Obviously, Stone, Green Flash, Ballast Point, Alpine, Alesmith, Lost Abbey and Port get 90% of the publicity around the country. What are your thoughts on the smaller, regional breweries popping up every week? I think that I have been to every tasting room except Rip Current, Mad Labs and New English (unless one popped up this week. We have several that have hit their 2nd anniversary so they apparently are making enough to cover their bills. Which breweries (without regional distribution) would you recommend to beer drinkers outside of the area? Manzanita? Coronado? Karl Strauss? Aztec? Iron Fist? Mother Earth? Oceanside Ale Works? Breakwater? Back Street? Rip Current? Stumblefoot? Fezziwigs? On the Tracks? Lattitude 33? New English? Rough Draft? Hess? Wet N Reckless? Societe? Money Paw? Off Beat? Belching Beaver? Indian Joes?
From your second list, Societe is the definite go-to for me. And I haven’t been to Rip Current yet, but from everything I’ve heard they're going to also be a definite go-to brewery.
I just moved to town and have had to buckle down on prepping for an exam, so I'll slowly visit pretty much every place on that list... but for now Societe: Nice atmosphere, a couple solid beers (Butcher and Dandy were my favorites). On the couple trips I've taken, all of the same beers on tap and nothing in bottles. Food trucks sometimes, but not always food on-site. If you're going here and might need to eat, make sure there will either be a food truck or you know the area's food offerings. 7/10 Coronado: Decent place but PACKED when I visited. None of the beers were something I wanted to take home, but were good enough that I enjoyed them on premises. Friendly environment and helpful staff. 5/10 Just for reference, other bigger places' ratings on the experience of visiting... Stone: 9.5/10 Lost Abbey 8/10 Green Flash 8/10 Alesmith: 7.5/10 Ballast Point: 7/10
Because he got it right by saying Alpine is in San Diego county, and not San Diego? That's all I got...
I don't think sandiego67 believes in reading threads over a day old, or even reading older posts in a current thread: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/san-diego-hidden-gems.50401/page-3#post-762777
I think repetitive threads could be said about 98% of the threads on BA ! If not, what else would we be doing as we drink our beer on a Saturday night ?
I mean that's fair, but normally they're at least somewhat different, or at least reposting something a week or more old...
Manzanita: No Coronado: Yes Karl Strauss: No Aztec Time Permitting Iron Fist: No Mother Earth: Yes Oceanside Ale Works: No Breakwater: Time Permitting Back Street: No Rip Current: yes Stumblefoot: No Fezziwigs: beats me On the Tracks: Jesus Christ NO! Lattitude 33: Yes New English: No Rough Draft: Time Permitting Hess: No Wet N Reckless: No Societe: Yes Money Paw: Yes Off Beat: Haven't been there Belching Beaver: Heard it's good Indian Joes: Heard it's bad
I've been to a few. I would recommend: Manzanita - Yes, good stuff. Coronado - Yes if you want to go for a meal. Its more of a restaurant. Karl Strauss - Same as Coronado, but IMO Coronado has better beer. Iron Fist - Yes, one of my current favorites. Their standard releases have been better than their one offs though. Lattitude 33 - Decent, but only if you have extra time. Hess - Yes. Another one of my current favorites. Societe - Yes. Good stuff here, but not as good as Hess or Iron Fist, in my opinion again.
I think we need a polling function with choices tied in to the BA rating database. It wouldn't be infallible, but it would be a good starting point.
I love (Mike) Hess Brewing...I know it doesn't get a ton of love for whatever reason, but I'll continue to visit every time I'm down in the area.
There really are only a few reasons: 1. A lot of people don't think their beer is quite up to "production" quality. Some of them think this will change with the North Park brewery. 2. The industrial park feel of the place isn't for everybody. 3. A few people have been rubbed the wrong way by a certain person's personality, or lack thereof, and when the nice person associated with Hess took off they saw little reason to come around.
I've been beating around the bush a bit with Hess, because I don't want to offend my friends that like that place. But fuck it. Hess sucks. Don't waste your time when a world class brewery like Alesmith is 2 minutes away.
Hah, I hope you don't mean me – as MacNCheese can attest, I don't get offended at all. If we all were to get offended anytime someone disliked a brewery we liked, then BA would... oh wait...
I know FAR more people that really like Hess than dislike it. It's not the place to go for an IPA, but some of their beers are really solid.
It seems that Hess is really just a polarizing place. I go there occasionally when I'm down in SD; I personally enjoy some of their beers (Brunus Induresco, Ex Umbris, Quercus, blended Torulus). I also like going to their tasting room...there's a certain charm to its "down-and-dirty"-ness. I can't speak to the personnel departure, but I've only had positive experiences the half-dozen or so times I've been there. I'm curious to see how the new production facility will affect the beer quality. I like Societe-they have a nice, big open space and the beers are solid. I think the place will continue to get better and am curious to track their development over the next few years, especially their sour program. However, I still don't understand why they spelled their name the French way if they wanted it to be pronounced the English way.
I'm in this camp. I don't hate Hess, I just don't understand the bonerific lovefest people have for their beer. It's B quality beer and I think they've learned a TON and when the new place in North Park opens they'll be making much better beer. If the quality of the beer goes up, then I'll be a patron. Easy Peasy. Given that most production breweries are in industrial parks, that's not the case for me. Still don't know the whole story behind that, do we? I'm clueless. I've only ever been there twice. There's also the fact that Hess was busted by the City for illegal dumping of cleaning/sanitizing chemicals into the storm drain in the parking lot. This rubs me really the wrong way, if you want to be part of the community then don't fuck up our ocean by cutting corners with disposing of harsh cleaners. Total dickbag move.
We all have our opinions and our favorite brewery's, pubs, etc. I think it all depends on our taste and what we like and how we are treated when we go to these establishments. Here in the LA/OC area we don't have as much as you guys down in Sun Diego but what we do have is great to good to not so good. Again all in my opinion. Like Sun Diego we have Golden Road Brewery (over a year old) and its the hottest Brewery/Pub in LA. Not in my opinion. But alot of peeps are going there and saying good things about it. There beers are all over the place including LAX. I think their beers are average. Nothing to rave about. And I think most BA's thats been here a while will say the same. I've been to a lot of brewery's and establishment here in OC/LA and I have my favorites (Beachwood BBQ SB). I've been to a dozen places down in your beautiful town of Sun Diego and I still find Alpine to be my favorite go to place. I'll always go to Alpine first then head to another spot before driving back to OC. Yeah I know Alpine is not really in Sun Diego but to drive the extra miles its worth it. Again, IMO. Best to go to where you think you'll enjoy yourself. And if you didn't, then don't go back. Check out another joint. There is a bunch of new places in Sun Diego that's new that I haven't been to yet that I will have to check out myself.
I wasn't talking about location, but the tasting room itself. Which really isn't a tasting room - it doubles as their production space. Some people like that vibe, some don't.
I've had the Amplus Acerba at Hess-thought it was fine/standard. I've had all three in the normal Societe rotation (Apprentice, Pupil, Dandy). I thought they were all solid to very good, with the Pupil being the best. That's a good thing, because if you don't like IPAs, you are SOL at Societe.
I think that The Widow is a pretty solid Belgian Dark, and The Butcher is a somewhat different (and pretty good) take on the Russian Imperial Stout.
My poorly-phrased post seemed to suggest I thought their non-IPA offerings were bad. It's not that, just that IPAs comprise around 50-66% of their draft list, so if you are looking for a wide variety of styles, it's not the best.
Definitely. At this point they are doing IPAs, Belgians (of the non-sour variety), and a Belgian inspired RIS. That's it...
Because I thought it had a much lighter "body" than most beers of the RIS genre, and simply guessed that was why. It is possible that I don't know what the [edit] I'm talking about, though.
I personally think it's very chocolatey with a good amount of roast. Not thin at all. They also don't use a Belgian yeast, nor add Belgian candy/syrup, etc. We all have different tastes though. I was just curious. Cheers!
I'm heading to Stone Brewery for the first time today. I don't have any questions, just wanted to brag.
Nothing to brag about, brah. You're hitting a 2nd tier brewery in this County. But please drink all the Vert Epic 12.12.12 and get that stuff gone.
Bitter? No, I avoid that place. In the last 5 years they've had 2 good new beers: Highway 78 Scotch Ale (collab and I give credit to that beer to the 2 other brewers) and Drink By. The rest: meh at best.
