San Diegans love beer. But not just any old, run-of-the-mill, mainstream beer like the Millers or Budweisers that occupied the entire bottom shelf of your refrigerator in college. Nope, beer drinkers here have discriminating tastes in their brews. With more than 30 breweries in the county, including Stone, Karl Strauss and Green Flash brewing companies, San Diego has made a name for itself among the country’s beer elite. Along the East Coast, members of the beer industry have even begun changing the names of certain India pale ale (IPA) recipes, referring to them as “San Diego pale ales” instead, because of a particular way of using hops that creates a distinctive flavor many believe originated here.
With so many local breweries to choose from, how can you possibly expect to keep up with all of the best beers? You could start by sampling two or three new beers every night, non-stop, for the next four months and you might get close to tasting all the beer San Diego has to offer. Wasn’t there a doctor who said something about how drinking beer every day is good for your heart? OK, maybe not. Another way to get your hands on this city’s premier pints is by stopping by one of the many annual beer festivals, including the upcoming San Diego Strong Ale Festival hosted by Pizza Port Brewing Company. Now in its 10th year, the Strong Ale Festival in Carlsbad will be the battleground for more than 65 beers from here and around the country, each one with at least 8-percent alcohol by volume (ABV).
Among the local breweries competing in this year’s festival is AleSmith Brewing Company, widely known for its Anvil ESB and its Halloween seasonal brew, Evil Dead Red. Peter Zien, AleSmith’s owner and one of the company’s brewers, joins the ranks of self-proclaimed “beer nuts” in San Diego who look forward to participating in festivals like Strong Ale. Though Zien has been crafting his own brews for more than 11 years now, he can trace his passion for beer back to three decades ago.
“When I was in junior high and high school, I had about a 300-bottle beer collection,” Zien said, “My folks would take me to Europe and I was trying all of these great beers out there. That’s when I discovered better beer.”
Upon joining the AleSmith team nearly five years ago, Zien began his mission of teaching people to regard beer with a level of discrimination similar to that of wine tasting. “I want to represent the Rolls Royce segment of beer and show people it can be an elegant thing,” he said.
Chatting over several samples of AleSmith beer he offered inside the brewery’s Miramar warehouse, Zien described his company’s contribution to this year’s Strong Ale Festival, the Wee Heavy Strong Scotch ale, “This is our interpretation of the classic Scottish style, big and malty with a touch of smoked malt apparent in the aftertaste.” The Wee Heavy, which boasts an alcohol content of 10 percent (most commercial beers range between 5 and 6 percent), has performed well in past festivals, taking both silver and bronze medals in the last two years at the Great American Beer Festival.
Two entries in the Strong Ale Festival this year will come from Ballast Point Brewing Company (two locations—the original one near the University of San Diego and a new one near Scripps Ranch). “We’re bringing our Three Sheets Barley Wine and the Dorado Double IPA,” said Colby Chandler, one of Ballast Point’s brewers. As president of the San Diego Brewers Guild, Chandler has an unending list of favorite brews, which is one of the reasons he says he began brewing in the first place, “I like beer, but not just one particular style. That’s why a lot of people get into home-brewing, because they can’t find that one style they like.”
Ballast Point’s Dorado Double IPA is included in Chandler’s long list of personal favorites. “It has a big aroma, a lot of that kind of citrusy hops, grapefruity, tropical fruit—that kind of aroma……. There’s just enough sweetness to balance out the aggressive bitterness of the hops.”
The 10th Annual San Diego Strong Ale Festival is happening Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1 and 2, adjacent to Pizza Port Brewing Company, 571 Carlsbad Village Drive in Carlsbad. $25. www.pizzaport.com
© 2010 San Diego Brewers Guild