Beer Glassware Guide

Snifter 

The most versatile glass - along with a goblet - and my favorite glass all around. This one is great for showcasing beers with big flavor, full body, and sniff-worthy aroma.

• for Double IPA and Double/Imperial Stout, Strong Ale, Tripel, and BarleyWine, and Scotch Ale.

San Diego Wins 19 Medals at the 2015 GABF

San Diego County breweries won 19 medals at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival (GABF), an increase of five over 2014: six gold medals, two silvers, 11 bronzes.

The following is a list of all of the 19 San Diego County winners from the 2015 GABF competition.

Very Small Brewery of the Year: Rip Current Brewing Co., San Marcos
Coffee Beer: Gold—Zumbar Chocolate Coffee Imperial Stout, New English Brewing Co., Sorrento Valley; Bronze—Bacon & Eggs, Pizza Port, Ocean Beach
India Pale Ale: Gold—Revolver IPA, BNS Brewing & Distilling Co., Santee
Session India Pale Ale: Gold—The Coachman, Societe Brewing Co., Kearny Mesa
Wood & Barrel-Aged Sour Beer: Gold—Veritas 015, The Lost Abbey, San Marcos
American-Belgo-Style Ale: Gold—Le Freak, Green Flash Brewing Co., Mira Mesa
Bock: Gold—Break Line Bock, Rip Current Brewing Co., San Marcos
Scotch Ale: Silver—Black Lagoon Scottish Strong, Rip Current Brewing Co., San Marcos
Oatmeal Stout: Silver—Scripps Pier Stout, South Park Brewing Co., South Park
Session Beer: Bronze—Guillaume, Pizza Port, Ocean Beach
International-Style Pale Ale: Bronze—Karl Strauss Brewing Co., La Jolla
Imperial India Pale Ale: Bronze—Teahupo’o, Breakwater Brewing Co., Oceanside
American-Style Amber/Red Ale: Bronze—Shark Bite Red, Pizza Port Bressi Ranch, Carlsbad
Double Red Ale: Bronze—GRAMBO, Pizza Port, Solana Beach
French- & Belgian-Style Saison: Bronze—Saison, URBN St. Brewing Co., El Cajon
Other Belgian-Style Ale: Bronze—Witty Moron, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, Liberty Station
Export Stout: Bronze—Z-Man Stout, Pizza Port, Carlsbad
South German-Style Hefeweizen: Bronze—Windansea Wheat, Karl Strauss Brewing Co., Pacific Beach
Chile Beer: Bronze—Serrano Pale Ale, Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits, Scripps Ranch

A full list of every winner can be found on the Brewers Association‘s website.

When Did Each San Diego Brewery Open

As of June 2015, San Diego county had 109 craft breweries and brewpubs

16 breweries opened in 2012, 25 in 2013, 17 in 2014, and 12 in 2015 (as of June 2015)

This equates to about two new breweries per month 

Source: West Coaster June 2015 issue

Largest Craft Breweries 2015

Four San Diego breweries rank among the 50 largest craft breweries in the U.S. (based on the metric of 2014 beer sales volume)

9. Stone Brewing Co. (2014  production: 287,075 barrels, a 35% increase from 2013 and 62% from 2012) (10th in 2013)

31. Ballast Point (2014  production: 123,435 barrels, a 74% increase from 2013 and 260% from 2012) (45th in 2013)

45. Karl Strauss Brewing Co. (2014 production: 67,920,  an 11% increase from 2013 and 16% from 2012) (38th in 2013)

48. Green Flash (2014 production: 2014 production: 64,640, a 16% increase over 2013)

Sources: West Coaster

To put that into some perspective, the top craft brewer on the list

1. D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc sold 2,917,992 barrels in 2014

2. Boston Beer Co - 2,550,000

3. Sierra Nevada - 1,069,694

6. Lagunitas - 601,420 (50% more than in 2013)

Sample Beer Tours

Here are three San Diego areas with highly concentrated breweries - all within 7 miles of each other - so that you can do a walking tour. You may choose to visit all indicated on the map or just a few. Click on the name to see the route.

Miramar Road

North Park/30th Street

Vista/San Marcos

How to Homebrew

My friend is an award-winning homebrewer. I also tried his beers, which are excellent. This is his advice on how to get started: what equipment you will need and the process, with my own additions.

There are different pieces of equipment that you will need depending on what type of brewing that you choose to do. I'll go from easiest to most difficult. All methods assume you'll be making 5 gallon batches. First, here are the basic steps to the brewing process:

1. Mashing (only for all grain)
2. Boiling of wort (unfermented beer) and addition of hops
3. Cooling of wort
4. Fermentation
5. Packaging (bottling or keging)
6. Drinking!!

Methods:

1) Boil Extract

With this method, you use a malt extract (which comes in either a syrupy liquid or dry, powdered form), make a strong solution with it, boil it while adding hops, and then add back water at the end to make the full beer volume. You can also steep actual crushed barley grains in a muslin bag in the boil to add complexity. This is a partial volume boil extract, but you can also boil your full wort volume, a process called full volume boil extract; but instead of a 5 gallon pot, you'd need a 10 gallon pot. Equipment needed:

• 5 gallon aluminum or stainless steel pot
• Muslin bags
• Fermenter. This can be a 6 gallon food grade plastic bucket, glass carboy, or Better Bottle. I use glass carboys for fermentation because they don't scratch, which can provide a nice little nestling place for bacteria. I bought my carboys on craigslist. Plastic buckets are okay as long as they're relatively new and you're gentle with cleaning, i.e. don't use abrasive sponges. 
• Method for chilling the wort. The most rudimentary method (which I still use) is ice bath immersion. For this, you can use a sink or a container that is large enough to contain both the pot and ~20 lbs. of ice. If you want to get more fancy, you can chill via coiled convective heat exchanger or plate geometry heat exchanger (this requires a small pump and a pot with a valve and barbed fitting at the bottom).

2) All Grain

The full volume boil all grain is the method that I employ. Instead of an extract, you use raw, crushed, malted barley grains to create the wort in the mash. It creates an arguably better product, you have more parameters of freedom for recipe formulation, and to me it's more rewarding. However it is much more complicated than extract brewing and requires more equipment and time per batch. In addition to the previously mentioned equipment, you'll need:

• 10 gallon aluminum or stainless steel pot
• Mash tun. I use a modified 10 gallon water cooler. The process for making one can be found here
• A large enough pot or enough pots to hold ~4 gallons of liquid

Other Equipment:

For packaging the beer, you'll need the same equipment regardless of brewing method. You'll need:

• Bottling bucket. This is a food grade plastic bucket with a hole and spout at the bottom. 
• Capper
• Bottles and caps

The following are optional but HIGHLY recommended. They make the bottling process much easier. The substitute for these would be a clean dishwasher rack and a container with sanitizer that you would dunk the bottles in.

• Bottle tree
• Bottle squirter for sanitizing the bottles

Other miscellaneous items that you will need:

• Bung and airlock for the fermenter 
• Kitchen scale that can measure to 0.25 oz. I like the digital ones
• Sanitizer. I prefer a no-rinse variety like Starsan
• Probe thermometer
• Racking cane or auto siphon with appropriate size food grade tubing
• Carboy brush if you use a carboy

These items can be procured at your local home brew store, online, or craigslist.