San Diego (2020)

There's Plan 9 in downtown Esco. Escondido Brewing has very limited hours (and yes they are located in front a of feed store). Best bet is to head west and hit up Wild Barrel, Lost Abbey, and Urge Common House. I haven't checked out Jack Up Brewing or My Yard Live so I can't comment on those spots.

 

For food and beer, go to Plan 9 Ale House in Escondido. They have excellent food and a nice menu of in house and guest offerings, including three Fremont B-Bomb variants when I was there last weekend. It's about ten minutes east of Stone.

For just beer, check out Rip Current in San Marcos if you haven't been. They do most things really well, and they have some exceptional dark lagers and one of my favorite barrel programs. They're maybe 10 minutes west of Stone on the 78.

 

Burger Bench a few doors down from Plan 9 has decent beers sometimes too: http://www.burgerbench.com/beer-menu
(I prefer Plan 9 though... sci-fi vibe is cool, too.)

 

Go to Escondido Brewing Company. Good atmosphere, Hopcondido is a really underrated IPA. They always have a food truck and you can check Instagram.

 

Mr dcgunman,

Here are my thoughts: Barrel Republic in O' side (oceanside) might be a bit off but worth a visit
or you can try sublime alehouse in san marcos but again, might be out of your way but also worth a mention as well as URGE. Enjoy good sir.

 

I've been in North County for 7 years now and my favorite bar is Churchills in San Marcos.

 

I have two full days in San Diego, and I'm staying downtown without a car. I plan on hitting AleSmith and Pure Project up north on the first day, and Stone and Modern Times on the second day. I never visited Pure Project or Stone before. AleSmith was my favorite (Modern Times second) during my lone previous trip.

Are there any other breweries worth considering downtown?

I did a search of threads and the only two found were a 2016 thread and a recent one asking for child friendly taprooms. Per a review of the remaining highly rated places in the Places section, I'm not interested in Ballast Point / Kings & Convicts, and Toronado appears to be closing / is closed.

Mikkeller is also up north, and I really can only manage two breweries there based on staying downtown, but perhaps I should hit Mikkeller over Pure Project.

Thanks

 

There is a Mikkeller tasting room in little Italy now. Just a few blocks from the Ballast Point location. Half Door is downtown and worth checking out.

 

You can hit the new Pure Project location in Bankers Hill, if you wanted to check out Mikkeller instead. The new location is really close to downtown. Speaking of downtown, Resident is worth a visit as well.

 

Resident and Half Door are both downtown and worth a visit.

 

This.

Plus other great spots for food. Heard good things about Bottle Rocket who took over the Monkey Paw spot. You also now have Duck Foot, Amplified Ale, and Melvin in East Village.

 

Wanted to give a recap of my great San Diego trip in part to the excellent pre-trip feedback provided. I was also fortunate for bad Midwest weather which permitted extension of the trip to late Saturday without flight cost, allowing for my first pour of Pliny the Younger! While I loved visits to Pacific/Mission Beach, Balboa Park and other areas, I will keep my summary to beer locations and pours:

Tuesday February 11:
San Diego Tap Room: Nice spot with great food in the Pacific Beach area. Enjoyed my first ever Nelson Alpine pour, and of course my Pliny the Elder and AleSmith's Thai Speedway Stout.
Half Door Brewing: Enjoyed the taproom staff and company, their WCIPA and Nitro poured stouts were good. Glad I visited and will return.
Resident Brewing: Great staff and pours, enjoyed the Resident flight (First Snow the best pour, Chasing Citra also very good). Also enjoyed the Kern River Lhazy River pint, a well balanced hazy IPA.

Wednesday February 12:
Pure Project: Had a few of their beers before. The flight looked great, each beer had a bold aroma. The taste, however, were much more subdued than the aroma would lead. Rain and the Log Cabin w/ Coffee were the best of the bunch. Received my United text at Pure and was busy planning extended hotel stays.
Stone: Visited the taproom near the ballpark, limited options, none were a standout. Stone IPA remains one of my favorite WCIPAs, so this was a disappointment.

Thursday February 13:
AleSmith: A bit further via public transportation than my other spots, but worth the trip. The speakeasy isn't open til early evening, but they will get you a pour if you ask. Loved having a .394 Pale Ale while touring the Tony Gwynn HOF. Forgeberry, Grand Cru and my first ever BBA cask pour Wee Heavy were the highlights of this visit. AleSmith remains my favorite SD area brewer.
Modern Times: Had a bit more than planned at AleSmith (hard not to) and the MT list was pretty much ho hum, so opted for one 5 oz stout pour of Chaos Grid Joy Edition and I was very glad I did. One of the best pours of the trip, a BBA Almond Joy bar, excellent coconut, silky smooth rich body, strong ABV 13.5% well masked. Outstanding.
BottleCraft: This Little Italy bottle shop also has an extensive draft list. I opted for three Beachwood offerings to go, two new very fresh pours plus Amalgamator which I saved for my final night.

Friday February 14:
Resident Brewing: Thanks again @BoltTosser @bayareahustla and @ryno09, this was my favorite new SD brewery for me and I really enjoyed the pours and staff. Started with a Society pour which was good, followed by a Resident Flight, of which Pastry Experiment Vol 1 was the best pour.
Queensland: Nice New Zealand themed bar with a great happy hour special (six four ounce flight for $8, plus great apps for $4+ (had the chili very good). Hopslam was included in the flight options, nice to see Bell's make it to the coast. Mikkeller's Cali Dreaming was the best next pour of the flight. Overall great time at Queensland.
Mikkeller: Had a Traeblod Imperial Coffee Maple Stout, solid pour. Glad I stopped in to the Little Italy location.

Saturday February 15:
San Diego Tap Room: The trip ends where it began, and what a way to end it. Pliny the Younger bats leadoff, Pliny the Elder bats second, both excellent. Final pour a Karl Strauss’ Aurora Hoppyalis.

Hope this gives some ideas of a few of the great San Diego institutions. My last piece of advice, schedule a few extra days, you won't regret it.

 

I'm planning on coming down to SD this weekend for a couple of days of eating/beer drinking with some friends who are coming in from out of town (outside of CA).

We're staying downtown and i was thinking of hitting:

Modern Times (of course)
Half Door
Resident
North Park Beer Co.
Bottlecraft (little Italy)
Mikeller (little Italy)
Bottlerocket (food)

Someone mentioned Thorn, but i didn't see much on them.

We might end up heading further north if my friends want to check out Rip Current or Lost Abbey (although i think they might have tasting rooms further south if I'm not mistaken), or maybe even Alesmith and Societe.

Any glaring omissions or things on here that you would skip? Any must hit tacos or seafood?

Thanks guys!

 

Rip current has a tap room in north park, not too far from north park brewery. City tacos is king for me in that neighborhood. Also there is a bottlecraft across the street from north park brewing as well.

 

Excellent plan / selections. The only thing worth adding is you are able to hit AleSmith, I’d shoot for after 5 pm for full access to their speakeasy, and consider hitting the Mikkeller’s brewery before or after (in AleSmith’s original space right near AleSmith) for a better experience and more available tap options than their small Little Italy space.

 

Churchill's in San Marcos is also having their Renaissance this weekend so they should have a killer list. If in the area by there I would hit Burgeon, Epigg, and Pizza Port

 

All the fly honies are out in East County. Okay maybe not. But we get $3-4 pints