By now you have probably realized there is a lot of beer in San Diego this week--a lot of great beer. It's Sunday morning and I am still trying to recover from yesterday's San Diego Brewers Guild Festival of Beers where all the brewers in San Diego hold a meet and great at Liberty Station showcasing some of their top beers. It was awesome, by the way.
My weekend actually started on Friday. At 11:30 Lee Chase of Automatic Brewing revealed his latest creation- a Belgian Styled Wit Beer called Wit Lightening. Oh, did I mention it was a keep the glass event and he released Automatic's First Glass design?
From there I headed North to O'Briens for Night of a Million Zillion Speedways. The main reason to go to the Speedway events every year is for the Kopi Luwak Speedway- or in plain English- "the Shit Speedway". There were other great versions of Speedway including a 2009 Bourbon Barrel Aged version and Toasted Coconut Speedway. The line was wrapped around the corner for 9 2 oz. pours. Tom Nickel broke the beers down into flights so the Kopi Luwak wouldn't blow in the 20 minutes like it did last year. My night was still young and I avoided the drinking any pints so I could head south to Downtown Johnny Brown's Barrel Aged Night.
Once I got to DTJB's I found everyone I was expecting to see at O'Briens. DTJBs is a bigger establishment downtown so there is definitely more room to spread out. My highlights from the beer list at DTJBs inlcuded Rumpkin from Avery and Barrel Aged Navigator. Rumpkin is a rum barrel aged Pumpkin Ale that was like a pumpkin pie. I had been looking forward to this beer ever since I saw it in barrels at GABF. Barrel Aged Navigator Doppel Bock is quite simply delicious. I don't remember what type of barrels but the beer has just the right amount aging not to be over cloyingly sweet.
When I finally got around Eleven the following day I head to the San Diego Guild Fest VIP session at Liberty Station. The VIP session this year was sectioned off from the regular entry and got two more hours for drinking and eating. The first portion of food I remember eating was Chef Kyle Bergman's Rogue River Oregon Blue Cheese fritters and drinking Hop Suey from Pizza Port. I don't know if that was an intentional pairing but it worked out well. Kyle will be at the Chef's Celebration Beer pairing at the Torrey Pines Lodge on the 14th. The Smoke Mac and Cheese from Toronado was also one of my favorites. Highlights from the beerfest was Silva Stout from Green Flash (you can still pick this up at Green Flash, btw), Hop Suey from Pizza Port, Angel's Share from Lost Abbey, and Max from La Jolla Brew House. Max is a very drinkable Holiday Porter. If you get a chance, head down there and check out his other beers. A good deal is to watch for groupon, Reader Steals, etc., that are put out for $25 worth of food for like $10 for La Jolla Brewhouse. I have seen them a couple times now.
As for the rest of week, I am still trying to figure it out. I know that on Monday there is gonna be a crazy set of tasters at the Ballast Point Linda Vista Location with a food truck in front and the Yogurt shop next door is making a Yogurt that day from one of the beers. Now, I have to head Eleven for the Liar's Club redux, it starts at 4. You can see all of this week's beer events at SDBW.org.
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