Alameda Island Brewing Company

AIBC is really hitting their stride. No lines, nice folks and the beer menu is expanding and getting better with every batch. Grab an East End Pizza and eat in the taproom. Save a slice for Mike and Matt.

I’m looking for an apartment on the east end just so I can be closer to this place! Michael is the best!

Great beer. Lots of options. Really warm and comfortable venue and space. Kid friendly. Attentive and friendly service. You can grab food and bring it there — huge bonus. With lots of great food options next door.

Great new brewery! The staff is awesome and has great recommendations. I tend to lean toward IPA’s and they had me try the Uncommon Common (Kentucky Common) and it blew my mind! The space they have a great too! Lots of board game choices and great outdoor patio. Added bonus, you can see in their brewhouse!

Nice place to have a beer, really welcoming staff with solid brews on tap. I would like to see them branch out into some more adventurous beers, which hopefully they will now that they’re getting more settled and picking up in business.

Great beer & prices. Terrible lighting. V uncozy place for beer drinking. Why is impossible to find a cozy bar in this town

After a day checking out Alameda’s spirit row (st. George, faction, ect) we hit Alameda Island on our way out of town.
You guys! We should have started here. SO good! We got the sampler of their basics — hef, kolsch, pale, ipa — and a few of the rotators. Every beer was delish. In addition, the space is great, tons of games and lots of seating and the staff is wonderful. If we were locals this would be our go to spot!

Hands down the best!!! Great beers and a wonderful staff make a relaxing place to have some tastes and maybe learn something about beer and brewing. Take home a growler and remember to #beeritforward

Love this place!!! Great staff and wonderful beer!
I live down the street aways… so my roomates and I picked up growlers and now have a tradition of walking down there… grabbing a pint… refilling the growlers and returning home.
We have a lot of guests… so is great having delicious beer that’s local for these events!
My guests and roomates can’t seem to get enough of the coffee porter…
My fav’s are the Scotch Ale and Uncommon Common
But hell they are all good!!! Not had one I didn’t like yet!!!
Brought back a growler of the coffee porter & the Kolsch for my other guests… and they loved the Kolsch… but remembered that some of the folks loved the Kolsch and Hef from before… so gave in ;)
Staff very sweet & patient wtih my indecisciveness and helpful with information on beers and friendly!
Sweet spot with great beer! Great prices… and all the beers are delicious!
Stop in!
Next Sunday they are having a trivia night…
:)

A beer haven where adults bring their kids. Seems like an excessive ratio of kids for somewhere that only serves beer and no food. Family friendly I suppose. They do sell expensive gourmet pretzels on the side. But Im not sure if it’s a regular thing.
Games like Jenga and other card games tend to get loud after a few brews.
Overall, a nice hangout for a weekend afternoon.

After browsing Unilocal while being home, I stumbled across Alameda Island Brewing Company, which happened to be not too far from my house. My friend and I decided to stop by one day. We’re both relatively new to beer tasting, so once we got in, we opted for «one of everything.» The flight, consisting of 10 tasters, was definitely reasonably priced!
Mike was extremely helpful in educating us on the proper way and proper order to taste everything. He’s super nice and extremely knowledgeable!
There were some beers I liked, some I didn’t like so much. Two of my favorites were the Hef (which had slight banana undertones) and the Park Street Morning Porter. The Porter definitely tasted like coffee, which is kind of weird, but I personally really enjoyed it.
If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by! The ambiance of the establishment, the excellent service, and the amazing beer definitely won’t disappoint!

My friend and i were a little enthusiastic about beet tasting so we came here 10 minutes after they opened.
Mike helped us beer noobs out and he was great!!! Super knowledgeable and kind. We got to the bottom of the keg (which looks super milky) and he said it was the best part and let us have a taste. It was reaaally good!
A friend and I split the 10 flight sampler, which was basically all the beers they had on tap. Haha my favorite was the hef (i think that’s the name, we started going by numbers after the first 4 tests).
We sat outside on a beautiful sunny alameda day and the back patio is great! Such a nice chill spot and we read the descriptions of all of the beers as we went! Will be back for more good conversations and even better beer :).
Plus super clean restrooms! Ahaha-​hey it matters to us ladies… well at least me.

Faction Brewery has been on my bookmarks for a long while now. It’s still on there because the line to get a beer snaked around the entire taproom. So many folks in a tiny area that I had to get out before claustrophobia set in.
So instead, I decided to check out the new kid on the Island. Alameda Island Brewing Company.
Their taproom is awesome! Designed in the modern style with many different colors and lots of wood as most new breweries seem to gravitate towards. So much open space that Faction should be suffering from square footage envy.
The service was really great. The dude that was hanging out in the visible brewing area practically ran over to assist us as we were standing in line to order. Later, he came to scoop up our sampler trays. It’s the small things that count in the service department.
So how does the new kid on the island stack up against the brewing behemoth to the west? The answer is… not as well as I was hoping they would.
Many of their beers lean towards the German style which I’m not normally a fan of. Yet in this instance, it’s their strongest style here. Their IPA was all bitter and harsh tasting. Not balanced and not all that hoppy. Actually it was more sweet than anything. Their Neptune’s Pale Ale was just off, almost rancid. They had a version 2 which was much better. No reason to keep V1 on the menu. Good thing I kept notes on Untappd because I think I blocked out how bad this pale was until I reread my tasting notes.
All their Euro style beers however were quite solid. The Kolsh was excellent if you like this style. Their Alt Bier was pretty good and my favorite of the German styles that they had. They had something called a «Kottbusser» which was okay but I see why this beer was exiled in the first place.
Of course my favorite beer, as well as the only one I would drink again was the Park St. Morning Porter. Combine coffee with anything and I’m gonna love it. If they made more dark beers like this, they could get my attention.
I’m not sure what their growler policy is but their fill prices are a reasonable $ 10 – 15.
I love their taproom, service was great. Now if only they can fine tune these beers to get them up to speed with the other Bay Area breweries. I would much rather sip beer in the cozy confines of this taproom than anywhere else in Alameda, or many places for that matter. That is provided that the beer is up to par.

Came here 5÷30÷15 — loved it! Great friendly and knowledgable service. I got to try the limited «Nilla Wafer Pudding» brew — WOW! I think I found my favorite beer ever!
Fiancée got a flight and loves the Hef D, scotch ale, & the coffee porter.
We will be back! Quieter atmosphere and spacious which I really enjoy. It’s nice to be able to hear the person your with when they’re talking.

Love love love this place. The beer is good and the staff is great. Prices are reasonable. It’s great place to hang out and chill, with a patio on the side. Chat up the owner if you can – he’s got a lot of enthusiasm about brewing and is a genial person.
The beers: I had a Kolsch, which was perfect for hot weekend afternoons. Friends loved the porter and the Sea Haggis. Looking forward to an imperial stout that might be on its way! They also have growlers if you want to take some home with you.
Atmosphere: Laid back. Sometimes the place gets packed, but my friends and I have always been able to find a spot. Lots of natural light.
If you’re looking for a relaxed place to have a happy hour, or just are looking to try new microbrews, you definitely should check this spot out.

Kolsh, and porter were my favs. The Sea Haggis was also pretty great. I wasn’t big on the pale ale or the IPA. Definitely room for improvement.
I liked the facility. Super clean. Everyone was very friendly and knowledgeable about each of the beers. I appreciated the brew masters taking the time to chat with us too. They were even open to suggestion about their beers.

The heavens seem to have parted and Alameda has been blessed with this great little brewery right on Park St. Alameda, you needed this, and Alameda, you have to go here. Like immediately. Is there ever a bad time for a beer? If your answer to that is yes, then check yo self because you should be wrecking yo self.
The space here is pretty wide and spacious. They’ve got both indoor and outdoor seating so you can get your drink on inside or out in nature. And even when you’re inside, the large windows let light pour in and it kind of makes you forget that you’re sitting in a brewery.
The beer is the most important part right? If they offered bad beer, this would all be for moot. Thankfully, the beer here is fantastic. Their IPA’s are super hoppy and they’ve got nice dashes of grapefruit and citrus. Their Porter tastes like a murky and dark coffee. My personal favorite is the Sea Haggis. It’s got this sweet molasses flavor that’s hard to beat. Their new Hefeweisen flavor is very solid as well, with enough banana flavor to make a monkey king happy.
Really, the only knock on the place is that they don’t serve their own food, but they let you bring in food from other places. So with the Marketplace right there, you can just easily grab some food and walk over for a beer or two or three. Their flights are prices perfectly at only $ 7 for 5 flavors. Can’t beat that at all.
Alameda Island Brewing Co is definitely on point with the rest of Park St, and it just fits perfectly with the rest of the city. Definitely one of my new favorite places to be!

Not intentionally but I ended up here for their «official» grand opening. It was popping, lots of neighborhood peeps. How did I know? Tons of families/​kids. Strollers, wagons, pizza boxes and judging by how many kids, I assumed they all walked from the surrounding hood. Not being judgy, but I have never been around so many children whilst beer tasting.
The brews here are solid however. They are not thick and burly. They are not «hopping» on that multi-​IPA bandwagon that most cali-​breweries are doing. Rather they have maybe 10 brews altogether and most of them are lighter and pretty well balanced IMO.
The Kolsch is decent. The Pale Ale is kinda weird for my taste but they have another version that is more hop pronounced. They have a porter that is light in body but heavy on the coffee notes, surprisingly good. They even have an «Exile» which is supposedly a recipe/​style that was nixed by the German Purity Law, eons ago (Kottbuser). It is light yet smooth, I liked it a lot. Scotch Ale also well done here.
They offer several types of growlers for the take-​out but were selling their basic half gallon one for 5 bucks that night (usually $ 10). So after the initial fill up, a return fill up will only be $ 10 – 15 depending on the style chosen. I actually saw a guy buy just the growler with nothing in it, for a future visit, lol.
No food here outside of pretzel/​crackers but Park St. is at your disposal. Just watch out on Sundays where a lot of places are either closed or close early.

Loving the continual growth of Bay Area microbreweries and Alameda Island was no exception. Heard about it by worth of mouth from a few friends who love brews and while the atmosphere and setup is great, the beers themselves have a good deal of room for improvement.
Tasters are available for all the brews and pints come at $ 5. Being a hop head, I went for both versions 1 & 2 of the Neptune’s Pale Ale. A lovely floral nose on the latter, but tinny malts on the palate. Version 1 had good hop bitterness to it, yet there was minimal depth. As for the Alameda’s IPA, I wasn’t a huge fan at all of its mild caramel sweetness and weak hop presence. To each their own I suppose.
The space is pretty expansive though a few more standard height tables would be welcome given all the floor space. Lighting is spotty and could be better as well. Not too bad of a start and I hope these guys start picking it up with more time and experience.

Did you know beer saved the world? When the plague was among us, people drank beer because the water supply was tainted. Don’t quote me on that, my dad taught me that from a documentary.
I’ve always been a beer person ever since I could remember. I can remember hardly being able to walk and my grandpa gave me a sup of his Budweizer and I loved it. Hes a good grandpa, don’t judge. But when I started getting older my dad kept teaching me and eventually started doing some home brewing so I learned from terms and how and what to look for when tasting.
I love this place, I can’t wait until they get lots of different types of beers to fill up all their taps. So far, my favorite is the Park St. Porter. I can totally drink that for breakfast. It’s pretty much coffee in beer form, sans the bitter taste. One of my favorite things to do is to come in here with a friend or friends on a nice afternoon and get a sampler with some good conversation and you’re good to go.
The only con is the food, I know, everyone knows. The thing is that they can only have one type of permit and that allows them to brew (or something?) but then they can’t sell/​serve food. So next time if I were you, I’d walk across the street to the marketplace for some sushi/​pizza/​fries and bring it over. I’d offer it to the workers, too, they’re great people along with the owners. I love when owners walk around their businesses, it’s more personal and makes me feel more comfortable.
This place is totally family and dog friendly, if you’re comfortable with bringing them. I’ve seen lots and dogs and kids here. It’s not like they actually drink the beer but it’s a nice little place to be.