around san diego - San Diego eats + drinks

a san diego brewery tour: alesmith, green flash and karl strauss

February 22, 2013

Northern California may have Napa and wine, but Southern California has San Diego and beer — beer (hoppy in particular) that’s won accolades and microbreweries that have earned international recognition. Eaman had been to a couple without me, but with my friend Katy in town this past week I finally had a chance to see what all the fuss was about.

Let me first put it out there that I don’t like beer. I don’t enjoy drinking at all actually. I once did, but those were different times when I could go clubbing until 4am, eat Taco Bell and then wake up to study for a psychology exam the next day. Now I have trouble even smelling the stuff. So why am I even telling you about breweries? Well, 1. They’re a staple of San Diego culture, 2. I had a trio of taste-testers at my disposal and 3. These microbreweries are such interesting set-ups that it’s fun to check out even if you’re not imbibing. Many, including the ones we went to, are located in industrial parks in the suburbs. The reason being that the space is large and rent cheap enough. But since these breweries are a happy hour favorite, people are basically going from one office building to the next. If you build it, they will come I guess.

We started at AleSmith, a smaller operation located in Miramar where you can see a few barrels and try saucily named drinks. (Most 4 oz. samples are $1.) Our friend Mike, who has lived in SD for a number of years and counts AleSmith as his favorite, is fond of the Grand Cru, while Eaman liked the Old Numbskull. What did I like? The enormous, beautiful, gentle Newfoundland, Jake, who seems to be something of a brew house pet.

Green Flash was much bigger than AleSmith and has a view of the whole operation: barrels, storage, bottling, etc. Rock music was playing, beer was flowing (Hop Head Read and Le Freak were favorites) and there was yet another dog (this time a German Shepard-Collie mix rescue puppy) for me to coo over. If you get hungry, there are usually a couple of food trucks parked outside.

By the end of the night, the drinking trio and DD were hungry and eating American junk food seemed so right. We drove over to Karl Strauss Brewing Company in Sorrento Mesa for juicy burgers and baked macaroni ‘n cheese. This is the brewery that started them all in the area, so it was only fitting that this was part of my first microbrewery experience. Unlike AleSmith and Green Flash, this one is more of a restaurant with a wide selection of craft brews. The space was once home to a Japanese restaurant and still retains the koi pond, making for lovely al fresco dining when it’s not freezing like it was that night.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>