Hi all. My family is taking a trip out to California this April so that my sister can decide on some college. As for me, I'm going to do my damnedest to make this a beer-cation. I am not sure where we will be located, perhaps two different places as it seems we are looking at schools in LA and San Francisco/Berkeley. So, my question to you is, best as you can, offer up some suggestions on places to visit? Breweries, bars, bottle shops, etc? I am highly considering making the trip up to Chico as best I can. I have been a bit of a SN fanboy lately, so I would hate to miss the opportunity. Stone? Firestone? Russian River (What are my odds on getting some Pliny, even a ten oz pour?)? Any gems that I am missing, anything I should know being a New Yorker? Please feel free to offer anything you think would be worth the trip/money! I thank you for your time, Cheers!
First question-Can you bring Other Half Brewery's Green Diamond, All Green Everything or Nelson ipa out with you? San Francisco and LA is wide open. OC would be considered part of LA if we're talking beer/brewery's. San Diego is another story. As far as SN....that's a drive from SF. If you really want to visit the SN brewery then make it an overnight trip and visit Knee Deep in Auburn and some of the other smaller brewery's in Sacramento. There's already a thread here on the LA/OC area. That's a start. If she's looking for colleges in LA then she's probably looking at UCLA or USC? UCI and CSUF in the OC?
I stayed in Berkeley a few years ago. I took the BART over to the embarcadero and then just walked west across town, hitting every beer place that I could map (and was open early). Then I went south (which was tough because there's a kind of big hill in the middle - Mount Sutro) and ended up hitting bar Pi on the way back to the BART, which then took me back to Jupiter. It was a long walk, but it was also a great way to see the city, and I got to burn of all of the beers I drank along the way..
If you're going to be in Berkeley and don't feel like driving a few hours up to Chico you can hit up SN taproom in Berkeley. They have some bottles and decent tap list. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/34565/?view=ratings
ToronadoSF always has fresh pliny on. At least they did a year n half ago on my last visit. And the price was 5 or 5.5. Happy hour was a buck off. And I thought Zeitgeist prices were pretty reasonable. The price for a glass of pliny in the SoCal area is very high compared to NorCal. Average price for a glass is 7. I thought BW had some of the lowest prices in town. Not anymore.
Why do you want pliny? Where in LA will you be? It's not a small city, especially the metro area/IE/OC. As far as gems you are missing, just about everything. Firestone and BarrelWorks will be a 2-5 hour drive each direction from LA/SF areas. Stone is in San Diego, 2 hours each way from most of LA area. Where will you be staying, that will allow us to give you advice? Also, use the map here to help you find stuff: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-los-angeles.217487/page-2#post-2843908
If you are a good, caring and kinda brother, you might encourage her to look at UC Santa Cruz as well. And hey, look at that, Santa Adarius is in the area. Crazy.
Hey guys. Thanks for the info. I always forget to look at the "visiting x?" page. Thanks for the link. I guess I'll just reference that and do my own planning. As for why Pliny... Why not? I mean... just to say I have tried it, I hear so goddamned much about it.
Then you are listening to the wrong people. Pliny is good. It's a solid IPA that you can't go wrong with. There is more here than pliny, you'll be depriving yourself if you spend time looking for pliny and passing up other beers. The list of other IPAs that are as good or better than pliny is huge, others can add to this, but look for Noble Ale Works showers series, stuff from Alpine, Kern River, Beachwood.
Those are all very good beers, but significantly harder to find than pliny. Best bet is to suggest long beach state. They can drop you off at beachwood and tour the campus. I would say 50/50 they have pliny on tap plus you can drink the beachwwod ipa's. Congragation ale house is a few doors down if you grt bored with the tap list there, which would be hard to do. if you are lucky Zwet.be may still be on tap...
If you end up in OC the must hits are the bruery, bottle logic and noble. If you get some extra time then head to valiant as well. There is seriously a massive amount of great beer here. You might be better off just saying what kind of beer you want as that might help reduce some of the options.
Thank you for these suggestions. The Long Beach drop off sounds interesting. This sounds great. Thank you so much. Sure. Uh... Everything. Heh. I shy away from German styles, but love Belgian. I like IPAs and stouts, like any good American BA should. I have not had much exposure to wild ales/sours, but loved all that I have had. I know The Bruery and Russian River both offer great sours. I like most styles; brown ales, pale ales, porters, ESB, fruit beers, etc. Basically, I like good beer. How 'bout this? Everyone's favorite options that I can pick up at Whole Foods or however you distribute beer in California (beer distributors, or liquor/package stores?) that you don't think would be available in New York/have a wide, solid selection. Appreciating all of the answers. On a good buzz right now, just finished half of a SweetWater 420 Pale Ale. Think I might move to Lagunitas Sucks, next. Speaking of which... just realized Lagunitas is a short trek from SF. EXCELLENT. Anyone else drinking on this Sunday afternoon?
If your sister is considering Cal Poly- SLO (great school), don't forget Firestone Walker is about 25 minutes north in Paso Robles. Food is quite good and the beer is right at the source! Plus if your folks or you like wines, Paso is also a kickass wine region, especially for Rhone varietals.
you should try and talk her into looking into UCSD so you can visit Alpine or places in North County, CSU Chico so you can hit up Sierra Nevada, and UC Davis or Sacramento State so you can hit up places like Knee Deep, Heretic, Auburn Alehouse, Davis Beer Shoppe and Final Gravity. You could probably spend a week in SF and SD and not go everywhere you want to so you'll have to prioritize... after thinking about it I need to get myself to an airlift base if I stay in so I can bounce back to California on the cheap on a regular basis.
Central Kitchen is one of my new favorite places for great beer on tap by USC in LA, also delicious very reasonable food (pizza, burgers, burritos, teriyaki bowls, etc.), and a fun place to be... it is located inside a newer residential complex called The Lorenzo... it is like an oasis by USC (courtyard garden, giant fountains (Vegas-style), sand volleyball. Their microbrew is Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale-LOVE IT...brewed in San Diego. They also have Blue Moon, Angry Orchard and Coors Light. They broadcast all the big games, you can sit outside, heated patio with at least 8 TV's, and around 5pm they had FREE Popcorn. www.centralkitchenla.com Hope this helps! Love this place, and Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale -- now that I've written about it, I think I gotta go tonight!
