An ale trail for Clovis? A new brewery opens, plus other craft beer spots you can walk to
The trails in Clovis are used for a lot of things, like walking, biking – and drinking craft beer?
Yes.
Well, sorta.
An increasing number of craft breweries are opening near the city’s walking trails, inspiring some to dub it the Clovis ale trail.
The newest brewery, Crow & Wolf Brewing Co., just opened near Highway 168 and Herndon Avenue. At 527 Park Creek Drive, it’s in an industrial park just north of Jimbo’s bar.
Now, it’s worth noting that not all of these places are directly on the trails. Sometimes, like with Crow & Wolf, you have to head off the trail and around a corner or two to get there. Using Google maps on your phone is an easy way to guide yourself there.
The breweries are kid friendly, dog friendly and bike friendly. Often there’s games like cornhole or other entertainment. Some have drinks for people who are not hardcore beer fans, like fruity sours, or even cold brew coffee or root beer on tap.
Keep reading to see who else is close to the trail.
Crow & Wolf
Crow & Wolf is a huge brewery. About two-thirds of its 15,000-square-foot building is dedicated to brewing.
The rest is a taproom with tables and 27 taps. There’s also a 2,000-square-foot patio in the works.
Right now, the brewery is using the parking lot, to be COVID-19 safe and wait for the patio to be finished.
For now, the brewery is open from noon to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and from noon to 9 p.m. Sundays.
After its grand opening the weekend of March 12, the brewery will be open all but Mondays and Tuesdays.
As COVID-19 eases, the brewery’s seven partners plan to amp up operations. Two 18-foot high roll-up garage doors are situated so that food trucks can pull right up to the building. Customers can order without leaving the heated and air conditioned taproom.
As for the beer, the owners hope to stay on top of trends and use the Valley’s stone fruit in its recipes. There are German lagers, hazy IPAs, stouts, sours, ciders and more.
Cobblestone, a fruity orange sour beer on tap now, is made with apricots, actual graham crackers and vanilla.
The brewery also makes seltzers, which are made without grain and often low in gluten or gluten free. The current berry seltzer is a deep red with frothy pink head.
“Our goal is to have something on tap for pretty much everybody,” said Crow & Wolf president Don Anderson.
Clovis ale trail
The Clovis ale trail isn’t a formal designation, but it’s one the city of Clovis heartily supports as the Clovis brewery scene grows, said business development manager Shawn Miller.
“They’re locating along the trail,” he said. “That just happened organically. It wasn’t planned or anything. We thought it’s kinda perfect.”
Miller said he’d love to see the breweries host events together, maybe with live entertainment between breweries, participation from local restaurant and food trucks, or perhaps a wristband system that gets you a taste at each brewery.
Not far from Crow & Wolf, just south of Herndon Avenue, is another new brewery.
MachineHead Brewing opened in November serving IPAs, farmhouse ales, stouts and barrel-aged wild ales and sours. It also has a sizeable patio space with tables.
Breweries and taprooms on the trail
Crow & Wolf Brewing Co., 527 Park Creek Drive. 559-940-7542
MachineHead Brewing Co., 52 W. Palo Alto Ave. 559-900-4915
House of Pendragon tasting room, 1345 N. Willow Ave. 559-346-7786
Tactical Ops Brewing, 1131 Railroad Ave. 559-765-4930
ISH Brewing, 2700 Clovis Ave. 559-493-5739
Riley’s Brew Pub, 2674 Owens Mountain Parkway. 559-862-2925
This story was originally published February 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
