San Diego hidden gems

It's okay. Their beers all taste too sweet to me. They have a nice tasting room though.

 

do people actually like hess? is that a thing now?

 

The 'hidden gems' will be tap-only offerings that never see bottlings. Thus the Pizza Ports would be my #1 stop, as well as Alpine for whatever new they have on. Lots of 1 offs at Ballast Point and Alesmith is doing more interesting things now with greater production.

Most of SD's breweries are production breweries, thus a lot of their beers see wider distribution.

Aztec and Mother Earth do limited bottlings if you make it up to North county. Stone best By should be on shelves now at the bottle shops listed.

And yes, until Hess is brewing at the big-boy brewery i wouldn't recomend spending limited time/resources on them. But hell, if you're in the area it won't hurt. Rough Draft is on the way out to green flash. I thought their beers were OK.

 

ALPINE.

 

What this guy said.

 

Alpine is in......oh, whatever......ALPINE

 

which is a CDP in SD County. What's yr point?

 

Places like Hess, Indian Joe, Iron Fist, Mother Earth, White Labs, etc. are for ticks. For the most part they make semi-decent beers, but like Shane said, I would not send someone there who only has a couple days in town.

If you're looking for some good and interesting stuff, the Pizza Ports (particularly Ocean Beach and Carlsbad) are quite good, Lost Abbey can have some interesting stuff on tap and in bottles, Societe is not super well known as of yet, but they make some quality beers...

 

If you end up in Downtown/Gaslamp you gotta stop by The monkey Paw for a beer or Growler fills (Thursday and Friday only for the fills)

 

White Labs is a great place if your into home brewing, or if your a total beer nerd, its not really a great place to try beers. If you want to compare yeasts for an upcoming batch then its awesome. If you just want to drink beer, go to one of the many other wonderful breweries in the area. WL is really more of an educational facility.

 

True, White Labs is more just to geek out and get a feel for the differences that yeast strains make in a similar beer. But, it is a production brewery so the beers are rateable on RB/BA. To me it was more just a fun experience than anything. But like I said, and it seems that you agree, if you're just in town for a few days, probably not high on your list of places to go.

 

Rabble Rabble Rabble

 

Quatlity of White Labs beers is highly questionable. It's a good idea in concept, but not quite there in practice yet.

 

As others have pointed out, the White Labs beers aren't supposed to be big bold craft beers that you want to drink pint after pint of. Theyre brewed to be drank as tasters to demonstrate the effects of different strains on wort. As such, they're very effective. If you're going to WL and expecting to get a bold West Coast DIPA or endlessly complex stout, you're totally missing the point.

 

As a San Diego native, who left many eons ago, but returned last week here's my super quick thoughts for new things:

--Societe Pupil & Dandy IPAs are the newest gems to seek out. So damn good.
--Holiday Wine Cellar was the most disappointing its ever been.
--Unless you are looking for Framboise or a special track release, skip Lost Abbey and head to Churchill's Pub, they have LA stuff you can't get at the LA brewery
--Stone's best by/mint stout wasn't to be found.

 

Only been there once, but that was what I took away from it as well.

 

Go with the established places and also try to check out Societe and Monkey Paw. You will thank yourself in a few years when you say, "I went to Societe before everyone raved about them!". Monkey Paw is kicking ass, and they have a fantastic cheesesteak.

Rough Draft has a nice tasting room and good staff, but IMO the IPAs are way too malty or underattenuated except for the Eraser. If you are visiting San Diego, you owe it to yourself to go to the places with the best IPAs.

I include Port OB in the "established" places, but if you are going to be in that area it is a must-visit. You can then hit Olive Tree market closeby, which Hophead84 mentioned.

 

Hess has some sort of cult thing going on, similar to Oceanside Ale Works. FWIW I haven't stopped in at either in at least 6 months, but I am confused by the crowds when I go. The last 2 Hess beers I had (at bars) tasted like homebrew barleywines (one was listed as an Irish Red, another a DIPA, wtf?!), so maybe people just like high ABVs in an office park?

 

I'll throw another endorsement for Monkey Paw. Most of their beers are pretty good and they have a very nice guest list, too.

 

Agreed. Monkey Paw is worth going to.