San Diego

While we are at it let me suggest True North, Hamiltons for any Second Saturday, Poor House, and Hooters in El Cajon.

 

I'll be honest, I love that pizza. But then, I also drench it in Tapatio.

 

now at petco ive taken to getting a pp cheese slice and covering it with cholula before i take it back to my seat and now its part of my game routine

 

Oh man, I love Pizza Port, but I just about gagged eating their pizza at the ballpark. I'm assuming that's not on them, but the concessionaires. I have thoroughly enjoyed a Swami's IPA at 5 of the 7 games I've been to so far. That has to be one of the best ballpark beers in the country, along with Sculpin. If only Enjoy By was on tap at the Stone biergarten in the 300 section...

 

Figured I would put this here as to not start a new thready. Im heading out to San Diego in a few weeks and was wondering if Mission Brewery cans their beer often and are they regularly available at the brewery?

 

Yes and Yes, in their fridge in the back. Also available at bottle shops consistently. Their hard root beer being the exception. While they produce a good amount bottled, it tends to disappear relatively quickly. Not like "zomg, I need to chase trucks!" quickly, but within a couple weeks.

 

how often restock? out there wk from sat. wanna bring a 6 back to compare w/nyfrb.

 

That question I don't know the answer to since I usually don't look for it as I found it far too sweet and boozy for my liking. What I can tell you is that the same couple of cases have been at my local bottle shop for well over 2 weeks.

You will likely be able to find it, maybe not at the brewery but at the couple bottle shops nearby.

 

cool, thanks. yeah def not an on the reg think but I know I'll make a few floats in summer with the crazy ice cream options at some point when it's too humid to do anything. super jealous of you guys. originally a cali guy and I hate summers here. looking forward to the trip.

 

The mashed potato pizza at Basic in the Gaslamp is much better.

 

So who is BNS out of Santee? Curious, since they won Gold at GABF for the IPA category. I never heard of them till now. New? Any good? Worth a stop on my next trip down to Alpine?

 

their preferred serving glass is a mason jar

 

So I dealt with that years ago at Bootleggers. Haven't been there in awhile. Not my preference in glassware. But if the beers are good I can deal with it.

 

Eh... Let other people chase the medal winner. Better options in SD.

 

I really don't care about medals. Just enjoy great ipa's. I can trust most of you beer dudes here as I know who enjoys what. Thats why I never heard BNS mentioned here. So was wondering if I missed something. Guess not. Thanks for the info. Won't waste my time. Cheers.

 

nah man go check it out! most sd beer geeks wrote them off a long time ago and they are obviously doing something right to win a gold medal!

 

It'll be quick stop in then. They been around a bit then. I remember Noble Ales first year in OC. Sucked. then Evan showed up and changed the way we look at a milk stout. And the IPA's? Enuff said.

 

I haven't been out to BNS in about 1 1/2 - 2 years. Didn't like their IPA's when I was there, but they actually had a pretty good red on at the time.

Don't forget that a massive amount of breweries make GABF specific batches, so it's not at all unheard of for a brewery to win a medal at GABF and still sell a garbage product.

That being said, I owe it to myself to hit up BNS again at some point in the future.

 

I liked that red, too. Interesting...

Your second point is a very good one. Also, I have read that the GABF beer has to go there a month early, which pretty knocks out a lot of the IPAs that are known for being very good fresh but having quick fall offs.

 

Tangential to that point is that judging is going to be dependent on style guidelines along with the palates of the judges. In California, we're incredibly spoiled with new school West Coast IPAs - super dry, low bitterness, huge aromatics. When you take judges from all around the nation, weight it towards guys who have been in the business longer (and therefore might have personal taste that tends away from recent trends), and serve them month old beer, you're going to end up with an inevitable bias towards a more classic IPA profile. There's nothing wrong with that, but someone looking for the Cellarmaker, Beachwood, or Alpine style IPA probably isn't going to be excited about the style of IPA that wins GABF gold.