San Diego is a destination for craft beer lovers
Like small droplets of condensation on a cold pint glass, you can easily spend a day hopping from one brewery to another in San Diego, and many tour companies are set up to do just that.
Stone Brewing
In conversations about craft beer, San Diego has made its mark on the world stage. The city counts over 140 operational brew houses. One of the most important and biggest being Stone Brewing, which has a location in Liberty Station, just 3 miles from the homes. Despite only being founded in 1996, the brewery has expanded to become the biggest brewery in San Diego and the 10th largest craft brewer in the States. They even got the nerve to set up a brewery in Berlin! Not only has it become quite large in only 21 years, but it has gained the reputation of being one of the best as well, voted as ‘Best California Brewery’ and “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by the magazine BeerAdvocate twice.
Beer Explosion
The rise of San Diego as a craft beer destination is a recent one, as most of the breweries only started their business in the last decade. Today, the city of San Diego brews over 2,000 unique beers every year. About 20 percent of Californian breweries are located in San Diego. Evidenced by the San Diego Beer festival held in June annually and the San Diego Brew Festival, all events founded in the last ten years.
Beer hopping
Craft beer has become so popular in San Diego that tourists are coming from all over the world to taste some of the best beers in the world. Ocean Beach alone has a wide range of different breweries. Mike Hess, located just up the street, opened a tasting room here in 2016. Around Ocean Beach’s main commercial strip on Newport Avenue you’ll find Culture, Kilowatt, Belching Beaver and Pizza Port. The latter being one of the oldest. Founded in 1987, Pizza Port has now expanded into five total locations. Over the years it has collected over 90 medals at the Great American Beer Festival. Some of their finest beers are Swami’s IPA, Ponto Session IPA and Kook. And they make some amazing Pizza.
Salt and Sandals
There are plenty of reasons to stay a few days in San Diego and taste some of its finest craft beers. You can make your stay even more pleasant by booking one of our modern beach cottages. Since most microbrewery tasting rooms are situated close to the homes – easily within walking distance -they make a great base for beer hopping and exploring the beer culture of San Diego with tasting rooms nearby and even more breweries just a short drive away.