Home of the BrewNosers

We're spending two weeks in California next month! We've already planned a bunch of activities and some beer stuff. There's so much to do beer-wise that we can't (and she won't) do all of it, but could you folks suggest maybe the top three beer places to visit in each of the following places? We already have a few picked out, but I'd like to hear what people recommend!

San Fran and surrounding area
LA and surrounding area
San Diego and surrounding area

We have wheels and can stop by anywhere from Eureka to Tijuana. Thanks in advance!

I never made it when I was out that way (San Fran) last year.
But if I could do it over again -I'd definitely get to Russian River for a Pliny the Elder ! And while there for a Pliny the younger !!

Had a few different brews from Lagunitas when I was there. They were all delicious. Specially their flagship IPA and Little sumpin sumpin.
Also green flash tangerine soul style IPA.

All I know is NorCal. Russian River, Lagunitas, Cellarmaker, City Beer, Almanac, Mikkeller SF, Bare Bottle, Laughing Monk/Seven Stills. Sorry, more than 3!


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Last month I visited the Mikkeller bar and Hopwater Distribution in San Francisco which were both great beer bars.

In San Diego, I really liked Toronado. If you can get to Escondido the Stone Brewery/Brewpub is very cool. The Encinitas Ale House is also top notch.

North park area for San Diego is a must. Modern Times, Rip Current, Toronado and Tiger Tiger's back patio. Coronado island is just a fun beach at the Hotel Del Coronada. Ballast point in little Italy and then the bottle shop across the street is good. The bruery Terreux tasting room in Anaheim is great, make sure to go to the Terreux location. Alesmith north of San Diego, Escondido area has a cool barrel aged room that requires a password! If you homebrew, white labs is in that same area and very fun and also mikeller has a new location near there as well. Have fun and you really can't go wrong. Pure project is small but make great iPas


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Thanks for all the recommendations so far, folks. I'll keep adding stuff to our trip map as suggestions come in!

I second kesweeze's recommendation for the North Park area in San Diego, and would also add North Park Beer Co. to the list (beautiful taproom, great beer, and they have food there now, as well), and Waypoint Public (awesome restaurant with ~26 amazing taps... and a play area for kids if you have any!). They're barely a couple blocks away from each other. Bottlecraft has a really nice store there as well.

If you're north of the city for hiking or whatever reason, check out Societe Brewing, which has some great beers, and O'Brien's, a bar/restaurant with great taps and delicious food.

And don't forget that Stone has a huge restaurant/gardens in San Diego now, at Liberty Station. Conveniently a cheap Uber ride away from the downtown area!

I'll stop, I could go on about this all day.

Lex wanted to chime in and says try Half door brewing near Petco park. Their NEIPA is fantastic. Also, if you go to Coronado, their brew pub had decent seasonal beers and great food! Enjoy!


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Just got back from San Fran and had a great time. Didn't visit any breweries, but drank lots of great beer. Anchor Steam on draught was my favourite. Most beer in pubs was $7.00 US. Caught 2 Blue Jay games in Oakland too, they lost both. Tons of Craft beer at the stadium, it was every where, $8 - $10 US.