For the primary time in eight years, San Diego will host the most important annual gathering of leisure brewers within the nation, Homebrew Con, from June 22 to 24. With roughly 150 working brewhouses and 200-plus brewery-owned venues, America’s Most interesting Metropolis is a superb locale for this beer-centric occasion, however those self same stats render it difficult for out-of-towners to wrap their heads across the area when planning their imbibing itineraries.
To assist attendees plan and guarantee they go to breweries of outstanding reputation and historic significance with beers matching their preferences, right here’s an summary of the communities surrounding the conference web site with very important info on breweries and tasting rooms in every. There’s actually one thing for each kind of craft beer fanatic in San Diego, so go forth and drink your fill (responsibly, in fact)!
Close to the Convention Venue
Homebrew Con host web site, City and Nation Resort, is in Mission Valley West simply off Interstate 8. That east-west freeway facilitates a fast two-mile journey east to Puesto Mission Valley, a Michelin-recognized brewpub helmed by essentially the most revered lager professional in San Diego County, Doug Hasker. A Gordon Biersch expat with over 20 years of expertise, he has shifted his bottom-fermenting talent set to manufacturing of a kaleidoscope of Mexican-style lagers that pair exceptionally nicely with a menu of SoCal- and Mexico Metropolis-influenced tacos, enchiladas, and extra. You received’t discover a way more San Diego pairing than that! Or head a pair miles west to go to landmark House Brew Mart, the 25-year-old homebrewing emporium that birthed Ballast Level Brewing. The shop and its stock of elements and apparatuses now give solution to a bar serving a big selection of BP cores and seasonals, plus scads of small-batch creations protecting a wealth of ale and lager types, a few of that are produced on-site.
From there, take a brief stroll to the off-the-beaten-path forger of English, Irish, German, and Belgian beers, Deft Brewing, a brewery that’s teamed with a meadery and vineyard to construct a stunning out of doors house known as The Gärten, providing leisure a number of nights per week. Farther north is venerable Coronado Brewing’s foremost manufacturing facility with a kitchen-equipped indoor-outdoor taproom serving up largely West Coast-style ales, in addition to a tasting room from “it” brewery Harland Brewing, the attraction of which is amped up by a comfortable again patio. The latter affords an assortment of IPAs and lagers together with occasional pastry beers.
Coronado Brewing, 1205 Knoxville St; Deft Brewing, 5328 Banks St; Harland Brewing Bay Park, 4112 Napier St; House Brew Mart, 5401 Linda Vista Rd; Puesto Mission Valley, 5010 Mission Middle Rd.
A Barely Longer Uber Experience
Clusters of breweries and tasting rooms are positioned all through San Diego County, making it simple to get extra bang to your rideshare buck. Listed below are three five-star communities definitely worth the journey.
North Park
Regarded by many because the craft beer capital of the town dubbed the craft beer capital of America, North Park is filled with brewery venues, bars, and eating places. It’s the place to be and maybe the one neighborhood the place you may style a number of Nationwide Homebrew Competitors medal-winning IPAs which have gone on to be produced on a industrial scale.
The primary is essentially the most awarded beginner IPA of all time, Hop-Fu! Conceived of by San Diegan Kelsey McNair, it’s the flagship West Coast IPA at his fashionable, two-story North Park Beer Co., and struck gold on the 2022 World Beer Cup (WBC) after nabbing bronze on the Nice American Beer Competition (GABF) that very same 12 months. Choose one thing opaque? Hop-Fu!’s hazy sibling, Artwork Is Arduous, took silver at GABF in 2021. And simply half a mile north is El Cid Brewing. A Navy-themed nano put in within the shell of former American Homebrewers Affiliation (AHA) Homebrew Store of the 12 months, The Homebrewer, it’s the pro-brewing ardour venture of Eric Bridges, a retired Senior Chief who positioned third eventually 12 months’s NHC along with his Knifehand IPA.
One other native enterprise with NHC roots is a tasting room belonging to Rip Present Brewing. Brewmaster Paul Sangster was the Ninkasi Award winner on the 2011 competitors and has saved the homebrewing spirit alive at his brewery, crafting lesser-seen types along with hop-forward crowd-pleasers like Lupulin Lust double IPA. A number of extra obscure choices have received GABF awards, together with two-time gold-medalist Breakline Bock and the silver-clad Black Lagoon Scotch ale, each of which mixed to earn Rip Present Very Small Brewery of the 12 months honors in 2016.
Different North Park standouts embrace Fall Brewing, a preferred hangout amongst native brewers that includes balanced, largely SoCal-style beers and a rock-show motif; tasting rooms from the sustainability-minded makers of murky IPAs and creatively flavored saisons, sours, and stouts, Pure Venture Brewing; and bike-friendly beer bastion Rouleur Brewing. Additionally, El Cajon Boulevard’s lease-to-brew Brewer Igniter facility presently homes one-year-old upstart Search Beer Co. and its household of crispy-boi lagers, IPAs, and modern-day sours from a transplant who opened and ran City South Brewery’s Houston brewpub earlier than going west.
These in search of beer and a chunk would do nicely to hit up The Authentic 40 Brewing (particularly for Sunday brunch the day after the convention) or TapRoom Beer Co., the place the beer board is broad, various, and sometimes full of enjoyable and attention-grabbing collaborations involving different San Diego brewers.
El Cid Brewing, 2911 El Cajon Blvd; Fall Brewing, 4542 thirtieth St; GOAL. Brewing, 3052 El Cajon Blvd, Ste A; North Park Beer Co., 3038 College Ave; The Authentic 40 Brewing, 3117 College Ave; Pure Venture Brewing North Park, 2867 El Cajon Blvd; Rip Present Brewing North Park, 4101 thirtieth St; Rouleur Brewing North Park, 2899 College Ave; Search Beer Co., 3052 El Cajon Blvd, Ste C; TapRoom Beer Co., 2000 El Cajon Blvd
Kearny Mesa
Away from the brightness of city lights and sunshiny seashores is Kearny Mesa, an industrial-zoned space that’s house to a half-dozen breweries. Essentially the most well-known of the sextet is Societe Brewing, a 10-year-old award-winning enterprise with a menu heavy in hoppy fare similar to The Pupil IPA and two-time GABF gold-medal-winning session IPA, The Coachman. These unfiltered, definitively West Coast beers are augmented by a number of Belgian-style ales and stouts.
A couple of blocks west is cult favourite Hopnonymous Brewing with its often rotating menu of hoppy ales juxtaposed with pastry stouts, adjunct-laced sours, and strong under-the-radar Belgian-style ales. On the identical block, Kilowatt Brewing wins factors—and GABF medals—for experimental numbers like its Maple Smoked Maibock and Chocolate Macadamia Stout. However wait…there’s extra. A secret entrance spirits guests from the blacklights and psychedelic artwork of Kilowatt’s tasting room to an island-inspired tiki-cocktail speakeasy dubbed Forbidden Cove.
These headed to Kearny Mesa needn’t pack a lunch. The group is house to Convoy Road, which is full of eating places serving genuine Chinese language, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Korean delicacies, to not point out San Diego’s longest-tenured craft beer bar, O’Brien’s Pub, owned by former WBC Brewer of the 12 months Tom Nickel and that includes beers from his namesake Nickel Beer Co.
Hopnonymous Brewing, 7705 Convoy Ct; Kilowatt Brewing / Forbidden Cove, 7576 Clairemont Mesa Blvd; O’Brien’s Pub, 4646 Convoy St; Societe Brewing, 8262 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
Miramar
Nicknamed “Beeramar” for its sheer quantity of breweries, Miramar is one other industrial space the place good beer abounds. A singular expertise for any homebrewer might be had at yeast firm White Labs, with an in-house brewery producing batches of wort which can be break up fermented utilizing completely different home strains. The resultant beers are then served facet by facet at White Labs’ tasting room for example the dramatic position yeast performs in brewing. White Labs additionally serves scrumptious pizzas utilizing dough made with its yeast.
Farther west is famous native curiosity AleSmith Brewing, serving fan faves Speedway Stout and .394 San Diego Pale Ale out of the most important tasting room within the county. That two-story venue is house to the Tony Gwynn Museum, a dugout space that’s excellent for catching a recreation with beer in hand, together with a mezzanine space, out of doors patio, and firm retailer promoting beer, attire, and house-made fromage from on-site facet hustle, CheeseSmith. Guests to Miramar may also go to Ballast Level’s bar-and-restaurant-equipped mom ship, which additionally serves the English-influenced beers of lesser-known dad or mum firm Kings & Convicts Brewing.
The realm can also be house to San Diego’s solely USDA-certified all-organic beer firm, Protector Brewery, run by an ex-Navy SEAL who helps active-duty and retired servicepeople by way of a number of charity beers and fundraising initiatives. Stable IPAs, Belgian-style ales, and beers made with native honey, purple corn, spruce ideas, and extra might be discovered at Duck Foot Brewing, whereas the liquid wares of Embolden Beer Co. share faucet house with onerous tea, kombucha, and barrel-aged seltzers from sister firm New Movement Drinks.
AleSmith Brewing, 9990 AleSmith Ct; Ballast Level Brewing, 9045 Carroll Means; Duck Foot Brewing, 8920 Kenamar Dr; Embolden Beer Co. / New Movement Drinks, 8655 Manufacturing Ave; Kings & Convicts Brewing, 9550 Distribution Ave; Protector Brewery, 8680 Miralani Dr; White Labs, 9495 Candida St
Close to the Airport
Whether or not you’ve simply landed and are chomping on the bit for some native suds or are camped out and killing time earlier than flying out, the next are your greatest choices for brewery spots near San Diego Worldwide Airport.
Level Loma
There are few experiences extra immersive or stress-free than kicking again with a beer on an outside patio with a cross-bay view of downtown San Diego. That’s what awaits beer followers in Level Loma—together with what are broadly thought of the best lagers within the county—on the waterfront biergarten of award-winning Eppig Brewing. These searching for suds and sustenance can drop in on the most important restaurant in your entire county, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, the place a menu of upscale pub fare (ahi poke “nachos,” a wagyu “luxe” burger, duck pot pie) pairs with a large assortment of beers produced on an in-house 10-barrel system that goes nicely past the corporate’s acquainted core lineup.
Eppig Brewing Waterfront Biergarten, 2817 Dickens St; Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, 2816 Historic Decatur Rd
Ocean Seaside
Craving one final stroll on the seashore or people-watching within the metropolis’s most proudly bizarre neighborhood? Chart a course for Ocean Seaside. Not solely does it have its personal Pizza Port brewpub and all of the award-winning beers that go together with it, it additionally boasts the three-story eponymous brewpub, OB Brewery, named Small Brewpub of the 12 months at GABF in 2019. The latter is on Newport Avenue, which packs a whopping 4 tasting rooms right into a single block, together with one from off-center, all-sour (apart from one lager) concern, California Wild Ales.
California Wild Ales Ocean Seaside, 4896 Newport Ave; OB Brewery, 5041 Newport Ave; Pizza Port Ocean Seaside, 1956 Bacon St
Downtown
San Diego’s beer scene was born in 1989 when a German grasp brewer who’d headed manufacturing for Pabst Brewing got here out of retirement to assist his nephew craft the town’s first native beers post-Prohibition. Named for that acquainted headman, Karl Strauss Brewing was an immediate success, and its OG red-brick brewpub on Columbia Road stays a preferred hang-out for many who reside and work downtown. Along with classics like Pink Trolley Ale and Aurora Hoppyalis IPA, choose beers from Karl Strauss Distributing’s accomplice breweries (Black Plague, Booze Brothers, Duck Foot, Hodad’s, Mason Ale Works, and Rouleur) are additionally obtainable. Newer however simply as notable is The Arbor, a close-by Little Italy taproom and kitchen idea from Burgeon Beer Co., a six-year-old enterprise with a formidable IPA and lager recreation.
The East Village features a non secular expertise from world-renowned Belgian- and barrel-aged beer op and 2007 GABF Small Brewery of the 12 months The Misplaced Abbey. That comes care of a tasting room constructed right into a church courting again to 1906. Components of the model’s iconic Catholic-inspired art work meld with historic fixtures to offer a pseudo-monastic environment made much more pleasant by an extremely prolonged faucet listing crammed out by drinks from sub-brands Tiny Bubbles (Brett beers), and Khárisma (onerous glowing teas).
Additionally brewing at historic East Village websites are Mission Brewing, which continues to breathe new life right into a circa-Eighties Marvel Bread manufacturing unit, and Half Door Brewing, a family-run operation from Irish immigrants bringing the heat of an Emerald Isle pub inside a longstanding two-story home. Each of these companies are one block from Petco Park, house of the San Diego Padres (who might be internet hosting the Nationals throughout Homebrew Con), together with a newer addition, East Village Brewing. Outfitted with a contemporary aesthetic and a half-dozen serving tanks, East Village is the product of two high-level Ballast Level brewers who solely brew with elements sourced west of the Mississippi.
Baseball followers may additionally wish to cease by downtown’s Resident Brewing to strive No-No Joe, a double IPA brewed in collaboration with the one pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Friar franchise historical past, Joe Musgrove. Their vaunted hazies additionally rating factors with locals, as does Trip, a coconut-infused West Coast IPA that was first brewed because the profitable recipe from an AHA-sanctioned homebrew competitors hosted by Stone Brewing.
The Arbor by Burgeon Beer Co., 1326 Kettner Blvd; The Church by The Misplaced Abbey, 1313 J St; East Village Brewing, 201 Park Blvd, Ste 101; Half Door Brewing, 903 Island Ave; Karl Strauss Brewing Downtown, 1157 Columbia St.; Mission Brewing, 1441 L St; Resident Brewing, 1065 Fourth Ave.
(Editor’s notice: Register for Homebrew Con at HomebrewCon.org)
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