Lost Abbey revelations

[ricodanles]

in SD for June and been enjoying excellent SD beers. Very impressed by the Lost Abbey selections on tap. Tried Last Judgment, Lost & Found, Old Viscosity, Gift of the Magi, some others.

Other suggestions? Reactions? Tips about some similarly interesting local finds?

[Tripeler]

Tomme, the brewer at Lost Abbey, is a genius. Don't expect consistency, but do expect the occasional flash of brilliance. Lost Abbey is certainly my favorite brewery in California.

[Josh]

Or you could drink Russian River, which is consistently brilliant. ;-)

[brentk]

I'll have to agree with both of you, here. I have never had a bad beer from Russian River, let alone anything that even approached being mediocre. Can't say the same about Lost Abbey, though I have tasted some great beers from them as well.

[LStaff]

I have mixed feelings about Lost Abbey/Port Brewing- I've had some world class beers from them -(Angels Share the one year is was good) and I've had some disasters that showed some serious brewing faults - and a bunch of boring/mediocre/good beers inbetween. Not to mention all the issues they seem to have with bbl aged beers and that the unfriendly/arrogant attitude of the brewer makes me hate them.

[ricodanles]

I like the recs. AleSmith, Stone, Green Flash are all on my list (I live in Austin, TX now but, thanks to entrepreneurial SD brew folks, I can get all three of the above there. Ditto Ballast Point and a handful of others).

I haven't head Alpine Beer Co beers. Where can I taste them in SD proper?

[JRSD]

Their website has a section that lists places to buy Alpine beer:

http://www.alpinebeerco.com/where_to_...

[Josh]

Big 2nd to Alpine. Try their Nelson IPA - truly one of the great beers of the world.

[JRSD]

Alpine Beer Company makes fantastic beer and has very limited distribution even within SD County. The brewery is a little off the beaten path (in Alpine), but is not really too far of a drive.

[steveprez]

Check out the San Diego Brewer's Guild website. There's an embarassment of riches.

www.sandiegobrewersguild.org

I'd recommend AleSmith, Stone, Green Flash.