Is San Diego beer scene behind Phoenix?

Laughable and not worth a dignifying with a response, imo.

For the record, I'm in PHX (Tempe) about twice a year.

Edit: but good response by you.

 

I've been to Papago Brewing, and it's a wonderful place. But it's a wonderful place in a (relative to San Diego) craft beer wasteland.

I can walk to a better pub (Churchill's Pub & Grille) living in San Marcos, CA, or choose to drive to Pizza Port, Stone, or The Lost Abbey in 10 minutes or less. If I want to drive just a bit further I can get to Alesmith, Ballast Point, Green Flash, and Hess Brewing, or Hamilton's, O'Brien's, and Toronado. And I haven't even mentioned picking up bottles of Russian River (not available in PHX) at a number of places on my way to Alpine Beer Co.

I don't mean to rub it in, but, no, the San Diego beer scene is not behind the Phoenix beer scene.

 

uh . . . why would anyone living in san diego voluntarily go to arizona?

 

Papago Ron has lost it! Well, maybe he never had it.

I've lived in both cities (currently in San Diego). I have many good memories of Four Peaks in Tempe. But like ehammond said, it's a good place in the middle of a beer wasteland.

Just browse the forums at any given time, How many out-of-towners are planning trips/asking questions about San Diego, and how many threads are there about Phoenix? That should answer your question.

 

This made me laugh so hard...that shit cray.

 

San Diego is arguably the best beer city in the US. No one would ever make that claim about Phoenix without some serious homerism. (And no, I don't live in San Diego, I live in the Bay Area.)

 

The highlight of my trip to Phoenix was going to a bottle shop and seeing all the Bells, O'dells, Ska, etc on the shelves. But that's it, I didn't find Phoenix had a whole lot to offer as far as a craft beer scene. I lived in SD for three years and am now back in OC and I'd have to say these days OC/LA are even much better than Phoenix.

 

With all due respect, this is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever seen on this site. I've lived in both cities for four years and Phoenix frankly, is an awful beer city. ESPECIALLY compared to San Diego which as mentioned could be argued is the best in the nation. There are ten breweries in the San Diego metro area better than the best brewery in Phoenix. Same goes for bottleshops, gastropubs etc. Arizona as a whole, and Phoenix included, is one of the most inferior States when it comes to craft brew (and it pains me to say so being a native Arizonan).

 

Everyonce in a while you make sense with something smart, even if you are a Padres fan

Cheers!

 

Huh ????

 

My last trip to Phoenix (some 10 years ago maybe), pretty much sums it up for me in the way of craft beer. That was where I had my first, and last, Fat Tire. Phoenix didn't really leave a good taste in my mouth, just from that.

 

I've never been to either place (was planning a trip to SD this summer but now have to have knee surgery. Bummer) but this seems like a ridiculous statement. And that's not to say that Phoenix doesn't have good beet to offer. But to suggest that Phoenix is better because you can get almost anything from SD there anyways is an extremely faulty argument. And, not to dis again, but until Phoenix becomes a beer destination for travelers, it's pretty clear which city has the better beer scene.

 

Including the Yucca Tap Room in a list of PHX's beer highlights just completely validates San Diego's superiority. Unless it's changed completely in the last 5 years, that place is a run of the mill dive bar with no craft presence even worth mentioning.

...and Trophy's !?!?!? Really? I guess that means San Diego should get to list Applebee's and Chili's as "don't miss Beer destinations" in America's finest city.

 

Greetings, this will be my only post on this thread because it could just become a pissing match between people and it is easy to misinterpret posts as clearly my original post was. I love yemenmochas editing job on some of my posts here so that they could be taken out of context. Thanks dude.

Yucca Tap Room and Trophy's have changed quite a bit in the last 5 years. Here is their current taplist. http://yuccatap.com/menu/ http://trophyssteakhouse.com/Beer_and_Wine_List.html These certainly aren't the best places in Arizona but I am sure based on how you saw it 5 years ago you would agree the craft beer selections there have improved and it is that way at many places in Arizona, just as there are more places in SD that have improved over the last few years. The tap selections at Taste of Tops, WFM, Papago, Hungry Monk, et all are better than the current draft lists at Yucca or Trophys but they were listed as a part of a bigger list. Pretty much every place that I listed has improved their craft beer presence in the past few years and what the edited post here that Yemenmocha posted failed to show was that I was responding to someone who mentioned a few SD places, and that I even added to his list of good SD places. Don't get me wrong, I love SD and the beer scene there, just as I love a number of places here and if you haven't been to most of the places both here and there recently you really can't give an honest opinion as to which is better currently.

As far as to which I think is better, AZ or SD, as I stated in the original thread its all how about personal preferences and how you look at things and I was talking about the overall beer scene, not just the breweries, the local beer, the bars, or beer stores individually but the entire package. Does San Diego have some kick ass breweries that are better than most in Arizona? Yes, but my point is that most get distributed here so in my view what is the difference between getting them in SD or AZ? None really. If you are only looking at breweries than yes SD is better, but if you look at the beers they produce and since both places get them than it is a wash. Does SD have some kickass bars, Yes, but so does AZ, one can argue that any one place is better than another and they can all vary from day to day based on what's available but again that boils down to personal preference in what you look for in a bar. If you are gauging simply by selection, AZ gets my vote as better since places like Papago, Taste of Tops, WFM and SunDevil are examples that all carry at least 500 beers that you can drink onsite or get to go, I don't know of any beer bar in SD that does that besides the bottle shop at Pizza Port in Carlsbad. Does SD have some good beer stores? Yes, but so does AZ, we get some beers here that you cant get and vice versa so that is a wash. Because Arizona beers (besides one Papago beer) do not get distributed out of state it totally hurts the perception of the AZ brewing scene because no one knows about the beers brewed here and some of the better breweries like Sun Up that don't package their beer and don't attend out of state beerfests so people out of state never get a chance to try them or talk about them. AZ also has the largest homebrew club in the country, something that contributes to my view that the overall beer scene here is just ever so slightly better than SD since in many areas you could toss a coin as to whom is better. Again, it is just my opinion. I'm not high on drugs or anything, it's not homerism because I am not saying that AZ is the best in the country by any means. I might be the only one to have this opinion, that doesn't make me wrong, maybe just a little early in getting the word out about AZ's beer scene and if you haven't been here in 5 or 10 years things are completely different than they were. We had four breweries open up last year and have about ten more in various stages of opening, plus we have many new bars that have opened or are opening such as World of Beer that are craft beer focused. Things here are growing and the beer scene is better than what many of you think it is. Arizona is no longer a beer wasteland and hasn't been for years. For those of you that think San Diego is the best in the world, when the first person who said they were better than Portland probably got pissed on a little also so I can take it. It's just an opinion, it's not the end of the world and it is after all about good beer.

 

I'm somebody who's always harping about the comparatively lackluster amount of craft beer that is shipped into CA (lackluster compared both to what we send out and compared to other large states), so I do actually appreciate papagobrewing's point about the quality of out-of-state breweries available in Phoenix but not California. I don't think that point is irrelevant or a thinly veiled insult/backhanded compliment as yemenmocha says.

The problem, however, is that even that point fails to take some things into account. In terms of highly regarded non-CA or non-AZ breweries available in AZ, you have Bells, Odell, Left Hand and Ska, which is great (especially Bells). But on the other hand, SD does have quality non-Ca, non-AZ breweries like Hair of the Dog, Victory, Allagash and Anchorage. You can do a comparison map of out-of-state breweries in CA vs. AZ at http://www.seekabrew.com/ and see that California doesn't do too badly for itself.

As tempting as it is though I'm not going to proclaim SD better than Phoenix simply because I haven't been to Phoenix, and per the original thread this is really about personal preference. If we start talking about beer scenes in SD vs. NYC, Portland or Chicago though, that's when I may start getting myself in trouble 'round this forum.