Exploring San Diego’s Craft Breweries: 2 Newcomers and 2 Classics.

It’s early fall, and we’re exploring San Diego County’s beer scene. We’re collaborating with Expedia on this delicious assignment to see how two of the county’s newest breweries stack up against a couple of our all-time favorites. For those of you who don’t know, over the last five years, San Diego has garnered near-mythical status among beer pilgrims, hop heads, and ambitious brewers from as far east as Japan. But as more and more breweries open each year (there are now more than 100 in the county now), Beth and I wondered if the newcomers could live up to the dynamic standard set by the county’s beer pioneers, when San Diego had no brewing history or expectations to live up to, so we created this mini-microbrewery tour to find out.

We begin our journey at Modern Times Brewing (3725 Greenwood Street) in Point Loma. Owner Jacob McKean, the former social media guy at Stone Brewing, assembled a team of three local, and very talented, brewers–Matt Walsh (Karl Strauss, Lost Coast, and Speakeasy Ales and Lagers), Derek Freese (Monkey Paw Pub and Brewery), and Alex Tweet (Ballast Point’s cask master)–to do it, well, their way.

Just over a year old, Modern Times features 16 taps with four year-round beers, leaving a lot of space for seasonal and specialty brews. A few samples from the core lineup is all you need to taste that the foursome is challenging the status quo by not following traditional style guidelines for their recipes. For example, Blazing World, a hoppy beer with citrus overtones, is listed as an amber IPA; though, that style doesn’t officially exist yet. Then there is Black House, a year-round oatmeal coffee stout made from an Ethiopian and Sumatran blend that’s roasted in house.

Aesthetically, Modern Times’ tap room is just as intriguing as its beers. Old hardback books are stacked like colorful bricks and topped with a white marble bar top that looks like it was ripped from a Paris café. Pages from McKean’s old comic book are plastered on one wall and on another is a gigantic post-it collage, sprinkle in a other details like thrift-store paintings and hanging tumbleweed lights, and you have a tap room that has as much character as the beer that flows through it.

At Coronado Brewing Company (170 Orange Avenue) on Coronado Island, I have a chance to get reaquainted with one of San Diego’s original micro-breweries. Now in its 17th year, CBC, along with Ballast Point, Stone and Pizza Port, helped to put the hop-heavy West Coast style on the map. In April, Coronado Brewing was named the best mid-size brewery in the world at the World Beer Cup.

My mom and I meet up with my good friend, Mark, and his wife for lunch at the brewery. After he and I make our way through a tasting flight of the breweries core lineup of five beers, we each go different routes. Mark chooses a pint of the Orange Avenue Wit, a light-bodied Belgian-style beer punctuated with orange zest, coriander, and orange blossom honey. While I go with the Hibiscus IPA, a collaboration between Coronado Brewing and one of my other favorite breweries, Maui Brewing Company, and it doesn’t disappoint.

Next up is  Pizza Port (135 North Highway 101) in Solana Beach, which is one of my favorite microbreweries in the world. With four locations in San Diego, and a whole heap of awards, including a couple of new ones from the recent Great American Beer Festival in Colorado, Pizza Port has amassed a cult following among beer geeks in San Diego and around the country, and I’m certainly one of them. All of Pizza Port’s beer is brewed in-house at each restaurant, giving beer lovers even more of reason to try out each location. The Solana Beach Pizza Port is the original and has been pumping out fresh beer and pizza for 25 years. During our visit, I try the Low Tide Fresh Pale, an American pale ale with citrus and pine notes, and barely any bitterness–it’s delicious!

For our final stop on our mini-craft brew tour, we leave Pizza Port and walk across the street to Culture Brewing (111 South Cedros Avenue) in the Cedros Design District. Truth be told, I was a little skeptical. For me, Solana Beach has always been synonymous with Pizza Port, and I wasn’t sure how this new brewery would stack up. My worries quickly evaporate, though, upon my first sip of Culture’s craveable Session Citra IPA, which is part of the brewery’s five part Session IPA series.

The brewery, which opened in February 2013, is the brainchild of longtime homebrewers–John Niedemhofer, Steve Ragan, and Dennis Williams, with Ragan stepping into the role of lead brewer. During our visit, Culture has a well-rounded selection of beers on tap, including three IPAs and a Pale Ale, but those, as I’d find out later, were really just the tip of the iceberg. A quick look at Culture’s website reveals an incredibly deep beer list that makes me sad that I’m not going to be back in San Diego until well after the New Year. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I enjoyed the simple stylings of the brewery itself, as well as Culture’s incredibly friendly and helpful staff.

Now that we’re back in New England for the holidays, I’m kicking myself for not visiting more breweries while we were in town. But I’m also comforted with the knowledge that the spirit and bold creativity that made San Diego one of the great modern beer capitals is still alive in the county’s dynamic beer scene.