Newer SD Breweries

Head to El Cajon and order a flight. Then ask them for small business and financial advice.

 

per a previous post of mine:
I live about 2 hr drive from San Diego area, the Mecca of craft beer. In 2011 my new years resolution was to visit 52 breweries in 52 weeks. Which is totally doable with the 60+ breweries in the area, i gave up after hitting about 30 i found out that most of the smaller newer breweries are not that good. Of the 60+ in San Diego, i would say there is probably about 8-10 that are world class; ie Alpine, Stone, Alesmith, Ballast Point, Green Flash, Lost Abbey, Pizza Ports, and of course new players Rip Current, and Societe, but in my opinion the rest are mediocore at best

 

The brewer at The Beer Company will move or has moved to New Mexico to start a new brewery per his announcement at the end of March, which is a damn shame, so I don't know what's going on there. I really liked his beer. Latitude and Belching Beaver are good.

 

El cajon Brewing is definately the place to go. They have the front boarded up but if you knock on the door and say the secret password(which incidentally is "we fucked el cajon") then they will open the door and give you a raw frozen burger and some beer named after a teapot.

 

Iron Fist. Not really new, but wonderful, nevertheless.

 

Is that what's happening now?

 

Has language lost all meaning?

 

i sold an ECBC growler on ebay for 600 bucks! i'll take any advice those guys will give me going forward...

 

I've noticed that Iron Fist has amassed quite a large number of online groupies. I do like Velvet Glove (though wonderful may be pushing it), and would like to try a barrel aged version of it at some point.

 

Well, they did beat Oceanside Aleworks a couple years ago in the finals of an online competition to claim the title of best brewery in San Diego. Or maybe it was the other way around and OAW won that crown. I can't remember. Either way, it was comical to watch those two breweries crush breweries such as Alesmith and Pizza Port in the polls. They must have offered free taster flights to people if they would go online and vote for them or something. If Iron Fist is "wonderful", there are no words in existence to express how good places like Alpine, Societe, and Alesmith are.

 

I don't think they bribed people; I think it is easier for those places to have developed a groupie culture. But I do recall seeing more "vote for us" tweets from them.

 

Rough Draft has been flying under the radar for about a year and I think they're very underrated. Belching Beaver has a couple nice beers as well.

 

i'm not thrilled with the eraser, but hop therapy is pretty good. i also tried their southern triangle anniversary ipa at regal beagle on friday and i really enjoyed it.

 

I may be strange, but I like their barrel aged Emboozlement Trippel.

They have a pretty nice tasting room, with 2 big screen TVs and free popcorn.

 

Agreed. Eraser is serviceable but Hop Therapy is fantastic and Southern Triangle's one of my favorite new beers this year. Also, as an operator, I appreciate the price point they've started at. Hop Therapy might be the most affordable 9% beer in SoCal.

Cheers!

 

Wait a month and Benchmark Brewing and Modern Times will open. Plus about a dozen more.

 

Intergalactic Brewing Company, in the Mirimar area (very close to White Laboratories). Nice guy, and his Red Planet Rye got a gold at the SD International Beer Competition (whatever that is). I like the Space Oasis Coconut Porter very much.

http://www.intergalacticbrew.com/home.html