St. George Spirits

You can't talk about cocktails in the Bay Area without paying homage to St. George Spirits, the OG American craft distiller in operation since 1982.

Housed in a retired airplane hangar overlooking the bay, with views as dizzying as its booze, St. George Spirits' are the work of master distiller and artisan Lance Winters, who approaches each batch as a means of self-expression. The distillery is best known today for its single malt whiskey, Absinthe Verte, California Agricole rum, and their gin triple-threat (Botanivore, Terroir, and Dry Rye), but the flavored vodkas often prominently feature on local bar menus (the green chile–infusion packs some heat for a larynx slap and tickle on its way down the hatch).

Once at the Alameda tasting room, you can pick your poison for up to six tastes ($15 Wednesdays through Sundays, no reservations needed), or make time for the hour-long distillery tour ($20), a crash course in spirits. Tours end with a tasting, so it's five bucks well spent.

// 2601 Monarch St. (Alameda), stgeorgespirits.com

​Hangar 1 Vodka

Just across the parking lot from St. George Spirits, well-known Hangar 1 produces a wide variety of "straight" and flavored vodkas, including one made in collaboration with Karl the Fog himself. The brainchild of head distiller, Caley Shoemaker, Hangar 1's acclaimed Fog Point Vodka is the first (and only) made using real California fog. Similar to the distilling process where a liquid is turned into a vapor and then back into a liquid, the team at Hangar 1 harvest the fog with a mesh screen and collect the condensation in glass jugs until there's enough to put through the pot still. Using fog water gives the vodka it's own subtle Bay Area terroir, perfect for sipping chilled with a lime wedge or mixed in any classic vodka-based cocktail.

Open afternoons and evenings Thursdays through Sundays, Hangar offers boozy boys and guzzling gals $15 tastings and $23 tours (tasting included), featuring delicious vodkas distilled from grapes and grains instead of the traditional spud used by our Bolshevik brethren. When you do make it to the 60,000 square-foot WWII-era hangar, peruse the distiller's limited-edition bottlings—think pink peppercorn and honeycomb—available only on site. All ingredients are sourced responsibly from local farms, obvi.

// 2505 Monarch Street (Alameda), hangarone.com

Spirit Works Distillery

We all know the drinkers ditty, "Beer before liquor, never sicker, liquor before beer, never fear." (We hum it every time we find ourselves scanning the too-good-to-choose drinks lists at a buzzy new bar). Remember the jingle next time you head up to Sonoma for a day of wine and spirits tasting.

At Spirit Works Distillery, on the backside of the Barlow in Sebastopol, head distiller Lauren Patz and her team invite guests to taste their lineup of delicious gins, vodkas, and wheat and rye whiskeys. Their sloe- and barrel-aged gins, two products you won't find anywhere else, are bright and botanical. (Sloe gin is a traditional European-style liquor that no other American distillery makes)

Spirit Works is also pioneering whiskey maturation: With its "Music Barrel Experiment," the staff is studying the impact of tunes on the barrel-aging process. They play rap, rock, and smooth jazz for some of their barrels, hypothesizing that the musical vibrations agitate the whiskey and inform the flavor of the final product. See the experiment in action during a tour ($20) and taste the differences between each with a six-pour flight ($18). Afterwards, walk your buzz off at the area's home decor shops and art galleries, and grab a bite to eat at Woodfour Brewing or Village Bakery.

// 6790 McKinley Street #100 (Sebastopol), spiritworksdistillery.com

Seven Stills Distillery

The newbie of the bunch, Seven Stills Distillery is wonderfully schizophrenic in that it is both a brewery and a distillery.

Launched in 2013 by Tim Obert, Clint Potter and master brewer Rylan Ortiz, Seven Stills specializes in high-quality brews that can be distilled into high-quality booze. It's the only distillery in the Bay Area (and possibly in the U.S.) where you can taste a hand-crafted beer alongside a whiskey made from that same beer, both produced under the same roof.

The Seven Stills Core Series of whiskeys are made using their own beer recipes and are inspired by the Seven Hills of SF, each bottle designed by a different local artist. They also produce a corn-based vodka and several bitters. Enjoy the spirits neat or over a giant chunk of ice, allowing the complex flavors to transform as the beverage dilutes. The distillery is open for tastings ($15) and one-hour guided tours ($23).

// 1439 Egbert Ave Unit C (Bayshore), sevenstillsofsf.com

Anchor Distilling Company

Anchor Brewery is well known and loved for its beers and sold-out brewery tours, but while our very own craft-beer pioneer was recently purchased by Japan's Sapporo Holdings Ltd. for $85 million, the lesser known Anchor Distilling Co. is still very much alive and well.

Situated atop the brewery, the Anchor Distilling tasting room and garden is finally open to the public after 23 years of operating in the shadow of its big beer brother. An hour-long tasting ($35) begins with a multi-sensory tour of the edible garden, laden with the lush botanicals that flavor Anchor's lineup of iconic vodkas, gin and whiskey. After you've taken in the fabulous views of downtown and the Bay Bridge (and had the epiphany that raw herbs often smell better than they taste), grab a seat in the intimate Barbary Coast–inspired tasting room and let one of Anchor's beverage experts regale you with stories from the brand's history. Did you know Anchor was previously owned by Fritz Maytag, the washing machine guy? Yep, Maytag and his team secretly distilled America's first 100 percent rye whiskey and craft gin.

// 1705 Mariposa Street (Potrero Hill), anchordistilling.com