San Diego, California

San Diego, California

As far as the brewery scene is concerned, San Diego is undoubtedly Southern California’s hot spot. My wife and I got to visit several breweries on a recent trip. There are many in the San Diego area, and a lot of good ones. I’ll just mention the following: La Jolla Brewhouse, Alesmith, the Firehouse Brewing Company, and Pizza Port.

La Jolla Brewhouse

Located downtown La Jolla where LJ Brewing Company used to be, La Jolla Brewhouse opened its doors in 2003. I got to meet the brewer, Pat Korn (picture below), who used to brew for Karl Strauss breweries, sort of a San Diego institution. The beers had both body and character. Pat seems to be really interested in Belgian beers and most of his beers were either Belgian style, or an interesting blend of British and Belgian influences.

House brews included the Blonde Ale (5.4% thinner but well hopped and very tasty), the Saus en Trop “Belgian IPA” (well hopped, light copper colored cross between an IPA and a Belgian ale), the Double IPA (8.9% well hopped, good body), a pleasant Wit (5.6%), a very nice and full-bodied Red Lion Ale (6.%), and an Oatmeal stout (to name a few).

As far as the atmosphere, the place reminded me a bit of the Santa Barbara Brewing Company: for those that aren't familiar with the latter, it has a convenient downtown location and a sports-watching crowd encouraged by multiple TV screens. Overall, this is a good place to stop at if you don’t mind the louder sports watching crowds.

La Jolla Brewhouse

7536 Fay Avenue La Jolla, CA 92037

Tel: 858-456-6279 Web: http://www.lajollabrewhouse.com

Alesmith

This is strictly a brewery, without a pub or restaurant, but is truly a Southern California institution. It isn’t as commercially aggressive as the Stone Brewery (maker of the famous Arrogant Bastard Ale), but has a real cult-like following among California’s beer lovers. I’d heard about the place for the longest time and finally got to check it out. It more than met my expectations.

Alesmith offers a tour at 1pm on the last Saturday of each month and we happened to be there on the right day! Peter Zien, owner and founder (pictured below), gave the tour himself. This was probably the most interesting brewery tour I ever took. Peter seems really passionate about what he does and gave an amazingly informative tour.

Alesmith opened in 1995, the same year that stone Brewing Company started. This is a smaller operation however, especially since Stone recently expended. Pete really came across as some one whose priority was to make the highest quality beer, as opposed to getting wealthy off of it. The equipment is much smaller than Stone’s, and some of it is actually dairy equipment converted for brewing purposes. But don’t let that fool you: the beers are excellent, some of the best in the state, and since Peter began brewing in 1995, his beers have earned over 400 medals and honors. Top-notch stuff!

We got to sample the following:

Extra pale ale: one of our favorite, very pale in color, with a great head and flavor.
IPA: fruity and tasty, made with seven different types of hops. Excellent!
Evil-Dead red (6.66%): Nice red color, full bodied and packed with flavor. The same beer is called “My Bloody Valentine” in February.
Wee heavy Scottish ale (10%): excellent, a bit smoky, and hoppier than expected (hoppier than most Scottish ales).
Belgian pale Ale: pale in color with a fruity flavor.
Anvil ESB: nice body, copper color.
Horny devil 11%: Yellow Belgian Strong Ale, very flavorful and a bit on the sweeter side.
Grand cru: Belgian Strong ale. Reddish in color, fruity and also a bit sweet.
Old Numbskull Barley-wine (11%): Complex and strong, full of flavor.

I absolutely loved them. All were medium to full-bodied and full of flavor, the kind I love. My favorites were the X Pale ale, the IPA ,and the seasonal Evil Dead Red (6.66%!!!).Literally every beer was top-notch though.

Overall, the tour was fantastic, and I highly recommend the visit to any one who hasn’t been there. Visiting Alesmith is a must if you're a a beer-lover finding yourself in Southern California. Just a note of caution: if you are going to sample the beers (only $5.00 to taste them all, and you get to keep a cool pint glass), have a designated driver! Serious: these beers are strong and the samples poured are very generous in size.

Alesmith Brewing Company

9368 Cabot drive San Diego, CA 92126

Tel: 858-549-9888 Web: http://www.alesmith.com

Firehouse Brewing Company

Just up the road from there is the Firehouse Brewing Co. This is also just a brewery, not a brewpub. It was opened in 2004 by a couple of third generation firefighters with a taste for beer and a hobby of making their own. The head brewer is Nick Herrera.

Originally, they just had one beer, a pale ale. Since 2006 they also have a hefe-weizen, and are about to come out with an IPA. The latter should be ready by the holidays.

Ironically, the facilities seemed much larger than Alesmith. Their beers are poured in an increasing number of San Diego area eateries, and are also bottled. They started bottling in March of 2007 and Costco down in SD now sells cases of their beers. I tasted both the pale ale and the weizen and found them both to be very drinkable, even after spending time drinking Alesmith brews. This is a place worth checking out if you find yourself there, and it is just two minutes from Alesmith. They are open for tours Tuesday through Saturday, 9am to 5pm.

Firehouse Brewing Company

7696 Miramar Road San Diego, CA 92126
Tel: 858.605.1416 Web: www.firehousebrew.com

Pizza Port

If you were only going to visit one brewpub (talking places where you can eat as well) in the San Diego area, this would be a good one to pick. Pizza Port actually has three locations.

The original location is in Solana Beach. This is a small surfer hangout pizza place, close to the cliffs. The owner liked beer and they started selling some homebrewed stuff. Well the homebrew must have been good and made such a good combo with the excellent pizza that business boomed. Now they have a large place in downtown Carlsbad, and another location in San Clemente, which I haven’t been to.

The restaurant in Carlsbad offers over a dozen types of house brews, seventeen the night we were there, as well as an impressive list of guest taps.

On this most recent visit, I only had four beers (well, samplers that is). I tried two different IPAs: the well hopped & lighter but pleasant Wipe-out IPA (7.5%) and the double IPA (8.5%) a stronger version of the Wipeout. I also tried both of their stouts: the Port Truck Stout was a bit on the hoppy side and more of a porter to me. The "Sticky Stout" was drier, more of an Irish stout and was quite good. I couldn't possibly try them all, but would have liked to.

Pizza is excellent, the beers are excellent, and the atmosphere is trendy, dynamic and fun. Great place all the way around. The beers are too numerous to list but there is something for every one, and they are good!

Pizza Port Solana Beach 135 N. Highway 101 Solana Beach, CA 92075 Tel: Tel: (858) 481-7332

Pizza port Carlsbad 571 Carlsbad Village Dr Carlsbad, CA 92008
Tel: (760) 720-7007

Pizza Port San Clemente 301 N. El Camino Real San Clemente, CA 92672 Tel: (949) 940-0005