Craft Beer Santa Clara, CA

Come Enjoy the Best Craft Beers Santa Clara can offer!

Since opening our doors in January 1995, Smoke Eaters has been committed to serving the best hot wings and craft beer Santa Clara, CA has to offer.  Our huge wings are never frozen and always cooked to order.  Originally, we offered seven different sauces ranging in heat from Mild to Global Thermo Nuclear.  Over the years we changed the names of a few sauces and added six new ones to the mix, including Garlic Parmesan, Thai Zing, Honey Sriracha, Fiery Garlic and Mango Habanero.  With all that heat, we quickly realized that we needed a whole lot of beer to put out the flames. That is when we decided to feature the best craft beer Santa Clara, CA restaurants can track down.

Local Craft Beer Geeks, we are!

Rather than just add a few of the same old beers, we opted to go all in and offer local craft beer geek (yes we are all geeks) the best craft beer Santa Clara, CA bars can pour.  At first we offered beers from breweries like Stone Brewery, Lagunitas Brewery, Dogfish Head Brewery, Gordon Biersh Brewery and Drake’s Brewing.  As the craft beer craze took off, we dove in with both feet tapping beers from up and coming breweries from San Diego to Maine and everywhere in between.  Russian River’s Pliny the Elder makes an appearance on our tap lineup at least once a month.  Twice during San Francisco Beer Week, we were lucky enough to land a keg of Russian River’s Pliny the Younger.  In an effort to improve our corporate Karma, every year we donate 100% of the proceeds from the Pliny the Younger event to charity.  We hope we can do it again in 2017.

Dozens on Tap

Currently, we have 24 taps in our downtown San Jose location, 42 taps in our Almaden location and 48 taps in our Santa Clara location, with plans to increase the San Jose selection to 42 in the next few months.  With this many taps and the craft beer market expanding exponentially, we are always looking for the next great craft beer Santa Clara, CA can deliver.  Our V.P. of Operations, Mike Burke, has been charged with the task of tracking down the finest in local, regional and national craft beers.  Although the entire Smoke Eaters corporate team often volunteers to conduct research, Mike is fairly protective of this highly important aspect of his job.  Honestly, I can’t blame him.

In our effort to be the best craft beer bar in Santa Clara, we have tapped some amazing kegs over the past few weeks.  From Moonraker Brewing, a small brewery in Auburn, California, we tapped DOJO an 8.4% New England style double IPA and the Mossaic Crush a 6.0% New England style Pale Ale.  I speak from experience when I tell you both were outstanding and worth the drive to Dublin to pick them up.  From Alvarado Street Brewery, out of Salinas, California, we tapped Mai Tai a 6.5% American IPA and Haze of Our Lives a 6.4% American IPA.   Waiting in the walk in are kegs from our San Diego friends at Modern Times Beer and our NoCal friends at Alpha Acid Brewing Company.  On Thursday, we held a Dogfish Head Tap Takeover at our Santa Clara location featuring World Wide Stout, Pennsylvania Tuxedo, 120 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA and 60 Minute IPA.  These are craft beers Santa Clara, CA residents will not find in just any old tap lineup.

Smoke Eaters: Your Place To Find Craft Beer Santa Clara CA Residents Love 

We work hard to make Smoke Eaters the best craft beer bar in Santa Clara.  To stay on the cutting edge of an ever changing industry and keep 114 taps flowing with top quality craft selections, takes hard work and a whole lot of samples.  We are committed to doing the research and driving to pick up kegs.  We are determined to find and serve craft beer Santa Clara, CA beer geeks will not find in any other bar.  We hope you are committed to stopping in regularly to see what is on tap.  If you can’t stop in, check back regularly or check us out on Facebook.  Time to wrap this up, I have a Flying Dog Raging Bitch in the fridge that is calling my name.