A couple of weekends ago, to celebrate my birthday I went on a brewery tour with some friends. We chartered a bus through sdbeerbus.com and they drove us to three different local breweries of our choosing. We chose Stone, Port/ Lost Abby, and Alesmith. We loaded up the bus at my friends house and made the 45 minute drive to Stone. To help pass the time, we brought along a keg of Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale. Their amber ale makes for a good way to start the day. Not too bitter, but with a full flavor.

This is the second time I’ve been to Stone’s brewery. I wrote about the brewery in my review of Stone’s Old Guardian Barley Wine. I tried a lot of the same beers this time. Pale ale, IPA, Arrogant Bastard, Smokey Porter. This time though, I liked them all a lot more. The hoppiness didn’t seem as over-powering. Also, The bartender made me a beer float for my birthday using vanilla ice cream and smokey porter. It was delicious. I might have to make that a birthday tradition.

Next up was Port Brewing/ Lost Abby. We tried Gift of the Magi, among other beers. It’s a seasonal beer flavored with Frankincense and Myrrh. It was good. Spicy and interesting, but good. We tried a few other beers while we were there and then moved on to Alesmith. We tried a couple of beers there, but I don’t really remember what they were called or much about how they tasted. I think that they were all really good. After three breweries, and a total of 12 five ounce tasters, plus a couple of pints on the bus, I was in no state to be making intelligent remarks on the taste of different beers. That’s the one problem with touring several breweries in one day. There is only so much beer you can taste in one day. I guess I’ll just have to do it again.