Suggestions for Bay Area Visit

[olafphysics]

My wife and I are planning a trip to the Bay Area for early April to visit family there for the first time in 6 years - before I started listening to the BN. We have 4 days without plans in the area. What breweries/brew pubs should I prioritize? I have a small list already. Where else do people suggest:

Anchor
21A
Russian River
Downtown Joe's
Magnolia

[spiderwrangler]

563 2nd Street, just two blocks...

[keelanfish]

I always enjoy the Ferry Bldg. Good place to go and have lunch and kill
an hour or two walking around. Also a good place to pick up some good grub for picnics/hotel room. Amazing how mucjh $$ you can save by not always eating in a restaraunt, even with Cowgirl Creamery type prices.

I also enjoyed the Anchor tour, but you have to make reservations in advance.

I haven't been, but you may want to look into the following.

Sierra Nevada
lagunitas
Heretic
Handles (Chads new gig)
Touranado

[Quin]

Don't forget the beer bars. I find they have the locals plus a bigger selection of imports/Belgians/sours, etc.

Toronado
Barclays
Trappist

[Deathrider]

Depending on what side of the bay you are on......If in the east bay, then visit Beer Revolution and Ol

[Chemiker]

What part of the Bay Area will you be in?

If you're going to Downtown Joe's, you'll be near Lagunitas, near Russian River, kinda near Bear Republic, and there are others depending on how far north you want to go. Of course there's Heretic in Pittsburgh, 21A in San Fransicso, etc as others have mentioned. But this can get to be a pretty large radius to cover, so it will matter where you're staying and how far you want to go.

If you're staying near Sacramento, there's Sierra Nevada in Chico...

[olafphysics]

We will be staying with family in Foster City, so a little away from the stuff to the north, but we want to visit Muir Woods so I figured a little further north would not hurt for one day.

Looking at a map, we will be almost as close to Sunnyvale as San Fran. Perhaps I should go write my own deal...

[Chemiker]

There's Devil's Canyon in Belmont, which is very close to where you are going to be. They only do growler fills the last Friday of each month, but if you want a brewery tour they might do that any day. Closer to me, I love Tied House in Mountain View, and Gordon Biersch in San Jose.