In the heart of San Francisco\u2019s Bernal Heights neighborhood, you\u2019ll find a church with no altar or priest. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a building with no cross on top or stained glass windows. One that switches pews for barstools and communion for community. <\/p>\n
But walk inside, and you\u2019ll see religious paintings coating the walls like wax dripping down a candle; every nook and cranny filled with a print\u2014many French and German. <\/p>\n
Holy Water Owner and Manager John Ottman found these works all over, from eBay to Etsy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI found a guy in Paris,\u201d he shares, admitting that he pretty much sent money into the ether the first time he bought from him. But Ottman figured, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll only get burned once.\u201d <\/p>\n
Far from getting burned, Ottman has lit an eternal match. He figures he\u2019s spent a couple of thousand dollars buying prints from him. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve gotten every single one.\u201d <\/p>\n
We\u2019re perched on a high-top table in the back of one of San Francisco\u2019s best-kept secrets, Holy Water. <\/p>\n
This temple of tipples started as a spirits emporium but has transformed into one of the city\u2019s best craft beer bars over the past decade. <\/p>\n
In a metropolis populated by the likes of Toronado and City Beer, Holy Water somehow slipped silently through the cracks. <\/p>\n
Those who know, know. <\/p>\n
And those like me, who didn\u2019t know, have discovered a new religion.<\/p>\n
From way up towards the top of the wall, a space Ottman almost can\u2019t reach, he pulls down a print of Jesus, the first. His virgin Mary, if you will. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to believe, but when Holy Water opened in 2013, you\u2019d find almost no religious paraphernalia on the wall. <\/p>\n
![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-art-credit-magic-muncie-hop-culture-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPhotography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But on New Year\u2019s Eve in 2018 or 2019 (Ottman can\u2019t remember exactly), he put up all the art he\u2019d collected\u2014somewhere near fifty pieces. <\/p>\n
Ottman points to another print, \u201cThese nuns I found in Santa Cruz, at a flea market.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fully baptized, Ottman admits his hobby may be getting a little out of hand. \u201cI actually have two hundred rosaries at my house that I\u2019m just waiting to put up,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThey\u2019re just in these giant gallon Ziploc bags.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now you can\u2019t turn your head at Holy Water without running into Jesus or Mary Magdalene.<\/p>\n
Across from the bar, a wall-length mural of a Southern baptism. At least, that\u2019s Ottman\u2019s best guess. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know too many river baptisms in California,\u201d he chuckles. <\/p>\n
Behind the bar, glasses stamped with commandments: <\/p>\n
Wash away all my sins<\/em><\/p>\n Smite thine thirst<\/p>\n Confess all your sins<\/p>\n Even the water glasses remind you that you\u2019re drinking holy water. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s crazy is they cost as much as the beer glasses,\u201d laughs Ottman, \u201cand they just walk out the door.\u201d <\/p>\n I suppose I misspoke when I said this church has no overseer. <\/p>\n Holy water has become Ottman\u2019s haven.<\/p>\n And in return, Holy Water has become a different kind of cathedral, a watering hole unlike any other in the city. <\/p>\n Holy Water Owner John Ottman | Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I wouldn\u2019t say Ottman had a calling to own a bar, but he found his way to it. <\/p>\n While working in a cabinet shop in Sacramento in the early 2000s, he had an epiphany. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was so hot, triple digits,\u201d Ottman remembers. \u201cI was just tired, and I had this bizarre idea that maybe I\u2019d do something fun in architecture.\u201d <\/p>\n While going back to school at the local city college, Ottman got a part-time job at Chicago Fire, a nearby pizza place. <\/p>\n The last person to interview, Ottman was hired on the spot. The owner told Ottman he knew he was the right person because, while working full-time and going to school three nights a week, he still wanted to work at the bar in his free time. <\/p>\n That was Ottman\u2019s gateway. He hopped around for the next decade or so, working at bars like Churchill and Bloodhound. <\/p>\n Ottoman says he stuck around because he knew the owners of both those bars always found a third partner when they opened a new spot. <\/p>\n \u201cEveryone thought I was crazy,\u201d Ottman says of hospitality work. \u201cBut long story short \u2026 [a few years later] that\u2019s pretty much exactly what happened.\u201d* <\/p>\n *Editor\u2019s Note: Ottman bought out his original partners in 2023 and is now the sole owner of Holy Water.<\/em><\/p>\n Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Holy Water wasn\u2019t always a temple for fermented tipples. Ottman came from a cocktail background. After stints at spirits-focused bars, \u201cI wasn\u2019t worried about the cocktails,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut beer was still unknown.\u201d <\/p>\n To educate himself, Ottman began buying bottles\u2014lots and lots of bottles. <\/p>\n At one point, he admits he had fifty to sixty different ones. <\/p>\n \u201cAt home?\u201d I ask him. <\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d he says, gesturing to his left, \u201chere in the bar.\u201d <\/p>\n Nothing was off limits. Ottman bought Belgian beer, all kinds of sours, and barleywines. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople loved it,\u201d he says with a shake of his head. <\/p>\n But beyond his personal collection, getting beer actually on draft at Holy Water was a whole other quest. <\/p>\n Ottman remembers wanting to bring in some Alpine Nelson, \u201cthe best IPA in California at the time,\u201d he says. When he emailed the brewery, he received a firm reply: \u201cNo, sorry.\u201d <\/p>\n Likewise, tracking down Cantillon came with a rejection. <\/p>\n Ottman was new. No one had heard of him. Holy Water was just a bar that primarily served cocktails and spirits at that. <\/p>\n But Ottman kept pursuing his unofficial beer education. And slowly but surely, beer by beer, he built a house of ale. <\/p>\n Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n During Holy Water\u2019s first S.F. Beer Week in 2014, Ottman secured eight half-kegs from Avery, planning to tap the beer all week. <\/p>\n On the first day, Ottman says he got a call. \u201cDude, I need some help.\u201d <\/p>\n Running down to the bar, Ottman found it completely packed. \u201cWhat on Earth?\u201d Ottman remembers asking himself. <\/p>\n With time, Ottman built connections all across California. <\/p>\n Like with Scot Blair, who originally opened the San Diego-based Monkey Paw. <\/p>\n Blair visited Holy Water and invited Ottman to the brewery to brew a beer. <\/p>\n Photography courtesy of John Ottman | Holy Water<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Loading up his Toyota Tacoma with beer, Ottman drove down to spend a few days brewing and drinking with Blair. <\/p>\n \u201cAs I was getting ready to leave,\u201d says Ottman, \u201che\u2019s like, Do you want to take some beer back?\u201d<\/p>\n Ottman drove back, loaded with kegs of Fall, Council, and Eppig. <\/p>\n \u201cHe had hit up all his buddies and told them you go to sell this guy beer,\u201d laughs Ottman. \u201cI had no business driving that much beer back up.\u201d <\/p>\n For the next couple of years, Ottman became the craft express, ferrying beer back and forth between Northern and Southern California. <\/p>\n He\u2019d bring back beer not just for Holy Water but also two of S.F.\u2019s other watering holes\u2014Toronado and City Beer. <\/p>\n Struggling to find the words for it, Ottman eventually landed on two words: buddy system. <\/p>\n Pretty soon, he started getting calls from hype breweries like Cellarmaker.<\/p>\n Ottman says they started asking him, \u201cHey, do you want to buy some of our beer?\u201d <\/p>\n Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture (top and bottom right) and Grace Lee-Weitz, Hop Culture (bottom left)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In Ottman\u2019s mind, the math adds up pretty easily. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople trust us,\u201d he says matter-of-factly. \u201cWe take care of the beer. We keep it cold. We clean our lines and our faucets.\u201d <\/p>\n The rest, he says, is just word of mouth. <\/p>\n Well, after five years, the word was out on Holy Water. <\/p>\n Today, walk into Holy Water on a Friday night and you\u2019ll find a good mix of locals and beer nerds. <\/p>\n Regulars gather in a corner of the bar. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those places,\u201d laughs longtime regular Richard Park, who has been worshipping inside Holy Water\u2019s hallowed walls since the very beginning. \u201cIt\u2019s a neighborhood place \u2026 but it\u2019s a little hidden.\u201d <\/p>\n Park and his wife run a small kitchen called Overkill Grill inside a Mission bar called Benders.<\/p>\n Even though he works at a bar, Park says Holy Water is his drinking sanctuary, where he likes to relax at the end of the night. <\/p>\n Over the years, Holy Water became his Sunday school, an education in California craft beer. \u201cJohn brought in things you couldn\u2019t get anywhere else,\u201d says Park, admitting he\u2019s a West Coast IPA guy who likes to end the night sipping on something like a Private Press stout. <\/p>\n The regulars have gotten so close at Holy Water that they\u2019ve even traveled together. <\/p>\n When Park celebrated his forty-fifth birthday in 2020, twenty-five Holy Water regulars went with him to Vegas.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was amazing,\u201d remembers Park. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest things I\u2019ll remember, the community that John has created [at Holy Water].\u201d<\/p>\n Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Devout to a fault, Ottman will go to the ends of California to source the best beer for his congregants. <\/p>\n He still hits the LA area every three to four months. <\/p>\n On his last beer run, Ottman drove through the night just to pick up some beer from Enegren. He woke up at 1:30 a.m., hit Moorpark to pick up those Enegren kegs by 6:30 a.m., dropped some other kegs off at Highland Park at 7:50 a.m., loaded up, and got back to the bar by 2:00 p.m. <\/p>\n \u201cJohn is psycho,\u201d says Park. \u201cHe\u2019s always driving down to LA to buy the freshest, hoppiest beer from around town and bring it home for us.\u201d <\/p>\n You\u2019ll immediately notice the fruits of his pilgrimages on the draft list, strategically split into four columns and three rows. <\/p>\n The first and second columns are usually all hoppy stuff. While you might not always find a hazy on at Holy Water, one thing you\u2019ll always find: A West Coast IPA or two. <\/p>\n Think Ghost Town, Russian River, Flatland, Alvarado Street, and Pizza Port if Ottman can get it. <\/p>\n Lately, Ottman has been crossing the Bay Bridge over to Faction in Alameda because even though they don\u2019t distribute, \u201cif you drive over, they\u2019ll sell it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Recently, he made the thirty-five-minute drive for a pale ale called In the Pocket. <\/p>\n Ottman reserves the third column for sour and funky things. Like a 3 Fonteinen Nocturne and a Flanders oud bruin.<\/p>\n The last column on the far right has dark beer, usually a dark lager, porter, and a bigger beer. For instance, when we visited, Moonlight\u2019s Death & Taxes and North Coast\u2019s Nitro Old Rasputin shared the board with a Sante Adairius coffee porter. <\/p>\n While beer accounts for twenty-eight percent of the Holy Water\u2019s sales, the rest is a mix of cocktails and just straight spirits. <\/p>\n Like the most popular Mexican Firing Squad, a tincture of Blanco tequila, grenadine, lime, and bitters over crushed ice. <\/p>\n Ottoman says what they sell the most of is whiskey, but agave-based spirits like mezcal and tequila aren\u2019t far behind. <\/p>\n Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He plans to lay everything out in what looks like a Bible that you\u2019d find in a Drake Hotel room. <\/p>\n The new red Italian leather-bound booklet will include twenty-two parchment-like pages of cocktails, beers, and even an NA and low-ABV section. <\/p>\n A special section called the Cardinal\u2019s List will include cocktails, more expensive spirits like a Manhattan with George T. Stagg bourbon or a Sazerac with Thomas H. Handy. <\/p>\n Like the constant sourcing of the 1800s religious arts and rosaries stuffed into Ziploc bags in his basement, Ottman\u2019s dedication reaches a higher level. <\/p>\n Something that becomes even crazier when you learn that Ottman has stayed sober for the last eighteen months. <\/p>\n Instead of drinking, he takes a one-minute cold shower every morning and sits in an ice bath at night. <\/p>\n \u201cI hate doing them; they\u2019re the worst,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut it\u2019s an obstacle I must do every day to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n Call it his own private baptism. <\/p>\n Photography courtesy of Magic Muncie, Social Media Manager, Hop Culture<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In December, Holy Water will celebrate its twelfth anniversary. <\/p>\n Ottman can hardly believe it. <\/p>\n As we wrap up our conversation, and I start to put my notepad away, he points to sets of barrels behind me, set up almost like tables. <\/p>\n \u201cAll these whiskey barrels are unique to us,\u201d he tells me. \u201cThey\u2019ve all pretty much once had aged beer in them.\u201d<\/p>\n Ottman gives these used whiskey barrels to breweries all over California. <\/p>\n Moxsa\u2019s Singularity series? \u201cThat started with us,\u201d he says with a smile. <\/p>\n GOAL.\u2019s Founder Derek Gallanosa has a Holy Water barrel, too. <\/p>\n And Shred Founder and Brewer Zack Frasher? He also has a barrel.<\/p>\n Fitting, no? The place that once couldn\u2019t get beer from Alpine or Cantillon now passes on barrels to the likes of Moksa, Shred, and GOAL. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople who previously said no to me are now like, Can you give me a second of your time?\u201d says Ottman, shaking his head in disbelief. <\/p>\n We\u2019re not commanding you to go to Holy Water by any means, but once you step inside this cathedral, we find it hard to accept that you won\u2019t become a believer. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the heart of San Francisco\u2019s Bernal Heights neighborhood, you\u2019ll find a church with no altar or priest. It\u2019s a building with no cross on top or stained glass windows. One that switches pews for barstools and communion for community. But walk inside, and you\u2019ll see religious paintings coating the walls like wax dripping down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[99257,3733,15475,3715,273,638],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-273001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer","tag-alelujah","tag-culture","tag-gospel","tag-holy","tag-hop","tag-water"],"yoast_head":"\nGenesis: From Cabinets to Cocktails<\/h2>\n
![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-owner-john-ottman2-credit-magic-muncie-hop-culture-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nExodus: The Road to Craft Beer<\/h2>\n
![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-bar2-credit-magic-muncie-hop-culture-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIf You Build It, They Will Come<\/h2>\n
![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-bar3-credit-magic-muncie-hop-culture-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-pickup-beer-credit-john-ottman-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Numbers Don\u2019t Lie<\/h2>\n
![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-collage-owner-john-ottman-credit-magic-muncie-and-grace-lee-weitz-hop-culture-1000x1309-1-782x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirits<\/h2>\n
![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-menu-credit-magic-muncie-hop-culture-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-new-menu2-credit-magic-muncie-hop-culture-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThou Shalt Go to Holy Water<\/h2>\n
![\"holy](\"http:\/\/www.hopculture.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/holy-water-bar-credit-magic-muncie-hop-culture-1000x667-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n