lived in SD for 26 years before moving to Portland. I will never move back.
What no one seems to notice as the fallacy of the Men's Health article is that more breweries do not equal more beer culture. Certainly Stone is a nice brewing facility and snazzy restuarant, which we have in Portland in places like Bridgeport Downtown. What San Diego doesn't have is the Hawthorne Lucky Lab, New Old Lompoc, or even the neighborhood McMenamins.
Since I've moved here, I've made a point to check out SD's beer scene. I go down every year to visit. Here's my beer experience in SD:
1) Stone - Middle-of-nowhere Escondido (50 miles from downtown). Snazzy restaurant > $20/entree. Arrogant bastards (pun intended), great beer & brewery. Arguably worth the drive.
2) AleSmith - Off Mirimar Road in a business park behind miles and miles of car dealerships and furniture outlet stores. Zero ambiance. No food or bar, just taps. Great beer, no where to drink it.
3) Pizza Port - 25 beers on tap, 5 of them are good. Busy pizza restaurant. Half of the people aren't drinking beer.
4) Ballast Point - At the homebrew store. Good beer. Only open homebrew retail store hours. No bar area.
I can go on, but you get the point. While there may be good beer down there, you really have to seek it out. In Portland they are everywhere, and they're really good. Same with Denver.
Listserve, have any of you had a fantastic beer experience in SD that you'd like to share? Clearly, I'm sold on Portland and may even be slightly biased
-A