Bearing and I are headed to California in Nov and have our agenda finally laid out. We only have a week and have all our nights and “anchor breweries and nearby hotels” in place, and now just need a bit of advice on the “in fill”. We've read lots of great atuff in recent San Fran and San Diego threads in this forum.
Here's the plan:
We’re flying out of YKF (Waterloo International!?) on points with AA, who now does 2 daily flights to Chicago and from there it’s on to SFO. Haven’t be to ORD for a few years...any good bars to hit on the lay over?
We arrive in San Fran late and are driving straight to Santa Rosa for a full day north of the city with a tour and dinner at Russian River that next night. Anyone been up to North Coast in Fort Bragg (2 hrs north) - is it worth the drive? What else is good around Santa Rosa for touring/lunch? We could do Moylans, Lagunitas, Anderson Valley or Bear Republic......?????
Next day is south to Paso Robles (Firestone Walker) for a tour and dinner in their pub with a nearby hotel. We’ll probably grab lunch somewhere on the outskirts of San Fran as we pass by – any recommendations???
Then it’s is further south with lunch in Santa Monica at Library Ale House and/or Father’s office followed by the night in Escondido at Stone for another tour (private =birthday gift) and dinner at the World Bistro.
The week-end is with friends in San Diego “seeing the baby” and hopefully their choice of many great beer places, but we’d love to hear any personal faves. We’d like to hit Alpine and AleSmith plus maybe Ballast Point or Green Flash???
Then we start to head north with a night in Pasadena, ending the day at Lucky Baldwins. Hope to stop at The Bruery in Placentia on the way. Finally it’s back to San Fran to hit places like 21st Amendment (a favourite of mine) and whatever else San Fran has to offer. Suggestions?
Lots of miles, lots of big endings to big days . We really should have 2 weeks but we're feeling pretty lucky about the chacne to get to do this so ....“that’s the way she goes”
I am starting to get pretty excited about this and would welcome all suggestion to improve on what we’re doing or must see places. I can’t guarantee we’ll do 35 beers a day like Kish and John but we’ll do our best.
BTW anyone shipped beer within the US? We want to send some East and pick up at Christmas...any advice?
Terry
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California
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TheSevenDuffs
- Beer Superstar
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My advice:
1. DON'T SKIP STONE. Even if their beer doesn't interest you, their restaurant/beer garden is a MUST VISIT. Food is GREAT and all locally sourced. Beer garden is beautiful. Tour is cool as well and ends with a tasting of 5 different beers. Tap list and bottle list in the restaurant/beer garden contains MANY non-Stone beers. When I was there I had 4 beers and none were Stone.
2. If you are staying in downtown San Diego, all of the breweries are a bit of a hike ($30 or so cab ride each way). But Mission brewery is right downtown just behind the ball park and it is worth stopping in at.
3. Toronado in San Diego is AWESOME but again off the beaten path if you are staying downtown (Gaslamp area).
4. The Neighborhood in San Diego is RIGHT DOWN TOWN and is awesome. Make sure you visit.
5. If you have time when passing through, Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach is AWESOME. Fantastic tap list. Great Southern style BBQ. They opened up a new location in Newport Beach (?) last year that I have not been to but it is apparently bigger and includes their own brewing facility.
That's all I got. Enjoy your trip. I am jealous
1. DON'T SKIP STONE. Even if their beer doesn't interest you, their restaurant/beer garden is a MUST VISIT. Food is GREAT and all locally sourced. Beer garden is beautiful. Tour is cool as well and ends with a tasting of 5 different beers. Tap list and bottle list in the restaurant/beer garden contains MANY non-Stone beers. When I was there I had 4 beers and none were Stone.
2. If you are staying in downtown San Diego, all of the breweries are a bit of a hike ($30 or so cab ride each way). But Mission brewery is right downtown just behind the ball park and it is worth stopping in at.
3. Toronado in San Diego is AWESOME but again off the beaten path if you are staying downtown (Gaslamp area).
4. The Neighborhood in San Diego is RIGHT DOWN TOWN and is awesome. Make sure you visit.
5. If you have time when passing through, Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach is AWESOME. Fantastic tap list. Great Southern style BBQ. They opened up a new location in Newport Beach (?) last year that I have not been to but it is apparently bigger and includes their own brewing facility.
That's all I got. Enjoy your trip. I am jealous
If you're up at Stone you can hit Lost Abbey which is a great spot.
I wasn't terribly impressed with Ballast Point, it's basically a homebrew shop.
AleSmith is great for beers but it is basically just an industrial park unit. Green Flash is impressive as it looks like an airplane hangar it's so huge.
I love SD, my personal favourites are Pizza Port (Ocean Beach), Neighbourhood, Toronado, Tiger Tiger...and there's even more that I haven't been to. Try to make it to Ocean Beach which is an 'authentic' scruffy part of town that just happens to have a killer beach & awesome brewpub.
SF has a bunch of new places pop up recently, but Magnolia is one of my favourites of all time.
I wasn't terribly impressed with Ballast Point, it's basically a homebrew shop.
AleSmith is great for beers but it is basically just an industrial park unit. Green Flash is impressive as it looks like an airplane hangar it's so huge.
I love SD, my personal favourites are Pizza Port (Ocean Beach), Neighbourhood, Toronado, Tiger Tiger...and there's even more that I haven't been to. Try to make it to Ocean Beach which is an 'authentic' scruffy part of town that just happens to have a killer beach & awesome brewpub.
SF has a bunch of new places pop up recently, but Magnolia is one of my favourites of all time.
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Torontoblue
- Beer Superstar
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+1 for Magnolia. Nice atmospheric place in the heart of Height/Ashbury. Good food & great beers. Toronado is just a short walk from Magnolia too.
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northyorksammy
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