San Diego Beerventure: Day Two

Mission Brewery

missionbrewery.com

Perfectly located across the parking lot from Petco Park, this brewery was hoppin' full of Padres' fans hoping for a sweep against the World Champion San Francisco Giants.  Housed in the historic Wonder Bread building, Mission Brewery's open industrial space allowed for beer lovers to enjoy their pint while watching all the action that takes place in the brewery.  On this sunny Sunday afternoon game day, there were only two beertenders.  This proved to be the only downside to the place.  While the beer was tasty, the amount of time we had to wait to get served, by no means the fault of the two hard working ladies there, led us to head into Petco Park early to take in the sights.

Petco Park

sandiego.padres.mlb.com

For this beer lover, the only thing better than a beerventure is a beerventure with baseball.  The smell and feel of a baseball park on a sunny day is truly unlike any other.  Upon entering through the gates, we headed to get a beer.  Fresh local beer was being served all over the ballpark.  Being from Seattle and knowing first hand about the great beer served at Safeco Field, I was in awe of how many different local beers were available.  Strategically placed individual brewery kiosks were abundant.  If you couldn't find a favorite, all you had to do was head to the Craft Beers of San Diego bottle shop and you had your choice of over 50 beers.  Besides being impressed with the selection, the Big Gulp sized craft beers for a reasonable price (under $10) were a welcomed sight on a hot afternoon.  Oh, and as for the baseball game, Padres won and swept the series right out from under those Giants.

San Diego Beerventure: Day One

Escaping the Northwest gloom for a sunny weekend in San Diego, California seemed delightful.  Throw in some exclusive brewery tours along with a Padres' game and well, this girl was in heaven.  A beer destination known across the nation, San Diego is home to several distinguished breweries, many of which make some pretty badass IPAs.  Sunshine and hops?  Yes please!

Green Flash Brewing Company
www.greenflashbrew.com
A few short hours after landing in SD, we made our way to Green Flash Brewing.  I have wanted to come visit this brewery ever since my lips touched a pint of their West Coast IPA years ago.  With some time to spare prior to a private tour, we grabbed a few pints and headed out to their sun filled beer garden.  Nothing was more relaxing than enjoying Green Flash's hoppy treats while basking in the SoCal rays.  The staff provided among the best customer service I have ever experienced at a busy brewery.  Every question and need was attended to, no matter how big or small.  Even though we could have spent the rest of the day there, we finished up our tasters and headed out to White Labs.

White Labs Tasting Room
www.whitelabs.com/white-labs-tasting-room
What intrigued me most about a visit to White Labs was that a yeast producer would have a tasting room open to the public.  I was anxious to see what I could learn about how different strains affected the same beer.  Walking in and seeing the wall behind the bar lined with taps, I instantly chose a vertical tasting of their Extra Pale Ale made with four different yeast strands.  Before I knew it, another private tour was hatched, safety glasses and all.  White Labs provided nearly 75% of the yeast for the beers that won awards at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colorado last year.  While I have only used their yeast for my hard ciders, I walked away convinced to try them out on my next brew.

Ballast Point Brewing Company
www.ballastpoint.com
Barely finding a parking spot in this well populated industrial park brewery, we walked into what seemed like a company party.  Food trucks, tour buses, and a bar surrounded by thirsty people greeted us.  Scoring a table in the sun with a self proclaimed regular, a couple of IPAs found their way to our hands.  Big Eye IPA and Sculpin IPA hit the spot in our busy first day.  John, a BP regular and our current table mate, brought us some of their Bourbon Barrel-Aged Black Marlin Porter.  Simply amazing.  Staying only for a pint, we made our way back to the beach to chase the sunset.

Pizza Port Solana Beach
www.pizzaport.com
Last year at Great American Beer Festival, I was blown away by how many Pizza Port breweries won awards for their beers.  I knew that this SD beerventure needed to end up at at least one of them.  Two of their hoppy reds, one an imperial, accompanied a caramelized onion filled bbq chicken pizza.  Scarfing down our grub and grog with just enough time to see the sun set among the Pacific Ocean waves provided the perfect ending to our first day.

Beers of Paradise

A week long family vacation in Maui this Spring "forced" me to conduct some much needed research of the beers available in this island paradise.  With my dad beyond willing to go along for the ride, we tested out the taps around town to thoroughly soak in all that was Hawaii beer.

Big Island Brew: Kona Brewing Company
(konabrewingco.com)
I visited this brewery on the Big Island almost ten years ago.  While my taste in beer has greatly matured since then, I was anxious to see what I thought of this brewery now.  Island brewing since 1994, Kona also currently brews in three different locations on the mainland as a member of the Craft Brewing Alliance.  

Fire Rock Pale Ale:  Introduced along with Big Wave Golden Ale as one of their first brews over 18 years ago, this Pale was spot on with color and crispness.  

Longboard Island Lager:  This Lager was my dad's favorite from Kona.  Light and refreshing, it went down nice and easy any time of the day, and I really do mean ANY time of the day!  
Lavaman Red Ale:  Available on tap all throughout Lahaina, I reached for this Red more than any other Kona beer.  Perfectly malty with just enough bitterness to stay true to style, it helped rehydrate me after a taxing day relaxing in the sun.

Pure Hawaiian: Maui Brewing Company
(mauibrewingco.com)
Started eight years ago by Garrett Marrero and his wife Melanie, Maui Brewing Company prides itself on being a true Hawaiian brewery.  Using local ingredients to get that island flavor, MBC has been making a name for itself across the country.  This 25 barrel production facility kegs and cans all their brews on site.    
Mana Wheat:  A pineapple infused wheat beer, this one took me by surprise.  As you all know by now, I am not a wheat beer girl.  This one, however, was beyond delish.  Subtle pineapple flavor showcased the wheat's flavor profile.  I made sure to finish all of the samples of this one.
Coconut Porter:  My dad's favorite, this porter was an easy drinking beer with a ton of flavor.  Using local coconuts and roasting them in house, MBC has been perfecting this flavor addition through the use of a hopback and cold conditioning.  Before I knew it, all of these samples were gone.  I wonder where my dad picked up that habit. 
Big Swell IPA:  A standard I get back home, this IPA is a bit on the lighter side for my taste, but still offers up plenty of hoppy goodness.
Bikini Blonde Lager:  Crisp and refreshing, this was another one of my dad's favorites, though I think that he might have just liked the logo with the blonde in a bikini.     
Root Beer:  With my mom along for the ride, and clearly not a beer drinker, we were able to get her some exclusive MBC Root Beer.  Not available on the mainland quite yet, it is made with Maui sugar cane and Maui vanilla bean.  Superb!
HI Expectations IPA:  The BEST IPA that I have had in awhile.  Available only in the brewpub, and my checked bag since I made sure to fill a HydroFlask prior to leaving, this IPA reminded me of the great IPAs from Oregon.  Deep amber in color with THE perfect amount of hops and malt, I continued to order chalices of this Hawaiian beauty.


Our paradise vacation not only yielded us an envious tan, but also several island beer treasures to share back home.  My advice: forgo those sweet umbrella drinks and get down and dirty with some local brews.  Aloha!

Beer Fitness: 12 Pounds Lost in 4 Weeks WITH Beer

One morning in early March, I looked at my Google calendar.  In exactly four weeks, I was going to be laying on a beach in Maui for Spring Break.  Excited?  Definitely.  I pulled out my summer clothes from the depths of my closet and laid them out.  As I reached for my favorite pair of plaid shorts from 2012, I quickly found out that I couldn't get them on.  My winter months of beer drinking, couch lazing, and fried food eating had taken its toll.  I needed to make a change immediately.  I ran downstairs to my building's gym and got on the treadmill.  Thirty painstakingly long minutes of intervals had me barely able to breathe.  

While at work that day, I charted out what I needed to do: move more, eat better, and give up beer.  The first two I could commit to.  It takes two solid weeks to adopt a habit, and I had four.  But give up beer?  I would have to be crazy.  March is the month of epic brewery birthday parties, brewers' nights, and beer festivals.  Taking beer out of the equation wasn't going to happen.  And so began my experiment: Could I lose weight and tone up while STILL enjoying beer.

Week 1:  A well planned grocery trip stocked me full of healthy options.  For breakfast, I fell quickly in love with Yopa's greek yogurt.  Snacks ended up being pecans, string cheese, and apples.  Ready made salads with chicken made my working lunches doable.  Dinner was the wildcard. I had picked up some chicken for some of my Beer Crockpot concoctions, but other than that, I hadn't planned too far ahead.  I kept track of all my food for that first week on MyNetDiary.com.  
As for exercise, I knew that my routine responded best with full immersion. I started off with walking five miles at the end of my day.  That quickly increased to eight miles, and by the end of my first week, I had worked out six out of the seven days.  I found some time during my day to get in some squats and lunges too.    

Now let's talk about the beer factor.  Every day that I walked, and even that "Freeday Friday" I didn't, I drank beer.  Sometimes it was in the middle of my walk if I just happened to find myself at a neighborhood watering hole.  Other times, it was after the mileage was completed.  Sometimes it was one beer, other times it was three.  During this week, I went to American Brewing's third anniversary party.  IPAs abundant, I enjoyed every last one.  After the first week, I noticed that I slept better, reached for healthier foods more often, and almost became addicted to my daily walk.

Week 2:  It is worth noting that I had some pretty amazing friends come along this journey with me.  Was it because they wanted to lose weight?  Was it because they wanted to get healthy? Was it because they are just as crazy as I am?  Well, I will let them figure out what category they fall into.  Having partners in crime that willing gave up hours on end to traipse around cities at all hours of the night was motivating.  The daily walks continued, and before I knew it, eight miles was the new minimum.  I began tracking my walks on MapMyRun.com.  This gave me exact GPS information on distance, pace, and location.

St. Patrick's Day ended up being during week two.  This included Double Mountain's sixth anniversary party with a 15k St. Paddy's Day dash in Portland, Oregon the following day.  Sufficiently carbo loading on anything but food amply fueled that 15k, as did the unintended eight hour sleep!

Week 3:  I started to incorporate more squats and lunges, as well as weight training during my down time at work.  Nothing fancy, just a simple set of dumbbells made this happen.  The daily walks now became too short if we didn't hit double digits.  One evening, I found myself on a legitimate half marathon jaunt.  I didn't even realize how far we had walked until we reached the bar at the ten mile mark, and still had three to go.  Needless to say, that was a three beer night.
On a day that I had extra time, I would walk around the track across the street from work.  Juggling my main job, along with part time ones, made for some scheduling challenges.  What seemed to be saving me was intentionally planning ahead my meals on Sunday.  This meant that I, along with all the other singles in the neighborhood, spent the late remaining hours of my weekend at the supermarket.  

Week 4:  This was my last week to get in as much as I could, as well as attend a scheduled beer research tasting, a brewer's night, and a beer festival.  My walks this week were all about speed and efficiency.  I used hills, especially the much loved "Mt. Meridian", to get more bang for my buck.  I had a few hours to spare before a brewer's night, so we spent those hightailing it up and down that hill.  On another night, a well planned crockpot meal and Milk Stouts already in the fridge, meant a decent walk could occur before the evening's festivities.  During the morning of my favorite beer fest of the year, Washington Cask Beer Festival, I made sure to get a solid treadmill interval session in.

Let's go back to that morning.  It was the day before I flew out to Maui and thus became the moment of truth.  Had my endless hours and hundreds of miles actually made a difference?  I once again got out those favorite plaid shorts.  Not only did they easily get on, they were too big!  I was now faced with the dilemma of squeezing in a mini shopping trip in order to be well suited for the islands.  Definitely a good problem to have!

Listen up, Beerlovers.  Summer will be here before we know it.  That winter weight will need to hit the road.  But don't fret, it CAN be done.  Eat healthy, get moving, and KEEP your beer!