Greetings from The City of Angels! As hard as it was, I had to leave San Diego to continue my journey up the coast of California.
Before I left the San Diego area, I had to go visit Stone Brewing Company. Probably my favorite brewery in the country. They make some awesome stuff.
Stone is located about 30 minutes north of San Diego in Escondido (considered North County San Diego). The town on Escondido itself is nothing really to write home about, but once you stumble upon the brewery, it gets muchhhh better. Its located in a large building in sort of a industrial park kind of area.
As you walk in the front door, you are faced with a fork in the road divided by, coincidentally, a large stone in the middle. On the left is the Stone Store full of merch, a tasting bar, and tour sign ups. To the right is Stone World Bistro & Gardens, their fully functioning organic restaurant and bar. I went to the store first because the tour was approaching.
The brewhouse itself was pretty amazing. This was definitely the most high class brewery tour I've been on. The tour guide was even equipped with microphone stations throughout the building so that you could actually hear him talk during the tour (it tends to be rather noisy in most running breweries). The equipment being used was all huge and looked brand new, although I think that is just credited to a good, regular cleaning job. After making our way through the entire brewhouse, we were able to see their bottling line. It was the first large-scale bottling that I've ever seen. It was rather cool from a mechanical standpoint seeing it in operation. All the automation and control that goes into the bottling line is pretty impressive. They were in process of bottling Oaked Arrogant Bastard while we were there. Rather cool.
The tour ended back at the store where everyone gathered around the tasting bar for our predetermined sampling of Stone beers. We were given 4 oz tasters of Stone Pale Ale, IPA, Smoked Porter, and Arrogant Bastard. I've had them all before but this was definitely the freshest I've had them! Of course they were all awesome.
After the tasting, I decided to go to the bar at the Bistro & Gardens. Talk about an awesome restaurant. It had about 50 ft ceilings with an entire wall of retractable windows. They were open while I was there due to the perfect San Diego climate. I sat down at the bar and order a Ruination IPA. One of my favorites. Again, it was the freshest I've ever had. While I dabbled in the “liquid poem to the glory of the hop” (as it says on every bottle of Ruination), I decided to get something to eat. I was there during “in between” hours which meant they weren't serving lunch and weren't serving dinner so it was a limited menu. However, everything that was on it was rather gourmet. Things like Wild Boar Baby Back Ribs, Grilled Buffalo Burger, and BBQ Duck Tacos. It all sounded interesting and rather delicious since they try to incorporate their beers into all their recipes when they can. Since all their ingredients are locally grown and fresh, everything is sort of pricy. So I just decided to get some “Stone Style Soft Pretzels.” They were pretty awesome if I do say so myself. They came with some gourmet mustard made specifically for Stone and some spicy cheddar sauce as well. Overall, it was an incredible place to have a beer and food.
After Stone, I set out for LA. The brewery sucked me in for longer than I expected so I unfortunately ended up in a bit of LA traffic. It stunk but passed in due time. Once in LA, I met up with Kelly and Tim for dinner. Nothing like a steak and beer to finish off a good day. I am now enjoying a slow morning and will go see some stuff this afternoon.
You're Not Worthy...
No comments:
Post a Comment