San Diego

My wife and I will be in San Diego for a long weekend.  One night in La Jolla and the rest in San Diego.  What are the best beer destinations.  Already planning on Stone.

Lost Abbey is about a mile away from Stone.

If you’re coming in from the north then you should also hit Alesmith and Green Flash.

This is from the 2011 NHC experience, so it is limited.  You have Stone on your radar.
Pizza Port Solana Beach, Carlsbad, or Ocean Beach. The Toronado on 30th for a wide selection of beers.

There are too many places to go to. This time I might go to the White Labs tasting room to see what different yeasts do to the same wort.

YES.  I love the idea.  White Labs is now first on the must-go list.

Will you be traveling around the area quite a bit?

Coronado if you are on the island

Stone Liberty station if you are near the airport

Downtown, I enjoyed San Diego beer company but that was right after they opened. Not sure what it is like now. Monkey Paw was a cool little dive. I don’t care for Mission Brewery beers but the place is cool- close to the ball park

Ballast Point, Alesmith, Hess, Green Flash (and others) is a fun run to hit consecutively and are a 20 minute drive from Stone Escondido. Never knew White Labs was right there too…

Some good tap rooms around too like Hamilton’s but I never visited- near the zoo

Back in August, we enjoyed Stone, Pizza Port/Lost Abbey, Belching Beaver, and Mother Earth taproom. Everything everyone else mentioned was on the list but we ran out of time. My next venture to San Diego will certainly include Ballast Point and White Labs

And if you’re there, you’re not far at all from Waypoint Public.  I think Tiger Tiger is not too far either (and since I also didn’t see it mentioned yet, Tiger Tiger’s sibling Blind Lady Ale House is also a good spot).

Societe Brewing is also close to O’Brien’s pub

Tight Tiger is just east of 30th on El Cahon, the food stands out in my memory.

I am headed out to SD 4 weeks from today. Are there any new places within the last 2 years that I should be aware of?

Modern Times, Rip Current, Societe, Stone Liberty Station. Fall brewing in North Park was pretty good too.

Thanks! Liberty Station is definitely on the list and the others will likely make it on…

If you find yourself heading north, the stop at Bagby brewing in Oceanside.

Been a couple years now since I been to SD. I visited Stone and Ballast Point while there and downtown I went to Monkey Paw and Mission. Definitely hit up Lost Abbey when you’re at Stone as it is close by.

Lots of new breweries there that I think I need to plan for another SD beercation soon.

I have been to all of the places you mention although last time I was at Lost Abbey, I didn’t really appreciate their beers. I was still stuck on American styles so I pretty much stayed on the Port side of the brewery…

I’ve never been a huge fan of lost abbey. The beers are good, just not so good to warrant the praise and hype IMO.

This is what we hit in no particular order:
Stone - Liberty Station
Stone - Escondido
Stone - Petco
Modern Times
Societe
White Labs
Intergalactic
Kilowatt
Half Door
Ballast Point
Duck Foot
Coronado
Division 23
32 North
Pizza Port - OB
Culture
Monkey Paw
San Diego Beer Co

Modern Times was the standout although we were not able to make it to a lot of other recommended places. Half Door was the coolest place.

That’s one heck of a list, how long were you there?

3-1/2 days. We skipped a bunch that we had already been to and tried to mainly hit completely new breweries or new locations within the last 2 years.

Unfortunately we didn’t stay at a lot of the inland locations long because it was near 100F and they all had open warehouse breweries with little airflow. It was hard to sit and enjoy a beer let alone two. Due to this it is really hard to make any hard judgments on a lot of the places however I tried my best to have other examples of their beer in more comfortable environments.