Background
Crooked Goat Brewing is the result of the six friends’ chipping in for a 10-gallon brewing system that got moved around from garage to garage in Petaluma in 2013. According to owners Rich Allen, Paul Vyenielo, Scott Timann, Will Erickson, Andrew Cook and Andy Erickson, they were encouraged to open a tap room by friends and family. People liked their homebrew beer and then they won the People’s Choice award at Santa Rosa’s Bottle of Brews event in 2015. Will Erickson is the brewmaster who joined the group after previous stints at Moylan’s, Great Divide, and Mammoth Brewing. They opened the doors in Sebastopol in 2016.
Experience
We arrived on a Thursday afternoon to a pretty packed tasting room. There was room at the bar that we enjoyed. Crooked Goat is a large facility with tables and a bar at the entrance, brewing equipment in the middle, a large area in the back with couches and a bar and a large outdoor patio running the length of the brewery. We enjoyed Shakedown, a unique lactose IPA, Mountain Goat IPA, Counter Puch IPA & Bramble, a fruity wheat.
Crooked Goat is located in Sebastopol’s, The Barlow, a place rich in history with the apples that were once processed there. It is now a marketplace consisting of shops, restaurants and wine tasting opportunities. Crooked Goat does not have food but you can get it delivered from nearby eateries . The Barlow is a fun place to walk around.
We did not note nearby lodging, but there are plans for a hotel to be constructed in the future. You are nearby Santa Rosa so you need to stop into Russian River Brewing.
