Event season is ramping up again in San Diego Beer. Last weekend featured some great happenings, and this weekend will be no different.
Saturday Day
LA MESA — PubCakes is celebrating their 1-year storefront anniversary with a beer garden from 11 – 5. A $3 purchase at PubCakes or Treehouse Coffee Co. gets you three 4oz tasters of beer, with eight local breweries scheduled: Mission Brewery, Iron Fist, Pizza Port, Manzanita, Karl Strauss, Ballast Point, Green Flash, and Hess Brewing. Two food trucks (Mangia Mangia [Italian] and Super Q [BBQ]), more than a dozen vendors (including local favorite Doggie Beer Bones) and a photo booth ensure fun times for all.
MISSION VALLEY — Shea Homes is throwing a party for the opening of new loft-style townhomes Origen at Civita in Mission Valley from 12 – 3. The first 500 guests to fill out a registration card will receive tasters of Green Flash and Karl Strauss, as well as lunch from MIHO Gastrotruck and Food Farm. The event is free, and will also feature live music on the fourth floor of a skyLoft model home.
VISTA — Aztec Brewing Company is celebrating local craft with an event called “Paints & Pints” — from 2 – 5 you are invited to the Artists’ Reception, where a live painting demonstration by David Lozaeu will accompany “San Diego Surf Cuisine” from Epic Eatz.
Saturday Night
BALBOA PARK — One of my favorite events from 2011 is back again this Saturday from 6 – 10 (VIP $65); general: $39, 7 – 10. The VIP portion of Taste of San Diego Craft Brews, put on by the San Diego History Center in support of their K-12 outreach education program, will feature a lecture from Brewers Guild President Marty Mendiola on “The Year in Beer” and an exclusive collaboration beer: Rock Bottom Old Curmudgeon Barley Wine blended with Ballast Point Sea Monster Imperial Stout with Rum-soaked Oak Chips and Toasted Coconut. The food pairings also look amazing; I’ll give you a few examples: Pizza Port’s 547 Haight Imperial Red Ale will be paired with Local Habit’s spicy lamb sausage and polenta, while the Great American Brown meets up with smoked oysters and a roasted leek cream. What about wild boar baby back ribs with apple slaw to pair with Stone Smoked Porter and fresh Vietnamese-style duck confit spring rolls with passion fruit sauce for Stone Ruination IPA? Oh man. Each beer served must have won a Great American Beer Festival or World Beer Cup medal, and several brewers will be on hand to discuss their creations. A high-end auction including Padres dugout tix and a week stay in Vail, CO is icing on the cask — oops — cake.
DOWNTOWN — BeerNerdz is staking out the upper floor of downtown brewpub The Beer Company for yet another blind tasting of great beers from 5:30 – 8. $40 (or $35 per person for groups of two or more) gets you food, a scorecard and tasters of eight seasonal beers: Alpine Exponential Hoppiness, Lost Abbey Deliverance, AleSmith My Bloody Valentine, The Beer Company Scotch Ale, Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, Ballast Point Smoke Screen Helles, Wilco Tango Foxtrot from Lagunitas and Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine. The fun part is you have to determine what you are drinking based on the provided tasting notes. This tasting, the sixth in the series, is a great way to meet other beer drinkers and test your taste buds.
NORTH PARK — The unofficial after-party for both the events above is at Ritual Tavern, where live bluegrass night featuring The Big Decisions starts at 11.
Sunday
HILLCREST — Local Habit’s crawfish boil goes from 11 – 6. Chef Nick Brune, a Louisiana native, is cooking up a cool a la carte menu: 1.5 lbs crawfish with potatoes and corn for $16 (add alligator sausage -$6), alligator sausage for $8, shrimp, oyster or catfish poboys for $9, classic muffaletta sandwich for $8, or sauteed greens for $4.50. Get $1 off all beers on tap if you sport your Mardi Gras beads.
UPDATE 12:20 – added Sunday event & public transportation plug:
NORTH PARK — “Supper Sunday” with crispy fried chicken by Chef Colin Murray starts at 4 at Toronado. Pair that with 50 taps and 300+ bottles.
Can’t decide between these two? Go to both easily via the Route 10 bus that runs along University Ave. A one-way fare is $2.25 (all day $5) and the map/timetables can viewed here – remember to look at Sunday’s times. Local Habit is located just south of the University & 5th stop at 3827 5th Ave. Toronado is a few blocks north of the University & 30th stop at 4026 30th Street.