Here are some pictures from our latest post-semester cheapo cold weather escape. Using discount tickets on Soutwest Airlines, we flew to Portland OR, caught the Coast Starlight and Surfliner to San Diego (cashed in Amtrak Guest Rewards points), and rode the commuter rail system to Los Angeles. Visited breweries and beer shrines by mass transit. Came back with a tan, and great memories of first class service on the Coast Starlight, and sour beers from Upright Brewing in Portland, and The Bruery, in Placentia (Anaheim)–the two preeminent sour beer breweries in North America.
As a homebrewer and certified beer judge, it’s hard to justify a trip to San Diego without visiting a few of their world-famous breweries. Interestingly, two of their most renowned microbreweries are within walking distance from the Sprinter–a DMU light rail system that connects Oceanside CA (train station on Amtrak Surfliner, San Diego Coaster, and Los Angeles Metrolink system) with Escondido.
Important Suggestions for those wanting to go to Stone and Lost Abbey using public transit:
- You’ll probably need to take Amtrak to Oceanside ($34 round-trip), as the lower-cost Coaster commuter train runs very infrequently during the day.
- Do this trip on a Wednesday, when Lost Abbey/Port Brewing is open later and serves food.
- Go to Stone first. They’re restaurant serves food all day, and it’s one of the best beer-themed restaurants around. Get there by riding the Sprinter to the Nordahl Road station and either walking or taking the 353 bus (runs every 30 minutes). (This is different than their instructions on their website, but it’s a faster trip.)
- Go to Lost Abbey second. Ride the Sprinter to San Marcos Civc Center. Follow the instructions for getting there published on their website (Google Maps is has some major errors regarding walking trails that don’t really exist.) Leave by 7:30 pm–if you miss the 8:15 pm Sprinter from San Marcos, you’re in for a long wait for a train in Oceanside.
- If you are a beer brewer, while you’re in town, work in a visit to White Labs’ tasting room (at their facility on Candida St.) for an interesting demo on how yeast selection affects beer making. The #20 bus can take you there from downtown or from the Fashion Valley Mall.
Please roll your mouse over the photo to see the complete caption.
“Pictures from our latest post-semester cheapo cold weather escape. Flew to Portland OR, caught the Coast Starlight and Surfliner to San Diego, and rode the commuter rail system to Los Angeles. Visited breweries and beer shrines by mass transit. Came back with a tan.”
From California Winter Trip 2012. Posted by Tom Coughlin on 12/29/2012 (29 items)
- Working from the basement of the Leftbank Building, in Portland OR, Upright Brewing i…
- Upright uses both bourbon barrels and wine barrels for aging beers. Bourbon must by l…
- The open-top fermenter room at Upright Brewing. This is the traditional way sour beer…
- Upright’s control panel–three open top fermenters, two closed shallow slope CCVs, an…
- Roots blues guitarist Steve Cheeseborough and his sweetie came out to play for the di…
- The Official Rogue Beer tied house in Portland. Great place to check out the local dr…
- Aboard Amtrak’s Coast Starlight. Upper level of the Pacific Parlor car (bi-level buff…
- Pacific Parlor Car ‘Columbia Valley’ waits for passengers. Built by the Budd Company …
- Aboard the Columbia Valley.
- The Columbia Valley waits for passengers in Santa Barbara.
- Waiting for our Surfliner connection to San Diego at LAUPT.
- Lost Abbey Brewing and Stone Brewing are both in Escondido, CA, and easily accessed f…
- First stop-Stone Brewing. Get off the Sprinter at the Nordahl Rd. station, and either…
- The tasting room (also an amazing restaurant) at Stone. Place is big and fancy.
- Meg pointed out that if you see one Rolec system, you’ve seen them all. Setup is fair…
- Prior to 2005, Stone worked out of this place–which is now the home to Lost Abbey/Po…
- Wednesday afternoons at Port Brewing are special–a gourmet lunch truck shows up, and…
- A round of samples at Port Brewing/Lost Abbey. Big alcohol, big calorie barrel aged b…
- Sampling yeasts at White Labs– a standard wort (a Wee Heavy in this case) is pitched…
- Entrance to the White Labs tasting room. Very strange to find a pub in a microbiology…
- The waiting room at the former San Diego Santa Fe Station.
- The Santa Fe Railway built this station for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, wh…
- Front of the depot.
- The Queen Mary sits permanently moored in Long Beach Harbor. View from our hotel wind…
- A four-headed moviola used by Desilu Studios in the 1950s for editing filmed three-ca…
- The Bruery, in Anaheim. They make nothing but sour beers, and they do it really well.
- A round of tasters at the Bruery. Behind the bar, workers hustled packing cases of so…
- Brisk, busy Sunday crowd at the Bruery. No food is served but carry-in is welcome. Th…
- A row of wingtips at John Wayne Airport–easy in/out kind of place, and there’s a $1 …
Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher 2