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on end with grain or brewers’ sugar sacks for cushions at the 42-foot bar. In just six years, it’s won over a hundred medals and awards in the competitive craft brewing world and become a real draw for travelers who come to taste, trade stories, and leave with rare bottles in tow. On the weekend there are free informal guided tours, but the main thing to do is sample. There are twenty taps at all times with at least sixteen different beers available to take out in bottles. The scene has real energy and buzz. “It’s like Sonoma County in the late 1970s,” says tasting room manager Sage Osterfeld, who grew up in a winemaking family. He walked into Tomme Arthur’s brewhouse one day and decided to stay for good.

PHILOSOPHY

Belgian-style beers with cork-and-wire cage and a medieval theme running through the label art and brew names.

KEY BEER

Ask for Duck Duck Gooze, a wild yeast beer of 5.5% ABV made of a blend from young and older barrel-aged ales. But it’s extremely rare, so you might have better luck with Bourbon Barrel Aged Angel’s Share, a beer on the other, less acidic, but no less interesting end of the flavor spectrum (12% ABV). In distillers’ parlance, the “angel’s share” is the proportion of precious spirit lost to evaporation in the barrel. This barrel-aged brew marries the woody, vanilla-laced smokiness of a classic sipping bourbon to a rich, port-like beer.

PIZZA PORT SOLANA BEACH

135 N. Highway 101 • Solana Beach, CA 92075 (858) 481-7332 • pizzaport.com • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

There are now three other Pizza Port locations (San Clemente, Carlsbad, and Ocean Beach), but this one—founded by siblings Vince “Vinny” and Gina Marsaglia, who sold its first beer in 1992—is the original, smallest, and to many, the best. Located in an unassuming stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway with the beach close enough to smell but not see, Pizza Port combines two very elemental things: great pizza and great beer. The inside is cozy and cheerful, and if you sit to the right of the tap row, you can look down into the sunken brewing area to watch the action unfold.

PHILOSOPHY

Pizza and beer, good times are near.

KEY BEER

The rich, dark, and coppery Sharkbite Red (6% ABV) is the big seller here—it goes well with spicy pizza dishes—but try the seasonal as well.

STONE BREWING CO. & WORLD BISTRO

1999 Citracado Pkwy. • Escondido, CA 92029 • (760) 471-4999 stonebrew.com • stoneworldbistro.com • Established: 1996

SCENE & STORY

Founded in San Marcos, Stone moved to its present location in 2006, and it’s more or less a Disneyland for beer lovers. First they built a sprawling eco-friendly compound, complete with a natural-boulder-tunnel-like entrance, an acre of gardens, and a huge roof solar array, cutting the power usage considerably. Then there’s a chic, glassy, 12,000-square-foot restaurant looking out on the gardens and a patio of reclaimed bricks (with side and outdoor bars, for overflow).

The eatery has a central U-shaped bar area with 32 drafts and 120 bottles from Stone and other excellent domestic and international craft breweries. It’s all laid out around an island of boulders and bamboo growing from a bed of river rocks in the center of the room, which has nice old weathered wood tables for a counterpoint. The menu is long, using only local and organic vegetables and breads, hormone-free and natural meats. The spicy duck tacos, made with chile de árbol and the brewery’s Levitation Ale-infused barbecue sauce, will require quantities of cold beer close at hand—they’re fiery.

PHILOSOPHY

Righteous. Brewing-wise the beers are always well put together, if on the intense side (with notable exceptions). For the most part, Stone Brewing’s “extreme” beers are like standard ales in overdrive, with a side dish of attitude. (These are the guys who brought the beer-drinking public “Arrogant Bastard” ale, after all.) Steve Wagner, Stone’s brewmaster, has spent years creating radical riffs on traditional styles: aggressively hopped ales fermented to a high alcohol percentage, usually around 7% ABV and sometimes nearly