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Everybody knows Santa Rosa for wine country, but locals will tell you the beer is the real headline. Sonoma County packs an absurd number of great breweries into a short stretch of Northern California, and most of them sit within a few miles of downtown.
You’ll find hazy IPAs, crisp pilsners, barrel-aged sours, and one of the most famous beers ever brewed in this country. Here’s your guide to the best breweries in Santa Rosa and the towns just north and south of it.
Want to experience all of it in one weekend? Lace up for the Beer City Half in Santa Rosa and turn a race morning into a full day of good beer and good food.
1. Russian River Brewing Company
- russianriverbrewing.com
- 725 4th Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404 and 700 Mitchell Lane, Windsor, CA 95492
- Best for: bucket-list beers, big groups, and pizza with your pint
This is the brewery that put Santa Rosa on the beer map. Pliny the Elder is what most people come for, and the limited Younger release draws beer lovers from across the country to a single small town.
The 4th Street pub is a family affair run by Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo, with a menu of pizza, calzones, wings, and salads. The Windsor location adds an outdoor beer garden, a gift shop, two acres of free parking, and a tasting room with growler fills and bottles of the barrel-aged sours.
Don’t sleep on Blind Pig IPA. It’s the balanced west coast counterpart to the Plinys, and it’s a lot easier to get your hands on.
2. Moonlight Brewing Company
- moonlightbrewing.com
- 3350 Coffey Ln, Suite D, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
- Best for: lagers, dogs, and a low-key taproom hang
Brian Hunt has been brewing here since 1992, and Moonlight is proof that patience makes delicious beer. Death & Taxes is the one to order, a black lager that drinks far lighter than it looks and smells like chocolate-flavored coffee.
Reality Czeck is the other flagship, a clean pilsner available in cans year round. Trivia and bingo fill the weeknights, local food vendors rotate through, and well-behaved kids and dogs are always welcome.
Runners get a bonus here. Moonlight serves as Beer City HQ for the post-race Shindig, so you’ll probably end up in this taproom anyway.
3. Cooperage Brewing Company
- cooperagebrewing.com
- 981 Airway Court, Santa Rosa, CA 95403 and 575 Ross Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
- Best for: hoppy beers, arcade games, and food truck nights
Cooperage runs two locations in town and both are worth your time. The original on Airway Court has a spacious beer garden and a cozy tasting room, while the downtown Ross Street spot adds a pool table, darts, arcade games, and board games.
The house style leans hoppy, with aromatic IPAs and a clean, dry finish. Expect pilsners when it’s warm and stouts when it cools off, plus a rotating food truck parked out front daily.
Ross Street sits in the heart of downtown, which makes it an ideal finish line for a shakeout run the day before you race.
4. Shady Oak Barrel House
- shadyoakbrewing.com
- 420 1st Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
- Best for: sours, wild ales, pinball, and live music
Shady Oak started in 2013 as a one-person operation selling bottles, and it’s grown into one of the more adventurous breweries in Santa Rosa. Farmhouse ales, wild ales, and barrel-aged sours are the specialty, though the tap list now covers classic west coast IPAs, crisp lagers, hazies, and hard seltzers too.
The taproom sits in the corner between downtown and the SOFA Arts District, with barrels stacked to the ceiling and a mural by artist Casey Weldon. There’s a back patio, food trucks most nights, trivia, live music, and dogs are welcome.
5. Iron Ox Brewing Company
- ironoxbeer.com
- 3334 Industrial Dr, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
- Best for: a quiet locals spot and talking beer with the bartender
Iron Ox began as Plow Brewing in 2015 and took its current name when Vince Ferracuti and Kevin Robinson became partners. Vince is the iron, Kevin is the ox, and the beer stayed just as good through the change.
There’s a front taproom and a back beer garden, plus a rotating food truck lineup posted on their socials. It’s quieter than the downtown spots, which is exactly why regulars like it.
6. Fogbelt Brewing Company
- fogbeltbrewing.com
- 1305 A Cleveland Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
- Best for: a real sit-down dinner and barrel-aged specialty pours
Fogbelt names each beer after a coast redwood that grows in the fog belt stretching up the Northern California coast. Founders Paul Hawley and Remy Martin came out of the wine industry, and they brought that cellar sensibility to a barrel-aged and sour program you won’t find at most breweries.
This is the original brewhouse, and it still runs as a proper gastropub with 16 rotating taps. The scratch kitchen leans on seasonal local ingredients, so come hungry rather than expecting a few shareable bites.
7. HenHouse Brewing Company
- henhousebrewing.com
- 322 Bellevue Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95407
- Best for: hop chasers, oyster stout fans, and patio afternoons
HenHouse has been chasing new and interesting kinds of delicious since 2011, and the tap list reflects it. The Oyster Stout is the sleeper order, silky and savory in a way most stouts never get near.
Hop lovers should go straight for the Hella Stoked cold IPA or anything in the Stoked hazy series. There’s plenty of outdoor seating, dogs are welcome on the patio, and a pizza truck usually handles the food.
8. Fieldwork Brewing Company
- fieldworkbrewing.com
- 2400 Midway Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95405
- Best for: families, pizza night, and groups with non-drinkers
Fieldwork’s Montgomery Village taproom pours more than 20 rotating beers, so there’s almost always a new beer to try. The lineup skews fresh and small batch, anchored by core favorites like the Pulp Hazy IPA.
The kitchen turns out Neapolitan and Detroit-style pizzas, fresh salads, small plates, and a kids menu. Non-drinkers are genuinely taken care of with award-winning NA beers, sparkling hop water, house sodas, and Supertonic mocktails, and local delivery is available within five miles.
9. CUVER Belgian Brewers
- cuverbrewing.com
- 7704 Bell Road, #A, Windsor, CA 95492
- Best for: Belgian styles you can’t find anywhere else nearby
A Belgian and Californian family founded CUVER in 2021, and brewmaster Hendrik Verspecht trained in Ghent alongside his father. The result is abbey ales, saisons, and wit ales built on Old World tradition with a west coast streak running through them.
Start with Pepperwood, an award-winning session saison, or Hoppy Don, their Belgian IPA. Bell Road is the Bohemian pilsner, and everything is available on tap and in bottles at the brewery. Food trucks pull up on Fridays, you’re welcome to bring your own food other days, and the patio is kid and dog friendly.
10. Old Caz Beer
- oldcaz.com
- 1500 Valley House Drive, Suite 110, Rohnert Park, CA 94928
- Best for: a quick trip south, food trucks, and taproom trivia
Old Caz is Rohnert Park’s first homegrown brewery, named after Old Cazadero Road, the wild stretch connecting Guerneville and Cazadero in west Sonoma County. Everything gets brewed at their production house on State Farm Drive, then poured at the SOMO brewpub seven days a week.
Start with Bukovany Pivo, a Czech pilsner, or Chismosa, a Mexican amber lager. One Way IPA and the juicy RPX pale ale cover the hop side, and there’s an in-house lunch menu on weekdays plus rotating food trucks the rest of the time.
11. Lagunitas Brewing Company
- lagunitas.com
- 1280 N McDowell Blvd, Petaluma, CA 94954
- Best for: brewery tours, live music, and one-off beers you can’t buy
Worth the short drive south, the Lagunitas taproom and Beer Sanctuary is a Sonoma County institution. Alongside the flagship IPA you’ll find plenty of one-off brews that never make it into cans or bottles.
Book a tour if you want the full story, from a kitchen stove to the Undercover Shut Down. There’s a huge outdoor beer yard, live music, dogs welcome, and food trucks on the days the kitchen isn’t running.
Explore More of Santa Rosa Before Race Day
Ready to put this list to the test? Sign up for the Beer City Half in Santa Rosa and turn your next trip to Sonoma County into a weekend of running, food, and great beer.
Here’s the best part. Beer City sponsors a free Beer Trolley that loops between Shady Oak, Moonlight, Iron Ox, Cooperage, CUVER, and Russian River, so you can knock out six of these breweries without touching your car keys.
Beer is only half the fun. Before your next visit, check out these posts for local running options around town:
Beer Lovers Also Ask These Questions About Santa Rosa Breweries
Russian River Brewing Company, easily. Its Pliny the Elder and the limited Younger release have made it one of the best known names in American craft beer.
Yes. Russian River’s 4th Street pub, Cooperage on Ross Street, and Shady Oak on 1st Street are all within a short walk of each other, which makes downtown the easiest place to explore on foot.
Fieldwork in Montgomery Village is the top pick, with pizza, a kids menu, and a full non-alcoholic lineup. Moonlight, Cooperage, and CUVER are also kid and dog friendly.
Many do. Fogbelt, Fieldwork, and Russian River all run full kitchens, while Moonlight, Cooperage, Iron Ox, and Shady Oak lean on rotating food trucks and local vendors.
Definitely. CUVER and Russian River’s second location sit in Windsor to the north, while Old Caz in Rohnert Park and Lagunitas on McDowell Blvd in Petaluma are both short drives south.