Here’s a collage of some images from a visit I made yesterday to Alvarado Street Brewery’s production facility and tap room in Salinas.
The brewery and tap room had been on my list for a while but, somehow or another, I never managed to get there whenever I was in Salinas. Yesterday, however, I was in town and I had a few spare moments before leaving, so I decided to give it a shot.
The brewery is in an industrial area of town, and if you know Salinas you know that that means mainly agriculture-related businesses. They start their days early, and so things shut down early as well. As I drove to the brewery a little after 5:30 in the afternoon, the area was pretty much deserted except for a couple of guys at a food truck and some straggler semis pulling out of some of the plants. I thought, “Man, this place is dead.”
The tasting room, however, was hopping. Alvarado Street has managed to create a really nice, almost intimate, space in the midst of fermentation tanks and what could’ve been a kind of cold industrial warehouse. Consequently, the place was packed with people –a lot them clearly just off work from the surrounding plants– having a good time and enjoying some quite tasty beers.
After sampling a few of Alvarado Street’s brews, I asked my server to point me to one that I really should not leave without trying. He steered me toward Minesweeper IPA.
Minesweeper is very pleasant 55 IBU, 7% ABV, hazy IPA. It is not as “juicy” nor as bitter as some examples that have come into prominence lately, but that actually enhances its drinkability. My server pointed out that Minesweeper was “the one that really put us on the map.”
Alvarado Street Brewery & Tasting Room
1315 Dayton Street, Suite E
Salinas, CA 93901