Yesterday we posted an article about our recent trip to San Diego, where the weather disappointed us but the beer did not. This is part two of that story.

Hitting the Beach

Day One, continued:

After visiting Stone Brewing, Ballast Point Brewing and AleSmith Brewing, we checked into our hotel in San Diego’s Pacific Beach neighborhood.

We stayed at the Ocean Park Inn on Pacific Beach. The boardwalk is right outside your door and the sand is only steps away. Nothing on the beach is cheap, but this was really quite affordable. Our room had a balcony with an ocean view, though they did not consider it one of their ocean view rooms. We paid about $160 per night. We could have spent a lot more and gotten less. The room was clean and comfortable. Not fancy, but nothing to complain about. The staff was friendly and helpful.

The ocean view from our non-view room.

It did not take long for us to discover that the Pacific Beach Alehouse was right across the street from our hotel. Yes, this is a brew pub. Yes, we tried all of their beers. They also pour beer from other breweries. When the clock struck ten, the crowd reminded me of Seattle’s Pioneer Square on a Saturday night. I saw the bouncers checking a lot of IDs. I felt very old and sought refuge in a delicious pint of Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA.

The Toronado San Diego

Day Two:

Saturday morning we woke up filled with a spirit of adventure. Recognizing that the day had delivered a brief respite from the monsoon, we took a lovely stroll on the beach. We then hopped in the car and explored San Diego a bit. Basically, killing time until the Toronado opened.

Toronado San Diego taps.

If you’ve been to the original Toronado in San Francisco, one of the most notorious beer bars on the west coast, you will immediately notice one thing missing at the Toronado San Diego: the attitude. Either you know what I’m talking about or you don’t. Suffice it to say that in San Diego the bartender actually does suffer fools. You will not get smacked upside the head if you ask for a Stella. You won’t get a Stella, but you won’t get verbally assaulted either.

This was our first real venture into San Diego’s blossoming beer culture and we received a glorious, full-immersion baptism in beer as only the Toronado can provide. We arrived at about noon and sat at the bar next to a couple of locals. They told us that they’d been there since the joint opened at 11:30 and were disappointed when they arrived at 11:15 and found the place still locked up. They were great guys and shared a lot of information with us.

Friendly people at the bar.

We learned that the Toronado San Diego is in a part of town called North Park, a neighborhood that would not tolerate a bartender with a surly attitude. Apparently San Diego’s North Park is demographically similar to Seattle’s Capitol Hill: it’s a colorful and friendly part of town, known for boutique shops and fine dining.

Our familiarity with the original Toronado meant that our expectations were high. We were not disappointed. You’ll find 32 draft selections and two beer engines waiting for you. The beer selection was… well, it was perfect. Unlike the original, this iteration of the Toronado has a kitchen.

Blind Lady Alehouse and Brewery

We left the Toronado and headed for Blind Lady Alehouse. Located just 1.5 miles away from the Toronado, the Blind Lady is on Adams Avenue in a part of town that reminded us of Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. Here we hooked up with a friend, Kim Tate (a.k.a. Tater), who recently relocated to San Diego. Yes, there’s a reason I told you that.

Beers on the bar at the Blind Lady Alehouse.

Awesome pizza, kickass beer and totally packed at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon is how I’d describe the Blind Lady. One of the owners of the Blind Lady Alehouse is Lee Chase, the brewer at Automatic Brewing. While they have a lot of other beer on tap, you kind of get the feeling that the Blind Lady Alehouse is sort of like Automatic Brewing’s brewpub. In fact, Lee was there working behind the bar when we visited.

Lee Chase was kind enough to come out from behind the bar to talk about his brewery and share information about the San Diego beer scene. Although the place was packed, and there were plenty of things he could have been doing, he was very generous with his time. As I mentioned, a friend who had recently moved to San Diego joined us at the Blind Lady. She is young, she is blond, and even by Southern California’s standards, the Tater is hot. That may or may not have had something to do with Lee’s willingness to entertain us for so long. (Sorry Lee, likely the only brewers she’d be interested in play baseball in Milwaukee.)

The Blind Lady should be high on your list of San Diego beer destinations. Ask about the vast collection of vintage beer cans. It’s very impressive and there is a story behind it. One of the most impressive collections I have ever seen.

The Small Bar

This is a relatively new bar in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood, a new joint from the owner of San Diego’s Hamilton’s Tavern (which we missed hitting because they weren’t open yet when we drove by). There is nothing small about the beer selection. The Small Bar boasts over 40 beers on tap. Compared to the relaxed, comfy atmosphere at the Toronado and the pizza-hall, almost familyish atmosphere at the Blind Lady, the Small Bar is hip and cool.

The rain. Very familiar to us, but terrifying to the locals.

We arrived and found the Small Bar packed with people of every age and description. When Kim made her way through the crowd to the bar to fetch our beers, I struck up a conversation with a guy sitting next to me. “It usually doesn’t get this packed until later,” he explained, “It’s because of the weather.”

A hip and cool bar, in a "great beer selection" kind of way.

It all started to make sense. That’s why all these places were so packed on a Saturday afternoon. This was, after all, the height of San Diego’s two-day monsoon season. These people were paralyzed by the rain. It’s probably all they can do to wander out of their houses and up the street to the local pub. The only reason the Tater was able to make it across town to join us at the Blind Lady was because she’s a Seattle transplant. It all made sense.

To be honest, though we really appreciated the vast selection of beer and the place seemed pretty cool, it was too crowded for our comfort. Also, the music was loud—I’m talking club volume. Although they have great beer, the Small Bar was perhaps a bit too young and hip for our taste. Maybe we just caught them at a bad time.

Tapping into the Taproom

Later that evening, after a bit of downtime, we ventured out of our hotel room and took a short walk up the street to the Taproom. As I described earlier, you’re at Pacific Beach and you have to deal with the Pacific Beach crowd. The Taproom makes it very much worth your while.

The Taproom - Amazing beer selection near the beach.

Not only does the Taproom have over 40 beers on tap, they lean heavily towards local craft beer. They do something at the Taproom that is especially valuable to wayfaring beer gypsies like us. Not only did they have AleSmith on tap, they had four AleSmith beers on tap. Furthermore, they had five offerings from Green Flash, four from Karl Strauss, five from Ballast Point and… you get my point. This is the place to go if you want to sample a lot of different beer from local breweries.

The crowd was young and rowdy, but they all seemed friendly enough. The Taproom offers a kind of a sports bar atmosphere. No doubt many of the patrons were opting for the lighter bodied beers on the menu, but we liked the Taproom.

Hasta Luego, San Diego!

The next day we woke up impossibly early, needing to be in Long Beach by 10:00 a.m. Our visit to San Diego seemed like a whirlwind—like a beautiful beer tornado sucked us up for a couple of days. We loved San Diego and look forward to going back and picking up the pieces. There’s so much we did not see: Green Flash, Lost Abbey, and Alpine, to name just a few.

This is Part 1 of the San Diego beer adventure. (see Part 2.)

Fellow Seattlites, count your blessings—the Emerald City is replete with craft beer.  Sure, the rest of the country is slowly catching up, but for most of the nation craft beer is still an anomaly and only about one in 25 beers consumed nationally is craft beer (about 4 percent). Around Seattle, that number is closer to 25 percent. As craft beer lovers, we are not totally alone. There are a few other places across the country with vibrant craft beer cultured comparable to our own. Recently, we paid a visit to one such craft beer stronghold.

My wife had never been to San Diego and my last visit was nearly 20 years ago. Expansive beaches, sunshine and great craft beer seemed a perfect way for us to remedy the suffocating winter malaise that consumes your spirit when you live in the Pacific Northwest.

The weather disappointed us but the beer did not.

Taking San Diego by Storm

We only had two days on the ground in San Diego, so we devised a judicious craft beer attack plan. Unknowingly, we planned our visit during San Diego’s two-day monsoon season. We therefore wanted to avoid anything vaguely resembling traffic. Instead of spending the majority of our time in the car driving from brewery to brewery, we split our attention between breweries that were along the way and the good beer bars within San Diego proper. We figured that this plan would give us the best opportunity to sample the widest variety of beer from the area’s breweries.

Day One

This beer adventure was part of a larger vacation to Southern California. We left Palm Springs early on a Friday morning and drove the Pines to Palms Scenic Byway (palms to pines, in our case). Faster routes were available, but Kim and I are built for comfort and not for speed. This route delivered us to the northern edge of San Diego County, not far from Escondido.

Stone Brewing Company

Okay, this is a big brewery. I know that many people might think Stone has gotten too big for its britches, but in my opinion any visit to San Diego County should include a visit to Stone Brewing in Escondido. In short, the place is amazing—vast, high tech, and beautiful.

Big brewery, big tour. (Stone Brewing)

When you approach it, you might miss it. Stone’s world headquarters is horribly underdressed when viewed from the street. When you step through the front doors into the lobby, you will not be impressed either. When you walk into the lovely Stone Bistro, you might raise your eyebrows and nod in approval. But when you walk out onto the patio…

The Bistro at Stone. No expense spared.

Kim actually got a bit verklempt when we walked out of the pub and into the sunny, expansive, lush, beautiful, organic beer garden. It’s hard to put into words. We have nothing like it around here. With unlimited resources, this is what my backyard would look like. Breathtaking.

Enjoying a beer in the garden at Stone.

Take the tour. It’s free and there is a beer tasting at the end: about two pints of free beer, by my reckoning.

Ballast Point Brewing Company

Heading south from Escondido, we next stopped at Ballast Point Brewing. Located in an unassuming building deep in the heart of a light-industrial business park, you will need to mind your GPS to find Ballast Point. Seriously, trust her when she says, “You have arrived at your destination.”

When we walked into the small tasting room at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon, the place was packed. We did the sampler tray, which was kind of a waste of time. All of the beers were great, don’t get me wrong, but we had spent the previous six days in Palm Springs, where good beer (especially good IPA) is very hard to come by. That being said, we gravitated to the Sculpin IPA, both the draft and cask versions. Oh sweet relief! It reminded us of home. Sculpin IPA is more northwestern than many of our Washington-brewed IPAs. It is completely out-of-balance and ridiculously over-hopped. I mean that in the most reverential way.

Before long, we noticed some familiar faces. Were these people following us? Yes, as a matter of fact, they were. The Brewery Tours of San Diego bus was on our tail. Along with the other tourists, we took the tour of Sculpin’s brewery. Compared to the kind of breweries we are used to touring, this one seemed much more familiar and “to scale” than Stone. They made us wear safety glasses. Cool.

OSHA Approved Brewery Tour at Ballast Point.

Ballast Point’s beer is excellent, and we always appreciate being introduced to a new brewery, but there wasn’t a lot more for us to see at the brewery, save for a guy dropping to the floor and doing 20 push-ups every 10 minutes (the Marine Corps Miramar Air Station is nearby, after all).

AleSmith Brewing Company

At this point, the breweries started to seem like a Russian nesting doll: they just kept getting smaller and smaller. AleSmith Brewing is located in an even less-assuming business park that is even harder to find. There is barely a sign on the door to let you know you’ve arrived. In fact, even after you walk in you might wonder if this is the place.

There is no atmosphere, only beer. In a big room used to store empty kegs and little more, you will find a diminutive tasting bar. Nothing fancy, just good beer. The actual brewery is next door. Apparently even this much of a tasting room is a relatively new thing for AleSmith.

No frills, good beer at AleSmith Brewing.

The beers get better as they get bigger. The AleSmith IPA was good. The Wee Heavy was better. The Speedway Stout was outstanding. The Old Numbskull was mind-blowing. Largely unknown outside of San Diego County, AleSmith is a highly decorated brewery. It’s easy to understand when you’re there tasting the beer.

The person pouring beers in the taproom suggested that AleSmith might be having conversations with a distributor in the Seattle area, but that’s all we know.

See Part 2 the adventure

I’ve noticed this in recent travels and talked about it with beer fans –  good craft breweries are opening, and bars that focus on serving good craft beer are finally finding their way into the heartland. No more do we have to suffer a wasteland of PBR and Coors when we visit southwest towns like Tucson or midwest towns like Chicago. Now we can get beer worthy of the food in this fabulous and friendly region.

Enjoying Goose Island Matilda with our dinners at Rick Bayless' XOCO

So when heading to Chi-town with friends and fellow beer-lovers Tim and Nancy, armed with some good advice and a little research, we found some good beer bars, gastropubs and even a real neighborhood brewpub.

Clark Street Alehouse – they don’t have their own website so I’m giving you a Yelp page link instead for this sweet, dark, little neighborhood beer bar in River North. Similar to the Beveridge Place in West Seattle in that there’s just beer and pretzels here, and you step up to the bar to order from a deep draft list with beers we don’t see on draft here in the Northwest. We sampled selections from Goose Island, 3 Floyds and Bell’s Brewing, and particularly enjoyed the Bells Two Hearted IPA.

Hopleaf — also in River North, this is a 21+ bar with food and another deep draft list. Possibly the biggest selection of Belgian-style beers I’ve seen on draft outside of Brouwer’s. On a Saturday night, this place was packed with a loud, friendly crowd of mixed ages. We felt right at home.

Hopleaf

XOCO – ok, not a beer bar, but they did have 22-ouncers of Matilda to pair with our delicious Rick Bayless creations. This is his “fast food” concept that’s attached to the Frontera Grill. Sigh. I have a major food crush on Rick Bayless. (It’s ok if Kendall knows that, he has a man-crush on Rick Bayless so he understands.)

Carnitas Caldo (or "Mexican Pho") at XOCO

Dessert at XOCO: fresh churros with hot chocolate for dipping; ginger lime leche cake, and Goose Island Matilda.

Rock Bottom Chicago - In the continuum of good Rock Bottom and bad Rock Bottom, because they are not all created alike, this is very near the good side. The bartender was a recent transport from Portland, OR, so he had a good feel for the beer and what we might enjoy. We sampled Erik’s Red, a dry-hopped oatmeal stout, and a brand new Rye P.A. that they tapped while we were sitting there. They were both quaffable, well-balanced and well-hopped. Great downtown location just north of the River and west of Michigan, perfect for tourists like us.

The Gage - credited by some for starting the gastropub craze in Chicago, this should be a tourist joint, being right across from Millenium Park. But it turns out locals love it too, and why wouldn’t they? Comfortable environs, friendly service, and a mix of people from well-heeled diners to folks in Bears jerseys having a victory beer on their way home from Soldier Field. So comfortable that we hung out for upwards of five hours sampling from the menu. The beer list isn’t extensive, but it’s thoughtful and they had a Southern Tier Pale on that was delicious.

Dining at The Gage with friends from Chicago (including one silly one)

Revolution Brewing - We found this one on Yelp, a brand new brewpub in the Logan Square neighborhood, about a 15-minute ride northwest of downtown on the Blue Line. They just opened in February and brew about 12 of their own, most of them on the draft list along with ten or so guest taps. Our server, Bear, was friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgable. The beers were outstanding – we tried the Bottom Up Wit, Anti-Hero IPA, Eugene (their porter), Bourbon-Barrel Aged Eugene, Reel Ten ESB, and Thee Destroyer, an outstanding citra-hopped double IPA.

We dug into their food menu as well, including an absolutely ridiculous bacon fat popcorn with shaved parmesan and fried sage leaves, and a Flemish stew on cream-cheese mashed potatoes. My favorite: a dessert of citra hop ice cream with orange pound cake and cranberry compote, paired with Thee Destroyer it blew my mind.

Enjoying bacon fat popcorn at Revolution Brewing

Huge soft pretzel with German-style mustard and creamy cheddar-ale dipping sauce (at Revolution Brewing)

Regrets from Chicago? Sure I had a few. Mostly due to eating only pork, beef and beer for three days straight. Not so good for a fiber-eating girl’s stomach. But ahhh, Chicago. Until next time.

We just returned from a vacation. We high-tailed it down the I-5 corridor, hopped around northern California, and returned via Bend, Oregon. This was not a beer trip. We did not set out on one of our beer adventures. Seriously, that wasn’t the point of this trip. Really.

This vacation was about relaxation. That having been said, we didn’t make it far down the road before we found ourselves filling growlers at Northwest Sausage and Deli in Chehalis, the former home of Dick’s Brewing. Northwest Sausage and Deli is still run by the late Dick Young’s daughter and features an ample selection of Dick’s beers on tap and in bottles. Still, this trip was not about beer. It was about relaxing.

A Mind of Its Own

We spent Labor Day weekend camping and relaxing with friends in southern Washington. After that we headed further south, committed to a much-needed vacation from emails, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, beer and beer blogging. Just across the California border we stopped in a lovely little town called Weed where it just so happened that the first establishment we found with restrooms was the Mount Shasta Brewing Company. I guess that sometimes the Washington Beer Cruiser has a mind of its own.

Perhaps our favorite thing about the Mount Shasta Brewing Company was how shamelessly they embrace their “weedness.” The beers were good, but the commitment to the shtick was even better. I suppose you cannot live in a town called Weed without having a sense of humor about it. We filled a growler so that later that evening we could “get buzzed on legal weed.” That’s the way they say it, anyway.

Got legal weed? Mt. Shasta Brewing Co, Weed, CA

Back on the highway, growler full, southbound again. One night camping near Lake Shasta. Next morning found us back on the road headed for wine country. Then we passed a sign for the Chico exit. Now, this was not a beer trip. We were both committed to that. However, we surmised that there was no way to know how long it would be before we would find ourselves this close to the home of Sierra Nevada Brewing. Maybe we’d never be here again. Life is short.

A brief diversion to the east, lunch at the pub, a quick tour of the brewery, a couple six packs in the cooler and we were back on the road.

Sierra Nevada Brewing - Chico, CA

Wine Country Damn It!

“Wine! We came down here for wine,” we reminded ourselves. We’d both spent time in the more predictable wine counties of Sonoma and Napa, so we were looking for something a little different. We chose Anderson Valley, where the hot days and cool nights and mornings produce fantastic pinot and chardonnay grapes. Some refer to Anderson Valley as the new Napa.

It was a beautiful drive, the windy and scenic road from Ukiah to Boonville – the exceedingly tiny burg at the center of this Xanadu. This is one of California’s hidden treasures. It is impossibly beautiful and the wine is delicious. Anderson Valley does not have a bank. It does not have a proper grocery store. It has wineries, farms, three tiny towns and one outstanding brewery–Anderson Valley Brewing.

Anderson Valley Brewing - Boonville, CA

It was not our intention to arrive in Anderson Valley on the exact same day that Fal Allen (from whom all blessings flow) started his new job as the brewer at Anderson Valley Brewing Company. It was pure coincidence. We won’t go into details about who Fal Allen is, or what role he has played in the Washington beer scene. Suffice it to say, he’s somewhat legendary around Seattle. He has since moved on, spending time brewing at Anderson Valley Brewing and more recently overseas in Asia. Now he has returned to Anderson Valley. If Anderson Valley is Xanadu, then Fal Allen is Kubla Khan. And we finally got to meet Kubla Khan.

We spent a day touring the greater surroundings. We took the short drive out to the coast where we visited Mendocino and Fort Bragg. While Mendocino is perhaps one of the most charming beach towns on earth, if you know anything about Fort Bragg it is that you have no reason to go there except to visit the North Coast Brewing Company. We did that.

Then we got thirsty for wine. We visited a few wineries. Bought a few bottles. By late afternoon we found ourselves back in the beer garden at Anderson Valley where we were flabbergasted to stumble upon Eric and Cindy, our fellow Seattle-based beer bloggers (www.goodbeertrips.com). Was it a coincidence or were they stalking us? It’s not surprising that our paths crossed when you think about it. We’re both “out there” a lot.

North Coast Brewing Co - Fort Bragg, CA

On to Sonoma

We left Anderson Valley and relocated to Sonoma. A day of wine tasting and then we ended up in Santa Rosa visiting Russian River Brewing’s brewpub. Folks, we all loves us some Pliny the Elder, but until you behold the complete arsenal of Vinnie Cilurzo’s brewing creations… Man, oh man. I don’t want to rub it in, but…

Russian River Brewing - Santa Rosa, CA

The brewpub in Santa Rosa is fantastic. We sat at the bar and immediately developed a report with our bartender, Gabe. Then we quickly developed a report with the locals sitting at the bar around us. Then we noticed other people taking pictures and ordering sampler racks. This is a destination for beer lovers. A Mecca. People come from near and far to wash their tongues in the Russian River.

Russian River Brewing - Santa Rosa, CA

Next up, Lagunita’s Brewing in Petaluma, just few clicks down the highway from Santa Rosa. We’ve always loved the Lagunitas attitude. They seem to have so much fun with what they do. Their brewpub (open just over a year now) is a manifestation of the Lagunitas attitude. We didn’t want to leave.

Northbound and Down

Eventually we headed back north. It was a long day’s drive from Sonoma to Bend, where we visited the Bend Brewing Company, the Deschutes Brewery and Public House, 10 Barrel Brewing, Bone Yard Brewing, and Silver Moon Brewing.

After a couple days strolling around town, wandering along the Mirror Pond in Drake Park, visiting great breweries and meeting great people, we decided that Bend just might be the best beer town in the Pacific Northwest. (Town, not city.)  It is certainly worthy of any beer lover’s time. Not only do they have a great beer culture, but it is a great place to visit in general. The only bad thing we have to say about Bend is that we had to leave and head back to Seattle.

Deschutes Brewery Public House - Bend, OR

10 Barrel Brewing - Bend, OR

Boneyard Brewing - Bend, OR

Silver Moon Brewing - Bend, OR

A good friend of the Washington Beer Blog is currently in Belgium, which gave us an idea for a new poll. Our friend is doing a very good job of keeping us posted as he ambles about the bucolic Belgian beer landscape. Bastard.  Not really, it’s just that he is making us very jealous, to say the least.

So we have decided that it is time to start a new poll. We want to know where in the world you would choose to drink beer. Imagine that money is not an issue. You get to go wherever you want. Belgium, England, Ireland, Germany, and so on. The poll is over there in the right sidebar.

We’ve included California and Oregon as options because your responses to previous posts and polls suggest that many of you think that those two states are worthy of making the short list. We are also allowing you to write in anyplace you like.

So where in the world would you go to drink beer?

Sadly, we missed the Strangebrew Festival this year. Instead of heading west to Port Townsend for a weekend of fun and frivolity, we flew south to Palm Springs to conduct important research on the status of the craft brewing industry in California’s Coachella Valley. After all, some one has to do it.

In this story, we’ll explore the beer scene in Palm Springs and head west to one of California’s brightest, newest brewing stars: an up-and-coming brewery in Redlands.

A horse with no name

We visited two grocery stores in Palm Springs, Alberstons and Ralph’s, where we found a decent selection of craft beer. We immediately stocked the fridge with good beer. If you go to Palm Springs, we advise you do the same.

Firestone Walker was just about the only impressive draft beer we found in Palm Springs. Why Firestone Walker? I do not know for certain why they seem to have a foot in the door that other craft beers do not. I have a hunch, though. After four days in the desert sun, you won’t care if it rolled of the back of a Budweiser truck, you’ll just be glad to drink such good beer. (Speculation based on observation. I won’t pretend to have researched it.)

NYPD Brew

We enjoyed Firestone Walker DPA at a pizza place called NYPD, which stands for New York Pizza Delivery. Clever. It is located in the heart of Palm Springs on South Palm Canyon Drive (the main drag). The beer lineup included a full compliment of Anheuser-Busch beers, plus Firestone Walker DBA, Widmere Hefeweisen, and Kona Longboard Lager. Like I said, I have a hunch the A-B distributor runs the show around here.

The bartender told us Firestone Walker was on tap at a couple other places around town, but otherwise knew nothing about beer. The music was loud and the X Games were on the tube. We would gladly drink at NYPD again, assuming they continue to have at least one solid craft beer option. While there, we were entertained by some hard-drinkin’ retired cops. Perhaps they didn’t get the memo about the Pizza Delivery thing and thought this was a cop bar. Perhaps we didn’t get the memo and it was. Whatever the case, we like this place.

God save the Queen

Quite near NYPD we found Hair of the Dog – the only English pub in Palm Springs. This, we thought, would be a good place to get good draft beer. At Hair of the Dog we found Bass, Boddingtons, Newcastle and Guinness. The craft beer selection included New Belgium Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Widmere Hefeweizen and Widmere Drop Top Amber.

While Hair of the Dog was a perfectly peachy place to tip a pint and watch a rugby match on the tellie, it seemed like it was our duty to Queen and county to move along and continue our noble quest for good beer farther down the road.

The Village Idiot

In most places, pub means beer. Around Seattle, it frequently means lots of beer. With that in mind, we paid a visit to the Village Pub. Like the previous two bars, it’s on the main drag in downtown Palm Springs.

This is a casual place where they play classic rock way too loud, earning them an immediate smiley face in our travel book. After dinner, the crowd turns over and bouncers show up at the door. On this Friday night, the Village Pub was replete with women dressed in clothes that were both age and weight inappropriate, and hootin’-n-hollerin’ local boys who seemed to like it that way. The boys pounded down yellow beers and the girls sucked on tall drinks with long straws. The band –the same band that’s been playing the Village Pub twice a week for 11 years– pretty much rocked the house, cranking out classic rock favorites.

At the Village Pub, we found a house beer called Village Idiot Ale – a perfectly serviceable amber. It was a simple beer and not at all offensive. It was not overly sweet nor was it overly hopped. It was entirely unsucky. It was surprisingly consumable.

I asked, “Who makes this beer for you?” Our server did not know and apparently figured nobody else working at the bar would either. From the look on his face, I’ll assume it was brewed by Deer in Headlights Brewing. Seriously, you’d think I was the first person to ever ask the question. Maybe I was.

Is that a mirage?

Twenty minutes to the east of Palm Springs, in Rancho Mirage, there is a Yard House Restaurant – a national franchise that offers 150 draft beers. Reviews on Ratebeer.com suggested that we should not waste the gas or time. As one reviewer said, “Every imaginable brand of American swill, Euro swill, and a few flagship beers from America’s largest craft breweries.” Been there, done that.

Still farther to the east, in the sprawling suburban metropolis of Indio, you will find Back Street Brewing (Lamp Post Pizza). It is very new. Everything in Indio is very new. Quite by accident, we drove through Indio on our way back from Joshua Tree National Park. I swear, the entire city looks like it dropped from outer space two years ago. It frightened us.

We learned that Back Street is a chain of breweries in Southern California that recently took over a place called Lamp Post Pizza. We read some less-than-favorable reviews of the place and the beer – overpriced, uninspired beers. Still, they say there is a brewery in Indio. Someone braver than I will have to confirm it.

At last, an oasis

There was still hope. We’d heard fables of a brewery beyond the San Jacinto Mountains. Seeking nothing more than a meaningful beer experience in what was beginning to seem like a barren badlands of beerlessness, we pointed our rental car west on Interstate 10 and headed out for Redlands, just 40 minutes from Palm Springs. Ah, Redlands, CA. “Where the beer flows like wine and beautiful women flock instinctively like the salmon of Capistrano.” (From the movie Dumb and Dumber)

We found a great brewery in Redlands – Hangar 24 Brewing. (Pictures below.) As the name might suggest, they’re out at the airport. Hangar 24 was founded by Ben Cook, a graduate of the UC-Davis Master Brewers Program, a pilot, and an impressive entrepreneur. The brewery is growing. They opened in March 2008 and produced 1,100 barrels that year. In 2009, they more than quadrupled that number.

The person brewing the beer at Hangar 24 is Kevin Wright. When we visited, neither Kevin or Ben were available. Apparently they were on their way to England to accept an award. Kevin won the J.S. Ford Award, given annually to the earner of the top score in the London-based Institute of Brewing and Distilling’s general certificate in brewing exam. Cheers to that!

We arrived at about 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon and found their taproom overflowing into the parking lot. This place was rockin. Hangar 24 was the place to be in Redlands, CA. The endless stream of locals coming in to fill growlers was amazing. They sell bottles, growlers and kegs to go. And they sell a lot of them. We must have seen them fill 30-50 growlers in the time we were there.  A pick-up truck backed up to the garage and loaded 10 cases of bottles.

Hanger 24 offers a full compliment of beers. We were particularly impressed by the Porter, which was robust and full-bodied. Not quite an imperial, but big. Their Pale Ale and their IPA did not disappoint. My favorite was the Helles Lager. Kim’s favorite was the IPA.

Get out of your comfort zone

Renowned travel author Rick Steves says that in order to have a truly great travel experience you need to get out of your comfort zone. While he might be talking about eating strange foreign foods and trying to communicate without the luxury of a common language, for me getting out of my comfort zone involves fruited beer.

You literally drive through orange groves getting to Hangar 24. This is the Inland Empire, after all. To pay homage to the agricultural history of the area, Hangar 24 produces an Orange Wheat ale. I believe they consider it their flagship. It’s good. I mean, it’s really good. It was perfectly balanced, with just enough orange to make the point. It was refreshing and effervescent.  Because an Orange Wheat ale is so far from my comfort zone, and is something I would usually choose to avoid, I might need to revisit this one to make sure it is as good as I remember.

The grass is always greener

We met some really nice people at Hangar 24. Some local guys, who seemed to know a little bit about beer, were quite interested to learn that we were from Washington. They raved on and on about their great California beer. They were fans of Stone, Firestone Walker, Port Brewing and Lost Abbey, and some other breweries with which we were less familiar.

We told them that we drank those great California beers in Seattle. We also told them that there were plenty of people in Seattle who thought California beer was better than Washington beer.  That’s when one of the guys began to tell us about an amazing beer that he drinks every time he’s in Seattle. He claimed that it is better than any beer he’d had in California. He raved about this magnificent, mysterious beer from a distant land. He lit up when he talked about it like he was talking about his first real girlfriend.

We quizzed him.

He didn’t remember the name of the beer. All he could remember is that he drank it in a couple of different bars and that his buddy had to bring it home in growlers because you can’t get it in bottles. The only other thing he remembered about this amazing beer was something about Africa and a lion.

We never did figure out what beer he was talking about.

In the end

Our advice? Don’t worry too terribly much about beer when you visit Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley. Stock the fridge so you have something to drink at day’s end. If you’ve got a car, go find a brewery somwhere. Obviously we recommend Hangar 24. Go to Joshua Tree National Park. It’s amazing. Hike Palm Canyon. Take the tram to the top of the mountain. Ride bikes. Swim. Lay in the sun. Eat breakfast on the patio at 8:30 a.m. in January. Do all those things that you cannot do here in Washington.

The beer will be waiting for you at home.