Eric and crew do a bang up job of bringing excellent beer to the masses! Creative, one-of-a-kind Friday tastings and a great selection of bottled oddities make this place a go-to. All they need now is some decent signage and an exterior paint job...beer mural?

Sure, it’s mostly wine. Beer selection is rather modest (though sometimes they have treasures from their last event.) HOWEVER: Beer tasting and special events with guest brewers are very cool, with a smart and talkative crowd that shows upl. It’s worth getting on their mailing list if you are local.

From notes, 2006. After over a year of being in San Francisco, I finally checked this place out shortly before I moved out of town. The name Jug Shop sounds like a place that would have a heap of good stuff to sip on. As far as wine goes, that is true. But for beer, I wasn’t overly impressed. They had a good selection, but not much that would raise eyebrows. If I still had to choose one place to continually stop for a good/great selection, it would most likely be BevMo. My understanding is that the Jug Shop used to be a great spot for buying beer. I’m not sure exactly what has changed, but it will need to change for the better to improve it’s reputation for beer in my eyes.

I walked in and walked right back out. Not that there was anything wrong with the place, but in this city you can find great beer in every corner store, and the Jug Shop didn’t really push that standard. It’s a fine store, but I’m not sure it’s notable enough to warrant a place on this site.

This liquor store was about 100 yards from my hotel on Nob Hill, in a recently built box-style building with plenty of parking up front. Inside it’s a big old warehouse full of booze, the Beer is to your left. Plenty of local stuff can be found like Speakeasy and Anchor, a few larger California micros, and a small but decent supply of imports, 6$ Orval (ouch), Lindemans for the ladies, Samuel Smiths and Chimay. But this place is mainly a wino store. Prices were all right, if I remember correctly I took 2 or 3 12oz Speakeasies and a Cassis for around 10$. We drank everything we bought from there the next day, and it was fresh. Help was at the register only, which is fine by me for this type of store, and they allowed me to break a 6-er when I asked. Prices weren’t always clearly indicated though, some labels underneath the Beers in the fridge didn’t always match. As mentioned below, it’s only worthy of a stop if you’re nearby and need a few bare necessities, as it was our case. And they happen to have long opening hours, so that can come in handy. While you’re there, right across the corner of Pacific and Polk there’s this little bakery/cheese shop/foodie store that had some great stuff, including some obscure French ciders, don’t hesitate to check them out.