On Thursday, Aug. 27, the free monthly Ocean Hoptimism series brings SFEI science communicator Sierra Garcia to Faction Brewing in Alameda to trace Bay pollutants from storm drains upstream — over a pint, with the skyline out the window.

What, when, where: Ocean Hoptimism's next talk is Thursday, Aug. 27, from 7 to 8 p.m. at Faction Brewing, 2501 Monarch Street, in Alameda. It's free and open to all — no ticket, no RSVP required. The speaker is Sierra Garcia, a science communicator with the San Francisco Estuary Institute's Clean Water Program, and her subject is how coastal pollution gets traced back upstream to where it starts.

The pitch, per the organizers, is that most of what fouls San Francisco Bay doesn't begin in the water. It begins on streets and in neighborhoods, then rides storm drains and creeks down into the estuary — including the "forever chemicals" (PFAS) that SFEI's monitoring program hunts for. Garcia's job for the hour is to explain how researchers detect a surprising pollutant, follow it back to its origin, and turn that into something a city can actually fix. The institute frames the Bay as one of the world's most-studied estuaries; this is a plain-language tour of what that monitoring turns up.

Why this one's worth a Thursday: Ocean Hoptimism is a monthly series — every fourth Thursday — that pairs a Bay or ocean expert with a taproom and a pint, on the theory that people absorb more science with a beer in hand than in a lecture hall. That framing lives or dies on the venue, and the venue here is the draw. Faction occupies a converted airplane hangar out at Alameda Point, on the site of the old naval air station, right on the water with panoramic views of the Bay and the San Francisco skyline through the big roll-up doors. It pours 20-plus beers on draft — Faction's strength is hoppy pale ales and IPAs, but there are stouts, sours, barrel-aged options and non-alcoholic pours — plus a rotating food truck. So the actual offer is: a genuinely good waterfront taproom, a real Bay scientist, and no cover.

The logistics a regular would give you: Faction sits at Alameda Point, and that's the one thing to plan around — it is not a walk from BART. If you're driving, that's the easy call: it's a former airfield, so street parking around the hangars is free and plentiful, and it's rarely a problem even on a busy taproom night. Coming from San Francisco without a car, the move is the Seaplane Lagoon Ferry into Alameda and a rideshare or AC Transit connection for the last stretch to Monarch Street — check the current schedule before you commit, because ferry timing, not the talk, is what'll strand you. Bring cash or a card for the food truck; the talk itself costs nothing.

If you've only got two hours: Get there by 6:40, grab a pale ale and a window spot facing the skyline before the crowd fills in, catch Garcia's 7 o'clock talk, and stick around for the Q&A — a monitoring scientist is exactly the person to ask "so is the fish I caught off the pier safe to eat," and this is a room built for that kind of question. Details and speaker updates are at oceanhoptimism.org.