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moving, chicago to san diego

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oldstyle69

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
568
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Location
San Diego
so im heading out on the first to san diego.

any tips for LHBS in the area? ill be living in Logan hights...or something that sounds just like the way i spelt it.

any tips or info on water profiles would be cool.

if not, ill figure it out as i go.


thanks in advance!
 
Welcome to beer heaven. My favorite shop is the homebrewer which would be fairly close for you. You should also check out Ballast Point home brew mart.
 
Agreed SD Homebrewer in North Park is the choice LHBS.

Ballast Point HB shop can suck it, high prices and surly service.

And of course White Labs. WHITE LABS!!!

You will be serviced by the Alvarado water treatment plant. I've got data at work on that, pm me to remind me to send or post it. IME it's good for stouts/porters if cut about 50:50 with RO, pales and lagers need more like 80-85% RO.

Welcome to San Diego. Don't get too used to the rain you'll be seeing the next few months.

BTW, what brings you out here, new job?
 
Agreed SD Homebrewer in North Park is the choice LHBS.

Ballast Point HB shop can suck it, high prices and surly service.

Do agree Ballast Point is over priced and selection is not great, but they have the tasting room with more experimental brews than you will find at the other Ballast Point locations.

The homebrewer also has a tasting room which is amazing.
 
anyone grow hops in san diego? if so, what grows well? i currently have 3 cascade plants. they are all first year.
 
so im heading out on the first to san diego.

any tips for LHBS in the area? ill be living in Logan hights...or something that sounds just like the way i spelt it.

any tips or info on water profiles would be cool.

if not, ill figure it out as i go.


thanks in advance!

Welcome to the hood man. Logan Heights is great neighborhood. There are two tasting rooms, iron fist and border x. You will love the beers there. I also agree that the homebrewer is a great shop and they have excellent beers on tap. Also check out quatro milpas and el salvadoreno for some amazing food.
 
anyone have info on good hops to grow here? i have a huge back yard, would be nice to grow anything really.
 
any one growing hops out here...i have a huge yard just begging for a garden and a lot of hops...just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or tips for this area.
 
any one growing hops out here...i have a huge yard just begging for a garden and a lot of hops...just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or tips for this area.


No personal experience but a buddy of mine is growing some c hops I forget which ones, in the spring valley area he got a somewhat decent yield his first year.
 
i also saw a hop farm in the san diego area, maybe ill shoot them an email. im mostly wondering what grows well and how long the actual growing season is. since i cant tell the difference in seasons yet.
 
I can't help with the hop question, but I just wanted to tell you to have a great time in San Diego. I lived there for 7 years and it is by far my favorite place in the USA. I absolutely love it. The people are nice, the weather is perfect, and it's where I got into homebrewing.

Take my advice and stop in the most run-down taco shop you can find, where the people don't speak much English, and order the Carne Asado burrito. I still dream about them.
 
Take my advice and stop in the most run-down taco shop you can find, where the people don't speak much English, and order the Carne Asado burrito. I still dream about them.

I live around the corner from Las Cuatros Milpas. so ive been getting ALOT of excellent tacos. l love it.
 
Seasons? Seasons?! We don't need no steeenking seasons!

Hey! We have seasons here... 2 weeks where it actually gets cold enough that flip-flops get uncomfortable (Winter), followed by 2 weeks when we get all the rain for the year and everything turns green (Spring), 46 weeks of soul blistering heat (Summer) and finally 2 weeks where everything that was green during 'Spring' catches fire (Autumn). :ban:
 
I live around the corner from Las Cuatros Milpas. so ive been getting ALOT of excellent tacos. l love it.

Doooood. Cuatros milpas is where it's at. Born and raised here in SD and I would have to say that I think it's the most authentic Mexican food you'll find North of the border (albeit not far north of the border)

Agreed, ballast point/HB Mart can suck it. Customer service is meh, and prices will make you need to take out a second mortgage. If you ever make it up to North county, check out bear roots. Those guys are legit.

C hops do well in San Diego. Planted 2 first year ctz rhizomes 2 weeks ago and already have some shoots. Welcome to America's finest city!!
 
A little off topic from brewing, but also check out Rolando's in barrio Logan (just South of Chicano park). Scuzzy looking place and it's deeeelish. And if you drink coffee... Cafe moto across the street from Rolando's has, IMO the best coffee in North America haha
 
thanks for all the info and what not. im currently ordering 4 rhizomes...3 neomex (amilla, Multihead, and Neo1) as well as a centennial. need to get some work done in this back yard.

thanks again everyone.
 
ok, now that i have the lay of the land, im moving. still in san diego, but to city hights or what ever. buying a house, because renting with 3 pittbulls and a nasty brewing habit is better suited for owning your own **** and not having land lords...

with that said, are there any active homebrew clubs in SD? ive found some FB pages and some non-active web pages, but nothing solid to go on.

ill also get to upgrade just about everything i own and build alot of fun super time consuming projects with the property. ...

im excited and annoyed.

also, is there a FB page for SD hombrewers? one that is active...?
 
ok, now that i have the lay of the land, im moving. still in san diego, but to city hights or what ever. buying a house, because renting with 3 pittbulls and a nasty brewing habit is better suited for owning your own **** and not having land lords...

with that said, are there any active homebrew clubs in SD? ive found some FB pages and some non-active web pages, but nothing solid to go on.

ill also get to upgrade just about everything i own and build alot of fun super time consuming projects with the property. ...

im excited and annoyed.

also, is there a FB page for SD hombrewers? one that is active...?

Don't know of any fb pages but I believe we have a quaff club and I'm in a club called mash heads.
 
bought a house in national city. i think there is a home brew shop near by, but havnt made it there yet. im about to build a brew shed....i think. this is gonna be a pain in the ass i think. haha.
 
Welcome to SD! I live in North Park off of El Cajon Blvd. I'm a part of a club called Foam on the Brain. QUAFF is indeed huge, but I hear they're mostly focused on competitions.

I actually disagree, Homebrewer is always priced over HBMt on most things. I live down the street from the Homebrewer and their 3# bag of DME is $14.99 (which is pretty high). HBM is $13.99. So I can either go down the street and pay $1 more or drive 5 mins to Linda Vista to get cheaper grain.

I only go to Homebrewer if I need last minute stuff like yeast or hops or DME for a starter.

Solution: order online

Agreed SD Homebrewer in North Park is the choice LHBS.

Ballast Point HB shop can suck it, high prices and surly service.

And of course White Labs. WHITE LABS!!!

You will be serviced by the Alvarado water treatment plant. I've got data at work on that, pm me to remind me to send or post it. IME it's good for stouts/porters if cut about 50:50 with RO, pales and lagers need more like 80-85% RO.

Welcome to San Diego. Don't get too used to the rain you'll be seeing the next few months.

BTW, what brings you out here, new job?
 
Welcome to SD! I live in North Park off of El Cajon Blvd. I'm a part of a club called Foam on the Brain. QUAFF is indeed huge, but I hear they're mostly focused on competitions.

I actually disagree, Homebrewer is always priced over HBMt on most things. I live down the street from the Homebrewer and their 3# bag of DME is $14.99 (which is pretty high). HBM is $13.99. So I can either go down the street and pay $1 more or drive 5 mins to Linda Vista to get cheaper grain.

I only go to Homebrewer if I need last minute stuff like yeast or hops or DME for a starter.

Solution: order online


I do like supporting local businessesbut you are correct. The homebrewer is a little pricey, but they have hard to find ingredients (needed strisselspalt hops last month and they were the only store in sd with them). My favorite store in SD has to be Bear Roots in Vista. The owner is a great dude and they have competitive pricing. But then again I live in north county so I rarely schlep down to Homebrew mart or the Homebrewer
 
I always find what I need at Homebrewer and end up making substitutions at home brew mart. Don't know about extract, but the homebrewer grains are reasonable. I bought 50lb of 2-row at 0.85/lb where they give me a card to track what I used (no need to bring a whole sack home)

Ordering online seems like no fun.
 
Try Hydrobrew in, I wanna say Oceanside. I used to live in San Marcos, El Cajon, and San Diego proper. Home brewmart was awesome, loved the tasting room, with yogurt shoppe next door.
 
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