IPAs dominate the San Diego craft beer scene. Photo courtesy of Danny Baza Blas/ Flickr.
San Diego has fast become the craft beer capital of America. The number of local breweries and brewpubs has more than doubled in the past few years, reaching over 100. Southern California establishments like Stone helped San Diego earn a reputation for hoppy (strong and bitter) beers and invented the Double IPA, also known as the San Diego Pale Ale. Stone, AleSmith, Ballast Point and other leaders of the San Diego craft beer boom are consistently rated among the top breweries in the world.
But beer in San Diego stretches back to the late 1800s, and many of the the city’s modern breweries (Mission Brewery and Aztec Brewing Company, for example) are named in honor of the city’s brewing pioneers. San Diego’s population boomed during prohibition because of the city’s proximity to Mexico, where golden suds still flowed freely. Maybe the local taste for beer can be credited to this continuous consumption.
Visitors can organize their own San Diego craft beer crawl, or join a guided San Diego brewery tour that includes a designated driver. Stone, Green Flash, Ballast Point, AleSmith and Port Brewing Company (run by the same owners of Pizza Port and Lost Abbey) are some of the most famous San Diego craft beer names, but new neighborhood joints are springing up every day. A third of all San Diego’s breweries are located in North County along a 60-mile stretch of Highway 78 that’s sometimes called Hops Highway. Several beer names pay homage to route.
—Serena Renner
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