Cellarmaker Brewing Co.

Berkeley, CA · $$

Inebrious

Beverage Program Score

Editorial review: 2026-08-17

Editor: Micah Rousey

How we score

The editorial take

Cellarmaker's Berkeley taproom makes its strongest case through contrast. The current board held nineteen beers when researched, and eighteen were available on draft, yet this is more than an IPA parade. Pretty Pretty Pils and the New Zealand-accented Abel Tasman establish a crisp lager baseline; Split the C brings dry stout through a nitro pour; Coffee & Cigarettes folds smoke and coffee into porter; and It's A Dry Wheat supplies a low-strength, dry counterpoint. The hop side is still formidable. Golden Door combines Nectaron, Peacharine, and Simcoe in a West Coast pale ale, while Rolling Solo: NZ 109 turns a single emerging hop into the entire premise of an IPA. Pacific Crush, The Dripping Tap, Silhouette Minds, and How the West Was Fun then move through West Coast, hazy, and double-IPA expressions without pretending they are interchangeable. What pushes the program into rarer territory is fermentation and barrel depth. Lost Wisdom represents the house mixed-culture line; Home, Sour Home uses Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus before oak aging with peaches, cinnamon, and vanilla bean; and the 2026 Bourbon BLAMMO! blends five bourbon barrels holding stout, munichwine, and barleywine aged from twenty to thirty-six months, then adds more than two hundred pounds of toasted coconut. Collaborations with There Does Not Exist and The Rare Barrel widen the conversation rather than merely decorate the list. With cans attached to fourteen current selections, bottles for the strongest cellar releases, and a Wednesday $12 slice-and-pint special, Berkeley shows a brewery using format, fermentation, and strength as deliberately as hops.

What should I order?: Build a four-part comparison: Pretty Pretty Pils for clean lager structure, Golden Door or Rolling Solo: NZ 109 for hop definition, Lost Wisdom for the house mixed-culture signature, and a small-format pour of Bourbon BLAMMO! if available. On Wednesday, the $12 cheese-or-pepperoni slice and pint pairing is the clearest value.
Who will enjoy this place?: Drinkers who want to compare brewing choices rather than collect four similar IPAs. Hop specialists have plenty to parse, but lager drinkers, mixed-culture devotees, stout fans, and anyone interested in barrel blending all get a credible route through the same board.
When should I go?: Wednesday is strategically best for the published $12 slice-and-pint special. Otherwise, visit while the online Berkeley board still shows the releases you want; the brewery's small-batch, no-fixed-schedule approach means the useful contrasts can rotate quickly.
What should I expect to spend?: The official site does not publish standalone current draft, can, or bottle prices in static form. It does confirm a Wednesday $12 special combining a Detroit-style cheese or pepperoni slice with one pint; check the live board for every other price and pour size.
What makes the beverage program distinctive?: A nineteen-selection board where hop-focused pale ales and IPAs share real space with pilsner, nitro stout, smoked coffee porter, solera saison, oak-aged sour beer, and a multi-barrel imperial stout blend—supported across draft, cans, and cellar bottles.

Beverage categories

We only score what a venue sets out to do. Categories a venue doesn't attempt are left unscored rather than penalized.

Beer

Beer earns its score through an unusually useful spread of hop expression, lager precision, mixed-culture fermentation, collaboration, and long barrel aging, with eighteen of nineteen current selections on draft and broad can availability.

Menu strengths

— Current breadth extends well beyond the brewery's hop reputation
— Mixed-culture and barrel programs add genuine fermentation depth
— Draft, can, and bottle formats create several ways to explore the list

Standout selections

— Pretty Pretty Pils — 5.0% pilsner with Hallertau Mittelfrüh
— Lost Wisdom — 6.0% solera saison tied to the house mixed culture
— Bourbon BLAMMO! — 13.6% five-barrel coconut imperial stout blend

Pricing: Standalone beer prices are not statically published. The confirmed Wednesday Slice & Pint Night special is $12 for a Detroit-style cheese or pepperoni slice plus a pint.

How it sits with the food

Berkeley serves small bites and bar-style pizza. Use the crisp pilsners or dry wheat with cheese, pepperoni, and salty snacks; reserve the nitro stout or smoked porter for roasted flavors, and treat Bourbon BLAMMO! as a slow final pour rather than a pizza companion.

Inebrious does not score kitchens, food or the restaurant overall. We review the beverage program only.

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