A Visit to North Coast Brewing

North Coast Roadtrip travelog #10
Fort Bragg · Sun, 27 Jul 2025, 5:30pm

After hiking at MacKerricher state park we drove into town in Fort Bragg. One thing I'm always keen to do when I'm here is visit North Coast Brewing.

My plan as we rolled into town was to stop briefly at the brewery's store, across the street from their pub, and just buy a few six-packs of hard-to-find beers instead of stopping to drink a few tastes. But the store is no more! Or rather, the store is now inside the pub. Inside the pub, of course, is also the pub. 🤣 And they're reopened their old-school pub room that was closed when I visited here several years ago in the post-Covid mess. Hawk was good with taking a break from the drive, so I sidled up on a bar stool and ordered a sampler.



This sampler isn't like my first visit to the brewery years ago when they poured a gonzo sampler with 14 beers on it. 😳 They serve four beers at a time, though the glasses are a bit larger than before, 4oz. vs. 2.5.  I started with a pick of 4 then added 2 more since Hawk was good taking a rest from the road.

The six beers I tried today are:

• Blue Star wheat beer. I picked this wheat beer to anchor the light end of the lineup. I've enjoyed it before and rarely see it in stores.


• Acme Beer, an American lager. This style isn't one I normally pick out of a lineup but I was curious here because it's new. And I'm glad I tried it because I was reasonably impressed. It's got a stronger flavor than most American lagers do, and none of the skunky taste or aftertaste that most American lagers have. I liked it at least as much as Blue Star.


• Old No. 38 stout. This is described as a Dublin dry stout. It definitely has a dry, almost woody, character. It's not as creamy Guiness Stout. It tasted kind of like if Guiness was a bloke who got drunk and punched you in the mouth. I mean, it's okay; the punch in the mouth was playful. 🤣 But when I want a stout I'd rather have a Guiness. Or maybe a peanut butter chocolate milk dessert-in-a-glass stout.


• PranQster is one I've always enjoyed at the brewery and bought a few times at the store. It's a Belgian style golden ale with a higher than normal ABV, 7.6%. (Dunno if that's higher than normal for the variety, but it's higher than normal for normal beer, which normally comes in at around 4.5%.)


• Le Merle is another beer I've had before, both at the brewery and through stores around home. As Belgian style farmhouse ale it's very similar to PranQster. When I've tried them back-to-back in the past I've often had a slight preference for Le Merle. Today I struggled to tell them apart. But they're both good, so I'd be happy having more of either one.


• Brother Thelonius is a Belgian style abbey ale that I've always enjoyed. The name is a pun, of course. Abbey ale is traditionally made by monks in an abbey. And Thelonius is a callout to the musician Thelonius Monk. Cheesy name aside, it's a really good beer. Though it did take me a while to warm up to it years ago. At a higher alcohol concentration, 9.4%, twice that of normal beer, and with a strong flavor, it's a beer that's best enjoyed when sipped like wine.

I stopped by the store in the pub on my way out the door to grab some packs for take-home. I would've been willing to buy both PranQster and Le Merle but I figured I can find them easily enough in stores at home. Thus I focused on Blue Star, which is usually out of stock. Except it was out of stock here, at the brewery store, too! I picked up a few four-packs of Brother Thelonius because it was at a good price compared to local stores; plus a six-pack of Acme Beer because it's new and it impressed me and I haven't seen it at retail yet.

Afternoon Siesta? More like Pool Fiesta!

It's been getting warm this week. Not hot, per se, as this whole summer so far has been cool out here in the SF Bay Area, but comparatively it is. Today was 88°, which is a whole 7° above average! Wednesday was warm, too, though Thursday in between barely beat the average at 82. So Wednesday and today I took a break in the pool in the afternoon.



My work schedule tends to clear after 2:30pm most days. It's a combination of people in time zones to the east of us finishing their workdays and people in this timezone avoiding scheduling meetings because they have pick-up-the-kids-from-school type responsibilities. Some days I feel tired out and use this mid afternoon respite as a siesta. On warm days like Wednesday and today I decided instead to turn it into a pool fiesta!

Taking a break for the pool doesn't mean I'm slacking at work. It's been a busy week, starting with a bungee trip to Phoenix on Monday and days packed with meetings from my home office since then.

Moreover, just because I go for a dip in the pool doesn't even mean I'm done for the day. Both Wednesday and today I got back to my desk around 4pm and still had work to do. Today I even had a customer meeting at 4:30pm. It was the customer's idea. Who TF wants to have a meeting at the end of the day on a Friday? "Tell me," I wanted to ask at the start of the call, "How long have you hated your family?" 🤣