For my 40th birthday my wife and I are going to San Diego next month for three days to do some brewery tours. I have visited SAN Diego last year for work and was able to visit: Stone in Liberty Station, Ballast Point, modern times(north park location), Societe, Ale Smith and Green Flash. Those places were all fantastic! I am trying to put together an itinerary for our upcoming trip. Arrive Thursday morning: Modern times (original location) Green flash - I really liked this place and want my wife to see it as she loves ipa's Dinner in the Gas Lamp area Hamilton's Tavern Friday: Visit Coronado Afternoon hit the North Park area. Not sure which breweries to visit. This is the order I am considering: Thorn Street Rip Current Belching Beaver(maybe) North Park Beer Co(maybe) Tornado Saturday Visit La Jolla area in the morning Trying to decide which one of these two to visit: Toolbox or Port/Lost Abbey Then we are heading to Escondido to visit Stone. Any advice on my proposed itinerary would be really helpful. Thanks in advance.
If you are all the way up here in mira mesa to visit GreenFlash, you would do yourself a disservice if you didn't hit up Alesmith again on your way back to downtown. I know you were there last year but the facility has come a long way since then. Plus their Anvil & Stave speakeasy area with nothing but their barrel-aged beers makes it almost a no-brainer to stop on by, even if only for one pour.
Tusk & Grain is right around the corner from Alesmith. I haven't been but their barrel program is really coming alive. And I second what Reaper said. Alesmith was the highlight of my SD trip.
3rd'ing Alesmith and Mikkeller is really close to (in the old Alesmith taproom). As for Toolbox vs Lost Abbey, my vote would be Toolbox. The stuff they are putting out is really good IMO, but you also have to want to drink sours.
Also, with Thursday traffic, it makes little sense to go up to Green Flash, then back to downtown. Save Green Flash for Saturday and do Monkey Paw in East Village or Bottlecraft in Little Italy, which usually has a killer taplist, on Thursday after MT.
Very good point. If you get up to GreenFlash on thursday, getting back downtown would be something of a nightmare until maybe 7ish. So if you still plan on it, there are worse places you could be stuck... GreenFlash, Alesmith, White Labs, Ballast Point, Rough Draft, Amplified, Pure Project, Legacy, Thunderhawk, 2Kids, Little Miss, Mikkeller, Intergalactic, Hess, DuckFoot, Saint Archer, Reckless, and Longship. I wouldn't recommend a few of the above and I know I am missing a couple, but it isn't a bad place to be. =P Edit: Oh yeah, and Setting Sun (right behind 2Kids) if you want some sake
Thanks to everyone who replied so far. This is all great info. I need to rethink my plans for up north now. I wasn't aware of the updates to alesmith. I loved the place when I went last May. Also, I do enjoy sours so I am leaning towards Toolbox over Lost Abbey. What is everyone's thoughts on the best way to tackle the North Park area? Do you all like the places I have identified? Any particular places that are a must hit in that area?
For North Park, if you like BBQ, try to hit Grand Ole BBQ which is right around corner from Thorn for lunch. Try and get there are noon or a little earlier so they don't sell out of anything. It's BYOB and you can either bring beer or take your food to Thorn. I'd head north from there hitting Modern Times (but I think you were there last time and you're heading to the Fermentorium so you can skip if you want), North Park Beer Co, Toronado, and Rip Current. Maybe add in Belching Beaver and/or Fall if you have enough time to head that far north.
Should I skip Thorn Street in North Park? Should I just go to: Riptide North Park Brewing Company Then hit Tornado?
Thorn is decent. Not a must stop, but decent. Grand Ole BBQ on the other hand is a must stop in my book, but then again it looks like you're from Texas, so you might already be spoiled. GOByA is probably the best Texas BBQ I've had outside of Texas though and I've been to most of the places in Austin, Lockhart, Dallas, etc. But beer... we're here to talk about beer.... right. Rip Current is a must stop in my mind. North Park Brewing Co is pretty good, but I haven't been there enough yet to consider it a must stop. Toronado always has a killer tap list so you can't go wrong if you want to try some other stuff.
If you get to north county, Oceanside area then Bagby is a must experience in my opinion. 20ish house beers and 20ish guest taps; unique food, and a great layout, This is in my hood so if you are there shoot me a note and I can try to meet you for a pint!
U should go to a pizza port too. Great selection at every location too. Also $6 for a pizza slice, salad and a pint, is a hard deal to pass up for lunch.
