Trip to California- Reccomendations?

Before leaving L.A. hope on the local commuter train and hit San Diego for an afternoon. Stone bistro , ballast point , karl Stauss ,and a couple other brew pubs are all within walking distance .

 

There is plenty of great beer in LA without having to waste 4 hours traveling to and from SD. If you really want to stop by Stone, there is one is Pasadena.

How long are you in LA?

When you get out of LAX, El Segundo is 5 minutes away and they are KILLING in the IPA area right now. Worth a stop. You could easily do Smog City, Monkish (both a block from each other), Phantom Carriage and Beachwood in an afternoon.

If you are around Santa Monica, I would try one of the Santa Monica Brewing offerings. They have not opened their tap room yet, but I have had a handful of their beers, and have found all of them to be good. Still very new, but doing good work.

Everyone else will recommend Highland Park at the Hermasillo, but I still have never had the chance to get over there.

Then on your drive up to Carmel, stop by Firestone Walker. It is about halfway on the drive, so a great place to stop and take a break.

 

From Carmel to San Francisco, might as well stop by Sante Adairius if you're travelling up Highway 1. Aptos St BBQ in Aptos has great BBQ and a pretty good tap list as well.

 

You have Smog city, Three Weavers, Phantom Carriage all by LAX roughly....You have to have to stop in Long Beach for Beachwood. On way to Carmel, there's Firestone Walker and Barrelworks, and Barrel House in Paso Robles. Another must is Sante Andarius in Capitola, just south of San Fran. Then you have the Rare Barrel, Cellarmaker, Lagunitas, Drakes, and Russian River. And Bear Republic...pretty much, your itinerary is full! Have fun!!

 

Alvarado Street Brewing in Monterey has great food and amazing beers!

 

If your going to hit up ESBC then you might as well check out Three Weavers on the other side (north side)of LAX. New to the LA beer scene. But yes, ESBC is killing it with the IPA's.

 

If you do trek out to Firestone (I think it's well worth the effort) keep in mind there's two sites/locations. Their Buellton location features more of their Barrelworks line while the location in Paso Robles doesn't have nearly the selection. We recently went two months ago to both but spent more time at the Paso Robles location not leaving really any more than 5-10 minutes to spend in the Buellton (Barrelworks) location. I could've spent 2 hours trying all the Barrelworks beers in Buellton so it's just something to think about. Also, if you dig deep enough on their website to see which beers are featured at their locations at that time keep in mind, when we went, it wasn't completely updated and they had many more (different) beers available at their locations than what their website showed. I can't wait to go back to FW again with friends.

 

This is hilarious.

 

Can certainly tell he's from the East Coast

 

+1 for Three Weavers, its really close to LAX. Their ESB is solid, also Sante Adarius and Russian River in northern CA after Carmel. Have fun, cheers

 

"just hop onto that quick 2 hr each way train that only runs once a hour down to san diego. It'll probably only take you 45 minutes each way to get to the train station in Los Angeles. Really easy trip in one afternoon"

Also the Stone you're referring to isn't the bistro, it's just a company store (no food). The same exact thing is in Los Angeles

 

The use of "hope" sure is accurate, and what kind of butt munch hides their profile so you can't look at some of their handiwork to determine if they were serious (and that clueless) or were trolling?

 

Thanks for clarifying . I forgot they didn't have food at stone . was a long trip over 8 1/2 weeks and couldn't remember all the details. I actually was staying in S.D. and did a trip up to L.A. I don't drive and didn't know my way around but after about 2 hours in L.A. I wasn't impressed so I ended up headind south and got off in one of the little beach towns and spent the day there at the beach watching people surf and just relaxed . Wasn't paying that much attention to the time but it seemed like a quick trip both ways . Really enjoyed S.D. and it's an easy walking city that why I recommended it . Would like to go back at some point but from what little I saw of L.A. it would not bother me in the least if I never stepped foot in the city again.

 

sorry you found it so funny .Yup I was a tourist and was staying in san diego so I jumped on the train ( amtrak or local what ever it was) and went up to L.A. Spent all of 2 hours on foot in L.A. and was not impressed so I jumped back on the train and ended up spending the day at one of the little beach towns between L.A. and S.D. Maybe it was just the area I was walking around but L.A. did nothing for me. Just personal taste but I'll take a small quaint city over L.A. any time .San Diego on the other hand I liked very much .

 

You weren't being faulted for preferring San Diego. You were being faulted for thinking that was a "commuter train" between the two cities. Also, if you got off the train in LA, you were *way* away from most the things of interest there, so you clearly did not do your homework.

 

Yup , spur of the moment day trip . From where I got off it wasn't very walking freindly ,using google maps it seemed everything was a hike or cab ride away . Found two places to grab a beer and a bite before heading out . Did stop at one brewery if I remeber correctly it was bonaventure (?) the pale ale wasn't bad and I grabbed a burger . That and a local bar that I don't remeber the name of was my big adventure , but hanging out at the beach somewhere near oceanside was worth the train ride .

 

Typical reaction of east coaster to SoCal "mass transit" - never assume it gets you where you want to be. LOL On the other hand, staying in San Diego (or even parts of Orange County) on the train will get you to some nice stops. Glad you were able to get some value out of it. Ironically, that OC stop is now near a Stone company store, Bagby Brewing, and a few other places that aren't so bad - it would have been really worth while if you did it now.

 

Well, your problem is that you really can't just hop off a train in LA and do anything. You really need a car to get where everything is. Other than Jacksonville, LA is probably the most spread out urban area there is. Not a place you can just walk to everything.