Part Two - The San Diego Beer Scene

I was wrong.  Living in the Northwest and thinking that without a doubt the best craft beer in the United States is either (a) in Seattle or (b) in Portland might have just constituted jumping to an erroneous conclusion.  As provincial as I am about our beer scene it became apparent to me shortly after arriving in San Diego that there’s a new participant on the block.

There are 29 microbreweries within the city limits of San Diego.  According to my sources, Seattle has 21.  Of course I’m not counting the many breweries in surrounding towns in both cases.  With limited time, we barely scratched the surface of beer in San Diego but here are a few highlights:

The Taps in the Stone Brewing Tasting Room

Stone Brewing.  This large and quite well known microbrewery is actually in Escondido, around 30 miles north of the city.  They have a nice, newer facility with a great restaurant and tasting room.  There’s also a great outdoor garden to stroll around with lots of outdoor seating.  We also took the free tour after our lunch and ale sampling session.  Great tour, costs a few bucks, but you get repaid in the form of more sampling in the tasting room afterward.  They have a lot of different things on tap including some aged ales, but many are familiar with their flagship IPA and their Arrogant Bastard Ale.  They also had a smoked porter on draft that was tasty and unique.  Stone is well worth the short drive and a visit.

BowlingJoe Can't Decide Where to Begin

Pizza Port Brewing Company.  Yeah, I know it doesn’t sound like a brewery but don’t let first impressions deceive you.  This place makes a ton of different and interesting types of potent potables.  My favorite of theirs, being a hophead, is their Jetty IPA.  It has a nose and follow-on burst of hoppy goodness on the tongue that rivals anything we concoct around here.  Pizza Port also has many guest taps available, too.  BowlingWidow ordered and enjoyed a West Coast IPA brewed by Greenflash Brewing.  I followed up the Jetty with a stronger double IPA brewed by Societe Brewing called Pupil IPA which turned out to be a fine sipping ale.

The Tanks at Pizza Port Brewing

Ballast Point Brewing.  We showed up at this smaller north San Diego brewery’s tasting room at around 4:00pm on a Friday afternoon.  And we were not alone.  I think that most of crowd in the surrounding neighborhoods decided to get an early start on the weekend with growlers in hand.  And most of them hung around for a pint.  After all, one has to do something while that jug is being filled.  We waited in line for our pints and it was well worth it.  If you ever find Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point in bottles or on draft, get some.  It may be light bodied, but it's a big beer.  You won’t be disappointed.

Ballast Point Brewing on a Friday Afternoon

The San Diego trip was a success and I really only have one wish:  we could uproot San Diego and put it in between Seattle and Portland (maybe where Chehalis is now….nobody goes there anyway).  Wouldn’t that just set up a nice three-day weekend?