OK, bit of an update, will post pics when I get back, been super blazed and drunk so motivation hasn't been high to upload photos. I'm in San Diego now and have done a bulk of the breweries down here. Top 3 tours where in reverse order, Green Flash. Cool beers, cool brewery and pretty lively tour. 2nd Lagunitas. Excellent beer, excellent tour (Favourite beer was definitely Lagunitas Sucks, very good beer. 1st was the beer geek tour at Sierra Nevada, it was ridiculous. Every question was answered, no secrets, got to taste the wort from the mash, the boil which was super cool, I remember being impressed of the quality of the extract, it seemed to me at the time that they use a softer water (They did tell me they add phosphoric? acid to the water). Met Steve Dressler along the way and followed him around sampling all the beers out of the fermenters and brite tanks, even offered free hops but told him we can't get flowers into Australia :/ . Got a free(empty) growler at the end along with some other merch. Went out drinking in Chico that night as well, good beers, very cheap and the Aussie accent can get you quite far (Not as far as getting some random girl that likes your accent to show you her boobs, on the street....so I've been told). Anyway the good times are still rolling for another 2 days. Best beers have been Lagunitas Sucks, the barleywine from Firestone Walker and Modern Times Fortunate Islands. All the San Diego beers are slightly more minerally, enhancing the bitterness but making it less rounded and balanced at least to my novice palate and therefore I prefer the Firestone/Lagunitas ones.
The beers I'm bringing back are 2 x Pliny's, 1 x Palate Wrecker, 1 x Hop Stoopid.
The beers I'm bringing back are 2 x Pliny's, 1 x Palate Wrecker, 1 x Hop Stoopid.
