Strong Ale Trip: Day 1 Escondido
Escon-dildo as the locals call it, though I found the small patches I visited agreeable due to all the beer available. It makes for a hell of a set of blinders.
Holiday Wine Cellar was the first stop and it’s always a treat when a majority of their inventory is either new to me or isn’t distributed in Texas. I missed Descute’s Abyss by about a week but that would be remedied the next day. Their beer expert was an attractive lady with tattoos that unfortunately wasn’t attending the fest due to work. Out here, women beer geeks are not uncommon. I got the majority of my beer here and picked up the rest here and there. Behold the pictures below, a good haul. There’s multiples of the bottles with the exception of the Euro brews.
Get Stoned for Free
Stone Brewing and Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens are a destination enhanced by the nearby hotels. This was built two years ago and the brewery is state of the art but I hate the building’s exterior and landscaping. However, throw in a tour, free samples and I won’t mind.
The tour was almost a private one -no one else but the guide and me until about ten minutes into it, five others joined the tour -cognitive science doctoral students that I suspected to be a bit buzzed/baked.
At the bottling line, I made a joke about finding mice in the bottles and the PHDs-to-be didn’t get it. Definitely a generational thing at this point.
The bistro has a great beer selection -not just Stone- and the food menu is varied, keeping with the “world bistro” theme. I kept it healthy but went with a chocolate mousse to pair with Ballast Point’s Three Sheets barley wine.
I had about five beers [counting samples] for the four hours I was there; I needed to conserve my strength for the next day - Pizza Port’s 12th Annual Strong Ale Fest.
Holiday Wine Cellar was the first stop and it’s always a treat when a majority of their inventory is either new to me or isn’t distributed in Texas. I missed Descute’s Abyss by about a week but that would be remedied the next day. Their beer expert was an attractive lady with tattoos that unfortunately wasn’t attending the fest due to work. Out here, women beer geeks are not uncommon. I got the majority of my beer here and picked up the rest here and there. Behold the pictures below, a good haul. There’s multiples of the bottles with the exception of the Euro brews.
Get Stoned for Free
Stone Brewing and Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens are a destination enhanced by the nearby hotels. This was built two years ago and the brewery is state of the art but I hate the building’s exterior and landscaping. However, throw in a tour, free samples and I won’t mind.
The tour was almost a private one -no one else but the guide and me until about ten minutes into it, five others joined the tour -cognitive science doctoral students that I suspected to be a bit buzzed/baked.
At the bottling line, I made a joke about finding mice in the bottles and the PHDs-to-be didn’t get it. Definitely a generational thing at this point.
The bistro has a great beer selection -not just Stone- and the food menu is varied, keeping with the “world bistro” theme. I kept it healthy but went with a chocolate mousse to pair with Ballast Point’s Three Sheets barley wine.
I had about five beers [counting samples] for the four hours I was there; I needed to conserve my strength for the next day - Pizza Port’s 12th Annual Strong Ale Fest.