Excuse the personal plug (I swear it’s connected to beer!) but I happen to work for a terrific start-up called Madefire and we’re producing a cutting edge digital reading experience whose DNA firmly resides in comic books. The first Thursday of every month we host a “Story Night” where we open our studio doors, buy a lot of beer (much of which I hand-pick!) and order a bunch of pizzas and invite any and everyone to come pay us a visit, check out our wares, and have a great time. It’s a pretty exciting evening and makes for a rough Friday.

How does this connect to The Brew Site? Well, a month or so back, we hosted our very first off-site Story Night  in the pleasant little suburb of Concord, California and before setting up for the event I paid an up-and-coming East Bay brewery a visit: Ale Industries.

Located in the back of a business park, off the beaten trail, it’s a fairly unassuming place. There’s a magnificent home brew store next door and as I entered their secluded sanctuary, I was pleasantly surprised at what a homey, comfortable atmosphere it was. With the tops of several barrels serving as tabletops, a dart board in back and an inviting small bar, I sauntered up for some samples of their house brews. I tried every single beer they had on tap (see below) and settled upon several half-pints (I was driving, mind you) while munching pretzels from the numerous available bowls. Ale Industries is also very supportive of the local art community, displaying numerous paintings from a local creator (which rotates every few weeks or month, I believe).

Previous to this visit I’d only tried their Uncle Jessie and was impressed enough by it to follow them on twitter and find their location—and, boy, was I not disappointed In fact, I was stunned at the variety of beers they produce and the fact I don’t see MORE of their brews around the area. They had several fruit beers on tap (and I ended up paying $22 for a bottle of one), a sour, and unique twists on several other standards that I found quite interesting. It was honestly very difficult to leave!

In chatting with their friendly and knowledgeable taproom manger, Maureen, I learned a number of interesting things about Ale Industries. First up, having a child who frequently tags along to my many brewery excursions, they allow children in the taproom (assuming they’re well behaved—they can’t have kids climbing on the brewing equipment or the aging barrels). Also, due to a recently relaxed California state law, they’re now allowed to fill foreign brewery growlers by obscuring the existing logo with a sticker and are generous with a fill 2 get a 3^rd free policy. Remarkable!

It’s a bit of journey out to Concord but if you’re living or visiting the Bay Area and love great, diverse beer—Ale Industries is a highly recommended venture.

Beers enjoyed:

• Rye’d Piper
• Unity, as in Edward
• This is the shit that killed Elvis
• A.I. Evolution Generation 4
• Cherry Kush
• Electric Fantasy
• Golden State of Mind
• Uncle Jessie

Check out the rest of the gallery below!

http://aleindustries.com
975 Detroit Ave, Unit E
Concord, CA 94518
(925) 470-5280
@AleIndustries

Cheers!
Ben

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