Yes indeed, won the trip to the beer camp by taking out the Brisbane Amateur Beer Brewers 2011 Championship. Ross was originally supposed to be coming along too, but due to his Mircrobrewery really taking off he couldn't take the time off so he kindly passed it on to the winner of the Queensland Amateur Brewing Championship Liam. We are going to hit some of the breweries around San Diego and then head up to Chico for the Beer camp unless we can scrounge some tickets to the Great American Beer Festival, then we will head there first. Must be best amatuer brewing comp prize ever.
Good stuff Tony, wish I had some vacation time to come out and catch up.
San Diego, great beer scene, heaps of good breweries. Lots of hoppy IPAs. The freshness factor will make you think it's a different beer compare to what you get in Aus (if you even can).
You'll definitely need to hire a car - the breweries are out in the 'burbs. And tasting hours are all towards Friday/Saturday arvos so plan ahead for tasting hours. You can run around and hit 5 or 6 awesome breweries in an arvo/evening if you do it right. It might be worth checking around for an organised brewery tour. No one has to drive and miss out then.
If you are there earlier in the week, hit 30th street in the city. It's known for craft beer and has some great bars. Just watch yourself, they neighborhood around it can be a bit sketchy. If you hear the locals talking about BLAH - it's the Blind Lady Ale House. Definitely worth a visit.
The Pizza Ports are great. There a are few, visit them all. They each have a different brewer/recipes/beers. See Stone it's well worth it. Greenflash can be good, although they have upgraded since I was last out there. Coronado brewing is good. Lost Abbey, Iron Fist, Firehouse, AleSmith, BallastPoint, are all worth a visit. Alpine Brewery is worth the drive out if you have the time. They have a smoke house there too.
There are few nano-breweries out there like Mother Earth and Hess.
Beware the chain restaurant breweries. Karl Strauss can been ok, but Rock Bottom's usually are just that.
I don't know what sort of schedule you're on, but I've seen enough breweries that I don't really care about the brewery tours anymore. Especially at the bigger breweries - they usually just have a trained monkey give a blurb that they don't fully understand. Better to spend your time sampling the beers - the bar guy will often be pretty cluey.
I met the second shift brewer at Green Flash while we were there at the Friday evening tasting just by checking out the brewing setup. He noticed us, asked if we were brewers. He ended up giving us the personal tour and telling some great stories and giving us a heap of free beer to take.
The beaches are interesting compared to the Goldy, so go out to sunset cliffs for a sunset. Water will be cold.
If you are in South LA/Orange county/Anaheim we liked The Bruery and Bootleggers. Tustin was ok... nice copper gear behind the bar, but lots of loud big screen TVs with crappy yank sports.
Try not to be on the road for rush hours. SoCal traffic can be pretty bad.
California has some stupid law where you can't fill a growler with anything but your own logo on it, so don't bother with gowlers.
Long necks are usually called "bombers" over here - sample a flight and buy the beers you like.
Do what Dave did when he and Ross came to new york. Take a pocket book and scribble down all the beers you try and your tasting notes.
Try to find a whole foods - the food and beer will blow your mind.
Anyway mate, have fun, drive on the right side of the road, don't breath too much smog, or go south of the border.
