Best craft breweries in California (2026 guide)

The best craft breweries in California for a varied trip include Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Chico, Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa and Windsor, Highland Park Brewery in Los Angeles, Pizza Port in Solana Beach, and AleSmith Brewing Company in San Diego. Add Fieldwork and Cellarmaker in the Bay Area, Alvarado Street on the Monterey coast, and North Park Beer Company in San Diego, and you have a route that covers almost every style worth drinking.

California is where the modern American craft beer movement started, and the state still sets the pace. Expect bright West Coast IPAs, hop-forward pilsners, Belgian-inspired and barrel-aged sour beers, and taprooms that double as pizza shops, beach hangouts, and neighborhood living rooms.

Quick picks

Best for beer history: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico
Best for double IPA fans: Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa and Windsor
Best for hoppy lager: Highland Park Brewery, Los Angeles
Best for a beach day: Pizza Port, Solana Beach
Best for big stouts: AleSmith Brewing Company, San Diego
Best food stop on the coast: Alvarado Street Brewery, Monterey
Best for kids and dogs: Humble Sea Brewing Co., Santa Cruz

California breweries at a glance

Brewery	City	Known for	Good for
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.	Chico	Pale Ale with whole-cone Cascade hops	Brewery tours and a full restaurant
Russian River Brewing Company	Santa Rosa and Windsor	Pliny the Elder and barrel-aged sour beer	A Sonoma County day trip
Moonraker Brewing Co.	Auburn and Cameron Park	Hazy IPAs and West Coast pale ales	A Sierra foothills stop
Fieldwork Brewing Co.	Berkeley	A rotating list of about 20 drafts	Groups with mixed tastes
Cellarmaker Brewing Company	San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland	Small-batch hoppy beer and Detroit-style pizza	A city night out
Humble Sea Brewing Co.	Santa Cruz	Lagers, hoppy ales, and barrel-aged stouts	Families and dog owners
Alvarado Street Brewery	Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Salinas	Award-winning IPAs and lagers	Lunch on the Monterey Peninsula
Highland Park Brewery	Los Angeles	Timbo Pils, the original West Coast pilsner	Lager fans
Monkish Brewing Co.	Torrance, Anaheim, and Los Angeles	Belgian-ish ales and hazy double IPAs	Hop hunters
Pizza Port	Solana Beach and four other coastal towns	Swami's IPA and brewpub pizza	A casual beach town meal
AleSmith Brewing Company	San Diego	Speedway Stout and Nut Brown Ale	Families with kids and dogs
North Park Beer Company	San Diego	Hop-Fu! West Coast IPA	Neighborhood taproom hopping

The 12 best craft breweries in California

1. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Where: Chico

Ken Grossman started Sierra Nevada in 1980, building his first brewhouse from scrap dairy equipment. The brewery says fewer than 100 breweries were operating in the United States that year, and most made only light lager. Grossman's answer was Pale Ale, brewed with the whole-cone Cascade hops he loved. That 5.6% beer is still the brewery's calling card, and the company remains 100% family owned.

The Chico campus is a full day out. The taproom restaurant pours the core lineup and seasonal releases, while the Brewhouse Bar sits in the tour lobby against a wall of copper kettles. Tours range from a 60-minute brewery tour and tasting to a sustainability and garden tour and a three-hour Beer Geek Tour. The brewery also farms onsite with regenerative agriculture, and its sustainability work is part of the garden tour.

Good to know: The taproom books a limited number of reservations for parties of up to 12 and keeps most tables for walk-ins, with a live waitlist you can join before you arrive. Tours have limited space, so book ahead.

Visit Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.'s official site

2. Russian River Brewing Company

Where: Santa Rosa and Windsor

Russian River began in 1997 as a project of Korbel Champagne Cellars in Guerneville. Brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo first brewed Pliny the Elder there in 1999, and the brewery describes it as one of the first commercially brewed double IPAs in America. Korbel left the beer business in 2003 and transferred the name and recipes to Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo, who opened their own brewpub in downtown Santa Rosa in April 2004. They later bought out all their partners.

The 85,000-square-foot Windsor brewery opened in October 2018 with a brewpub, beer garden, gift shop, and guided and self-guided tours. Its draft list runs from Blind Pig IPA and STS Pils to Belgian-inspired Damnation and barrel-aged sour beers such as Supplication and Consecration. The Santa Rosa pub focuses on small-batch beer and pizza.

Good to know: Pliny the Younger, the brewery's limited 10.25% follow-up to Pliny the Elder, is scheduled for in-person release at both pubs from March 19 to April 1, 2027. Windsor needs a reservation for parties larger than 10.

Visit Russian River Brewing Company's official site

3. Moonraker Brewing Co.

Where: Auburn and Cameron Park

Moonraker opened its Auburn pub on Earth Day 2016, a date the brewery chose because sustainability sits at the center of how it operates. It runs an electric boiler and more than 1,100 solar panels, which the brewery says produce enough energy to brew, run the taproom, and bank extra power. It is a rare chance to drink beer from a solar-powered brewhouse.

The release calendar leans hazy without ignoring other styles. Recent and upcoming cans include Puzzle Dust hazy pale ale, Las Piñas and Double Scoop hazy IPAs, Dankish West Coast double IPA, and Ghost Ship West Coast pale ale, with draft-only beers such as an ESB and an Irish stout. In May 2023 Moonraker opened Millhouse in Cameron Park, a restaurant and taproom with a seasonal menu built on local ingredients and a morning coffee bar.

Good to know: The Auburn pub takes table reservations for parties of 15 or more, and Millhouse takes them for parties of 12 or more. Call ahead in both cases.

Visit Moonraker Brewing Co.'s official site

4. Fieldwork Brewing Co.

Where: Berkeley

Fieldwork was founded in Berkeley in 2014 and opened its first taproom there in 2015. The idea was simple: brew the beer the founders wanted to drink and serve it somewhere they wanted to spend time. That Berkeley taproom on Sixth Street has grown into 10 Northern California locations, including Napa, Sacramento, San Mateo, Santa Rosa, and two San Francisco sites.

The draft list changes constantly, with around 20 beers on tap at a time. Fieldwork leans hard into hops but also brews Japanese rice lagers, German pilsners, tropical sours, Belgian styles, and classic stouts. A growing non-alcoholic lineup includes N/A beer, hop water, and mocktails. The kitchen serves salads, sandwiches, and pizza, and the brewery openly invites guests to bring their kids and their dogs. It is an easy choice when your group wants different things.

Good to know: The Berkeley taproom is open daily for indoor and outdoor dining, with pickup and local delivery.

Visit Fieldwork Brewing Co.'s official site

5. Cellarmaker Brewing Company

Where: San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland

Cellarmaker started in 2013 as a small San Francisco brewery making beer in small batches, one recipe at a time. The brewery says making the same three or four beers all the time would be boring, so it skips a fixed production schedule and keeps experimenting with hops, barrels, and yeast. New beers drop weekly.

The current list shows the range: Hop Making Sense West Coast pale ale, Mo' Strata West Coast IPA, Dank Williams West Coast double IPA, hazy IPAs, and Coffee & Cigarettes, a smoked coffee porter. In San Francisco, Cellarmaker House of Pizza on Mission Street pairs the beer with Detroit-style pizza and takes reservations. Oakland has a second House of Pizza on Webster Street. The Berkeley taproom on Parker Street welcomes all ages, allows leashed pets outside, and serves bar-style pizza.

Good to know: Cellarmaker does not sell growlers or offer growler fills. It ships beer within California only.

Visit Cellarmaker Brewing Company's official site

6. Humble Sea Brewing Co.

Where: Santa Cruz

Humble Sea brews in Santa Cruz and calls its style range everything from "Wait, you can do that with beer?" to precision-engineered German lagers. The brewery uses traditional methods such as decoction mashing in copper kettles and horizontal lagering tanks, alongside experimental hoppy ales. Its barrel-aged imperial stouts spend 12 to 34 months in bourbon, cognac, and other barrels and are hand-filled in limited bottles.

The original Swift Street taproom is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a rotating draft list of light beers, hoppy ales, and other styles, plus wine, cider, kombucha, and N/A beer. Empanadas from Fonda Felix are served all day, and food trucks rotate through the week. Trivia runs Wednesday evenings in the garden. The brewery also pours at the Santa Cruz Wharf and in Pacifica, Alameda, and San Francisco.

Good to know: All Humble Sea locations are kid friendly, and dogs are welcome. Check the brewery's Instagram stories for the daily draft list, and leave outside food at home.

Visit Humble Sea Brewing Co.'s official site

7. Alvarado Street Brewery

Where: Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Salinas

The Hill family founded Alvarado Street in 2014 with a neighborhood brewpub in downtown Monterey. The company now runs three breweries: the original 10-barrel system in Monterey, a 5-barrel lager-focused research brewery in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and a 20-barrel production brewery in Salinas. The brewery reports 13 Great American Beer Festival medals and two World Beer Cup medals.

Beers range from hop-saturated IPAs and pale ales to crisp lagers such as Monterey Beer. New recipes are tested on the small systems and scaled up in Salinas when they work. Food matters here as much as beer. The kitchens cook most items from scratch and buy from Salinas Valley farms. The Oldtown Salinas taproom sits in a restored 1930s art deco building, and the production brewery on Dayton Street has its own tasting room.

Good to know: Burger Monday deals run at the Monterey pub and Carmel bistro, and Wing Wednesday adds the Oldtown Salinas taproom, dine-in only. The Oldtown Salinas taproom is closed on Mondays.

Visit Alvarado Street Brewery's official site

8. Highland Park Brewery

Where: Los Angeles

Highland Park Brewery opened in 2014 in the back room of The Hermosillo, a bar on York Boulevard in the Highland Park neighborhood, according to LA Weekly. Founder Bob Kunz had worked at Craftsman Brewing in Pasadena before that. In 2018 the brewery moved into a larger brewery and taproom on North Spring Street at the edge of Chinatown, Eater LA reported.

The brewery describes its lineup as fresh hoppy beers, crisp lagers, bold stouts, and mixed-culture fermentation. Its best-known beer is Timbo Pils, introduced in 2015 and billed as the original West Coast pilsner: a German-style pilsner dry-hopped with Mosaic and Citra. Each year Timbo Week brings Timbo variations and versions brewed by friends such as Cellarmaker, Alvarado Street, and North Park. The taproom has a full food menu with vegan and vegetarian options, and well-behaved dogs are welcome on the patio.

Good to know: Highland Park does not take general reservations or serve beer flights. Groups of 35 or more can request space through the brewery's events form.

Visit Highland Park Brewery's official site

9. Monkish Brewing Co.

Where: Torrance, Anaheim, and Los Angeles

Monkish has brewed in Torrance since 2012. Founders Henry and Adriana Nguyen opened with a focus on Belgian beer, a style Henry favored as a homebrewer, LA Weekly reported. The brewery still lists a "Belgian-ish" section, including Feminist, a tripel brewed with hibiscus, and Keys to Heaven, a quadrupel.

Most of today's menu is hoppy. Double dry-hopped IPAs, double IPAs, and triple IPAs built on Citra, Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy, and Mosaic fill the board, joined by Heart is Hollow unfiltered pilsner and Gray Day, a farmhouse grisette aged in an oak foudre. The Torrance tasting room is kid and dog friendly and hosts food trucks. A second tasting room operates on Anaheim Boulevard in Anaheim, and a third opened in 2026 in Echo Park near Dodger Stadium, with an outdoor alley patio.

Good to know: Each location posts separate menus for beers to drink on site and beers to go, updated online. Echo Park stays open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Visit Monkish Brewing Co.'s official site

10. Pizza Port

Where: Solana Beach

In March 1987, siblings Gina and Vince Marsaglia bought a struggling pizza place in Solana Beach, just north of San Diego. Vince started homebrewing in the storage area, and Pizza Port poured its first house beers in 1992. Expansion followed: Carlsbad in 1997, San Clemente in 2003, Ocean Beach in 2010, and Bressi Ranch in Carlsbad in 2013, which added a canning line. The company says its locations have won more than 91 Great American Beer Festival medals and awards.

The year-round lineup is built for beach weather: Swami's IPA, Coastin' tropical IPA, Mongo double IPA, Ponto session IPA, Amigo Lager, Chronic Ale, and California Honey blonde ale. Each brewpub pairs the beer with pizza and salads in a casual dining room. Pizza Port now also operates in Imperial Beach.

Good to know: The original Solana Beach brewpub on Highway 101 opens at 11 a.m. daily. The Carlsbad Village location added a bottle shop in 2008 with beer from other breweries.

Visit Pizza Port's official site

11. AleSmith Brewing Company

Where: San Diego

AleSmith was founded in 1995 and describes itself as family owned and community minded. The brewery says it is recognized as one of the world's foremost craft breweries on the strength of awards at local, national, and international competitions. Speedway Stout, a pitch-black stout brewed with locally roasted coffee, is the headline beer. Barrel-aged Speedway variants appear regularly, alongside Nut Brown Ale, Anvil Pilsner, and seasonal returns such as Evil Dead Red.

The brewery and tasting room sit off Miramar Road in San Diego. AleSmith says the tasting room is perfect for the whole family, with a kid-friendly and dog-friendly atmosphere, onsite tastings, beer to go, rotating food trucks, TVs for big games, and private event spaces. It is a practical first or last stop for anyone driving to or from the beer bars of central San Diego.

Good to know: The tasting room and gift shop open at 11 a.m. every day and stay open until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Visit AleSmith Brewing Company's official site

12. North Park Beer Company

Where: San Diego

Head brewer and proprietor Kelsey McNair moved to San Diego to design video games and started homebrewing in 2004. His Hop-Fu! IPA became, in the brewery's words, the single most award-winning homebrew recipe in history in the American IPA category. After years of raising money and searching for a site, Kelsey and his wife, Amanda, opened North Park Beer Co. in June 2016 on University Avenue.

The brewery calls itself a home for ales and lagers, with Hop-Fu! still on the menu as a double dry-hopped West Coast IPA beside hazy IPAs and pale ales. There are now three taprooms. The North Park flagship has a new kitchen, the Bankers Hill taproom has 24 taps and its own kitchen, and the Crown Point Pizza Shop near Pacific Beach has 24 taps and parking behind the building. Each location has a dog-friendly patio.

Good to know: The Crown Point Pizza Shop runs happy hour Monday through Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. The brewery ships cans within California every Wednesday.

Visit North Park Beer Company's official site

Best cities and regions for a California brewery trip

Chico, Sonoma County, and the Sierra foothills

Start in Chico with a Sierra Nevada tour and lunch, then drive south to the Sacramento area for Moonraker in Auburn or its Millhouse in Cameron Park. Sonoma County is a separate day. Pair the Santa Rosa pub and the Windsor brewery with a Fieldwork stop in Santa Rosa if you want a third pour. Plan on one region per day, because these towns sit hours apart.

San Francisco Bay Area

The Bay Area is the easiest place to cover several breweries without long drives. Fieldwork's Berkeley taproom and Cellarmaker's Berkeley taproom are both in West Berkeley. Cross to Oakland for Cellarmaker House of Pizza, then end in San Francisco's Mission District. Humble Sea has Bay Area taprooms in Pacifica, Alameda, and San Francisco if you cannot reach Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz and the Monterey Peninsula

Highway 1 links Humble Sea in Santa Cruz with Alvarado Street in Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Salinas. It is a good two-day route: Santa Cruz for a laid-back afternoon with the kids or the dog, then Monterey for dinner at the original brewpub and Carmel for the small lager-focused bistro.

Los Angeles and Orange County

Los Angeles traffic shapes the plan. Highland Park Brewery in Chinatown and Monkish's Echo Park tasting room are close together near Dodger Stadium. Monkish's Torrance headquarters suits a South Bay afternoon, and its Anaheim tasting room fits a day in Orange County.

San Diego County

San Diego has the tightest cluster on this list. Start at AleSmith in Miramar, head to North Park Beer Co. on University Avenue, and finish at a Pizza Port in Solana Beach, Carlsbad, or Ocean Beach. Other well-known San Diego breweries are within easy reach if you have an extra day.

What California brewers are known for

California's claim to craft beer history is strong. The California Craft Brewers Association traces the movement to 1965, when Fritz Maytag saved Anchor Brewery in San Francisco. In 1977 Jack McAuliffe founded New Albion Brewery in Sonoma, which the association calls the first modern microbrewery in America. Sierra Nevada followed in 1980, and its Pale Ale helped define the American pale ale. If you want a refresher on that style, our guide to American pale ale explains what to expect.

The state also helped invent the brewpub. California legalized brewpubs in 1982, the second state to do so, and Mendocino Brewing Co. opened as the state's first brewpub in 1983, according to the association. In 1989 the California Small Brewers Association, now the CCBA, became the first state trade group for craft brewers.

Hops are the through line. Russian River's Pliny the Elder, first brewed in 1999, is one of the earliest commercial double IPAs. San Diego breweries such as AleSmith, Pizza Port, and North Park made the clear, bitter West Coast IPA a regional signature, while newer taprooms pour hazy IPAs side by side with them. Our explainer on hazy IPA covers how the two approaches differ.

California brewers also bend lager rules. Highland Park's Timbo Pils, introduced in 2015, dry-hops a German-style pilsner with American hops and helped popularize the West Coast pilsner. If the line between the two styles is fuzzy, read pilsner vs lager. For the funkier side, Russian River's barrel-aged beers and Monkish's foudre-aged grisette show the state's long interest in sour beer and Belgian-inspired ales.

California craft beer by the numbers

The Brewers Association's state data for 2025 puts California first in the country on three of its main measures.

Measure	California (2025)	National rank
Craft breweries	939	1st
Breweries per 100,000 adults 21+	3.2	31st
Craft beer produced	3,450,329 barrels	1st
Gallons per adult 21+	3.6	15th
Economic impact	$8,307 million	1st
Economic impact per adult 21+	$282	27th

Those figures show the scale of the scene. No state has more craft breweries or produces more craft beer. The per capita ranks are lower because California's adult population is so large, which is a useful reminder that the density of breweries varies widely from one region to the next. Source: Brewers Association state craft beer stats, 2025 data.

Planning a California brewery trip

California is too big for one brewery weekend. Chico and San Diego are more than 500 miles apart by road, so pick one or two regions and give each a full day. Northern California, the Bay Area, the Central Coast, Los Angeles, and San Diego each support a trip on their own.

Weather is friendly most of the year along the coast. Summer brings crowds to beach towns such as Solana Beach, Santa Cruz, and Monterey, while fall and spring are usually calmer. Watch the calendar for big events. The CCBA organizes California Craft Beer Week, which returned in July 2025, and holds the CCBA Summit Beer Festival with more than 80 independent breweries on November 7, 2026. Russian River's Pliny the Younger release in spring 2027 will draw lines to Sonoma County.

Check each brewery's site on the day you go. Hours change by season, release days get busy, and some taprooms close on certain weekdays. A few, such as Highland Park, do not serve flights, while others rotate their lists daily.

Order smaller pours when you are comparing beers. Many of the beers on this list are strong, including double IPAs, imperial stouts, and Belgian-style tripels. Our guides to ordering a beer flight and reading a tap list help you pace a long day. Choose a designated driver, book a ride service, or use public transit in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Never drive between breweries after drinking.

What is the best craft brewery in California?

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Chico is the best starting point for most visitors. It opened in 1980, helped define the American pale ale, and offers tours, a full restaurant, and a brewhouse bar. Russian River Brewing Company is the top pick for double IPA fans, and Highland Park Brewery leads for lager drinkers.

What is the best city in California for a brewery trip?

San Diego is the best city in California for a brewery trip. AleSmith, North Park Beer Company, and several Pizza Port brewpubs sit within a short drive of one another. The Bay Area is a close second, with Fieldwork and Cellarmaker in Berkeley, Cellarmaker in Oakland and San Francisco, and Humble Sea taprooms nearby.

How many craft breweries are in California?

California had 939 craft breweries in 2025, the most of any state, according to the Brewers Association. The state also ranked first for craft beer production at 3,450,329 barrels and first for economic impact at $8,307 million. Its rank for breweries per capita was 31st because of its large adult population.

What beer is California known for?

California is best known for the West Coast IPA and the American pale ale. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, first brewed in Chico in 1980, helped define the pale ale, and Russian River's Pliny the Elder is one of the earliest double IPAs. The state is also known for West Coast pilsners, barrel-aged sour beers, and hazy IPAs.

Are California breweries family friendly and dog friendly?

Many California breweries welcome both kids and dogs, but policies vary by location. AleSmith, Humble Sea, and Monkish's Torrance tasting room say they are kid and dog friendly. Highland Park welcomes families inside and dogs on its patio, North Park has dog-friendly patios, and Cellarmaker Berkeley allows leashed pets outside. Check each brewery's page first.

Do I need reservations at California breweries?

Most California taprooms take walk-ins, but some busy spots offer or require reservations. Sierra Nevada's Chico taproom books a limited number of tables for parties of up to 12. Russian River's Windsor brewpub needs a reservation for parties over 10. Highland Park does not take general reservations, and Moonraker only reserves tables for larger groups.

Can I buy beer to go at California breweries?

Yes, most breweries on this list sell beer to go. AleSmith, Monkish, and Humble Sea list to-go beer at their taprooms, and Russian River sells bottles and cans. Cellarmaker, North Park, and Humble Sea also ship beer within California. Cellarmaker does not sell growlers, so plan on cans or bottles.

Sources

Brewery details were checked against official sources on October 26, 2026.