San Diego Beer Blog

Driving up to Big Bear, I noticed a sign I’ve never seen before “Fresh Beer Brewed Here - 866-BEER”. Wait? There’s a brewery up in Big Bear? How did I not know this? Needless to say, I had to check it out before I went back home. It took a little convincing to get the crew interested in heading out, but I was able to wrangle a couple of guys for the mission.

Big Bear Mountain Brewery is located at 40260 Big Bear Blvd, 92315 in a large light yellow building. It’s hard to miss if you know it’s there, it’s the only yellow building in the area.

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The San Diego beer scene took a bit of a hit when the Liars’ Club closed its doors late last year. We were shocked and saddened by the news. Lots of rumors are floating around as to the exact reason it happened, but we won’t get into that here. The good news, they’ve reopened into a much larger, much nicer location in Alpine.

Last night Jorge, Gretty and I dared the drive out 8 East about 630pm. There was light traffic and we made it from my driveway (La Mesa) to parked in the back of their lot in under 15 minutes! I’ve spent over 15 minutes looking for parking at the old location.

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While waiting for Ugly Bill a few Fridays ago, Matt and I ventured to the Tap Room for lunch. We had been there once before to try and watch a football game, but it was so packed, we left right away. This time, it was much quieter.

The Tap Room is your typical Pacific Beach bar (albeit newer and cleaner than most.) Lots of seating, multiple TVs, beach-themed decor, and ditzy, SDSU-student waitresses.

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Ahh, the Aero Club. We’ve all seen it, and we’ve all thought the same thing passing it on the 5 North. “What the hell kind of dive is that?” That’s were you would be wrong. Matt and I were pleasantly surprised to see that The Aero Club has it’s act together.

The beer selection isn’t incredible by any means, but adequate for a weeknight bar run. The bartender was super cool, pretty well informed about beer and just a little smarmy(just the way we lik em’) They had a good selection of music playing, and the place never felt pretentious or “scenester”

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O’Briens Pub is our favorite place to grab some unique beers and excellent food. It’s not exactly a sports bar but they do show many soccer tournaments and Chargers games on their wide array of TVs. The large outdoor patio is the perfect spot to enjoy your food & beer while hanging out with your furry friends. Their massive bottle list and extensive tap selection boggles the mind.

Gretchen and I head here at least twice a month (sometimes more), our last visit was for the Chargers vs Packers game. The bar was about 60% full for the game with almost everyone cheering for the Chargers (minus Gretchen and some random old dude).

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After hearing about this new place via Liar’s Club, Matt and I finally got around to checking it out. Located at 4095 30th St in North Park, The Ritual Tavern is a pretty nice place. Actually, a lot nicer than I expected. It has two areas: a small bar area, with access to an outdoor patio, and a more formal “dining” room, complete with candles and white tablecloths. Pretty fancy schmancy for a tavern!

The beverage list is fairly expansive, including local brews, imported bottles, and even some wines. Read more »

The Mission Beach Liars’ Club is no more, check out the new Alpine location: Liars’ Club Alpine Tavern and Grill.

The Liars’ Club is one of San Diego’s premier beer related establishments. Located in Mission Beach about 100 yards from the Pacific Ocean it is the perfect place to enjoy a couple of beers and some delicious food while wandering around the beach or before a show.

On this particular Friday night Jorge and I were going to Canes (wow, that place sucks) for a Wolf Parade & Holy Fuck event.

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The WTF crew had an unexpected surprise last night. Hamiltons Tavern is one badass bar! With a beer selection that boggles the mind, it was hard to even choose what to try. I finally decided to have a bottle of Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout. I have to say it was delicious. I followed that up with a Lightning Thunderwizen. Matt had an Alesmith IPA, Racer 5 IIPA, Alesmith Speedway Stout respectively. Overall the atmosphere of Hamiltons was awesome, with just a *bit* of a hipster vibe that was easy to deal with.

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