Legendary SF Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow is getting his own beer

There’s bound to be many tributes to Mike Krukow in the last few weeks before the legendary San Francisco Giants broadcaster retires, including his face being put on the outfield wall inside Oracle Park already. But none will be as refreshing as what Berkeley’s Fieldwork Brewing Company has in store for him.

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As Fieldwork prepares for the grand opening of its taproom just across McCovey Cove from Oracle Park on Sept. 25, the brewery is unveiling a beer honoring Krukow. “Grab Some Pine, Meat” is a West Coast IPA that is named after the baseball catchphrase Krukow has brought to Giants broadcasts for decades now. Giants fans will often yell the phrase after a San Francisco pitcher strikes out an opposing batter, the proverbial “meat” who is heading back to the “pine” bench.

Fieldwork said it will give proceeds from sales of the beer to the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation, a charity in Krukow’s hometown of Reno that the Krukow family has gotten closely involved with in recent years.

There’s also a $20,000 donation that Fieldwork co-founder Barry Braden made to the foundation last week — which, thanks to an anonymous donor match program for Children’s Cancer Month, was actually doubled to $40,000, Krukow told SFGATE in a phone call on Monday.

“To have a beer named after you is freaking cool,” Krukow said. “But to have a donation from all the beer sales going to help out children’s cancer, it’s just cool, man. Very cool.”

In a news release, Braden said, “Mike Krukow is part of the fabric of San Francisco. He’s been there for so many of the moments that make being a Giants fan special, and we wanted to do something that felt very Fieldwork to celebrate him.”

Krukow announced that 2026 would be his final season of broadcasting on Aug. 6, ending a 36-year run in the booth. His final game will be on Sept. 27, when the Giants host the Dodgers, but the honors have already begun — including a new sign with his likeness and, “Atta babe, Kruk!” on the Oracle Park wall. Krukow told SFGATE the first week of home games after his announcement were “so overwhelmingly beautiful” and led him to cry a lot, but he’s hoping to have “a lot of fun” with the final few weeks of this final season.

Krukow has said he wanted to continue to call games, but his health — especially inclusion body myositis, the muscle disease that Krukow was first diagnosed with 20 years ago — has made it too difficult to continue. 

“I don’t want to quit,” Krukow told NBC Sports Bay Area when announcing his plans. “Unfortunately the rules change, first from year to year and then month to month and now it’s day to day. It’s becoming unsafe. My home in Reno is much safer and it really is the determining factor in how I can’t do games anymore.”

When he’s in San Francisco, though, Krukow lives right near Oracle Park and uses a special motorized wheelchair to get around the neighborhood. That’s led him over to the Mission Rock neighborhood, where Fieldwork has been in the process of opening its location since last September. The brewery has already made one Giants-tied beer with catcher Patrick Bailey, though Braden told SFGATE the beer was discontinued after Bailey was traded to the Guardians in May. 

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Krukow said he’s eaten at the restaurant as they’ve held a soft open in the past few months — he recommended the fish and chips multiple times on our call — and watched FIFA World Cup matches on the big screen at the brewery’s popup stand in the new China Basin Park. He brings friends to the park and the beer stand whenever they visit because of its ideal location.

“I mean, you’re right there on McCovey Cove. You’re looking at the ballpark. You couldn’t find a better place,” Krukow said.

Krukow said he first connected with the Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation through Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s charitable efforts for children’s cancer research. But he was especially intrigued by the foundation’s work helping families who have children going through cancer treatment.

“They go in, and you know they babysit the kids when the one child has to go to see the doctors,” Krukow said. “When they’re getting their chemotherapy and they’re doing treatments for it, [the foundation] will go back to the homes and they’ll clean and disinfect and fill their refrigerator up full of food. They’ll go out and they’ll get a theater, and they’ll rent the whole thing out for a movie for just that family.

“They’re just really, really cool. So we really became impassioned by it.”

That’s why it was easy to choose a charity when Braden sought out Krukow for this “brewmance” beer.

As for the beer’s taste? Fieldwork describes it as a “a bone-dry, resinous Westcoast IPA with aromas of fresh pine needles, juicy pink grapefruit, and bright lime zest, all anchored by a subtle hint of crushed papaya and crisp passionfruit.” It’ll come in a black can with an orange microphone and the No. 39, the number Krukow wore when he pitched for the Giants from 1983 to 1989.

Krukow hasn’t tried it yet himself. But among the many tributes and gifts that are sure to come his way in these final few weeks of the season, he’s got plans to make space for some ales.

“I’ve told people the story, and they’re excited about it, and they want the beer,” Krukow said. “So yeah, I’ll be taking a ton of the beer back to Reno when the season’s over.”