Thirty lbs of Cab Sauv. grapes, aged in wine barrels and spike with Brettanomyces. A lot of things going on in this beer. Was lucky to have it!

Made a stop at Toronado SD and they were out of the first five beer choices.  Stopped by El Take It Eazy…just cuz…and walked out without having a beer.  Then walked to Ritual Tavern and am sharing a Cherry Chocolate Stout collaboration beer: Jason Fields, Kevin Sheppard, Troegs, Stone.

First visit to Green Flash new location.  We tried the Summer Saison, Sugar Smack Double, Tripple, Le Freak and Special Cuvee Tripple. 

From the employee pile

Backstreet Beer Board

Here’s what’s on tap at Backstreet Brewing in Vista. plenty for an IPA lover to enjoy.

Newport Beach Brewing Company

Newport Beach Beer Menu

Newport Brewing Beer Samples

The Jen Ne Sais Quad, their 12th Anniversary Belgian Quad aged for 2-years in brandy barrels with cherrys, was quite enjoyable.  When I asked about some of the beers, assistant brewer Derek was nice enough to provide some answers.  When I mentioned the other stops I was planning on making, he recommended we make the trek inland to Tustin Brewing…so that became stop #2…well…actually stop #3…because we decided to make a quick stop at a local Newport dive bar called The Goat Hill Tavern.

Goat Hill Taps

Goat Hill Tavern Interior

Goat Hill Tavern Interior 2

Though The Goat Hill Tavern had many taps, the selection was just so so….well..not much we hadn’t had before.  I chose to try the New Belgium’s Ranger IPA…I had no idea the New Belgium even made an IPA…yeah…that’s how often I get out.

OK…off to Tustin…

Tustin Brewing Co

Tustin Brewing Beer Board

Tustin Brewing Beer Menu

After a quick stop in Tustin for some samples and a pee break…it was time to get back on the road…back to the original #2 destination…now to be #4…

Tustin Beer Samples

Huntington Beach Beer Co

Huntington Beach Beer Samples

OK…Derek of Newport Brewing was right.  Huntington Beach Brewing was a nice place, but…the beers are for those transitional beer drinkers; the ones just moving from the macro beers to a craft/ brewpub beer.   Macro tasting beer brewed in small quantities and served in a cool/ hip environment…or…a waste of brewing equipment.

Off to destination #5

Based on the creative names given to the three previous brewpub visited, you would think we must be in Belmont…as we stood in front of Belmont Brewing Company…our 5th stop.  But no….Belmont Brewing Co is in Long Beach.

Belmont Brewing Co

Belmost Brewing Beer Menu

Belmont Brewing Co Samples

I remember liking the Long Beach Crude…and getting a pint of something..though not the Crude…and that was enough for the day; time for a safety nap.

Yes, I have been lagging on my posting duties.  It is hard to find time to type between sleeping and beer tastings…really.  And there are some other minor things as well…like…work; No offense intended to the unemployed, being they temporarily or permenantly unemployed.  And, in no way am I bragging that I am currently employed…as that also may be only a temporary thing.

Green Flash Brewing Co

I had read that Green Flash Brewing Co. was open all week for tastings and tours for San Diego Beer Week, so I headed over after work.

Green Flash Brewery Draft List

Grant was nice enough to pour  me a few tasters.  30th Street Pale Ale, Gruit (a hopless herb beer), Hop Head Red, West Coast IPA, Palate Wrecker Double IPA, Imperial IPA and Coffee Stout.   I was not impressed with the Gruit, but I did have it after the 30th Street.  Next time I need to try it before something so hoppy.

On Thursday JSix Restaurant hosted The Lost Abbey Original Art Show.   They were displaying the original artwork that is featured on the Lost Abbey labels.  You could see up close just how disturbing the Inferno label really is.  To make it eaven better, they were pouring samples ( Duck Duck Gooze, Cuvee de Tomme, Angel’s Share, Carnavale…hell..they had a better selection than the brewery had) and they were serving appetizers.

Jsix Art & Beer 1

Jsix Art & Beer 2

Jsix Art & Beer 3

"Once I caught a fish thiiiiis big."

Angel's Share..mmm

BLAH's Green Flash Tap List

Little Freak from Green Flash

The next stop was the Blind Lady Ale House.  I decided on a Green Flash Little Freak and like it; very refreshing.  Then off to The Ritual Tavern…again.  I thought I took a picture there too…but maybe that was Wednesday.

Help cover SD Beer Week

With well over 200 events for San Diego Beer Week (begins tomorrow!), there’s no way our intrepid reporters can cover the happenings as thoroughly as we’d like, so we’re solicting folks who will be here to help us cover the event(s) as widely as possible (for posterity, of course).

If you’re going to be in town and attending SDBW events, we’d be pleased to make you a special reporter for MyBeerPix.com. Basically, all you need is a camera (or cameraphone). The ability to type a few words is helpful, but not required.

If you’d like to be one of our SD Beer Week reporters, just complete the form below and we’ll send you instructions on posting to the website.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Even if I had that much Duck Duck there’s no way I’d be giving it to you for free. But it did get you here, which was my intent all along.

And now for my real, much more nefarious, purpose:

Dan from the Full Pint

The slightly blurry gentleman (and I use the term loosely) to the left is Dan of The Full Pint fame.

Dan recently blasted out an email asking everyone to vote for what they thought was the best brewery in Southern California, an email I had planned on ignoring, right up until Lisa from Green Flash blasted her email list asking everyone to vote for them.

Well, that and I went to thefullpint.com and found that the graphic Dan is using to represent Southern California a) pretty much defines Southern California as “everything south of San Francisco”, and b) uses the USC logo to represent Southern California.

(Side note: As a Berkeley grad, I happen to know that all you need to do to get a master’s degree at USC is drive your Mercedes across campus without hitting anything. But whatever — that’s UCLA’s problem.)

(Extra side note: Stanford sucks.)

…But I digress.

Anyway, checking the website now, I see that Green Flash is leading the vote, no doubt due entirely to Lisa’s email ballot box stuffing. So I am calling on the countless dozens of readers of this blog to do your own ballot box stuffing and vote for Port Brewing/Lost Abbey as the best craft brewery in Southern California.

As many of you may know, my wife, Terri — aka: “Beer Molly” — is the tasting room / special events manager at the brewery (some would call her Evita Perón with 16 taps of great beer), so I have a vested interest in PB/LA winning this thing.

Plus Dan’s wife is about to have a baby, and she’s pressuring him to get one of those “real jobs” so many wives of craft beer enthusiasts are always talking about (not really sure what that is). So a big bump to him would allow him say, “See honey, I need to drink this beer. People are looking to me.”

Plus, I believe in old school bare-knuckle, vote buying politics. If Port/Lost Abbey wins and you come into the tasting room, look me up and tell me you voted for the brewery. I’ll buy you a beer.

No, it won’t be a Duck Duck Gooze, but it’ll be a pint of something you can count on being great.

» Click here to vote for the best craft brewery in SoCal

Seems that our beer drinking brethren up in Oregon (and Washington state) don’t like the fact that Portland – the self-titled “Beertown USA” – ranked behind San Diego and New York City as a great place for beer.

Key to their claim that Portland should have been ranked number one is that Men’s Journal goofed when they wrote that San Diego has more breweries than Portland. The city of San Diego has only a dozen or so breweries. The rest are scattered throughout the county – with a concentration of them up in the North County along highways 78 and 15. Portland by contrast has 38 within city limits.

Ignoring that everyone who lives in San Diego County refers to the whole area as “San Diego”, our friends up in the cold cloudy country are missing the point of the article. Men’s Journal wasn’t ranking the cities based on the number of breweries; it was ranking cities based on the amount of great beer available. (There’s only a couple of breweries in NYC, but there’s a ton of great beer bars and pubs.)

Having been to Portland more times than I can count, I can tell you there’s a lot of breweries/brewpubs in the town — Pretty much every block.

But a lot of beer is not the same as a lot of good beer, which is the point the article was making.

Just about every brewery in San Diego is making fantastic, boundary pushing beer. Whether you want classic English styles, aggressively hopped IPAs, Belgians or barrel-aged wonders you’re going to find the world’s best examples in San Diego.

And when I write “world’s best” I’m not giving you my opinion as a San Diegan, I’m giving you the opinion of the international craft brewing community – including Oregon.

We’re the home of the 2009 GABF large brewpub of the year (Pizza Port Carlsbad), the reigning World Beer Cup world champion small brewery (Port / Lost Abbey), the 2008 GABF small brewery of the year (Alesmith), the 2007 GABF small brewery of the year (Port / Lost Abbey), and our beers have dominated the “best of” lists of beer mags and beer rating websites for at least five years. (Heck, our Pizza Port Carlsbad took home more medals at this year’s GABF than every brewery in Portland combined.)

Add all of these great breweries to the huge number of great craft beer bars and it’s little wonder than San Diego is the current center of beer in the U.S. (some might argue the world).

Sure, Portland might have more breweries than any other place, but that no longer is enough to make you number one. After all, Detroit has more car companies than any other place, but the industry and consumers will tell you the best cars come out of the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY.