My son comes to me the other day, who just turned 21, and says " hey dad, we should take a trip to visit Stone brewing". Well I had just finally watched the BrewTV video and since I have spoiled my son with good beer he thinks we should take a trip and I can’t say I’m against it.
I was thinking of going to Lagunitas as well way up the coast so things between both brewery’s would work.
My question is if we were to do this trip what are some other brewery’s or sites we should see?
If you can swing it, I’d highly recommend going to Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. I’m jealous and my son just turned 21 last Sept. I want to do the same. We are also planning a trip to Germany to do a week long pub / biergarten crawl through Bavaria.
If you are going to be near Lagunitas then you need to stop in Russian River and Bear Republic. They are all in the same kinda 60 mile stretch. Between the three (Lagunitas, Russian River, Bear Republic) I would choice Russian River hands down (followed by Lagunitas, then Bear). There are a couple other solid places too, don’t know how much time you have though. Lots of good beer in SF too.
Been to Germany twice already and we are also talking about octoberfest either this year or next. Had my first bier with my son in Germany when he was 17, since he was “legal” there. My son speaks german and I speak a little , so I’m sure we could get in a bit of trouble there.
Will you be flying into San Diego and driving north? Of the places I’ve been/woudl go to…
I haven’t spent much time going to breweries in San Diego but Alesmith and Ballast Point were nice stops. Still haven’t made it to Green Flash…
Heading north on the 15 there’s Stone, then Lost Abbey/Port Brewing about 3 miles away which has a great taproom and well worth a stop. Then Pizza Port in Carlsbad…
Then once you get to the concrete jungle, there’s The Bruery (or Bruery Provisions if not a weekend) and Bootleggers in Orange County, Beechwood in Long Beach, maybe Taps… Eagle Rock in Glendale, maybe Golden Road…
Haven’t been to any of the breweries in Santa Barbara, but Figueroa Mountain in Buellton has some decent beers, and then as you continue north Firestone Walker in San Luis Obispo is essential.
I don’t know much above there until you get to SF Bay Area… I’d hit up Drake’s, Triple Rock, Marin, 21st Amendment, Magnolia’s and there’s a bunch of great beer bars in the area… Then head up to Lagunitas and Russian River.
Sounds like an awesome idea. My friend was thinking of taking a week trip up the California coast and hitting all the breweries along the way. He was just at Stone last night because he is in SD for work this week, I have a growler of Double Bastard coming my way tomorrow!
Awesome trip to take. If you pass through Half moon bay, go to Half moon bay brewing company. Super good food as well as good beer. Its great for lunch or dinner, and all the dishes have suggested beer pairings.
You’re in luck. I live in the beer paradise we call San Diego, which, of course, in German means a whales… nevermind.
There are a number of mindblowing stops to be made down here. Stone is up in Escondido, other must see spots in that neighborhood are Iron Fist and The Lost Abbey. Both make world class beers. Other haunts are Mission Brewing, Green Flash, Alesmith, Ballast Point (not the production brewery which only has the distributed standards, the one with homebrew mart has the fun kooky stuff).
If you don’t mind going to lesser known breweries there are a couple excellent ones. Mother Earth in Vista, Lightning in Poway and Hess Brewing in Miramar.
(you’ll need a week to do all of these correctly)
If you need suggestions about where to eat in those areas or what part of town to stay in, let me know and I will get you a list.
Damn…Thank you everyone so far. Lots of great places and idea’s.
The plan was/is to fly into a whales…well San Diego and start from there and spend a week getting in trouble. and make our way up to San Fran. Looks like I might need more than 5 days cause I plan on spending 1 full day just at Stone getting…well…“acquainted” with ALL the beers on tap if it takes me ALL day…LOL.
Keep the idea’s coming! Can never have too many options.
[quote=“GarretD”]Damn…Thank you everyone so far. Lots of great places and idea’s.
The plan was/is to fly into a whales…well San Diego and start from there and spend a week getting in trouble. and make our way up to San Fran. Looks like I might need more than 5 days cause I plan on spending 1 full day just at Stone getting…well…“acquainted” with ALL the beers on tap if it takes me ALL day…LOL.
Keep the idea’s coming! Can never have too many options.[/quote]
This is an awesome plan. Thatll be so fun. There are a lot of great places to go along that route. You can take the 101 for some of it and get some nice coastal driving in. Very pretty. Id go nuts for a trip like that with my dad. Hope you have a great time!
Oh also I suggest North Coast brewery in Fort brag. One of the best breweries in CA if you ask me. But thatts a little north of where you’re going so my next suggestion would be Marin Brewing Company which you can actually see in one of our hosts brewing tv episodes. “A day around the Bay” or something like that.
[quote=“Adam20”][quote=“GarretD”]Damn…Thank you everyone so far. Lots of great places and idea’s.
The plan was/is to fly into a whales…well San Diego and start from there and spend a week getting in trouble. and make our way up to San Fran. Looks like I might need more than 5 days cause I plan on spending 1 full day just at Stone getting…well…“acquainted” with ALL the beers on tap if it takes me ALL day…LOL.
Keep the idea’s coming! Can never have too many options.[/quote]
This is an awesome plan. Thatll be so fun. There are a lot of great places to go along that route. You can take the 101 for some of it and get some nice coastal driving in. Very pretty. Id go nuts for a trip like that with my dad. Hope you have a great time!
Oh also I suggest North Coast brewery in Fort brag. One of the best breweries in CA if you ask me. But thatts a little north of where you’re going so my next suggestion would be Marin Brewing Company which you can actually see in one of our hosts brewing tv episodes. “A day around the Bay” or something like that.[/quote]
I think it will be too…I’ll keep taking my kids on trips as longs as they are willing to go.
We leave for the trip tomorrow morning. 11 breweries and other misc things based on the replies and stuff we wanted to see. I sure hope the weather gets a bit better for San Francisco.
Tues - Day in San Francisco
Wed - Marin, Lagunitas and Russian River
Thurs - Drive from SF to San Diego, hit the pizza place suggested in this thread.
Fri - Old town, Alesmith, Ballast Point, Green Flash and Lightning
Sat - Irvine for cars and coffee(if we wake up), Iron Fist, Lost Abbey, Mother Earth and Stone!
Sun - back home
Got back from the trip yesterday and the results are in…
5 days…11 breweries…65+ beers sampled !
My son came up with a good one trip as well. Stone brewing is now the Anheuser-Busch of the craft brew world…we had a good laugh at that one. They know how to market, that’s for sure
The rain did not help, but it did not dampen the touring and sampling. Meet and talked to some very nice locals and even got special treatment once or twice.
Thank you everyone for all the breweries, some real good choices and some good beers. Least favorite was Ale Smith and Stone was just kinda of a let down. On a high note though, really liked most of the others. Ballast Point, Lagunitas, Marin, Russian River, Lightning and Green Flash and the Lost Abbey just to name a few. They are all in this thread.
Also found Churchills…a local handout for St Pattys day. Good food and good beers !
Scariest part of trip was on 15 south in the rain…a truck to our right hydroplanes and almost took us out. They did a few 360, behind us thank god, and missed any other cars or the median. So happy no one was hurt.