8 Breweries in 10 Hours = A Great Day!

Last Saturday my wonderful wife, myself and a few friends went on an epic San Diego beer trip. Living in San Diego makes that a little easier, but a trip like this still isn't something I would do every weekend. I thought I would share the story.

We started out Saturday morning. I mapped out our route, gassed up the van, loaded up the giant cooler with ice to keep growlers cold all day, and we were off.

Our first stop was Ballast Point (Old Grove location). It didn't look too busy from the outside, but then I noticed a tour mini-bus out front. When we walked in, the bar area was packed with a couple different tours, which made getting our first tasters a bit of a pain, but the hassle was worth it. We walked to the other side of the tasting room, which was completely clear of everyone, and enjoyed some Barrel Aged Three Sheets tasters. After that, the tours all cleared out, giving easier access for a couple more tasters, and a growler fill of Barrel Aged Piper Down. I hadn't been to Ballast Point since the remodel. The room has been opened up nicely, and looks great with all the wood trim they have now. It looks like they're also redoing the front lawn/hill area. I heard someone say they were putting in an outside deck? That would be great, and I look forward to seeing more usable space there if that happens.

Our second stop was AleSmith. As we pulled up, I could see the tour vehicles in the parking lot. Nothing against these tour groups, in fact I would like to go on one one of these days to see what they're like, but no one in my small group was excited about following this mass of people around all day. So we made the decision to get in and out of AleSmith quickly, and get ahead of the various tours. I had a quick Double Coffee Speedway Stout taster, got a growler fill of Speedway Stout, and we were out of there. AleSmith has also remodeled their tasting room since the last time I visited. Instead of the small area in a working brewery/warehouse that it used to be, it's now a nice looking larger finished bar room, inside a working brewery/warehouse, similar to what Lost Abbey has. It looks great and has a great feel to the space now.

Third down the line was Hess Brewing. I had never been to Hess before, so I was looking forward to visiting a newer small San Diego brewery. I really like visiting these up-and-comers when they're still in their start-up spaces. I really appreciate that they are gracious enough to open up the limited work area that they have in order to provide the product of their hard labor to people who love beer. Hess did not disappoint. They open at 1pm, and we were a bit early, so we waited outside with the Swiener's food stand that was getting set up, and a couple bins of spent grain that smelled of fertilizer that had been left in the sun all morning. The owner, I believe, opened up and poured us some tasters to enjoy while he finished cleaning up the space. He did a great job of serving and working at the same time. I tried the Coffee & Cream Ale (I think?, it wasn't Grazias) and Ex Umbrus, and they were delicious. The tasting area was pretty small, so we didn't want to hang around too long and block the space. I picked up a growler of Ex Umbris and headed to the next stop...

...which was Green Flash. There were quite a few people here, but their new(ish) location is so large that it didn't matter. There were plenty of places to sit, and lots of great beer to choose from. I had a Double Stout taster, introduced a friend to Green Flash's Trippel, picked up a growler of Trippel, and we were back on the road. Heading to the fabled beer highway of North County.

The fifth stop of the trip brought us to Iron Fist. This is my new favorite brewery in San Diego. Every beer I've tried here is delicious and the staff are all friendly. They had a special called Crimson Spice on tap, which is Spice of Life w/ blood orange juice, so I had to try it. I don't know if it was brewed with blood orange juice, or if it was mixed in afterwards, but it was very tasty and refreshing. This one was included in a flight of 5 tasters, and I think after those, the beer was starting to catch up to me. I felt the buzz coming on. Luckily, my wife was the designated driver, so it didn't matter We ate some tasty beer brats & truffle fries from the attending food truck, filled up the growler with Velvet Glove, and trucked on to the next brewery.

Sixth was Latitude 33, located in Green Flash's old building, who were having a party in honor of their 3 & 1/3 month anniversary. This place was pretty crowded for the party, so we didn't stay too long. I tried their Vanilla Porter, which was so good that I had to get a growler of it, and also sampled the new release for this party, Honey Hips (also very good).

Seventh (almost done) brewery of the day was Lost Abbey, located in Stone's old building. I don't think I've ever been here when it wasn't crowded. We met up with some other friends here, and were able to get a barrel-table to stand at, so we hung out for a little while. Lost Abbey has good reason to be as popular as it is, both the tasting room and the beer. Their bottles may be a fair bit over-priced, but damn they're tasty. The tasting room has a great ambiance. It's lined with stacks and stacks of barrels, spent barrels used as bar tables. Has a huge metal bar, tons of Lost Abbey and Port beers on tap for tasters and fills... all in all, a great place. I had a tasters of Mo Betta Bretta, Dead Feather Moon and Midnight Expressions. And got a growler of Red Barn. One of my awesome friends also gave me a copy of the "San Diego's Top Brewers" book as an early birthday present here

And finally, the eighth and last stop of the day was at Stone. For a long time, this was my favorite brewery, hands down (like I mentioned earlier, Iron Fist recently took my "favorite" crown). So I wanted to stop here last and cap off the day with dinner at their restaurant. Before sitting down, we stopped in the shop and picked up a couple bottles of the 10th Anniversary Ruination IPA (which are still sitting in my fridge begging me to drink them). We went in for our reservations, got a nice table outside, and relaxed after a very long day. I wish I could say the service and food were great (neither were), but it was still nice to sit with friends and family for a while after such a long day.

I'm glad we did this trip. I love my wife for suggesting it, and for driving! It was a blast, but in the future, I think I'll limit my brewery visits to 3 or 4 in a day, max

 

The end result:

 

I was considering Churchill's, but decided that I wanted to make it an all breweries day. I've never been there, so I'll definitely give them a try next time. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

They have a decent sized tasting room, I'd say about the size of the one at AleSmith. All the employees I talked to seemed really happy to be there, and were very nice. I had full tasters of Vanilla's Porter and Honey Hips, both were really tasty (I'm enjoying the Vanilla's Porter growler right now). I also had sips of Double Hump and Straw House Wheat, and those seemed pretty good too, but I didn't try enough to really know about those. My friends who had them said they were very good. I look forward to visiting them again!

 

That's true, but I still appreciate it. Especially when the people working there are really nice and seem appreciative that you like their beer Seriously though, I don't know how much of it I saw, but that place seemed smaller than my living room. I know they have to do it to get their beer into the hands of those who want to drink it, but I think it's great that they can make room for customers in a small place like that. This is another brewery that I really look forward to visiting again!

 

Didn't miss them. It's impossible to hit every brewery in San Diego in one day. Just saving them for another day.

 

That's great! North Park will be closer (for me anyway). Glad to hear they're expanding!

 

I agree, on both counts!