Tasters, Flights and a Whiskey Wall: San Diego Drinking, 2012–2013

Roger’s photos from 2012 and 2013 are full of beer, and they are more specific than most. He named the brewery, often named the beer and sometimes ranked the lineup. Read together, they make a small map of where a San Diego craft beer drinker went a decade and more ago.

The year 2012 closed with a flight at Mission Brewery on New Year’s Eve, the same month as Societe and Karl Strauss posts that are already in the archive. In 2013 the flights got bigger. Thorn Street Brewery appears in February and again in June, when two wooden paddles of tasters came out, light to dark. At Belching Beaver, new to the area in June 2013, an iron carousel held about ten tasters, and the verdict was some pretty good beer. At Ballast Point in May, the flight was the second brewery stop of the night; at the first, Roger said they lined up every beer from darkest to lightest.

Some posts came with a recommendation attached. At Helms Brewing, Roger named the IPA and the coffee stout as the best drinks they had. At Blind Lady Ale House, the point was the Automatic Brewing IPA brewed in-house in Normal Heights. At Slater’s 50/50 he ordered one Belgian and one local — Delirium Nocturnum and a Green Flash Double IPA. At Stone’s Liberty Station location he named the Operation Home Front IPA and paired it with duck tacos and yakisoba.

Not every night was beer. Polite Provisions in Normal Heights got bomb cocktails in March 2013, alongside Soda & Swine meatball sliders, and a return visit for a Kentucky Buck two weeks later. At Seven Grand in North Park, the picture is a backlit wall of whiskey and a bottle of Woodford Reserve.

The habit traveled. Roger ordered a local Fat Tug IPA with a bison burger in Victoria, BC, and in Hong Kong he called The Globe in SoHo one of his favorite beer spots and worked through bottles at Craftissimo.

As with everything in Food History, these are dated records. Breweries expand, rebrand and close; tap lists change weekly. The value here is the snapshot — what was pouring, and what one local drinker thought was worth ordering again.