epicbeergirl

Whiskey is good.
Especially good whiskey.

Whiskey is good.
Especially good whiskey.

Did you guys stop drinking?

Excited that ska breweing is starting so cal distro at the end of the month

Went to St. Archer and Rough Draft. I was far more impressed with Rough Draft. I did enjoy the coffee brown from St. Archer but nothing else was more worthy. 
 
Anyone going to Firestone Walker this weekend?

Hurry up Venice Beach Firestone! Wont have to make the drive to Buellton again!
 
I'm making the trek up to Barrelworks for the Bretta Rose & Stickee Monkee release on the 17th. Also going for a couple lil Opal bottles too.

RuinTen is fantastic. Glad they chose to make it every year.

Picked up the Belching Beaver Peanut Butter Stout, as well as the Milk Stout yesterday. Had the PB one last night, and thought it was pretty tasty.Had a good peanut butter taste to it.  

I just did this trip last weekend. It was a really good time, drive wasn't bad at all either.
 
I left Friday morning and came back Sunday night.
 
Drakes, The Rare Barrel, and Lagunitas the first day. If I had to do it again I'd probably skip Drakes and go to the Trappist or the Sierra Nevada Torpedo room.
 
Russian River when they opened Saturday, best idea ever. Had a line within 30 minutes of opening. Bear Republic, then drove down to Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, beer was great and was able to bring some bottles home.
 
Sunday drove down to Firestone Barrelworks in Buellton. Planned on staying about 2 hours, stayed about 4. Really enjoyed it there. Sours were great!
 
 
All in all came home with 3 cases of beer, very expensive trip. Had a few trades lined up too. Glad Barrelworks had some Feral One left, and glad I was able to buy my stock of Parabola no problem. Might drive back up for the release of their 2nd sour or Stickee Monkee.

No idea which beer they had from Goose Island, here's the picture I took last night.  
The breweries available at Draft Pick include:  Stone Brewing, Saint Archer, Hangar 24, Golden Road, Karl Strauss, Rough Draft, Firestone Walker, New Belgium, Ballast Point, Bootlegger's, Goose Island, and Kona.
Twice as many breweries at Draft Pick versus last year, several breweries had multiple beers which is rad.

Was really happy to see Angel Stadium has added more craft beer options when I went to the home opener last night!  Here's a post I wrote about it:
http://www.epicbeergirl.com/2014/04/opening-day-at-angel-stadium.html

I just ordered this kit to finally try home brewing. 
 
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/midwest-homebrew-kit.html

http://beerpulse.com/2014/03/bells-brewery-to-expand-distribution-to-southern-california-in-may-with-craft-beer-guild-2690/

I'd def recommend the Buellton location for Firestone, since that's where Barrelworks is located and, also in Buellton is Figueroa Mountain Brewing.  They are one of my favorites!
 
If you hit up any standard Bev Mo, you'll be able to get a lot of beers not available here in So Cal like from 21st Amendment. 
 
There are so many amazing places in/around SF.  Have fun!!!

Taking a Beercation road trip to San Fransisco at the end of the month Friday-Sunday. Mainly going to finally visit The Rare Barrel and pickup my Founders goodies. But might as well make more of a trip out of it.
 
Planning on visiting these 6 for sure.
 
Friday:
Drakes
The Rare Barrel
Russian River late after checking into Hotel
 
Saturday:
Russian River
Lagunitas
SARA
 
Sunday
Firestone Barrelworks
 
 
Not sure where to stay in between SARA and Firestone yet. Don't need anything fancy, lots of expensive options along the coast.
 
Anyone have any must visits I'm leaving out, any good bottle shops to find goodies I wouldn't get here in San Diego?

Not all teachers nitpick : )  I don't care how my students arrive at an answer, as long as they are able to explain to me how they got it.

Went down to San Diego this weekend and hit up some of my favorite spots as well as some new ones.  Went to BNS on Friday night, it embodied all of the stereotypes of East County, which as somebody who grew up out there, made me laugh.  Beers were pretty solid, but nothing I'd go back for specifically.  Nice to have more craftbeer options in East County, though.
Finally went to Alpine, which I've been reluctant to do so because of all of the hype surrounding it.  Heard they had "Hoppy Birthday" on tap which made me finally decide to visit.  Was pleasantly surprised, had lunch there, couple of beers and got a growler.  The food was really good as of course, the beers were, which I've had before.  First time trying Hoppy Birthday and really liked it!
Went to White Labs for a second time, if you haven't been, I highly recommend it.  They make beers that are same variety, such as IPAs and use different yeast strains which is really cool to taste the differences.  
Also hit up Societe, which is fantastic as always and Toronado.  If you haven't been to either, I'd add them to your list.  Toronado always has an outstanding selection of beers.  Last stop was the Belching Beaver which is within walking distance of Toronado, had a wide variety of styles.  The peanut butter beer was really good, which surprised me.

I went to Belching Beaver for the first time a few months ago. All their beers were pretty okay except the peanut butter stout which was very good. I was very surprised by this too because I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter. It's worth a trip just for that.

Out Of The Park is having a Goose island night this Friday. Lots of rare kegs/bottles. 2012 BCBCS. 2013 BCBS Proprietors. Regular bcbs and more

I don't know if you can get it out there but if you can get your hands on some Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout you will be very happy.  I will be hitting up Stone when I am out there the end of March.

I saw it at Total Wine and it caught my attention as their labels have popular local game fish on them so I bought a couple of different ones. Very pleased with the ones I have tried but the Sculpin stuck out the most.

Just had the Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point. Outstanding stuff!

I was at Nobles Party too. All the Naughty Sauce variants were amazing. Bean Bump on Cask with cocoa nibs (Cocoa Bump) was my favorite of the day. The Messenger was a good stand out as well.
 
I missed out on the Nelson Showers bring Citra Flowers Cask. Was a couple in line away from that one.

Went to Noble Ale Works anniversary party last Saturday. The Citra Showers, and Nelson showers were both fantastic. Also liked the White Russian. 

Tongue Tickles is not going to be brewed again for a few months. THey dont have the greatest distributor and I think they are going to have some growing pains if they continue to pump out these beers.
 
Looking forward to the openings of Bottle Logic and Hoparrazi in Anaheim. Both have some serious potential.