Posted by naskin on 8/16/2016 7:14:00 PM (view original):
Posted by vhoward415 on 8/16/2016 5:57:00 PM (view original):
Posted by naskin on 8/16/2016 12:21:00 PM (view original):
So... what are the best breweries in San Diego? I've been to a few of them but haven't been impressed. I've liked the ones in Portland more. But I'm much more likely to spend time in San Diego (since it's a ~5 hour drive from Phoenix), so I'm interested to hear which ones are best :)
Saint Archer was my absolute favorite. Their White Ale is the best beer in San Diego, if you ask me. I also enjoy their Pale Ale and a few of their seasonals.
Mission Brewing had a wide variety of enjoyable beers, not all IPAs and IPA-derivatives (seems like that's all everyone, especially in San Diego, but the West in general, wants to brew).
Mother Earth, Rip Current, Coronado, Culture, Ballast Point and Mike Hess are some others we really enjoyed.
A lot of people like Stone, though they are way too IPA-heavy for my palate. Also: AleSmith and Green Flash.
Thanks! I've had Ballast Point (my wife buys this quite a bit, never had it on tap), Stone (love their IPAs, but they're typically in the 9-10% range... I'm a lightweight and can't handle too much of it), and Green Flash (at a PHX brewery) before. Ballast and Green Flash--they're decent but haven't stood out. I really wanted to check out Mission last time we were in SD, but never ended up making it downtown; Coronado was closed when we tried going.
Appreciate the list, I'll definitely have to check some of them out next time I'm in SD! You can't really go wrong living in either San Diego or Portland for beer... they're typically rated at the top of best beer cities!
Ballast Point's tasting room is a lot of fun and the beers are delicious on tap. In fact, I've never had their beer otherwise - we were (and are still) spoiled by having ridiculously good craft beer right from the source.
Portland beers are also very, very good. We're discovering a few more breweries these days and really enjoying them, as well. So much good beer... so little time. My most recent discovery is a "sour house" called Cascade Brewing Company. They do all sour beers and they are all amazing! pFriem is another one we just went to recently and their Summer beer lineup is incredible. Full Sail, Double Mountain, Deschutes, Widmer, Ecliptic, 10 Barrel, Bridgeport, along with scores of small-scale operations... all are very good and some are very creative.
Then, of course, we live a little outside Portland just adjacent to Oregon's incredible wine country. I could go on, but I'll stop here for now.