Poor House Brewing - San Diego

On a day with time to kill due to San Diego brewery and bars awkward schedules we found ourselves in the Poor House Brewing neighborhood to decided to drop in.  They had just opened. This place really is the "poor house."  There was a curtain covering the adjacent room (which the bartender said is under construction to expand the bar).  The tasting room was very small with just the bar with some stools, some window seating and a shuffle board table. 

Our bartender was very nice and seemed to enjoy working there.  She said they are currently trying to expand the tasting room, but it is a work in progress..long progress. 

As for the beer I got a 4 beer sampler and had the Experimental Batch no. 6 IPA, Bitter Side Imperial IPA, Cluster Fukk IPA, and 30 Hop IPA.  None were HORRIBLE, but none were AMAZING.  The stand out for me was either 30 Hop or No. 6. 

Just like Mike Hess Brewing, minus the ambiance, this place is cool to check out another San Diego brewery, but with some many in the city this wouldn't be my top of the list.  But hey..check them out if you have the time! www.poorhousebrew.com

Mike Hess Brewing - San Diego, CA

We were in San Diego to try some of the best beer in the country! While we were killing time til a local bar opened with a great tap list, we stumbled upon Mike Hess Brewing and checked them out. Apparently it used to be called simply Hess Brewing, but Mike I think wanted some more attention. 

The facility itself is beautiful. You walk down a narrow bridge that overlooks the brewing process.  Upon entering the tasting room, you see lots of seating and a giant bar in the corner.  The seating and the ambiance is quite nice. 

I ordered a sampler, which came with 5 beers AND you get a free beer glass, great deal! I had the Unite Pale Ale which was sweet but tasty, Habitus Rye IPA was okay a little too sweet for me, Solis Occassus IPA was the best beer I had...pretty hoppy, Deceptio Black IPA was good, and the Umbrix Rye Imperial Stout was shockingly VERY good (the bartender recommended this one).

They bottle a lot of their beers.  The prices are low, they're open early, the ambiance is great, great location, good merchandise, their beer for me just didn't match up to some of the better San Diego breweries...but as a local hang out place heck yeah! Check them out...www.hessbrewing.com/‎

Societe Brewing Co - San Diego, CA

Hands out, best brewery in San Diego (in my opinion).  We got to visit the brewery twice.  This place has already made it's spot in my top 5 favorites of all time.  Leading into this trip, we already knew this place would be awesome. Their beer, The Pupil, had already made it into the top 10 IPAs on beeradvocate. 
So we headed there our first day in town, very exciting, and got to visit once more on our last day there. The building itself is in a business park area. The first day we went parking was scarce because so many people were there for work around the area.  But when we went back it was a Sunday and barely anyone in sight.

When you walk in, you just see a giant open space.  They have a nice L shaped bar with a massive chalkboard beer menu above the taps. 

For food, they do not make any, but they have food trucks very often and have food menus that allow you to order out from local take out places.

Their awesome art work for each of their beers.

But now onto the most important part...the beer! They serve their beer in 12oz glasses.  Each beer is $4. You also can get 2 tasters at a time that are $1 a piece.  I either tasted or had a glass of just about all the beers. Let me review them one by one...

The Pupil...as good as expected. A very hoppy, 7.5% IPA that was just incredible.  I can see why it is top 10.
The Apprentice...same as The Pupil it is 7.5%, it has a different taste to it but in my opinion it is just as good as The Pupil.  I loved this beer!
The Publican...5.5% pale ale, very hoppy and very good!
The Dandy...6.2% IPA, we got a growler of this along with The Pupil that first night and loved it! Which leaves us now with 3 IPAs that I had no complaints about...hence why I love this place.
The Pugilist..5.2% Dry Stout, for the % it is fantastic! Very tasty.
The Haberdasher...5.2% English IPA, I never really like any beer with the word English in it and unfortunately even Societe couldn't change that. It was okay, but my love for their other beers was too much to enjoy this whatsoever.
The Bellowsman...6.2% Smoked Stout, definitely got the smoke taste but wasn't overpowering, a GREAT stout.
The Butcher...9.8% Imperial Stout. Fantastic Imp Stout. No complains at all, this was a great beer.

They had a few others but I am not a fan of strong ales and belgians.  But if you can't tell, I tried 8 of their beers and only 1 was OKAY. The rest ranged from good to very good to amazing and that is rare for a brewery.  This place in the next couple years will be extremely well known! As long as they keep doing what their doing.
As for merchandise, they sold 2 types of glasses..a goblet and a 12oz tall glass.  Stickers, and stainless steel growlers. Visit them and check them out...www.societebrewing.com/

San Diego Beer Trip 2014

My brother lives in San Diego and me, and my other brother, took a 5 day trip to visit him in April.  Now I must say before I start reviewing the breweries we visited..hands out the best beer city for hopheads! We went to a couple AMAZING breweries and then a couple average...but even the average are as good or better than then the majority of breweries I have visited across the country.  Now if you read my blog, you will know I have already posted many San Diego breweries when I went a few years back.  We went to Stone, Ballast Point, Pizza Port and Alpine.  But I did not have the appreciation for beer then that I have now.  I got the chance to revisit Alpine and Pizza Port, on top of many other great breweries that I will now review.  But if you like hoppy beers and nice weather, visit San Diego!

Overrated beer

              I created my whole blog based around my brewery visits...but in that time I also have discovered that I truly am in the "Pursuit of Hoppiness" because I am always discovering new beers around me that I am getting to try.  Lately I have been trading beers and have gotten to try some fantastic brews from Pipeworks in Chicago, new stuff from Three Floyds, and a brewery I had heard a lot about...Toppling Goliath. 
               Since I am not visiting breweries as much, I have decided to start writing about some thoughts on the beer world that I have.  My first piece I would really like discussing is Overrated Beers.  Whenever I find a new beer, I go to Beer Advocate..as do most of us beer nerds.  I personally don't really like Rate Beer I feel like everything is rated high.  I trust Beer Advocate...MOST the time. And this is where my beef lies...some beers are just overated. 
              This idea really came to me when I finally got my hands on Bell's infamous Hopslam.  A hopped up double IPA released once a year and sells out quicker than you can say "Kalamazoo."  My city, Buffalo, thankfully started getting Bell's late last year so we knew Hopslam would make it to our city. We waited, and waited, and finally found out it was here..ran out and bought a six pack.  This beer has been in the top 20 on Beer Advocate for ages, it made headlines on local TV stations for the popularity, and it is a beer I had heard thrown around in a lot of "best beers in the world" conversations.  Popped the cap, poured it...meh.  It was good, but far from great.  Maybe it is just my taste buds, but many beer nerds I know agreed.  So why does it sell out so fast? Why does everyone want it? Well..because they don't want to be left out and they want to say they drank this highly popular beer.
              Alpine..just days ago according to my brother who lives there..released their popular beer Exponential Hoppiness.  The line was massive and they had to send dozens and dozens of people home without any because it was closing time.  Dark Lord Day, KBS day, Darkness Day, Hunahpu Day, and I know there are a few others..tickets sell out instantly and lines long as ever.  Now I know a lot of beer nerds love the atmosphere of these events...sharing beers with fellow beer nerds and partying it up...I'm all for that! But then you look and these beers all rank in the top 50!  Can they all really be THAT much better than all the other beers?  I have tried a couple of these Stouts, they are good.  But I am left to believe the rankings come from people who wait for hours to get a bottle and have to justify waiting that long by giving it a perfect or near perfect rating.  Who wants to say "I stood in a line for 8 hours and spent 30$ on a shitty beer."  No one wants to say that...so we get overrated beers.
        I see websites where you can buy Dark Lord from 2007-current at prices ranging from 60-200$ A BOTTLE!! I haven't had it, but I bet if you gave the average beer nerd 6 popular, not in high demand Imperial Russian Stouts next to a Dark Lord most wouldn't know the difference.  Not saying Dark Lord isn't good, but I have had many Russian Imperial Stouts..including Surly Darkness and some are better then others for sure...but a lot are extremely similar.  Here are some videos of the lines you see on Darkness, Dark Lord and Hunahpu Day.

                 Pliny the Younger..the #2 rated beer in the world.  Have I had it? No.   Do I wish I could? Of course..it's #2!! But maybe..just maybe, it's #2 because everyone who drinks it waits in a 5 hour line to get in to drink it. Here's a video from Pliny the Younger release..if that's you are you saying after that wait "eh it's ok, my local beer store has better though"...no you're rating it a perfect score cause you feel silly waiting for an average beer.

 

 

         The #1 beer in the world is HEady Topper...I've had it.  A lot of it.  And its fantastic and deserves to be #1, but again it is hard to get your hands on it so that definitely helps the ratings. Zombie Dust is #6..had a lot of it also.  It's a great beer, but sells out instantly because of it's rating. I have had SO many beers in the last year. Some amazing, some horrible and everything in between.  Some of my favorite beers were rated mid-high 90s, and some were high 80s to low 90s.  While I always will rely on BA ratings to guide me, I can't let it make all my decisions.  And on the other hand, I will NOT wait in long lines or spend gross amounts of money for a beer because it has a "100" rating. 

          I believe if we made a Sam Adams beer #1 it would sell out instantly.  These ratings are what people base their beer lives on.  And in my opinion, many are overrated and simply get their position on the list solely because breweries make them hard to get and "rare." 

            I wrote this just for fun, but would love any opinions from my fellow beer nerds on the whole topic.  I am not saying ANY of these beers are bad..they aren't! But when the media told us Renee Zellwegger is gorgeous, I realized sometimes if someone tells you to believe something that isn't true, many people will believe it and follow it.  Just like some popular movies are overrated, some popular TV shows are overrated, I think some popular beers are overrated.  Cheers!

 



Hoppin Frog Brewery - Akron, OH

Our last stop in Akron was to the Hoppin Frog Brewery.  I have seen their beers all over, with tons of variety.  Their Christmas beer was one of my favorites I have ever had, but at 8-12$ a bottle I rarely buy their stuff because I just don't know if it's good or not.  So I was excited to finally visit the brewery.

We drove by it our first time, it is on the right side of the road right as the thruway ends, which is confusing.  Once we found it, we realized it a giant strip of offices all dedicated to Hoppin Frog.  Once inside the tasting room, we saw a nice big open room with tables and a double sided bar.  It was roughly 9pm and we were seated immediately.

We got a 5 beer sampler which included:
Fresh Frog Raw Hop Imperial Pale Ale which was excellent, really nice and hoppy and bitter..unfortunately this isn't released in bottles.
Gangster Frog IPA which was real good.
Hoppin To Heaven Double IPA was eh.
Mean Manalishi Double IPA was too strong for my taste, but good for what it is.
Hop Dam Triple IPA was very bitter but smooth.
I was happy with the beers, except that the sampler isn't a flat price and the last 2 beers were 3.50$ and 4.50$.

We got the 18$ cheese board which was worth it! Came with meats, olives, bread, and more! I enjoyed it very much.

Very easy decision..if you're in Akron, GO here! They also have a fun selection of merchandise including all different types of glasses, a Frog cutting board and the same beer sampler they serve theirs in (it was 50$ though). It is really good, service was top notch and beers while they can be pricey are good and there are LOTS of choices.  Stop by Trailhead, then Hoppin Frog and top it off with Thirsty Dog if you have time.  But for now, check them out! www.hoppinfrog.com/‎

Thirsty Dog Brewing Co - Akron, OH

I must say before I go into my review, this is based on my one and only visit to this brewery. I have had their beers in the past (Citra dog, 12 Dogs of Christmas) and I enjoyed them very much. 

 We went on Thirsty Thursday (2$ off growlers) 90 minutes before they closed. BIG mistake.  While it wasn't PACKED it was crowded enough to be uncomfortable and not a space at the bar.  Parking wasn't bad, but can be confusing since it is an industrial type area. I couldn't find any spot at the bar since there were quite a few larger beer drinkers, men and women, (I am big myself so I can say it), and they weren't drinking anything for a good 45 minutes but just wanted to hang out and chat.  I found a spot in the far corner that had extra tables piled up. I pushed a table out of my way, snuck into the corner and asked about samplers.  I was told samplers are ordered by the single, BUT there is no menu except on the wall that I couldn't see so I said give me any IPAs, stouts, or pale ales you have.  She brought me 8 beers as you can see below.

Now all these beers were very good, but I had no clue what they were!! And I wouldn't dare ask the ONE bartender who was constantly filling growlers and could careless about telling me what I'm drinking.  To add to it, some old man next to me sitting and drinking a growler by himself gave me the 45 degree head turn about 15 times no show his disapproval of either me crowding his corner spot or just drinking samplers. 

I wanted to buy some merchandise and a mixed 6 pack, but I waited 20 minutes at the bar and eventually gave up and left.  It is sad, because half the reason we stopped in Akron was for this bar.  So note to self...DO NOT go on Thirsty Thursday or before they close.  Very snobby crowd..and not sure why you live in Akron, it isn't the Hamptons.  But I do like their beer so check them out! thirstydog.com/‎