Category: California

Yesterday was our last day in San Diego and the last day for the Year in Beer in North America. The focal event of the day was the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival, but we had the whole day to play before the fest began.

We had one more brewery to visit, Coronado Brewing in Coronado. And I thought it would be fun to take the ferry from San Diego instead of driving. My choice was wise as it was another amazing November day here in San Diego.

A short and pleasant ferry ride and a short walk found us at the doors of Coronado Brewing.

Things didn’t start off on the right track as our waiter informed us that we could only get three tasters at our table. Still not sure why. Luckily, we picked the right three, Pale Ale, IPA and Nut Brown, all very flavorful. So, we had a nice, relaxing meal and pints on their patio and enjoyed the incredible November day.

Coronado Brewing has a three pint limit on customers. We have never seen this policy before and I am not sure if odd or admirable is the correct word.  On one hand, I have a strong belief in personal responsibility so this seems a little much. But on the other hand, it is a easy way to combat excessive drinking.

The day’s main event was the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival held in Balboa Park. The festival is an opportunity to try a large number of San Diego brews in one spot.

And if you remember one thing from this post, it is to pay the extra $10 for the VIP pass. Many festivals advertise a special session with exclusive beers but at this fest, it was really true. Plus, once the main session began it got quite crowded.

Another cool thing about this festival is that the food is free and all the vendors pair their food with a beer. You get the food and give them a token for the beer right at the same table. Going to the VIP session, we were guaranteed that the food wouldn’t run out before we had a chance to try it..

Beer number one in my book was a Gueze from Ballast Point. Close behind was a Belgian-style Triple collaboration between Stone, Alesmith and the Danish brewery, Mikkeller. Then there was Alesmith’s 2007 Decadence, an Imperial Porter served on cask.

Merideth’s ‘girls are beergeeks too‘ was a magnet as people came up to ask about it and thebeergeek.com. One woman even twittered  her followers about us.

One person we met was Julie from pubquest.com and ended up spending quite a bit of time with her.

It was a fun festival, but if I have one complaint – and it is a complaint I have about most beer festivals – the loud music. A bit of background music is nice, but why blast music in a small venue so you have to shout to hear yourself think. If I want loud music, I’ll go to a Flogging Molly show.

So, the Year in Beer in North American is finished. We drive home today and prepare for our last trip in a little over three weeks; Belgium and the Netherlands.

 

It was perfect beer drinking weather down here in San Diego yesterday, probably around 80 degrees, and we took full advantage. Having been in Alpine, we drove back into San Diego in the morning. We planned to take it easy because we had a big afternoon of beer touring to do. Our idea of taking it easy was to mosey around the North Park neighborhood waiting for Toronado San Diego to open. We were their first customers of the day.

We were a little unsure of how Toronado’s dingy charm and colorful staff would be recreated down here, but we couldn’t let skepticism stop us from checking it out. The beer selection was every bit as good as the original and didn’t disappoint. The only thing we kept saying was, “It’s so clean!” We talked to Jay, who we assume is a manager of some sort, and he had a great answer for us. They didn’t want to fake the atmosphere and he figures that the original has 22 years on them as far as creating the inside patina. They had just a few stickers on the wall, but he’s looking forward to getting the walls covered in the coming years. I’m sure it won’t be long for their patina will be just as gritty. We had our pint and ventured back to our hotel before our afternoon beer tour.

On to the main event, John from Brewery Tours of San Diego picked us up around 1pm. We anxiously awaited his arrival because it meant the start of getting chauffeured around to all the big names in the San Diego brewing scene.

Our first stop was Lightning Brewing. We didn’t know much about the brewery except for that Chris tried one of their beers at GABF. Even though we arrived before 2pm, the party had already started. We joined a few guys who appeared to be regulars. The volunteer pouring beer even introduced us to a new name for brewery regulars: brewery cats. You know how book stores often have the shop cat who lounges around the stacks and window display. They come and go minding their own business, but overall seem to be a permanent fixture. Think of someone like that hanging out in a brewery.

Lightning had some German style lagers, the prospect of which pleased me to no end, and then a couple of English style ales. We both liked the Kölsch-style Ale. And, we enjoyed their Hefe, too.

John, our tour guide, was a good sport as he stood in the shadows quietly drinking his bottle of water. He was a little surprised at our no nonsense style of beer tasting and after the first brewery, we were ahead of schedule. I think we were in and out of Lightening in about 20 minutes.

Next up was Alesmith, the first of several highly anticipated visits for Chris. I knew that the rest of the afternoon was full of big beers, so I was a little less excited, but the breweries counted on the list just the same.

Jessica was our hostess and she was very friendly and knowledgeable. In short order, we were again joined by regulars talking about their homebrews and getting growlers filled. We tried all their usual suspects in addition to a special treat: the first day of offering Yule Smith Holiday Ale, an Imperial Red.  And surprisingly, I enjoyed Lil’ Devil, their Belgian-style ale. Horny Devil was a bit too much.

We were on a roll and it was off to Oceanside Brewing. The outside was unassuming, being located in an industrial park, so I wasn’t prepared for the crowd that we encountered inside. It was still before 4pm, but the place was mobbed with people drinking full pints.

The women behind the bar were volunteers and I don’t think they were used to people requesting taster sizes. The order in which we tried the beer was a little different than protocol would dictate, but we made the best of it. The favorite of regulars was a mix of the Blonde and the Strong American Ale, called, what else, the Strong Blonde. In addition to serving full pints, they had music and a hot dog vendor.

Hoppiness here we come. We were headed to Green Flash. I was expecting a big party there and it was. I admit, though, it was pretty amazing being surrounded by pallets filled with West Coast IPA. As you guys know, I’m not a big fan, but I guess I got swept up in the fanaticism.  Everyone was very cool and we talked to some really nice people. We started off with a Saison and I actually liked it. It came in at only 4.3%, with the next lowest beer being 6 something. John let me know that he didn’t think they bottled the Saison. Drats! Chris was in heaven as he sampled West Coast IPA, Imperial IPA, Double Stout and Palate Wrecker, another Double IPA.

The crowning glory….Port/Lost Abbey. This visit posed quite a conundrum for us, as we agonized over whether or not we could count Lost Abbey on our brewery list. We already had Port, but tried to figure out if Lost Abbey was a second brewery with the same owner or if it was two brand names from the same brewery. John was warming up to us, so we asked for his thoughts on the matter. Like most of our friends we questioned, he was non-committal, but leaned towards it being one brewery. Clearly this issue was ours to sort out. The answer was pretty clear from the minute we stepped in. One set of equipment.

The barrels were a beautiful site to behold, even though I don’t generally care for barrel aged beers. Chris enjoyed his tasters starting first with the Port Brewing lineup and then on to the Lost Abbey beers.  I indulged in a few pursed lip sips.

Then it was time to call it an evening. With the sky getting dark early, it felt like midnight, but it was only 7pm. And with visits to some of the hottest breweries in California, it felt like a lifetime.

John was a fun host. He admitted that it’s hard to go to these great breweries and not drink. But John and several other people that we met said they would be at the festival on Saturday, so hopefully we’ll see him livin’ it up. He certainly deserves it. By the way, as we left Port/Lost Abbey, I spotted a real black brewery cat.

 

When we told people that the Year in Beer was visiting San Diego, we received a lot of recommendations of places we had to visit; Ballast Point, Green Flash, Stone and several others. But the people with the most passion told us we had to go out to Alpine and visit Alpine Beer Company. So we planned a day in eastern San Diego county.

The bonus was that the Cleveland National Forest is nearby so we could get in some much needed hiking before returning to drinking beer.  We drove the 40-some miles east of San Diego and found the Ranger station to pick up a trail map.

The elderly lady behind the counter was very helpful and we are grateful that she warned us off one particular trail. Being so close to the border, this one trail is apparently popular with smugglers, both drug and human.

Our two hour hike was beautiful. It was a bit windy, but it definitely recharged our batteries.

Then it was back to Alpine and Alpine Beer Company. The tiny brewery and tasting room is located on the main drag of the city. And it is tiny. But as the saying goes, great things come in small packages.

Besides all the hearty recommendations, I was especially jazzed to visit because they make one of my favorite beers at GABF, Pure Hoppiness. If the rest of their brews were half as good, it was going to a good beer day.

Alpine had ten beers to sample, everything from a Wheat to a spiced Dunkel Weizen. Merideth was especially pleased with the vanilla version of the Wheat, Willy Vanilly and the blend of the Stout and the Willy Vanilly. I enjoyed the more manly beers, the Irish Red, Stout, Pure Hoppiness, and Ichabod, the spiced Dunkel Weizen.

We definitely left with a smiles on our faces. But one of the frustrating things about living in our beer backwater is that you visit these small towns elsewhere and are dumbfounded as to how they can support such a great brewery and we can’t.

The amazing thing about Alpine is that the city also has a world-class beer bar located a few blocks up from the brewery. The Liar’s Club, formerly located in the beach area of San Diego, lost their lease and decided to seek their fortunes inland. And Liar’s Club was another place we were told we HAD to go,.

You’ll understand why by the beers I had… The Dissident from Deschutes, Little Opal from Firestone-Walker, Damnation from Russian and Petrus’ barrel aged Pale. Need I say more?

We are definitely happy we made the journey out to Alpine but now it is back to San Diego for the meat of our trip. Today, with the help of Brewery Tours of San Diego, we visit five breweries.

Update:
We learned the fate of Mission Brewery. They are now brewing down in Chula Vista.

 

Though we have been enjoying ourselves down here in San Diego, we had another hiccup in our beer tour yesterday. Luckily, the two other breweries we visited and a beer bar gem we found through the recommendation of a friend more than made up for it.

The day’s beer tour started at 11am in a business park in northern San Diego at Ballast Point Brewery.  Well, we actually got there 15 minutes early, so we enjoyed the beautiful San Diego sunshine for a few moments while waiting for opening time.

I was especially anxious to visit Ballast Point. They are one of the breweries that San Diegans speak of with a certain sparkle in their eyes and we have had limited exposure to their beers in Northern California.

It is always fun being the first customers of the day as you generally get the undivided attention of the staff and in this case, we had a good time chatting with our host, Amber (No joke). And when she pulled out the cheese made with their Porter, we were BFFs.

They had nine beers available to taste; five beers from their regular lineup, Wheat, Pale Ale, Amber, IPA and Porter. The sampler was rounded out by four specialty brews; Double IPA, Oktoberfest, a session beer called Even Keel and finally the Porter aged in bourbon barrels.

The IPA, Porter and three of the specialty beers stood out for me. I particularly enjoyed Even Keel not just because it is truly a session beer at 3.5% ABV, but also because it is quite flavorful. The bourbon barrel porter was the one specialty that didn’t ‘WOW’ me, but that’s because I generally don’t like bourbon barrel aged beers.

It was now on to our second stop, a fancy mall to find Mission Brewery in the Miami Grille restaurant. I have to admit I had a bad feeling about this place. Maybe it was the ‘Miami’ association (didn’t that go out in the 80s when Miami Vice was canceled) or the fact that we parked on the complete opposite side of the mall, but something told me the beer was going to be bad. The situation was actually more dire than bad beer, Mission Brewery was no longer there. Miami Grille was, however.

Luckily we had a backup plan located a few miles away. I had learned about O’Brien’s American Pub from the Internets, but I wasn’t sure we were going to add it to the trip itinerary. Then at our last beer tasting, a friend said to me “you have to go to O’Brien’s.” And it is good thing I listened to him (Thanks Mike V.!).

Located in the corner of a non-descript strip mall, O’Brien’s, the “hoppiest place on earth”, has a beer list that can only be described as ‘world class’. If you don’t fall in love looking at the taps, the bottle list will convince you that this place is special.

Unpretentious and friendly, O’Brien’s is everything we look for in a beer bar. While enjoying our beers and lunch, we relaxed and watched two Champions League matches on TV. Well, actually it wasn’t that relaxing, as I kept switching my gaze between the two TVs located at opposite ends of the bar. I didn’t want to miss anything.

The only disappointment about O’Brien’s was that last night they were having a Chimay 25th anniversary (of being in the U.S.) party and  we were staying too far away to be able to make it.

The last stop of the day before we had to beat the traffic back to north county was Firehouse Brewing Company.  Located near Qualcomm Stadium, Firehouse is the labor of love of two brothers who are third generation firefighters.

Even though being community oriented seems to be the norm throughout the craft beer industry, each individual tale is inspirational.

Inspired to give back to the community by 9/11, these firefighting homebrewers decided to start a brewery where a portion of the proceeds would go to help firefighters and their families. And they do this through their Firehouse Foundation. As their website describes it, “A portion of The Firehouse proceeds go to firefighter widow and orphan funds, assisting the families of Firefighters who have died or been seriously injured in the line of duty. An additional percentage goes to local fire departments to help buy safety equipment.”

Firehouse currently has two beers in their lineup, a Hefeweizen and a very nice Pale Ale. They are also working on some other brews, but you need to go to the brewery to try the ‘works in progress’.  Thanks to Grant for taking a few moments out of his day to show us around… and if you see a Firehouse beer, please buy it. You would be helping a really good cause.

 

It has been a long time since we visited the San Diego area together. And truth be known, we have never made a trip to San Diego that was focused on beer. We have visited breweries in the area, but always as a side trip when we were here for a Cal football game. So we were excited to have our last Year in Beer North American destination be the United States’ hottest beer destination.

We started our trek down to San Diego on Monday night after I got off work. It was rainy and dark, but we were excited about what this trip might bring. On the way, we stopped at Hollister Brewing in Goleta for some dinner and a quick beer before our final destination for the night, Camarillo. Hollister Brewing had tasty food (try their white bean puree dip with flat bread) that went great with their beer. The more unusual beers I sampled included the Pumpkin Ale, which was like drinking a pumpkin pie, and the Orange Blossom Ale. With a hint of sweetness, the Orange Blossom reminded me of Bonny Doon’s Vin de Glacière, a very sweet dessert wine, but in beer form. Being the hophead he is, Chris tasted a hoppy pale ale, called Beer with Hops, an IPA and their GABF silver medal winning Double IPA.

On Tuesday, we woke up optimistic and full of hope. It was election day after all and in 24 hours we would know if we were packing our bags to be ex-pats in Germany. The first brewery on our agenda was Breakwater Brewing in Oceanside. We found it easy enough, which was good. What wasn’t so good, however, was that they were not yet serving their own beer. They were putting the finishing touches on the brewing equipment before the City was to come for their inspection. The bartender told us he was hopeful that everything would be all approved in a week. Too late for us, though. They did have a good selection of local and near-local beers, plus Sierra Nevada’s Chico Estate Harvest,  and we enjoyed some pizza and a salad before continuing South. We were disappointed, but our hope for a brighter day was undeterred. We knew that our second stop was a sure thing.

We were headed to Escondido and, you guessed it, Stone Brewing’s World Bistro and Gardens. It’s not so hard to figure out that I am not a huge fan of Stone. The beers are too big and too hoppy for my taste. Even Chris isn’t a huge fan. But no matter.

This place was COOL! The facility was gorgeous and once inside, it was like being in an oasis with water features, lots of greenery, and ethnic music. The place is green and you can see it in the recycled rebar and industrial fixtures.

After some samplers, I ended up with Stone’s Pale Ale and Chris started with the Cali-Belgique. Even if you’re not a huge Stone fan, the atmosphere is soothing and they have an awesome beer list with over 20 taps and double the number of bottles. As a second beer, Chris chose a Blind Pig.

We ended our visit there with a game of Scrabble at an outside table and a walk through the gardens. Much to my chagrin, Chris beat me in Scrabble, but with the surroundings, I remained calm and serene.

Our last brewery for the day was San Marcos Brewing. I visited San Marcos Brewing  about a year ago when I was down here without Chris, so it didn’t count on my list. Chris is now back to a 3 brewery lead.

The atmosphere was a little slow, so we had our taster set and went to Hensley’s Flying Elephant Bar and Grill in Carlsbad. Matt Hensley is the accordian player for Flogging Molly and last time I was there, Matt was, too. However, FM is on tour in Europe, so we knew we wouldn’t see him. The mood at Flying Elephant was jubilant and roars of applause rose up each time it was projected that Obama would win a state. The place is very hip and the food was good. I had a trio of sliders, one turkey burger and two pulled pork. Yum. Chris had a trio of tacos.

We returned to our hotel to watch the concession and acceptance speeches. With the hope of a new President and a plan to visit at least 10 more new breweries on this trip, the future is looking bright!