The weather was warming up, tax return money was in the bank, and we had some time on our hands. With all those factors, Mike and I decided to head down to San Diego for a weekend trip of fun… and beer, lots and lots of beer. As soon as we pulled into the city, we headed to Mother Earth Brewery. A small brewery located in an industrial building that looked more like an office building than a place to have a cold brew. Interesting placement, but great vibes. Met a super cool couple from SoCal who make surfboards and own their own farm.
After getting some cheap, authentic tacos- we found a hotel to rest up because hitting a bunch of breweries is exhausting. We had a big weekend ahead of us with Stone Brewery, Pizza Port, Ballast Point, and of course gotta get that Lucha Libre tacos. We explored the beach, which turned out to be a tad bit windy the weekend we were there. We packed tanks and shorts and it ended up being about 65 degrees.. we under-estimated the weather. This is also trip number three that Mike and I have survived together.. we’re set for life now.
We also tried to stalk Prana headquarters while we were there but of course they were closed. Still a neat little office area kind of near Transworld Snowboarding mag. I was able to stop by those offices also to show Mike where I used to work and live. It’s been five years since my internship there.. I can’t believe its been that long..
Stone Brewery was pretty interesting.. The beer is pretty good and Mike also enjoyed his triple IPA (even I liked that one!). But it’s definitely a different type of brewery. The food menu was impressive but not ideal for us. We were hoping for some sandwiches and beer cheese dip maybe (like Founders, haha) but their menu was filled with bison steak, eggplant something or other, and other $25 items to choose from. Still very good food but I think for me personally, I am more laid back when it comes to food choices. The gardens were impressive. A nice little sitting area that was fun to sit out on the grass after having our tour. The tour was great, a little different. We didn’t learn too much about Stone in particularly, just more about the brewing process. I would have liked to learn more about Stone’s journey and their business.
Oh and they had a Founders firkin! We told my dad and he said, “Thats awesome, now tell them to send it back!”
After the tour is when we were given our beer samples, four different kinds. By the time the fourth came along, I was ready to sit in the beer gardens, haha. (Levitation, IPA, Arrogant, Sprocket bier)
When you forget your tripod and there is no one around, this is the best type of photograph you can get together.
By recommendation, we headed to Torrey Pines to do some hiking and enjoy the views. I had never been before so it was really fun to go there with Mike. Gorgeous views and we were able to just sit and relax as we watched the tide roll up.. and then also almost got stuck on a rock because of said high tides.
Some more snapshots of the trip from those handy dandy phone cameras..
In this first photo, it is kind of cool to compare Stone Brewery (top left) to Mother Earth Brewery (bottom left) and their differences. Stone has grown is a high grossing success with fancy cliental. Mother Earth is a small, hole in the wall place with Bob Marley posters on the wall and people bringing their dogs in. Kind of neat to get a full spectrum of brewery fun.
By far our favorite place had to have been Ballast Point Brewery. Their little mini tour was awesome, led by Mallory. She took a small group in the back as the guys worked on their kegging lines. It was cool to hear where their brewery had evolved from and all these neat facts. Like the fact their bottle lifting machine is actually a car lift made to work for them. Their bottling line is an old pop machine bottler. And their kegging machine was actually imported from Germany.. with German instructions.. which no one knew how to read. She said that was an interesting time when they were trying to figure out how to make it work. Also, favorite beer of the weekend had to be their Wahoo Wheat.
