Must visit in San Diego...?

Heading down tomorrow, what are your must visit breweries/tasting rooms locals? I am starting off at White Labs around noon but have no plans after that. Thanks for any input/adivce.

Pizza Port Solana Beach, Lost Abbey in San Marcos are on the top of my list.

There are so many good breweries to hit down there. My personal top choices would be Stone, Alesmith, Ballast Point and Lost Abbey. Stone is a great choice if you want some good food and a cool place to hang out for a while. You can't go wrong with those, but there is so much more...

If you're at White Labs (Candida St, makes ya wonder where their yeast comes from (google Candida) you're in the corridor of a few. Ballast Point, Green Flash, Alesmith, Hess (tiny nano brewery). If you have time to go North Stone is quite a site.

Definitely stop by Green Flash. Was just there last month. Great selection.

Beat craft beer area in the country IMO.

Alpine, ballast point, alesmith, pizza port. In order of importance, I left many great places to go off that list.

I'll throw mission out there if you're downtownish. Great beer and a great building. Stone is amazing, can't miss.

I hear the zoo is great there.

Lots of great breweries in the area. Alesmith is the best in my opinion. Ballast Point and Lightning have some good brews, Stone is a park-like place with lots of good beers as well. Lesser known but good are Lightning, Latitude 33 and Stumblefoot. Most all of the breweries belong to a guild, and they have a map that should be available at whichever one you stop at first. Enjoy the tour!

Ale smith is awesome. Hess is very novel with great beer, Stone is beautiful. Manzanita has a great chipotle beer and the brewer is real friendly. Lightening didn't impress me. If you can make the trip, alpine makes some of the most unique beer I've had. Pizza port has a good atmosphere. Lost abbey is a must.

My brother lives in San Diego and he's also a home brewer so we always hit up a few breweries while I'm out there.

If you're hitting White Labs, there are several in that area that you can hit at the same time. Alesmith, Hess, Rough Draft, and Green Flash are all around White Labs. Ballast Point is close too but I personally wasn't impressed with their beer. Stone is definitely worth hitting if you've never been there. I also enjoyed Mission brewery.

Also, I recommend hitting the food trucks that park outside the breweries. There are some great ones down there. I hit a few of them and can remember two of them. I had swiss hot dogs from Swieners. One of the best hot dogs I ever had. (http://swieners.com/) I also got some red neck tacos from The Gooch (http://thegoochtruck.com/menu/) which is a taco made of corn bread pan cakes with BBQ pork, bacon, and coleslaw inside. Amazing!

I've been to a couple good beer bars in Encintas and La Jolla that are good if you're in the area (I think they're owned by the same people):
http://www.encinitasalehouse.com/
http://www.the-publichouse.com/

Go to www.westcoastersd.com. You'll find a brewery list, event calendar, etc. I can't recommend Alpine Beer Co. enough. It's about 35-40 minutes from downtown, but if you have a car it's well worth the drive.

Thanks for the advice, tentatively will be hitting up green flash, alesmith, stone as well as white labs. Really would like to get to lost abbey if possible, will have to look at map.

Just FYI: here are the breweries that are in the IMMEDIATE vicinity of white labs:

Hess
Green Flash
Ballast Point
Alesmith
Rough Draft
Karl Strauss brewpub (great for lunch)

if you haven't gone to white labs yet you can try to grab this deal

http://www.livingsocial.com/cities/...ty/deals/393846-beer-tasting-and-tour-for-two

Everyone is posting about breweries, but if you're in the North Park area, Toronado is my favorite place to get a beer. They have an insane collection of taps, and not only that, they often have beers that no one else can get from all over, including Russian River (the original Toronado is in San Fransisco and they have a great relationship with RR) Alpine, the Bruery... etc.

I'm going to 2nd on the Pizza Port response Yum!

Alpine is one of the best breweries in the USA. It is a must visit for any beer fan.

Ballast Point, Alpine, Lost Abbey, are my tops. Stone is amazing as well just for the scenery alone.

Great pie at pizza port, too. Also if you dont make it to ballast point, you gotta try the sculpin.

Drinking a pint of that after a round at torrey pines wadls an experience I won't soon forget.

And does alesmith always serve their beers in plastic cups?

keesh said:

Everyone is posting about breweries, but if you're in the North Park area, Toronado is my favorite place to get a beer. They have an insane collection of taps, and not only that, they often have beers that no one else can get from all over, including Russian River (the original Toronado is in San Fransisco and they have a great relationship with RR) Alpine, the Bruery... etc.

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I am a big fan of BLAH an tiger tiger as well. They started automatic brewing at blah which seems to be doing well.

itsernst said:

I am a big fan of BLAH an tiger tiger as well. They started automatic brewing at blah which seems to be doing well.

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That is good to hear, I know he was trying to brew more often. I haven't been in a while, maybe tomorrow I will pop in.

keesh said:

That is good to hear, I know he was trying to brew more often. I haven't been in a while, maybe tomorrow I will pop in.

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My phone is terrible at auto correcting. They have an oatmeal stout that I heard was pretty good and their guest tap list is always on par.

Green Flash and Hess.