Ballast Point Brewery, San Diego, CA
I found my favorite San Diego brew almost as soon as I moved here and this is my only excuse for being as yet woefully unfamiliar with the endless array of excellent beers brewed more or less in my backyard. I arrived all bright eyes and thirsty taste buds, fully aware that I’d moved to the beer mecca of California, a fabled hop & malt paradise by the sea. Perhaps this is why, overwhelmed, I zeroed in on the first brew I tasted that truly felt like home. (Then again, how many beers can we say that about?)
Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale tastes the way sun-warmed sand on free toes feels – at once warm and refreshing, wholesome and rich, natural yet deliciously rare. Once my other half and I tasted this smooth, golden brew, we drank it any way we could: out of pitchers and plastic cups, frosty pints and bottles upended into jam jars. Now that we’re settled here, I may be ready to move on, to try new things (like some of Ballast Point’s other, undoubtedly awesome offerings). But I have to say – a Yellowtail at sunset will be pretty hard to beat. - Lauren Westerfield [Photo: Revolution Brewing, Chicago, IL Beer is a hobby I’ve only recently taken up, previously scorning the beverage due to a perception of it only existing as watered down tall boys of PBR. So while I may only be a blue belt in the world of beer, I have spent enough time taste testing to know what I like and don’t like. Chicago’s Revolution Brewing, found in Logan Square, is a microbrewery that has quickly gained popularity since its 2010 opening. It helps that the masterminds behind it are no novices to begin with, having spent over 10 years in the brewing business before opening up the Milwaukee & California Ave. location. Brewing about 35 of their own concoctions yearly, Revolution brewmaster Jim Cibak brings IPAs, pilsners, wheat beers, porters and everything in between to the tap. Intelligent and direct descriptions give accurate previews to all the beers available on their menu, making it easy for forthcoming beer snobs like myself to really grasp what is in their beer and learn just why or why not they enjoy that particular brew. Revolution has earned my trust as a tried and true favorite through its vast variety and constant rotation of well-crafted beers that each carries a truly unique combination of ingredients. - Sam Gordon [Photo: Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO Though technically based in Kansas City, MO, Boulevard Brewing – the state’s second-largest brewery, after Budweiser – does Kansas right by brewing one of the best unfiltered wheat beers you’re likely to find. That’s fitting, given its proximity to the breadbasket of America and a market where pretty much every brewer has at least a halfway decent shot at making a quality wheat beer. While the unfiltered wheat is Boulevard’s top offering, the brewery also distributes a notable pale ale, the “Bully! Porter” and a number of seasonal offerings. Though the last few years have seen an increase in local competition – Tallgrass Brewing in Manhattan, KS and Free State in Lawrence, KS have both begun seeing wider distribution – Boulevard is still the region’s best widely distributed microbrew. - Aaron Passman [Photo: Stone Brewing Company, Escondido, CA The best thing about San Diego (besides all the Mexican food) is that you can find Stone beer pretty much everywhere, from bars with beer taps to the local supermarket chains. What’s novelty elsewhere is old hat here, but it’s hard to resist a six-pack of their deliciously hoppy Stone IPA, even in the face of the inherent savings in buying the adjacent 47-pack of Bud Select Wheat-Flavored Water. In addition to good beer, Stone has attitude on its side, boasting beers with names like Arrogant Bastard Ale and Ruination IPA along with their labels of beer-swilling gargoyles emblazoned on the bottles. If you’re not into craft beers, you’d think Stone had the power to level entire buildings with a single sip. Then you have a taste and you realize, yes, Earth is doomed. - Danny Djeljosevic [Photo: Allagash Brewing Company, Portland, ME All around the world statues crumbled for me. Who knows how long I’d loved you? Everyone I’d known had been so good to me. I was 21 years old, it had only been two weeks since my birthday that I returned to New York for my senior year at NYU. While catching the subway back from a video shoot with a friend, he asked me now that I was of age what my favorite beers were. After I named the over-saturated name brands I’d been exposed to, he paused and asked me why I “drink such awful beer.” I was an alcohol novice so that night he brought me to a bar named Jimmy’s No. 43 and exposed me to Allagash White. While I’ve since developed quite the palate for beer and generally prefer the darker variety, nothing quite tops a good Belgium. Allagash Brewing, out of Maine, makes my absolute favorite. Flavorful while being subtle, refreshing without being overbearing, it’s an absolute must whenever I see it available. - Chaz Kangas [Photo: Ninkasi Brewing Company, Eugene OR Benjamin Franklin once said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” The folks at Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, OR couldn’t agree more. Named after the ancient Sumerian goddess of fermentation, Ninkasi elevates craft brewing to an art form, as one taste of their flagship Tricerahops Double IPA will attest. This bold, quintessential Northwest IPA boasts 100 IBU’s, 8.8% alcohol by volume, and is sold in 22 ounce bottles. It has a bright, floral aroma, huge hop flavor and the perfect amount of malt for balance. I first visited their tasting room in late 2009, when it looked more like a nondescript, makeshift production office. Now in 2011, the tasting room has been generously expanded and remodeled to grand proportions, featuring patio seating and a limited snack menu. You can stand elbow-to-elbow with your fellow beer lovers at any given operating hour for a sample tray of the brewery’s stellar line-up or a full pint of your favorite varietal. - Amanda Gilchrist Ale Asylum, Madison, WI If there’s one thing Wisconsinites like, it’s their beer, and Madison happens to offer one of the best microbreweries in the Midwest. Locally owned with its products popping up all over the city, the Ale Asylum brewery is a popular place. Ale Asylum offers some killer brews – like the aptly named Hopalicous, ruddy Ambergeddon and 10% abv. Tripel Nova – with rather entertaining tours to match, just a short taxi ride from the University of Wisconsin campus. Of course, all the fun beer names, cool packaging and entertaining tours don’t matter as much as the beer itself, so Ale Asylum only makes the good stuff. That’s 12 different tasty beers made exclusively (without exception) from water, malt, hops and yeast. For us Madisonians, it’s like getting your beer from some cool neighbors a few streets down. It also just happens to be the best you can get. - Michael Merline [Photo: Terminal Gravity Brewery, Enterprise, OR Tucked away in tiny Enterprise, OR – closer to Boise and Spokane than to Portland – is the Terminal Gravity Brewery and Public House. Responsible for what has been hailed as one of the best beers in Oregon, their Terminal Gravity India Pale Ale or “TGI” is probably one of the tastiest beers to have graced any American gullet. It’s so tasty, in fact – hitting high peach and citrus notes in a bath of mellow malts and biting hops and as thirst-quenching as the snow melt used to brew it – that I can recall both the first place I had one (a café) as well as the second (a strip club), though in the second case that may be more due to other obvious factors, like that it was a Tuesday. - Joe Clinkenbeard [Photos: San Diego nightlife clubs and see for yourself how vibrant the city’s nightlife is. See Also: List Inconsequential- Best Places to Go For a Bone: Our Favorite BBQ Joints in the USA
