Beer Forum

siwelwerd wrote:Thanks for the tips. We hit Pizza Port last night, and I was quite impressed--20 of their own beers, plus 12 local guests on tap, including Pliny (!). Like most around here, I suspect, they don't quite know what "session" means, but the two beers I tried were really tasty, if not exactly 'to style'. Great pizza as well, and a really friendly staff.

The other ones BDawg listed seem to only have taprooms, not restaurants, so it will be harder for me to convince SWMBO to go there. Hopefully I'll find them at a restaurant, if we don't make it to them. Societe is really close to our hotel though, so maybe I can swing that one.

If you're near Societe then you're only a 10 minute drive away from Alesmith, Ballast Point, and White Labs (if you can swing that with the wife, they're all tasting rooms), but it's a really good area for some popular breweries.

If looking for a place with good food and a great beer selection near downtown San Diego, I would suggest checking out Down Town Johnny Browns ... You should be able to pull up their current tap list off tap hunter or going to their webpage. Looks like Hetetic evil 3 and Heritic russian imperial stout are on tap now. Definately pull up a map as it is hidden away inside the civic center plaza and not seen from the road.

*for full disclosure, I am long time friends with the owners ... great people!

Beerd Man wrote:
If you're near Societe then you're only a 10 minute drive away from Alesmith, Ballast Point, and White Labs (if you can swing that with the wife, they're all tasting rooms), but it's a really good area for some popular breweries.

I managed to convince the wife to swing by White Labs on the way home from Escondido Wednesday night. We packed a lunch and ate on the patio at Ballast Point on Thursday, got to try 8 or 9 of their beers. The bar tender at White Labs suggested a place called Steins for dinner Thursday night; they had 30 drafts, about half local, and sold them in 4 oz tasters, so I was able to try some Lost Abbey, Modern Times, Societe, and a QUAFF/ Ballast point collaboration brew there. They had a great mead selection as well, which made the wife happy

Thanks for all the tips, looks like we may end up having to make annual trips out there. Already lobbying for next June, we'll see if it works out.

BTW, San Diego is my new favorite beer city (though it's the only place west of Colorado I've been to)

Stone Liberty Station is amazing. You have to go there if you are in San Diego. I'm there now working through the IPAs amazing