When you only have a weekend to spend in the Craft Beer Capital of America, it’s impossible to hit all of the breweries. But, depending on how much time you have to dedicate solely to beer, you can definitely cross out quite a few of them! Below you can read a brief history of craft beer in San Diego and the histories of 5 of the best breweries in San Diego! (I’m a bit biased though…)
History of Craft Beer in San Diego
Now known as the Craft Beer Capital of America, San Diego’s very first brewery, the San Diego Brewery, opened back in 1896. There were a handful of breweries that opened after, but after Prohibition hit only three of the original breweries survived. But even that was short lived, as they were all bought by one of the bigger breweries: Anhauser-Busch, Coors, and Miller.
After going through a 50+ year brewery drought, founders Chris Cramer and Matt Rattner opened Karl Strauss Brewery, the very first craft brewery in San Diego. But it took almost a decade after their opening that more breweries started to open, and it wasn’t until 2010 that the San Diego craft beer industry really started to boom. Now there are well over 100 breweries in and around San Diego, and it is estimated that one in every five California breweries are based in San Diego. That’s insane!
The Breweries
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to visit Karl Strauss while I was in San Diego because they were only open for to-go cans due to the pandemic, but I was able to visit plenty of others during my short visit!
Amplified Ale Works
Amplified Ale Works was originally a restaurant called California Kebab, which was a fast-casual restaurant that specialized in Mediterannean style food made from scratch. But, in 2012, the owners decided to expand their little restaurant into a full blown brewery. Their goal was to create a community-centric place where people could enjoy great food, great beer, and great views of Pacific Beach. I can personally attest to the fact that they have 100% achieved their goal!
One super fascinating thing I learned about AAW is that all of their beers are gluten-reduced! One of their assistant brewers, who originally started with them as a manager, has celiac disease. When they discovered a company that could help them reduce the gluten in their beers, they took full advantage so everyone can enjoy their delicious beers!
Amplified Ale Works has a truly incredible and diverse portfolio of beers, some of which have fantastic names like their Juice Springsteen & the Yeast Street Band. But, despite not having as fun of a name, my personal favorite was the Cantina Lager!
Planning on visiting San Diego with someone that doesn’t like beer? Well lucky for you their food is out of this world!!! So it’s still worth the trip! I talk more about it in my Ultimate Foodie’s Guide to San Diego, but make sure you get the doner fries!
Coronado Brewing Company
Coronado Brewing Company was first opened by two brothers in 1996. When they opened, they were one of only five breweries in San Diego! Since their opening, they have gone on to create award winning beers and even earned themselves the award for World Beer Cup Champion Best Mid-Sized Brewery & Brewmaster!
Coronado Brewing Company now has three locations. I visited the Imperial Beach location, which is directly across from the beach and definitely helps solidify the feeling they strive to achieve of staying coastal.
Coronado has a number of signature beers that can be found nationwide, but my personal favorite was their Berried at Sea (which I haven’t been able to find anywhere since I’ve been home!). Berried at Sea is a tart ale brewed with plenty of raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries. Their Orange Ave Wit and Weekend Vibes (a San Diego-style IPA) are both great options as well.
If you need to eat while you’re there, I highly recommend the grilled wahoo fish tacos!
Duck Foot Brewing Company
Duck Foot Brewing Company was founded in 2015, and oddly enough one of the founders of Duck Foot also has celiac disease! He discovered an enzyme that, when added to beer, does nothing else other than remove most, if not all, of the gluten in the beer.
So what does that mean for Duck Foot? It means that all their beers are gluten-reduced and celiac-friendly!
Duck Foot was the last brewery I visited before heading to the airport for my flight home, so I didn’t have too much time to spend there but their beer was fantastic! They also have really cool cans, which doesn’t impact the beer obviously but it’s a nice little touch. I loved their Coconut IPA, but I’m now on a mission to find Drink This or the Bees Die (a honey ale) because it sounds amazing!
Modern Times Beer
Prior to my visit to San Diego, I had never heard of Modern Times, but my friend and her husband insisted that they are one of the best breweries in San Diego and that I absolutely needed to pay them a visit. After trying one of their beers at Time Out Sports Tavern and instantly falling in love with an IPA for the first time ever, I knew they were right. (I won’t be sharing the name of that specific beer because it’s a touchy subject for me since I can’t get it in Massachusetts *insert Kim K ugly crying face here*)
I’m not really sure what the best part of Modern Times is: their beer or the history behind the name of both the brewery and their beers.
But let’s talk about the history.
Modern Times first opened its doors in 2013. The name of the brewery actually comes from a Utopian community that existed on Long Island in the 1850s and was called Modern Times. The owner explains why he loves it so much so perfectly on their website that I can’t possibly paraphrase it, so here is the direct quote:
“I chose to name the brewery after Modern Times because I’m fascinated by the colorful, ambitious little pockets of history that develop in the folds of progress, the forgotten little paradises that barely register in the onward rush of civilization. I also appreciate what the colonists were trying to achieve for themselves: to live, right now, in a world of enterprising, fulfilling hedonism. Hopefully, Modern Times Beer will be one of those little pockets too.”
I just love everything about that!
Since its opening, almost all of their beers have been named after either real-life utopian experiments or mythological utopias.
Modern Times also roasts their own coffee! I haven’t tried it, but I did recently pick up a hazy coffee ipa collab that they did with Stone Brewery and it was phenomenal!
Stone Brewery
Speaking of Stone Brewery…
Visiting Stone’s Escondido location may have been my favorite overall brewery experience during my trip.
Stone was originally founded in 1996 and is now the 9th largest brewery in America! They also operate the largest craft-centric beer distribution company in the country and have brewing facilities on both the West and East coasts.
Stone Brewery was one of, if not the, first brewery to make what is now known as a West coast style IPA and they were the first brewery in the world to bottle a double IPA. All that to say that when it comes to a top notch IPA, you really can’t get much better than the ones at Stone.
Even before visiting the actual brewery, I was a pretty big fan of Stone beer. It’s widely available and all of their beer is incredible! My favorite thing though is that they very clearly mark the best by date on their cans and bottles to ensure that the consumer knows when the optimal time to enjoy their beer is. They even have a fall limited release that is called Enjoy By and you need to enjoy it by October 31.
When you visit the Escondido brewery, you know that you’re entering the home of gargoyles. The building kind of looks like an old, brick fortress with vines and greenery everywhere. When you enter, you are greeted by a giant gargoyle, which is their mascot who acts as a guardian against “cheap ingredients, pasteurization, and chemical additives – the modern-day evil spirits of beer”. The beer is phenomenal, the food is great, and the whole experience is just amazing. I also tried a michelada here for the first time, which they make with a special blend and their Buenaveza, which is a salt and lime lager. Highly recommend giving it a try!
There are so many other incredible breweries that I didn’t have a chance to visit this time around, so if I missed your favorite drop a comment below so I can add it to my list for next time!