Tag Archives: San Diego

Tasting Room

2Kids Brewing Company

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Some people might spend their Sundays watching sports. I prefer to seek out new breweries. A quick google search alerted me to one nearby that I hadn’t tried so I couldn’t help but stop by. 2Kids has only been open for a few months but already they have a solid selection of beers.

2Kids Brewing Company
2Kids Brewing Company
Inside the 2Kids tasting room.
Inside the 2Kids tasting room.

As you can see, the tasting room is pretty barebones and there aren’t many places to sit. Tasters are served in plastic cups though if you order a pint, they are served in glass. If you are tired of the stronger beers that everyone brews in San Diego, this is a nice place to stop in for something that you can drink all day.

UPDATE: Tasters are now served in glasses.

2Kids tap list as of 11/24/2013.
2Kids tap list as of 11/24/2013.

For a 3.1% session, the Ordinary Bitter is not bad. I found both the Ordinary Bitter and the Cream Ale to be a bit too light for my tastes. The California Common was my second favorite of the day. It is a nice smooth amber lager with nice caramel flavors. The IPA was a bit on the malty side for my tastes but it might satisfy those who find the average San Diego IPA to be too heavy on the hops.

UPDATE: The latest batch of the Obligatory IPA has stepped up the IBU and changed the recipe a bit. It is still primarily a malty IPA, because that is the “American IPA” style but it has a bit more hop flavor than it used to.

2Kids taster flight.
2Kids taster flight.

The chocolate stout was rich and flavorful. It impressed me the most of all the beers here. Because of how much cocoa goes into the beer, it costs a bit more but it is well worth it. It has just the right amount of alcohol for something you could drink for an afternoon. The chocolate flavors come forward nice and strong. The Saison is a solid representation of the style, though a bit on the darker side. It didn’t really wow me but if you like the plum and apricot flavors in your beer it might be just your thing.

Considering what I’ve had at a few other brewery launches, 2Kids is off to an impressive start. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the future. If you stop in, make sure you try the stout.

UPDATE: The new Belgian IPA is pretty solid, with plenty of sweetness from the Belgian yeast and some nice citrus flavors from the hops.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

Green Flash, Some Mainstays

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I live so close to Green Flash that I only stop in when there is a food truck I am interested in. I can pick up most of my favorite beers at the store so that is good enough for me. Tonight I stopped by Green Flash to taste the food from God Save the Cuisine and I was glad I did. While I was there, I figured I would re-visit some of the regular beers in taster format. The photos are a bit darker than usual because it was night and I hate flash.

Four tasters, Imperial IPA, Green Bullet, Le Freak, and Grand Cru.
Four tasters, Imperial IPA, Green Bullet, Le Freak, and Grand Cru.

I had tasted each of these beers before but it always helps to give them a fresh look after all the beers I’ve had since then. All four impressed me and later I added a taster of the Serrano Double Stout to round out the evening. I found the Imperial IPA to be nice and refreshing. It is best to compare it to the Le Freak. While both beers have characteristics of both Belgian style beers and IPAs, the Imperial IPA is more on the IPA side and Le Freak more on the Belgian side. Both have great flavor though the Le Freak is a little bit sweeter. Grand Cru has a lot of that Belgian flavor as well though it is more on the darker side. Grand Cru and Le Freak were both favorites of mine at different times. Last fall when they first put out the Grand Cru I was hooked on it for months.

I then went for the Green Bullet, which I have been a huge fan of from the start. This Tripple IPA is really hoppy and just blows you away with the pine flavors. It is in my top five beers of all time and is a true achievement for Green Flash. The Serrano Double Stout was decent but not very spicy. Though I do enjoy the double stout on occasion, the Serrano flavors were not particularly strong here, nor was the beer very spicy.

Lamb and Salmon flatbread sandwiches.
Lamb and Salmon flatbread sandwiches.

To go with these beers, I ordered the smoked salmon flatbread sandwich and my mom ordered the lamb. Both were quite tasty although the lamb was a bit more spicy than we expected. The salmon had some bitter greens in there, perhaps even arugula. The capers and cream cheese rounded out the salmon nicely, giving it a fantastic flavor. I will certainly be trying this food truck again soon.

 

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Tasting Room

Saint Archer Brewing Company

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I had visited Saint Archer once before and was impressed by the IPA but not so much that I was compelled to return to have more. Fast forward a few months and I noticed some San Diego Beer week specialties on tap so I had to return and brought with me a few friends to share. This time I got to taste the IPA, double IPA, and the Stout both on cask and on tap.

Left to right, IPA, Double IPA, Stout, Cask Stout.
Left to right, IPA, Double IPA, Stout, Cask Stout.
Saint Archer from the outside.
Saint Archer from the outside.

I was once again quite impressed by the IPA. It has all the qualities I love in a solid IPA without the heavy malts that sometimes make good IPAs un-drinkable. It is a little lighter than most people in San Diego might be used to from an IPA but it has a full body and is quite good. The double IPA is only a few percentages stronger and has a nice lighter appearance, meaning it is also not a malty beer. The flavors are very similar to Green Bullet from Green Flash though a few percentages lighter.

Core beers on tap.
Core beers on tap.
Seasonal Beers on Tap.
Seasonal Beers on Tap.

The American Stout was interesting because it was not the typical heavy chocolate or heavy coffee flavors you might expect from a stout in San Diego. It has a bit of hops added to it that gives it a bitterness that counters a lot of the sweetness you typically taste in stouts and porters. The hop flavors are light enough that they might not offend hop-haters out there but mild enough that they don’t reach the level of the Sublimely Self Righteous from Stone. The cask version of the stout was a little more creamy but because the underlying stout was not as sweet it did not impress me as much as other stouts on cask.

Saint Archer 05

Saint Archer has a nice seating area with bar stools and tables with plenty of room for a lot of people to hang out.

Update October 2014

Saint Archer has been brewing a lot of great beers since I last visited them. Most recently, they won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival for their white ale. I visited them for a few tasters on October 6, 2014 and had a taste of the pale ale and the white ale along with a black lager.

Black lager, pale ale, white ale, (left to right)
Black lager, pale ale, white ale, (left to right)

The white ale is a very nice Belgian ale with citrus and spice aromas and flavors. It has a very light body but is quite tasty. The pale ale batch on tap was barely a week old and I could taste some nice crisp citrus and pine flavors. the pale ale was just what I wanted. The black lager was a bit light on the body and mostly had flavors of roasted malts. Hopefully future batches will be a bit more heavy.

Saint Archer sells six packs of the pale ale, blonde, IPA, and white ale. They also sell 22oz bottles of all four plus the double IPA and coffee brown. They make sure to sell the freshest bottles and cans at the tasting room so stop in for a six pack the next time you are in the mood.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Beer Reviews

Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale 2013

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If you love both hoppy beers and dark beers you might find that most dark beers are too sweet, or not bitter enough. Sublimely Self Righteous is the cure to that, giving bitter chocolate flavors you might recognize from a porter and mixing in the hop flavors that hop addicts love. To see if those who hate IPAs and exclusively drink porters and stouts think, I gave my fiance a taste. He pursed his lips and said “too hoppy” so don’t expect to share this with the less enlightened among you.

Sublimely Self Righteous Ale.
Sublimely Self Righteous Ale.

In some ways, it is the darker version of the Alesmith Winter Yulesmith. Where the Winter Yulesmith has malts, this has chocolate, but both are perfectly balanced with the hop flavors. At 8.7% you might be able to finish a bottle on your own, though I don’t know if I can say the same thing about the Double Bastard. Make sure you get a bottle of this while this year’s batch is fresh, before the end of November and into the first half of December it should be the best. 

[As a fun side note, my brother thought this tasted more like beef jerky. He didn’t like it much either]

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Beer Reviews

Alesmith Yulesmith 2013

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After last year’s Yulesmith release I couldn’t wait to see how this year’s was. In contrast to the summer version which is a double IPA, this version is an imperial red.

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The hops aroma is stronger than it tastes. The hop flavors balance out the malts nicely giving it a citrus taste. Hop heads who enjoyed the evil dead red will like this one.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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