Sunday 27th May 2012

Bob Thompson

This is a branch of a small chain of five pizza restaurants and bars in San Francisco and the Bay area. However this is the most important as it contains the brewery. The area around Clement Street is multi-cultural with a heavy Chinese influence so there are a lot of other ethnic restaurants there. Inside I was surprised as it is definitely more pub than restaurant. There is a lot of dark wood and some lovely stained glass. In one corner there was an open fire of the gas variety. I guess this was a pub before the current management moved in. I liked the decor a lot.

There was a choice of ten beers as follows: Golden Ale (6.2%); a light beer in the style of an American Cream Ale with Pale malt and German hops. IPA (7.0%) is a typical West Coast beer with a lot of northwest citrusy hops. Peach Pale Ale (6.1%) has Peach essence added to a British-type pale ale made with Fuggles hops. Amber Ale (6.3%) is made with Crystal malt and Northwest hops; Porter (8.1%) has a complex recipe and is very smooth.

The list continued with 4 Grain Hefeweizen (6.0%) which has rye and flaked oats as well as the usual malted barley and wheat. It is made with German yeast. Raspberry Hefeweizen (6.0%) starts off as a conventional wheat beer but ends up with natural extract of raspberries added. Blueberry Best Bitter (6.1%) is a mildly-hopped British style bitter plus blueberries. Pale Ale (6.1%) is an American type Pale Ale and Kölsch (5.3%), a beer in the style of that from Cologne (Köln).

I had to make a choice of five of these and it was actually quite easy as I disregarded those with added fruit and just stuck to the true ales. This is what I thought of my choice: Golden Ale was light and refreshing and didn't taste its strength. Amber Ale was very good, being well balanced with a hop finish. Pale Ale was also very good with big flavours and another hoppy finish. Porter had a lot of dark malt taste yet was also nicely bitter. IPA was an absolutely typical West Coast version with plenty of citrus hop flavour.

So, should you ever be in the Inner Richmond area between the Presidio and the Golden Gate Park, you should make a positive detour to have a beer here.

Important Information:

Pizza Orgasmica and Brewing, 823 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA. 94118
Tel: 415 386 6000

Open: Sunday to Wednesday 11.00-24.00; Thursday 11.00-01.00;
Friday and Saturday 11.00-02.00

The 2 Bus runs along Clement Street past the pub. Bus 1 operates along California Street one block north. One block south is Geary Boulevard on which the 38 bus runs along. There are also cross-town (North – South) routes that pass within a few blocks.