Faction Brewing making waves in Alameda

This is gonna be an easy post to write. I’ve been answering so many excited questions about Faction at my bar job that I’ve got introducing this place down pat.

Either you know exactly what Faction Brewing is and you eagerly waited for it all year, or you’re like “Fraction? A fraction of what? Fac-SHON? Is that French? There’s a brewery in Alameda? Where’d those guys come from?” For the second camp, here you go:

Faction 101
Faction (rhymes with fraction but lose the R) is indeed a new brewery in Alameda, between St. George Spirits (the makers of Hangar One) and Rock Wall Winery. Yes, that’s dangerous — call a cab if you visit all three. No, there hasn’t been a brewery in Alameda for some time. Yes, their beers are really, really good already even though they just started releasing them in October.

The view does not suck.

This is a new brewery but this is not Faction’s first rodeo. When you visit the taproom there’s a good chance your beers will be poured by co-owner Claudia Pamparana, who got her first brewery job in 1998. Until recently, she worked at 21st Amendment since the month it opened. Her husband, brewer and co-owner Rodger Davis, may have invented some of your favorite Bay Area hoppy beers, namely Drake’s Denogginizer and 1500. Remember Triple Rock’s annual Keyser Soze imperial stout? Yeah, that guy. Now that you’re no longer skeptical of this new brewery, enough about the past…Faction is rocking your tastebuds in the present.

The beers
There’ll be all sorts of Faction beers, but local bar regulars have spent the last few months losing their minds about the hoppy ones. Go figure, it’s California.

Living proof that not all great beer is expensive or rare

• Faction Pale smells like you stumbled into a brewery’s hop room and, in any other year or any other part of the country, would probably be called an IPA.
• Faction Fall IPA (wet hop Citra) made a brief but glorious appearance early in Faction’s life. See you next year…
• Winter IPA (whole hop Simcoe) contains no spices, mistletoe, or Christmas trees…it’s “winter” because it comes out in winter. It wins the “I’ve never seen so many people order the same beer twice on one of my bar shifts” prize.
• For those who prefer less of a hop assault and more of an easy drinker, there’s A-Town Pale, only available in Alameda.
• The latest Faction beer, a red, is a delicious balance of hops and malt and another one at a reasonable ABV (5.6%)
• Stout fans should 1) locate and drink a Faction Oatmeal Stout and 2) eagerly await the day Faction’s barrel-aged imperial stouts are done barreling and ready to go in your mouth.
• Faction will also be releasing Belgian styles, the first of which is the brown (but not your momma’s Belgian dubbel) Defcon III.

There’ll be imperial stouts, barleywines, and triple IPAs up ahead — and I’ll be drinking them — but I love how many Faction beers are reasonably priced and not going to knock you off your barstool with heavy booze.

The taproom

The Faction taproom is now open Wednesday-Saturday noon-7pm and Sunday noon-5pm for pints, sampler flights, and growler fills. A few things:

• The view is awesome but please don’t bring your beer outside.
• You may have to walk through the brewhouse to get to the restroom. It’s cool to gawk at the barrels and marvel at the amount of space Faction has to grow into. Just remember that the brewers are working there.
• Faction growlers have arrived, both flip-top 64-ouncers and adorable 32-ounce growlettes (with handles!). Don’t hold them to it, but last I checked Faction was planning on continuing to fill other breweries’ growlers on the following conditions: it is clean and YOU (not them) cover the other brewery’s logo fully. Fair enough.
• The speed limit in Alameda is often 25 mph, which is really hard to follow, but trust that the cops there do enforce it.
• The address is 2501 Monarch Street, Alameda. There’s plenty of parking but public transit isn’t so easy. It’s possible with some walking — BeerByBart.com has the details.

For more updates, follow Faction Brewing on Facebook or Twitter. Happy drinking!

Plenty of room for more tanks…

Disclosures: I really like Rodger and Claudia. I was at the Faction friends & family pre-party for their taproom. I wrote a few words on the Faction website but no money changed hands. Because of my job at a bar that carries a lot of Faction and allows one free beer per shift, I have not paid for much of the Faction beer I’ve consumed. Trust me anyway. This stuff is GOOD.

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