Need some local San Diego advice

if only Southern California tried running rails east/west instead of just north/south haha... that would be too much like a san francisco muni system, and well.... we don't like that! haha

 

Totally forgot about Fullerton as well. Though you could exit Fullerton, walk down the street to Bootleggers, cab to the Bruery, cab to Noble, and walk to the Anaheim station. Pretty solid daytrip right there.

Only issue I found with orange (and occaisionally Fullerton) is that not all amtraks offer service there, especially later into the evening. Amtrak also hasn't been too friendly with outside alcohol, but they do sell arrogant bastard (or at least did).

 

damn I never actually laid that out in my head... that is one good little day trip loop.

Good point, their alcohol rules may have changed. You could rock it like we used to before we were legal and headed up to Angel's games. A small flask of jager, a dr. pepper, and a trip to the bathroom....

 

seems like its a little complicated and not time friendly to go to the bruery (not sure why no one has mentioned it) and youre better off hitting up the coaster to go to a pizza port, or just take cabs to the places you mentioned.

and yes, one of those brewery tours online are great. http://www.brewerytoursofsandiego.com/ you could do 2 of those and hit up 5 places all while safely not driving, and not having to worry about much since its all planned. since you'll be downtown all the beer bars you wanted to go to are easy cab rides away. there are also plenty of places downtown that are great for beer (monkey paw, neighborhood, downtown johnny browns) and hamiltons is also very close as well! and the stone south park location is a few blocks from hamiltons!

have fun, and expect to rent a car if you wanna go to alpine

 

I only stuck on the Bruery because he mentioned it in his OP, but I agree it is pretty out of the way. Also, to the OP... you could just hit up Bottlecraft and taste fresh bruery beers in a similar but less crowded setting if you prefer to stay in SD county.

If you make it up to Temecula, we have some breweries too, and I will gladly buy you a beer! what convention are you hitting up in May?

 

One thing I've noticed about people visiting San Diego, or southern California in general, is that almost invariably it gets underestimated in area and driving time.

 

Good point for sure. Most people assume you can get to orange county from downtown SD in like 20 minutes! Or that 45 miles from one place to another is a true 45 minutes. When in reality southern California 45 minutes is closer to 1.5 to 2 hours. Especially considering every brewery involves a fairly major freeway interchange to get to it haha. But it's the price we pay right?

 

45mins only turns into 1.5hrs if you're stuck in rush hour. If you're going around on a weekend only if you're going from downtown to San Marcos (Lost Abbey/Stone/Rip Current/Churchills) is 45 mins, same with downtown to Alpine, about 35 mins from downtown to Carlsbad (Pizza Ports) etc...

Given the absolute explosion of breweries where there used to be only 1 in a given area there are now clusters of breweries and/or beer bars that make each destination a nexus. Of course you're screwed if you only want to hit 1, but it makes brewery tours easier.

It's just tough when some jo-jo who hasn't looked at a map scale says "I want to hit Bruery then Alpine, then 30th St." That just doesn't make sense.

 

That's really the best approach to hitting breweries in San Diego. Sure, everyone wants to just hit Alpine, Lost Abbey, and Pizza Port (or whatever other specific highlights around the county), but you're going to spend so much time driving that it only makes sense if you have a single day to do everything and only want the absolute highlights. If you have a couple days, just do clusters - it will be way more relaxing, cheaper (regardless of if you're driving or cabbing it), and marginally less crowded (unless you happen to follow a partybus through a cluster, in which case you're fucked).

 

That's cuz LA sucks brah. SD hits traffic as well, but not nearly as bad as our pinkies-out northern neighbors who look down their snoots at sleepy San Diego. Also bugs me when I say I live in So Cal and people want to know what part of LA. I sez, "No, the real So Cal, only yankees live in LA."

If you're driving around 8am or 4 to 7pm weekdays it can get nasty in some areas. But on the weekends it's usually 80mph everywhere. Including school zones. Those kids'll learn.

 

if it makes you feel any better I wish I lived down in North County SD! I am in Temecula so I am close enough, but I grew up in OC and had to deal with constant 405 and 5 traffic haha. LA is dirty, SD is the perfect amount of class/grime/salty haha

 

Interesting...I'm thinking of getting together some people for a Riverside/Temecula brewery crawl here pretty soon. But haven't mapped out where everything is. Hanger 24, IronFire and who else should be on that list?

 

Between Riverside and Temecula you can get some keepers. I will BM you with a nicel ittle list of options for you. Are you thinking strictly breweries?

 

Or brewpubs, depend on distance/operating times I think we can hit 4 w/ 4 people. Bigger the herd the slower it moves, so it's a smaller group that I like to get moving. Can avoid beer bars as I'm sure the dozen or so we have in SD all have the same distro. Unless you have a PB Taproom type place that pretty much only serves SD County beer...one stop shopping for the standard lineups + some seasonals.

 

I hope you are being sarcastic.

Hangar 24 to Iron Fire 54 miles

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1710...=us&ei=AvYsUc7uHKHuigLBgYH4Bg&ved=0CDMQ8gEwAA

 

The new Crush & Brew in Old Town Temecula had +/- 20 taps of only local beers last week (Wiens, Iron Fire, Refuge, Black Market, Aftershock, etc). It is not a tasting room but a cool bar.

http://www.crushnbrew.com/

There are 3-4 tasting rooms in the Old Town Temecula area.

http://www.temeculabreweries.com/

 

Nope, like most noobs posting for SD info...I have no idea of where shit is north of me. I went to Hanger 24 years ago...but for the life of me I couldn't tell you where it is.

 

I know. I have to laugh when friends from out of town ask if it would make sense to get a hotel in Palm Springs if they are visiting Disneyland.

 

wait, you mean I shouldn't plan to check out Malibu the morning I planned to take my kids to Disneyland?