San Diego, poor poor San Diego

Societe and Alpine need to be in top 3.

 

It would be a travesty not to stop at Beachwood if you're stopping at Bruery and Noble.

I sure hope you have a DD for all the brew hopping you're doing.

 

Modern Times is a brewery, not a brewpub. Neighborhood is a good restaurant with a decent tap list, not a brewpub. There are five Pizza Ports (San Clemente, Carlsbad, Bressi Ranch/Carlsbad, Solana Beach, and Ocean Beach).

I don't have anything against Indian Joe, but they are an outlier on this list. I'm not sure I'd rank Green Flash that far below Ballast Point, but it is a matter of preference. As far as picking a Ballast Point goes, the Little Italy location has a bistro/restaurant attached to it. The primary brewery in Scripps Ranch usually has the most extensive tap list, and food trucks much of the time. The Linda Vista location is small, attached to a home brew shop, and probably isn't the best place to hang out.

Also, it depends a little on your preferred beer style. If you are primarily an IPA fan, then Alpine and Societe should be priorities. If you have broader tastes, then I'd bump Alesmith, Green Flash, and Ballast Point up in priority.

A lot of it is solving the traveling salesman problem. You can very easily hit Ballast Point Scripps Ranch, Green Flash, Alesmith, and Societe in one run.

I have a lot of respect for Stone, but unless you are on some sort of pilgrimage where you must visit them, I'd not make it a priority. Unless you are an organic gardening geek, there is no need to visit the Escondido location. The World Bistro in Escondido is really no different than the World Bistro in Liberty Station (near downtown).

Are you driving from San Diego up the coast? You probably should stop at Beachwood in Long Beach if you are.

 

From a beer perspective maybe, but I'd say they're not on the same field aesthetically. Subjective due to personal preference of course, but I'd argue that Stone Escondido is easily the nicest looking brewpub in CA, if not the country (haven't been to them all yet...).

 

If you go up 101 you have to go to Firestone. You'll hit one in Buelton (the home of their sour program) and Paso Robles (the main headquarters). Buelton also has Figueroa Mountain.

 

I would say that Alpine, Societe, Ballast Point, Stone (Liberty Station), and even Hess Brewing and Thorn St. are ones to check out for sure. If you're going to Green Flash, then I would for sure stop at Alesmith too.

If you're looking for beer bars with great tap lists and good food, I would check out Hamilton's, Small Bar, and Toronado.

As mentioned, if you're going up the 101 check out Firestone in Paso Robles, and if you do, just down the road is my friend's place Barrelhouse Brewing. They have some great stuff there as well.

Have a great trip!

 

This is a good point. Also, if you are out in Escondido, you can combine that with a stop at Lost Abbey, Rip Current, etc.

 

I agree with all of this, except for the Stone part. While still not strictly necessary, the Gardens up in Escondido are quite beautiful, and a great place to drink a beer on a sunny day. And if you're already up there for Lost Abbey, you might as well hit up Stone (and Rough Draft) as well.

But yeah, I'd definitely say go to the Scripps Ranch Ballast so you can make a quick loop past the others. The Little Italy location is awesome, and has great food, but the place is PACKED at all times. And probably drop Indian Joe and take up Modern Times instead. Why exactly do you want to go to Indian Joe, anyways? I rarely even hear about them in San Diego. Lol

And finally: make sure to to actually look at a map of all of these places and see the distance between each. People always think that SD county is smaller than it really is. You'll be in for a little bit of driving, so be sure to account for that. Do you know where you'll be staying yet?

 

Rough Draft is in Miramar - I think you meant Rip Current. I concur on Modern Times.

Here's Nanobrew's map for the OP - it might help him get a sense of the area involved.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=202319603240403294306.0004bdf5878618ab1aef8&msa=0&dg=feature

 

A Societe/Alesmith/Ballast/Green Flash trip is easily doable in a couple hours. Ive done Alpine before all of that, but that addition takes the trip from a few hours to almost a full day with drive time. All of your list sounds fine, but as others have said must-stops (to me at least) are Societe, Alpine, Alesmith, Modern Times, Lost Abbey. God bless San Diego!

 

I've lived here for over 10 years, and have no idea what Indiana Joe is, lol. Where are they?

 

Yup. You're definitely right about Rip Current. I would certainly recommend them over Rough Draft

 

1. Stone World Bistro/Gardens is a great place. For those of us who have seen it through since its opening its hard for us to probably understand what it would be like for someone traveling here for the first time, who drinks Stone beers at their local watering hole but has never seen the real thing. To most San Diegoans, its a foreign concept. Forget the farm, just hit either Stone Liberty Station or the original Bistro in Escondido... whatever is more convenient. When you go to Lost Abbey, you will see and be in the brewery (tiny business park location) that Stone started in.

2. Never went to Ballast Little Italy location... Little Italy is often a mess in terms of parking, it makes going places around there hard. I like the sort of isolation you get at the Scripps Ranch Old Grove (main) location. The taproom has blossomed from a tiny 8ftx12ft tasting room to a very nice big place with some outdoor seating. I'd personally go there. From there it's a quick 5-10 min drive over to Societe-Alesmith(which is always meh IMO)-Green Flash. Just beware, Mira Mesa Blvd is the worst street in the history of San Diego.

3. Chalk another one up for someone who has never heard of Indian Joe...

4. There will be negative comments about every place but in general Green Flash makes some of the higher quality beers in SD, let alone the country. My problem with them is I will not visit them on a weekend. That's when you get LARGE tour buses of amateurs fu#$%ing up the tasting room. Some of the better breweries like Societe do not allow for the ******ed large tour buses of college kids.

Breweries- Another top notch vote for Societe. It's a great place. If you're going to be up in North County at Lost Abbey and maybe Stone, try to throw in a stop at Rip Current Brewing.. some very solid beers over there.

Brewpubs- Hit one of the Pizza Ports for sure, amazing brewpub chain. They nail almost every style but really do the west coast pale's perfectly. Great pizza...Great wings. Must stop. Neighborhood is a fun little restaurant downtown as mentioned above... good burgers, good taplist but don't go out of way to get to that, there's not a whole lot downtown for a beer geek, compared to north of it in South Park/North Park (Toronado, Hamilton's, and all those other great beer bars) and central SD (ballast/societe/green flash/etc).

On the way up North, DO NOT MISS BEACHWOOD BBQ & BREWING in Long Beach (don't go to their Seal Beach location... go to Long Beach their main brewery/restaurant). There you will find out why they were midsize brewer and brewpub of the year last year.

Have Fun!

 

I support everything said above, but with two side notes:
1) Little Italy is definitely awful for parking, but at least BP is more north so you can usually park on State St under or around the I-5 bridge. Would still recommend Scripps Ranch due to it's close proximity to the other breweries though
2) Alesmith... meh? Huh?

 

For me, yeah... I'm one of the few. I actually do love the bulk of their beer (except their IPA, never been a fan). It's more about their tasting room... I've never been a fan and all the times I went there wasn't much interesting other than what they already bottle and have on tap at bars around town, so I gave up on it. That's all.

 

It's not the most interesting tasting room environment, especially if you aren't there often. I've gotten to know quite a few people there (mostly employees) so I can often get conversations going, but I could easily see your point. However, I'm not sure what you meant about "wasn't much interesting". You must have mainly gone during a dry stretch, because I'm always finding a handful of things you won't find elsewhere, and most are worth trying IMHO.

 

Probably during a dry spell and also haven't been in a long time. Think the last time I went was just after they revamped their tasting room, and it wasn't even all the way finished at that time I think. Before that, only went here and there... not very often, even though I lived only a couple exits up the freeway.

 

"Firestone Walker is on the list"

Just to be clear ... The location is Buelton, CA was mention, which I totally agree with ... BUT make sure you visit Barrelworks, which is attached to the Firestone restaurant in Buleton ... while Firestone is solid, their tastings at Barrelworks will freaking blow your mind!! Barrelworks IMO is a must stop!