). 24 taps, all Drakes. Around 10-15 of them are things you'll see elsewhere in the area but there are some damn good rarities here (and you can buy bottles to go). Went boozy beers and sours - the boozy beers (an imperial porter and a barleywine) were spectacular. The sours had interesting ingredients but weren't as much my bag. Still a damn good drinking experience. A bit inconvenient but well worth the visit.

Definitely one of the great SF metro area breweries (visiting right after very good but not great 21st Amendment made that even more obvious). Warehouse brewery...but kinda behind the many entrance streets with a variety of it's own spaces and outbuildings making it better than most of this type. Service was very good and staff helpful and informative. Beers were the stars though...very large variety..."24" different good to mostly very good & in some cases great beers. I managed to get thru quite a few...3 flights...by not finishing some...but not being from the area...I really wanted to get a sense of how many of the 24 taps were serving really good or better beer...vs just showing off quantity over quality. I can tell you quality won out. Here's a few of the stars for me...1500 Dry-Hopped Pale Ale, D'Bucks B'Day Hazy IPA, Denoginizer Imp IPA (9.75%), Brightside Cucumber Mint Berlinerweisse, Lusu's Love Child Flanders Red with Grenache grapes, Mictlad rye barrel aged porter with spices, and Lawd Willin Imp coffee porter (10.2%). Drakes should be a must visit when in the area...and certainly worth making a special stop for. (Note...looks like the food truck might me theirs and/or semi permanent...food was great!).

Located in a massive industrial mall, this place has over 20 taps. Custom flights available, priced according to what you get - so it can get very pricy if you pick lots of barrel aged stuff. The BA stuff occupies about 5-6 of the taps. They have a good truck upfront and a couple of vegetarian/vegan options. Interior is a warehouse / old-style pub feel. Service is decent, though the lines can be long. Worth a stop - very convenient stop before or after Oakland airport.

Have been here several times over the years and I thought I had already rated them, but no. Easy to find, off the 880, behind Walmart. Stopped by on the way back from a camping trip, Lagunitas was a zoo scene, had stopped at Moylan’s on the way up, so we figured the food looked good and the beer is always good (plus I’m a San Leandro native). Parked our truck an trailer over by Walmart and headed over with our big dog and found a table. The table service was already over so I headed in to get a couple of beers before ordering, Robustito and a special IPA, Triplicity. There was a duo playing music on the patio and a fairly good size crowd. One of the servers came over and we ended up getting our food through him, talking about beer, and he dropped off a couple of the sours they had on tap to try (Grandpapa Roy’s Peche and Too Many Candles). Food came, prepared out of a cool retro trailer parked out back, and was good, so i’d say overall, this place always delivers. I was impressed by their sours, looking forward to more. I did pick up a bottle to take, Papa’ Roy’s Peche. Corked sour 500ml for 18.99. Price seemed a little steep for a 500, but have not seen it anywhere else.

I like Drake’s beer, and when they have events here it’s awesome. However, when there aren’t food trucks and stuff, the food selection is nil. The place is usually pretty busy and there’s not a ton of seating, but there is some outside seating if the weather is nice. Some bottles to buy, growler fills, and decent prices occasionally.

love me some Drake’s. kinda out of the way behind a strip mall and walmart. definitely worth a visit, though. AWESOME beers and a wide variety both times I’ve been. decent service. brough outside food both times,

(Visited 08/2014): Drake’s is located off the Nimitz Freeway on Davis Street, basically hidden behind a Walmart. Parking is available in any of the lots in the complex, as well as in a garage.

Once you do find it though it is easy to spot, being a large blue warehouse with a large logo sign and fermenters outside. The barrel room was closed during my visit for First Friday, so they had pouring stations and the garage doors open to serve beers. There was a cool festival atmosphere as a result, but I wasn’t really able to see anything other than the outside.

As for the selection, there were about 12 beers available for the event, including First Friday (which was sold out), Aroma Flora, Aroma Coma, 1500, Pork Pie Rye, Discovery Vienna Lager, Blonde, Hefe, Porter, Omega and Double IPA. All the beers I tried via the token system in use that day were good.

Service during the Friday late afternoon event was good at the pouring stations.

I did not have food on my visit, although there was a food truck there for the event.

All in all I was happy to stumble on a visit during First Friday and would like to visit again on a normal day to check out the rest of the operation. Regardless I had a good time.

Great ambience. Awesome selection and your’e surrounded by barrels full of beer. love the outside seating. The staff is great even on busy days. i’ve been here 3 times and it’s always an awesome time.

A nice tasting room in the barrel room. Tables spread out throughout the room, also a patio. The prices (tasters) are on the high side but well worth it. Drakes makes some solid beers.