Sudwerk Dock Store

This is the style microbrewery we prefer, small informal, bike parking, outdoor seating, and normal folks and great beer and ale. If it’s food with beer you want, go next door. If it’s beer in a beer garden type setting right next to the brewery go around back to these guys. We tasted 4 and filled growlers with 2. The Big Dippr double hopped IPA is probably the best IPA I’ve ever tasted though it packs a wallop at 9% alcohol. They also sold us on a barrel aged Saison. Still tasting that one. Different and good. What a great find.

9 of us ate here today to celebrate my son graduating from U C Davis. We had the normal and seasonal beer flights, sausage, fried artichoke hearts and Sudwerk nachos to start. All was delicious. We then moved on to the main courses: 2 Pot Roast sandwiches, 1 Fish and chips, 1 spicy guacamole burger done medium, 1 cheese burger done medium rare, 1 burger without a bun, 1 sausage sandwich and 2 large salads. Everyone enjoyed their food very much. We had all kinds of beer but the Marzan was the favorite around the table. The service was spot on for as busy as they were. We were there for almost 3 hours and were treated wonderfully!

Eh food, like it’s ok food nothing special. I wouldn’t go out of my way to go there but I am not apposed to going back.

This was a fun place to visit. Plenty of indoor and outdoor space to kick back with beer and board games. Dog-​friendly. Great service. Pints and samplers available. Uncle Fester made me pucker. Very much like dried apricots. Really liked the cafeaderade and all its coffee flavor. Good prices. Small merch store also.

This place rocks… Laura the bartender, simply awesome. Have the Pot Roast Sandwich and plain skinny fries. Best Pot Roast in a long time. Very casual and totally kick back kind of place. Loved it.

This place rocks. It’s got a kick back, put your feet up, garage feel to it… It’s got a comfortable couch, an uncomfortable couch, chairs, beer, and a foosball table. I guess you could call the décor, basement chic.
The beers are surprising good. Sudwerk also have some decent beers but the Shorts Schwartz and Best Friends coffee vanilla Lager take it a higher level.
I’ve always been a fan of Sudwerk. With the addition of The Dock, I’ve gone full fledged groupie!

Their beers are so good and the vibe here is really laid back. Small place with just a few beers on tap at a time but the selections are interesting.

Good beer good enough food.
Events here are cool.
This place is a good time.
Pint night is always a good night.
Non-​IPAs that rock.

Forget everything you knew about Sudwerk Proper, and head on back to the Dock Store where the real good stuff is hidden.
I’d been to Sudwerk during my time at UCD dozens of times for «pint night» with friends, but it had never really been my thing.
When I came back to town for a week long course at the extension, I was pleased to discover what had evolved out back.
The Dock Store is a chill, hip spot for some solid craft brews out of Sudwerk. You’ll find a lot more «small batch» type stuff that drift from the typical Germanic finds within Sudwerk Proper. I went the ways of «Chocolate Town» ($ 6) a deep and chocolatey stout that I was really vibin’ and followed up with a pint of a Pilsner because it was hot as F***.
If you’re looking for a place to beer geek out, and you’ve already checked out the Beer Store downtown, make your way over to the Dock Store for a good time and a cold brew.

I’m surprised to have read that the dock store had some ‘imaginative’ brews. When I went there was a marzen, bock, ipa (simply cascade hops) and one other. Not very out of the box, imo, so maybe I came on an off day? I will be back to try future brews, especially since I enjoyed the atmosphere and they don’t charge 6 – 7 bucks a beer like some other spots. I tried both the marzen amber and cascaderade (the ipa). Both were very easy to drink, which is a plus, but nothing about them stood out, either (a minus). I’d get more in depth on them, but that’s just about the jist. Oh, and I’m not sure what the hell was going on with service at these places last Saturday, but I began by trying to grab food in the restaurant side first, to which I must have been an inconvenience to the hostess and bartender, because neither acknowledged me. That aside (I know the two are separate enough so I can’t let that influence my star rating for the dock store) when I went to the dock store, even though I stood right at the small counter, several people who showed up after me were served first and I was greeted with an attitude that I might expect at a snobby joint in San Francisco, but not a brewery in Davis. Again, maybe it was just an off day, but I wasn’t impressed.

Dudwerk will charge you an extra $ 2.00 to fill any growler that’s not theirs, apparently to compensate for the unnecessarily large custom sticker they use to cover logos. Even though my growler was already taped over (except the alcohol warning), the employee said she had to use the sticker so she «had somewhere to write the ABV». Just write it in the tape. Don’t squeeze money from your customers for the sake of it. Boycotted.

Skip the Sudwerk Restaurant and Brewery and head to the Sudwerk Dock Store.
What I Enjoyed:
+ Delicious beer (different and BETTER selection than the restaurant)
+ Intimate setting
+ Foosball (Of course I won)
+ Nice and Knowledgable staff
+ Games (Jenga, random board games, Cards Against Humanity)
+ Water station
What Can Pose As An Issue:
+ No food
+ Limited seating

The Dock Store has some super imaginative brews going. The best thing to do is to come early in the afternoon, get a sampler to try them all, then hang out outside the rest of the day and catch a nice breeze and buzz. Love that they don’t mind if you bring some outside food and have a nice picnic. Super chill spot, great people.

A cool addition to the Sudwerk restaurant where it’s outdoors with beer and during the warmer days, makes for a cool place to go without actually entering inside the restaurant itself.
I came here to pick up a keg for my friend’s birthday party and while we were waiting for the keg, I tried their double IPA while getting tastes of the pumpkin ale and the regular IPA. They also sell bottles here in the cold case so I may just stop by here to get bottles if I don’t have a growler.
We did have to wait a while to get the keg delivered to us as it was on a high shelf which needed a forklift to bring down and the pump that we received had to be fixed as it was not helping to pressurize and push the beer out. But in the end, is the beer worth it? Absolutely no question about it.
Will stop by here again!

This review is for the Dock Store behind the Sudwerk restaurant and brewery. The Dock Store is open limited hours for beer tasting of their specialty and experimental styles. The beer is far more interesting here than in the restaurant.
The décor is very basic — picnic tables in an open air loading dock. They offer a tasting flight and individual beers. I recommend visiting here if you are a fan of other regional Sacramento breweries. Do not let memories of a bad trip to the restaurant prevent you from a great beer experience just around the corner!

A great selection of brews on tap. Heavy on the hoppy beers, but if you’re like me, they typically have at least one milder selection. Currently, one of our faves is a tasty brew only available in bottle called 3 Best Friends, a delicious coffee vanilla lager. Selections change every week, so don’t expect to find the same brews on your next visit.
They don’t serve food here, but you can take out food from the Südwerk restaurant next door, bring your own grub, or call for delivery. We’ve done all 3. The atmosphere is very casual an people regularly bring pets to the Dock Store. Hours are limited, so sign up for their email list to keep on top of that as well as the weekly selection on tap.

The traditional Sudwerk beer and food is up front — think traditional German standards. The truly cutting edge brews come from the brewery science students from UC Davis that us the back door dock store as their mad science brew lab. Sours, barrel aged brews, milk stout, India Pale «Lagers», and a firkin that they tap on the bar. The tenders are friendly and knowledgeable, the feel is your friends garage and the customers are friendly and generous with food they bring themselves. Music is a regular occurrence and you can bring the kids for foosball. Dog friendly too. Get a squealer or a growler to take home. Don’t wait because once the keg is gone its off to something else. Won’t get the same thing too often here… and that’s good. Have fun and don’t tell everybody or it will get too crowded. It’s been here a while but your still one of the first to know!

So there’s Sudwerk, a Davis brewpub fixture & staple for at least a few decades now that I’m aware of. & also essentially unchanged for all those decades. But not too long ago (in terms of decades) a new little wrinkle developed, the Sudwerk Dock Store, & I like it.
It’s basically the brewery side of Sudwerk without the pub. There’s 5 taps featuring Sudwerk-​brewed beers that are not the core beers that Sudwerk has been serving & bottling for, well, decades. It all has the feel of a small, no-​frills brewery taproom with some bottles in coolers.
I showed up with a fellow beer nerd compatriot & we both did a tasting flight of all 5 tap selections for only $ 6. Nice. On tap that day: Cascaderade (an IPL, seemingly trendy at the moment), No Fun Bitter, IPA, Gose, Funke Saison w/​Peaches.
The Cascaderade, No Fun Bitter & IPA were all good, not exceptional but not bad. The Gose was salty, like it should be for the style. I’m just not a fan of salty beer. The Funke Saison w/​Peaches was weird. It was more like a Sour than a Saison & I couldn’t make out any Peach.
For the most part, I felt the quality of the beers on tap was solid. & it’s not the same old Sudwerk stuff that’s been around for so long now. When it comes to the Sudwerk Dock Store, it looks like you can teach an old dog new tricks. I like it.

Though I try to keep up with beer events of all kinds, especially the ones close to home I have to admit that I just became aware of the Dock Store couple weeks back. This might be because my brew adventures usually take me Westbound and Sudwerk restaurant and their beers weren’t exactly the greatest last time I tried them. Certainly not an excuse but yes… I tried.
So walking in on Saturday after the dinner at the restaurant that is few feet away, the place was packed with testosterone and smell of spilled beer. I don’t think there was a single female inside except for the bartender. Most of the crowd seemed typical Davis hipster types that you would expect at places like these. They had 4 taps going, none of them available in bottles. Bottles, six– packs and bombers are in the fridge, and very nice looking t-​shirts are available for purchase.
The cool thing is you can try everything on tap as the tasters are free. Be warned though that when it is busy the wait times might be substantial. They fill growlers (not just their own brand) and the prices are reasonable for high quality beer. Even cooler than that is that the taps change on regular basis and every week there is something new to try.
The beers are still not absolutely the best in the area (I take Berryessa over Sudwerk anytime) but Dock Store is a small step for mankind but a giant step for Sudwerk brewery… or something like that. Depending on the offerings I will come here on a regular basis for my growler fills.

Sudwerk has earned street cred in my book. After biking from Sacramento to Davis, the boyfriend and decided to grab lunch and beer tasting at the Sudwerk restaurant, not knowing the dock store existed. Someone was kind enough to come by and tell us about the dock store, its «experimental» brews (ummmm YES, PLEASE), and the brewery tours, and we were all about that.
We made our way around back, starting with a flight of four tastes for $ 5, then starting the tour (also $ 5, which happens hourly) while circling back occasionally for tasting refills.
I rarely go to Davis, so I was intrigued to learn that UC Davis’ accredited master brewer’s program is essentially run out of Sudwerk. +1 for Sudwerk!
The tour was comprehensive, and the guide was able to field all questions from our group, including a question about a guy who allegedly jumped into one of Sudwerk’s open-​air fermentors back in the ‘90s (ask about it!).
When all was said and done, we had tasted the IMP, Three Best Friends, Crystal Weizen, Summer Breeze, and PLGRM (a pilsner, lager and marzen all smooshed together), and I left with a newfound respect for imperial pilsners and the company who brewed a mighty fine version of one.
Costs and hours as of 8÷27÷11:
Pints: $ 3
Imperial tap pint: $ 4
Growlers: $ 25
Growler refill: $ 10
They also have a variety of 22 oz. bottles for sale from $ 3 to $ 8.
Thursday: open 4 – 8 p.m.
Friday: open 4 – 8 p.m.
Saturday: open 3 – 8 p.m.