The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [47]
KEY BEER
Until Levitation Ale came along, the unspoken rule on Stone brews was this: don’t drink them before dusk unless you have time for a nap. These beers are tasty; they’re also tranquilizing. Like any beer from Stone, Levitation is loaded with grainy, fruity malt flavors and topped off with a sturdy dose of fragrant hops. At 4.4% ABV, though, this is a beer you can have a few of over the course of a Saturday afternoon without a lawyer present.
THE TAP ROOM
1269 Garnet Ave. • Pacific Beach, CA 92109 (858) 274-1010 • sdtaproom.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
It’s refreshing when a neighborhoody, sports barrish, Fridays-full-of-drunk-people-half-your-age-and-a-DJ bar also happens to have a genuine connoisseur’s list. Is the food great? No. But with an impressive, local-heavy tap row of thirty-two handles, this Pacific Beach (PB) taproom is the best in San Diego for local beers, and would make a good stop after hiking Torrey Pines or hitting the waves. You can check the website’s “live list” which shows exactly which beers are on on any given day, what percentage of beer is left, and what’s on deck.
PHILOSOPHY
Localista, but friendly. Lately the bar has been sponsoring ”L.A.B. nights” (Local Art & Beer), bringing together hip young artists and area craft brewers.
KEY BEER
Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, at 7% ABV, is becoming a local standby, with pungent layers of grapefruit and pine needle flavors atop a base of pale, Pilsner-like malt.
ALESMITH BREWING CO.
9368 Cabot Dr. • San Diego, CA 92126 • (858) 549-9888 alesmith.com • Established: 1995
SCENE & STORY
AleSmith, one of San Diego’s early breakout successes—four hundred medals and counting!—has stayed small as others in the area (i.e., Stone) have grown at an incredible rate. But founder Peter Zien is content to keep production where it is (around 1,000 bbl per year), so the little brewery and taproom remain almost a homespun affair, little more than a rectangular room in an industrial park with a walk-in cooler and the brewing tanks off to the side. This is a good thing; beer is the sole focus, and it’s no less of a draw for beer travelers (Saturdays get busy). No matter when you seek it out, though, you’re likely to meet fellow beer lovers there, who, having trekked from across the country, or even from abroad, are eager try every last beer on offer. There are free tours on the last Saturday of each month; call ahead.
PHILOSOPHY
“Hand Forged” is the MO officially, and it fits nicely with AleSmith, a small, solid operation with consistently high quality in American interpretations of British and Belgian styles, primarily.
KEY BEER
Speedway Stout, at 12% ABV, is already a huge beer, carbon black and dense with coffee, chocolate, and roasted malt flavors. The barrel-aged version takes it to 11, with even deeper notes of vanilla, oak, espresso, and caramel, having lived in wood for a full year.
BALLAST POINT BREWING CO./ HOMEBREW MART
5401 Linda Vista Rd., Ste. 406 • San Diego, CA 92110 (619) 295-2337 • ballastpoint.com • Established: 1996
SCENE & STORY
Ballast Point Brewing Company, ranked as the top small brewery in the country in 2010, started with a home brewer’s dream. Jack White opened his little home brew shop in 1992, and soon a community of home brewers eager to try his beers helped him think even bigger. By 1996, White was ready to install a 15 bbl brew house, and Ballast Point was born. Today there’s a newer, larger Ballast Point location, but Homebrew Mart retains the charm (and the original brewing equipment, still in use) of the early days in San Diego’s beer revolution.
Brewmaster Colby Chandler is playing around with barrel aging, Belgian-style sour beers, and wild yeasts. These vinous ales overlaid with hints of oak and brandy are blended on site, with production so small-scale that most of these beers are