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As spring turns to summer, beer gardens increase in popularity. One of the better East Bay craft beer gardens can be found at 2-year-old Temescal Brewing in Oakland. There’s both indoor and outdoor seating at this hot spot, but if the weather is nice, it may be hard to find a space on the patio, where it seems like the entire neighborhood gathers to relax with a pint and some food truck fare (which is available almost every day). On the day we visited, Sip and Slide was serving up delicious sliders, with fries and other bites.
There were 10 beers on tap over Mother’s Day weekend and the beer garden was hopping with a neighborhood arts and crafts fair, as well as brewery goings on. Temescal’s offerings skew towards highly drinkable, session beers in the 4 to 6 percent alcohol by volume range. If you like lighter beers, have the lager, the pilsner or the blonde ale. IPA lovers have three to choose from — the Business and Pleasure Tropical IPA was my favorite, with a balanced taste and a fruity aroma. For those who like a little more personality in their beer, try Through the Fog Scottish Ale or Close to Midnight Springtime Dark Ale, which is kind of like a less-roasty porter.
Pints are $6 to $7, and a taster set of four 5-ounce pours is $9. In addition to beer, the tasting room offers non-alcoholic fruit drinks, as well as — charmingly — chocolate milk. Kids and dogs are welcome.
Don’t miss: The Lawn Flamingo Blonde was the most unusual of Temescal’s offerings — a blonde ale with passionfruit and dragonfruit. The body is light, the alcohol is reasonable (5.5 percent ABV) and the fuchsia color portends something different. I found the beer a little sweet and somewhat acidic as well. What a great beer for a nice summer day!
Details: Open from 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 4 to 11 p.m. Fridays, 12-11 p.m. on Saturdays and 12-9 p.m. Sundays at 4115 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland; www.temescalbrewing.com.