When we left Paso Robles on Sunday morning I was not really sure where we would stop throughout the day; I had planned on visiting a brewery that shall remain nameless, but due to their only having two brews available it was decided to skip them. Two beers after three years just did not do it for me. The backup destination was an easy choice since I had been thinking it since I got my tickets on Wednesday, BarrelHouse Brewing Company.

Tanya and I first visited BarrelHouse Brewing in February 2014 when they were just announcing their first anniversary was coming up. We were both impressed with what we tried; so much so that our beer stash from that trip consisted of several bottles from BarrelHouse.

A couple weeks ago I was covering the South Bay Beer & Wine Festival and ran into Mathew Jacobs, lead brewer for BarrelHouse, and Billy Thompson, their sales manager. I told them how much I enjoyed everything about our experience two plus years ago when Jacobs expressed that I really should return to see how much they have progressed. Judging by the Curly Wolf they were pouring at the event, I totally agreed.

BarrelHouse is a beautiful location with ample outside seating which was empty on our last visit but was packed to the hilt on this particular Sunday as it was a stop on a motorcycle poker run. It was pretty amazing to see the difference, since there may have been two other people there during our first visit and this time I probably saw 10 or 15 people that I knew plus a couple hundred bikers. Business seems to be picking up for them.

In all honesty, since it was almost noon and I figured there would be some more stops I was planning on a one and done stop, but after trying their IPAngo mango IPA I did not put up much of an argument when Tanya suggested we should get tasters of the two sours they pre-released for that weekend, Eleanor Prickly Pear Sour and Othello Bourbon Barrel Aged Dark Sour. I think I may have created a monster if she is the one choosing sours, just a few months ago she did not like them. Actually, my argument was if we were going to get the sours, we should probably add a taster of the Big Sur DIPA to which she countered with the suggestion of evening it out with Curly Wolf. It was a great idea and resulted in a few bottles purchased.

BarrelHouse Brewing Company is located at 3055 Limestone Way in Paso Robles. They are open seven days a week; Monday through Thursday 2:00-8:00 PM, Friday and Saturday 11:00-9:00 PM and 11:00-8:00 PM on Sunday.

While enjoying our beers out on the dog friendly patio I got into a discussion with one of the South Bay locals about places I should stop by on the way home. Among the names that came up, Libertine Brewing Company struck a note; I seemed to recall that Catelyn from Beachwood BBQ & Brewing had recently moved up here and was working at Libertine. The only question was, which one, as they have a brewpub in Morro Bay and a tasting room in San Luis Obispo. I flipped a mental coin and headed to San Luis Obispo.

As luck would have it, Catelyn did work at the San Luis Obispo location of Libertine Brewing Company. The smallish, tasting room was doing a pretty brisk business at this production brewery that specializes in sours, wild ales, gose and bourbon barrel aged coffees. If you are looking for a west coast IPA or a mild blonde, this is not the place for you.

Now, if you do like the above, Libertine Brewing is definitely the place for you. Established in 2012 with a small brewpub in Morro Bay, they have now added this 9,000 square foot facility which had quite a few barrels in it. We tried a pretty wide variety of their brews ranging from the Wild Coffee Stout and Jove to their Wild IPA and The Intern. Wild IPA and Thanks Brian! were definitely my two favorites, but they were all interesting in their own way.

Libertine Brewing Company is located at 1234 Broad Street in San Luis Obispo. They are open Tuesday through Thursday 4:00-9:00 PM, Friday and Saturday 11:00-10:00PM and Sunday 11:00-8:00 PM.

Unfortunately, Libertine Brewing, while being dog friendly was not exactly ideal for someone that needed food as there really was nothing suggested that delivered and Tanya was getting hungry so we gathered our spoils and the dogs and headed south to Buellton and Firestone Walker’s Barrelworks.

As fate would have it, we were there too early for dinner and Tanya didn’t want another burger and appetizers, so I finished my Violet Underground and we headed around the corner to Hitchin’ Post II where I called it a day as far as photo documentation was concerned.

It was a great weekend and thanks to everyone that helped make that possible; you know who you are. Cheers!

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