Sacramento is gaining recognition for its food and drink scene (and rightly so), so if you’re in town, one of the best things to do in Sacramento is try craft beer at Sacramento breweries and taprooms. The Sacramento beer scene continues to grow and is now making the city a beer destination in its own right. If you’d like to check it out, here are my picks for best places to drink beer in Sacramento.
Best Breweries Sacramento
Fieldwork Brewing Co.
Fieldwork is our choice for the best brewery with food in Sacramento! And it’s kid-friendly and dog-friendly!
Fieldwork is a Berkeley-based brewery with a location in the Handle District of Midtown Sacramento. We always like to order a flight to try a few different kinds, so I like that Fieldwork allows you to choose any number of small pours.
We love all their beers, but this is an especially good choice if you like Northeast-style (or “hazy”) IPAs. Fieldwork typically has 5-8 different hazy IPAs on tap, and the friendly staff are happy to help you find the one you like. Besides beers and local wine, there’s a great if small food menu of excellent pizza and apps.
Track 7 Brewing Co.
Track 7 is perhaps the most popular brewery in the Sacramento area, and for good reason. They consistently put out quality beers, especially their IPAs like Panic IPA. The only reason we don’t go here more often is that it’s usually crowded. It’s kid and dog-friendly and has a food truck daily.
Urban Roots
After winning several awards for the best beers of the year and even the best brewery in California, Urban Roots has made quite a name for itself in the Sacramento beer scene. This very hip location includes ample outdoor seating both in the front (long tables with heaters and shade) and in the back where tables are smaller and there’s less protection from the elements.
The attraction of Urban Roots is not only its strong beer selection but also its smokehouse food menu. A bit pricey for what you get, but we always enjoy the pulled pork and salmon meals with corn bread and seasonal sides. Their summer salads are also very good.
New Helvetia: Neighborhood brewery in Sacramento
New Helvetia on Broadway is the place to go if you want good beer in a laid back atmosphere. All are welcome, including kids. Grab a board game and hang out in the outdoor “biergarten” or inside the tasting room at the bar or big wooden booths. There’s a fun sense of community here, as evidenced in the giant Jenga all can play, weekly ping-pong tournaments, and special events like the Thanksgiving block party.
Food isn’t sold here, but they encourage you to get take-out from the many neighboring restaurants, and there are food trucks occasionally. Street parking is plentiful.
Pangea Bier Cafe
Pangea Bier Cafe is known for its impressive beer selection, but it also serves good food in a relaxed atmosphere. We like to stop in for their hot buttered pretzel, mac & cheese, and kale salad with a couple of Belgian ales. The beers aren’t cheap, but the selection is unique–they feature a constantly-changing variety of beers from California and beyond, including several local offerings, Pliny the Elder, and several sours.
New Glory
Some of the best locally brewed beer is coming from New Glory Craft Brewery these days. They make some really good IPAs but also offer unique takes on sour and saison style beers.
Ruhstaller: Brewery in Downtown Sacramento
Ruhstaller was known for using indigenous hops grown at their farm just outside of Sacramento until the farm was forced to close last year. The Ruhstaller Brewery and Taproom in downtown Sacramento is still worth a stop for its unique atmosphere. Reminiscent of the cellar bars I hung out in in central Europe, this cozy taproom is discreetly located in the basement of a downtown building near the new Golden 1 arena.
You may have to look for a small sign that says “Ring for beer” and ring the buzzer to be let in. The first time we visited, we did just that, but the second time, the door was open and we just walked in. The service is friendly, there are peanuts to shell and snack on while drinking, there’s a pool table, and the taproom is dog friendly. They’ve also started a live music series called Basement Sessions.
University of Beer
Goofy name, but this place in Midtown has one of the largest selections of rotating taps anywhere. Featuring local beers and sours and a few international choices, this is a good place to go if you want to get adventurous and try something different. There’s also a sizable food menu that includes the usual (greasy appetizers and burgers) plus salads and sandwiches.
Hop Gardens: Kid friendly beer garden in Sacramento
This is my favorite taproom in Sacramento. They tap amazing beers from all over California, including local favorites Moonraker, Mraz and Fieldwork. You really can’t go wrong with the beers they have here. Better yet, they have a good menu of pizza, salads, and appetizers that you can enjoy indoors or outside on their big patio.
One of the best breweries in Sacramento with food. Kid and dog friendly!
Two Rivers Cider: Kid friendly outdoor space with games
Two Rivers is a cidery, not a brewery, and even though I usually prefer a beer over a cider, we love hanging out here. Like New Helvetia, the atmosphere here is very laid back–imagine kids zooming around in the many bikes they have outside, families eating sandwiches at the long wooden tables, and couples sipping the easy-drinking ciders with their dogs at their feet.
My kids especially love the games here. I usually start with a flight of 4 (their menu changes frequently depending on what’s in season) and then order a favorite, like the pomegranate or blackberry.
What about other Sacramento breweries?
Bike Dog and Device are two local breweries that didn’t make my list of best breweries near me in Sacramento. Bike Dog occasionally has some good beers. Device has three great locations but not good beer.
Other Sacramento breweries that are a bit farther afield: Mraz, Moonraker, and Knee Deep are all producing top notch beers. They’re located about 40 minutes east of Sacramento.
What are your favorite Sacramento breweries?
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I will second knee deep as an option if you are going a little further out, and it’s close to the Lake Clementine trail in Auburn that has some nice swim holes. Another favorite for both beer and atmosphere is Goathouse Brewing in Lincoln. Their tasting room is in a beautiful barn and there is outdoor seating that looks out on a grass area with goats, a donkey and a few other animals I think. The kids were fully entertained by the animals and we got to relax and enjoy our beers! Perfect pit stop if you are headed to Tahoe.
Picture of brewery here: https://www.instagram.com/p/5fQIG_rZ6M/?taken-by=thriftytravelerca
Thank you SO much for these recommendations. I am looking forward to checking them out. The IG photo you shared makes it looks like the perfect place to stop with kids (or without!).
This is awesome! I always dread having to go to Sac for family stuff, so I’m going to insist we do all of these next time we return for a visit (which has been since 2013…) =)
Oh, you need to come back! The food and drink scene here is growing so fast. Lots of new murals and fun decorative touches in Midtown now, too.
This looks like something that I’d love to do with my husband on a day that the kiddos are with the grandparents. 🙂 We don’t have a ton of craft beer locations here in Charleston, but they are slowly gaining in popularity, so that should change in the next few years. I’ll definitely be sampling at a few of these places whenever we make it to your coast!
We do this sometimes when we leave the kids with someone and sometimes with them–some of the places are very kid-friendly and have games for the kids (and adults) to play. Noah goes crazy for the skee-ball machine at Two Rivers and sometimes even asks to go there just to play it!
I wasn’t aware until now that Sacramento has a burgeoning craft beer scene! Usually, when I think of California craft beers, it’s San Diego that comes top of mind for me. I average about 2 to 3 trips to the United States each year. Are any of these brewers distributed nationwide? Or do they have limited distribution within the Sacremento area only?
Hi Ray, It seems like the Sac beer scene is growing very quickly. Sacramento Beer Week this year showed that there are around 65 craft breweries in the region (http://sacbeerweek.com/breweries/). I’ve been trying more local beers since I wrote this post and I now think the best breweries are Track 7, Device, New Glory, Moonraker, and perhaps Mraz. Of course Fieldwork is amazing but they’re from Berkeley and just have a location in Sac. I don’t know if any are distributed nationwide, but I kind of doubt it. It’s easy to find New Glory, Device, and Track 7 in the region’s supermarkets, but I doubt they’re distributed nationally now.