Sudwerk Brewing Company

One of the underappreciated gems of the Sacramento-area beer community is the Sudwerk Dock Store and tasting room.  Many long-time Sacramentans may hold negative connotations of Sudwerk as a musty old brewpub specializing in weak and outmoded beer styles.  However, the Dock Store, which is located behind the restaurant, has become a real bastion of restless innovation in the local beer scene.  The symbiotic connection that Sudwerk forged with the UC Davis brewing program has resulted in a rapidly rotating and ever-expanding taplist, one that rewards repeat visits.

Of course, none of that would matter if the beer was bad, but Sudwerk has been turning out excellent brews of late.  Our first exposure to this new (and somewhat re-branded) Sudwerk output was at the Art of Beer event, where we were floored by a barrel-aged Flanders red ale cheekily dubbed Diddly Flanders.  That beer was not on tap when we visited the Sudwerk Dock Store a couple of weekends back, but we did get to sample an inspiring array of their brews.

Our eyes got big when we saw that the newly tapped Buffalo Theory was a dark sour beer aged in oak barrels, so we each ordered our own glass.  It’s a nice, non-puckering sour, and offers a good balance between rich and bitter flavors.  The Dock Store was also selling freshly filled bottles of Buffalo Theory, and we can report that the beer performs just as well poured as it does drawn.

After we downed the Buffalo Theory, we took a tasting tour through the rest of the taplist, which included a hearty spiced Gose, a complex and refreshing Black IPL, and a fantastically full-flavored Session IPA.  The taplist changes from day to day, and they are constantly brewing new and ambitious styles, making the Sudwerk Dock Store a mandatory stop for adventurous imbibers.

We also got to meet up with a fellow beer blogger and enthusiast Hops and Dots (aka Natalie) and her boyfriend Blake.  Check out Natalie’s blog here.