San Diego is a strange place. Its located very close to the very hot deserts of southern California, yet the weather is so incredibly fair. It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit at the final border checkpoint, but when we reached San Diego around 11am it was 63 degrees, sunny, with a pleasant ocean breeze. Our friend and brother Chris left work to meet us at his place and we went to a good local burrito place for lunch. His place is located not a 5 minute walk from the Pacific Ocean. Guess what we did afterwards? If you guessed go to the beach, you're right (I'll also give partial credit for napping).
 |
Almost there!
|
 |
4k reached on the way
|
 |
The left coast, <5 mins from where we stayed
|
San Diego is Mecca for beer lovers. Even the most avid beer drinkers would have a difficult time sampling each offering from the 40+ breweries in the city. Our friend Chris is very active in the beer community in San Diego, and he set out to fill our brief visit with tasty brews. He told us that visiting a brewery is a very common after-work social activity in San Diego, so when he got out of work on Friday we stopped by the Green Flash brewery. They were celebrating the release of their new Friendship Ale, one of many delicious beers available in two-ounce tasting portions.
The next stop was Pizza Port in Carlsbad, a pizzeria which also brews its own beer - 14 of which were available on tap. The place was absolutely jam packed and smelled of delicious pizza and craft beer. It was a beautiful thing. While waiting for our pizza, we snacked on "beer buddies" -- cooked pizza dough covered in delicious herbs and spices. The pizza was excellent, and the beer was even better.
On Saturday, Chris took us to a gathering of his homebrew club. The theme of the event was mead, a sweet honey-based alcoholic beverage. We sampled dozens of meads of different varieties, the most delicious of which was a raspberry and tart cherry mead brewed by the hosts of the event. Many of the attendees, including Chris, started mead brews at the gathering, although they would need to mature for at least a year before being ready to drink.
 |
| En route to find some mead |
 |
| Tibbe and Andrew cuddle with Chris' mead baby on the ride home |
Finally, we visited Stone brewery for dinner on Saturday. Here we had amazing food (the tempeh shepherd's pie was fantastic) and more great beers including the Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. This coffee stout is brewed with one of the world's most expensive coffee beans made from droppings of weasel-like civet cats. Yes, weasel poop. The fussy Southeast Asian animals only eat the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system help to break down the bean. The result is a delicious, unique, expensive coffee stout!
 |
| Yum |
No comments:
Post a Comment