The Bar Towel

Thanks for the tips guys.

I managed to get tickets for the Barrel Aged Alesmith release while I'm there... but the real kicker... I'm arriving the day Pliny the Younger gets released in SD, APPARENTLY.

Does anyone know of a website that gives advance warning (without having to LIKE every bar on facebook (which I am still willing but afraid of missing one)) of when and where that may be tapped in and around SD?

Thanks!

i don't know of anything that tracks PtY in particular, but if you watch the key bars on twitter you should be covered... @toronadoSD is pretty good about tweeting events and cool taps and likely to be one of the first to have it. @hamiltons tweets their tap list daily. @OBriensPubSD is another good one. between those you'll probably see it (and toronado often retweets events/news for other locals).

Thanks grub! I'll have to sign-up for Twitter... unless they retweet to Facebook

iguenard wrote:Thanks grub! I'll have to sign-up for Twitter... unless they retweet to Facebook

you can also get twitter feeds via RSS if you use google reader or the like. that's what i did for the few i was interested before i signed up years ago.

Just got back from 10 days in Southern California (Huntington Beach to San Diego) and got a chance to visit a few places, briefly.

1) Stone Brewing in Escondido - located in an industrial park, with no signage outside (tour guide said owners thought people who wanted to find it would find it). Tour was very enlightening and entertaining and included four samples and a souvenir glass for $3. We also stayed for a special event, where 12 casks were being tapped by 12 different brewers. These were mostly small variations on existing Stone brews and were just okay, but a great friendly vibe. Our meal at the restaurant was not as successful. Fairly bad service, overpriced and uninteresting food, and to make things worse, my wife got sick from undercooked chicken later that night. Not fun on holiday.

2) Pizza Port in Solana Beach - a real skateboarder/surfer vibe here. Great pizza and a very wide selection of microbrews, including their own (Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey). I grabbed the special of the night, a brown ale I'm forgetting, mostly because it was $3/pint.

3) The Public House, La Jolla - nice food options here and we ate outside (under heat lamps). Wide choice of beers, with flights of 4 samples available at reasonable prices.

4) Slater's 50/50, Huntington Beach - an interesting burger place with a very good beer menu. Flights of 4 also available here and (at least in our case) knowledgeable servers who will talk beer with you.

A few I missed that I regret: Toronado, Local Habit, Neighbourhood and Tiger! Tiger! in SD. So many places to drink good beer in this region. A return visit is eagerly anticipated!

Funny fact: the tour guide at Stone was so good that he has me considering taking up home brewing.

I'll be in San Diego in a week.

I think I have most of the trip planned out, but some additional info is always good. Anyone have any somewhat recent thoughts?

Kekumba wrote:I'll be in San Diego in a week.

I think I have most of the trip planned out, but some additional info is always good. Anyone have any somewhat recent thoughts?

Don't skip Stone. Even if you have to rent a car that you otherwise would not have rented.

We got a car, pretty inexpensive for the week. Have to hit the The Bruery and some hockey games while we're there.

Is one of the Stone locations better than the other?

Kekumba wrote:
Is one of the Stone locations better than the other?

The one I went to was the Stone World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido, CA.

i'll be there in a week myself for several days. Fell free o contact me for my list

TheSevenDuffs wrote:Don't skip Stone. Even if you have to rent a car that you otherwise would not have rented.

Agreed. 100% agreed.

Where to start with San Diego...well, the whole area is absolutely fucking insane, yeah.

Lost Abbey/Port - lots of activity going on in the whole area, they were moving barrels all over the place. Simple setup, the two people behind the bar didn't come off too friendly. Wasn't too crazy about any of the beers besides Serpents Stout.

AleSmith - same sort of deal as Lost Abbey, with a much more polished interior. Nice breeze flowing through the open doors made it pleasant to sit at for a while. I was hoping for a nice Speedway coffee variant, but it was thai chiles instead. Some serious heat going on.

Ballast Point - lots of business people on the patio in the late afternoon. Not much to say about it, Sculpin was nice fresh for once, I didn't care for the Even Keel or Dorado. Kind of a boring place, we didn't hang around long.

Pizza Port - Fun atmosphere in Solana Beach, really busy, but the pizza was ready quickly and very good. The Kook IPA was great, not too many guest taps, oddly. Bressi Ranch was a bit different. Lots of families, looked far more modern. Appeared as though they did all of the brewing/bottling there. Played some deer hunting game with a few others there for a while. The IPA's were all good (Swami's, Wipeout, Barney).

Churchill's Pub - Just down the road from Lost Abbey, stopped in for lunch. Excellent service, standard pub vibes. Tap list was IPA heavy, they had just tapped Blind Pig when I got there. Bottle list was no joke. All heavy hitters and no fillers (off-sales on most). Unfortunately when we went back it was packed beyond belief. The only promotion that appeared to be on was 55 cent wings.

Alpine - My kind of place. Small town vibes, world class IPA's, great food and very nice people. Huge hearty chicken wings. Nelson is just out of this world. I have no complaints about anything, even the drive was pretty nice as an out of towner. Hit Antonelli's deli on the way out and get a reuben. There was a nice bottle shop around Antonelli's as well, but I just can't think of the name. They had Supplication, Consecration, and Temptation all in the fridge.

Societe - Great spot to stop in for a few drinks. Similar to most other breweries in the area, order beer and go grab a stool. They have a nice looking barrel room and a decent amount of open space on the brewery floor. Good vibes.

Green Flash - Was in the area, thought we should stop in. Massive, massive tanks, and a nice seating area outside (with heaters...despite it being 20C out. They had a parking spot for a food truck as well. Unfortunately, the bar staff was quite rude, to the point where I ordered a Rayon Vert and couldn't be bothered to talk to them again. Too much other beer in the area, nothing that interesting on the list at GF.

Toronado - Not what I was expecting. Great tap list, and certainly some nice bottles but all the menus they had were way out of date. I was given a menu with Cable Car at $40, which I was all over...until they told me it was actually $60 (as I had expected, but when you hand me a menu saying otherwise...). They actually sold two bottles of it while I was there. Good spot otherwise.

O'Briens Pub - Another one we popped into since we were in the area. Excellent tap list with a friendly crowd. I had Pliny...and then left. Would like to re-visit.

Stone - Seriously impressive and beautiful place, that part of the experience was unmatched anywhere else. Unfortunately, everything other than Enjoy By wasn't really tasting all that great. We actually didn't spend much time there, one more day extra and I'm sure we would have done it again.

I can't really recommend any bottle shop over another, they were all just very good. All kinds of sours on the shelves, it blew my mind. Bottle dates on IPA's everywhere appeared quite fresh.

All this on top of never seeing a cloud in 6 days, warmer than average weather, very nice locals, and an endless amount of good food. A decent amount of driving, but nothing too lengthy besides Alpine, and the scenery was nice. San Diego is the best.

Shit I would have taken that Cable Car in a second! When I was there they had 2010, 2011, and 2012 Cable Car at 40$ each. Ordered one of each and was told they were all sold out…

Everywhere else you can get this bottle is 150 $ +. Gouging bastards.

Damn I'm envious. Thanks for the updates. Gotta get back to SD!

Heading down to SD on Sunday for 6 days for a conference. Going to try to skip out a couple of those days to do some beer tourism, but most of my adventures will likely be in the evening. No car, but I'm in Little Italy, close to quite a few interesting places.

For breweries and brewpubs, going to try to hit up Stone Liberty Village, Pizza Port Ocean Beach and Ballast Point Little Italy, that last one being 4 blocks from my hotel.

For beer bars, Toronado and Hamilton's for sure.

For bottle shops, will definitely get to Bottlecraft and Best Damn Beer Shop.

Should be a fun trip. I'll report back.