I really like The Bruery’s beers and think they do an excellent job of not sticking to the traditional. They produce some delicious beers. The people that work there are also super nice and very approachable.

I still have no idea how I convinced my friend and cousin to let me pick up their bottles of Black Tuesday, which led to this.

I can’t believe my friend and cousin trusted me to pick up their bottles. That’s the oldest trick in the book! Bowling for beer, anyone?

There was some confusion about whether I was allowed to pick up my friend’s bottles. Fortunately I was in a beer store, so I shopped while they sorted it out.

I think it’s about time I invested in a 29mm capper with some caps.

If you had to guess, you would probably guess Chang, but you would be wrong. That’s not Chang. It’s Woo.

Place mats are local Chinese newspaper pages, and their menu looks like a takeout menu.

Honey Jack with ginger, topped with a lager. Very refreshing, and the ginger and the lager take out the sweetness from the Jack, which is way too overwhelming.

I really enjoy this beer. I found it at BevMo, but it’s $5 a bottle. No thanks.

taiwanese-style cool dan dan noodles, fresh peanut and chili sambal

wok-charred udon noodles, chicken, baby bok choy, oyster sauce

tiger’s tears (aka bang bang & olufsen beef), grilled steak, thai basil, lime, khao koor

braised pork belly buns, bao, brandy hoisin, house pickle

lemon-ginger mousse coupe, homemade fortune cookie

Myers + Chang  seems a little gimmicky with giant dragons painted on the windows, charging a luxury fee for Asian dishes when Chinatown is a mere two blocks away. This place is more than Asian food  at a premium though. It’s a delicious little joint for familiar foods with a slight twist. They don’t stray too far from the traditional tastes on most of their dishes, which makes it comfort food. The sauces are a little bit different, a little bit lighter, but overall it’s close to what I grew up eating with my parents.

If you feel like exploring a little more, they have  that too. Some of their own creations, like chicken and waffles made with a ginger-sesame waffle looked pretty good.

I’d stop into this place again if I was in town, and you should too.

It’s this way! This is the real trail to freedom!

The brewing schedule from the day before. Smells hoppy to me!

Some of the bottled offerings.

Their bar, where they educate people on their brews and get people drunk.

Michelle patiently waiting to get some brews.

Some more of their offerings.

Tasting some great beers.

Everyone crowded around to get their share.

The kettle closest to you is a steam jacketed kettle.

Michelle, learning the brewing process.

Cans from beers around the world.

Harpoon Brewery has a great set of brews that they offer, from their standard brews, their UFO’s (unfiltered offerings), to their Leviathan Series (big beers). It’s a shame that they don’t distribute west of the Mississippi River. Everyone should check this brewery out if they get the chance. Fortunately, I have my cousin shipping some beer I bought over to me. Now if I could just get him to actually ship it to me. I’m afraid it might all be consumed. Damn, college kids.

At least the beds were comfy. Have you ever tried a Sleep Number Bed? It’s interesting. It sort of reminds me of a hospital bed but without having to have your butt showing out the back of your gown.

This is what I did for two days. It was school all over again.

It wasn’t all work though. 1964, The Beatles tribute band!

You can see that they’re pretty good. Ringo actually drums like Ringo and Paul is actually left handed.

There was one very bright spot to my visit to Michigan though. I found out that Bell’s Brewery is twenty miles outside of where I visit, and they have a second brand that resides in the city of Kalamazoo, MI where I stay every time I’m out there. Here I am with a taster. I think the tasting board is Lake Michigan or one of the other Great Lakes.

As you can see, they’re known for their stouts, and they are good at them. Their Two Hearted IPA and dry hopped lager Quinannan Falls are great beers too.

We decided to try our deep dish pies at the birth place of the deep dish pizza.

I have to say I did not hate the deep dish pizza this time around. It was flavorful, and the crust was crisp throughout each bite. The down side to these pizzas is that there are times you get a mouthful of almost nothing but tomato sauce. Also in order to get the pie crisp, it takes a lot of oil, which you can really taste in certain bites as the oil probably pooled to that one spot in the pan.

Still, Pizzeria Uno had other things going for it like a nice Bloody Mary.

Also, Goose Island beers make everything a little better. Honker’s Ale on the left. 312 on the right.

I’m still a fan of New York Style pizza over Chicago Style, but I won’t go as far as to say I hate the deep dish pie now. Each type of pizza has its place. Chicago deep dish’s place just won’t be my stomach if I’m given the choice.

I think that middle shelf is sagging in the middle. I better start using some of the ammunition.

Also, we kept missing the free beer.

Stone is number eleven in craft breweries in the United States, and it was one of the places we had to stop. Being so large means they have the finances to build themselves a facility outside of the industrial parks, which includes its own restaurant.

They have a great restaurant that people come to eat, not even to partake of the beer necessarily.

You can tell a lot of work and detail went into making this facility. Of course, lots of stone is used in the construction.

They have a great outdoor patio with its own bar.

Their beer selection on tap is fantastic, including a lot of beers from other breweries. Knowing I would drink plenty of Stone beers, I opted to start with Russian River’s Pliny the Elder.

BBQ Pork Sandwich.

Prime Rib Melt.

Beer Float, featuring Stone Smoked Porter and Niederfranks Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Both of these stand on their own, but when put together you get something very magical.

We took the tour of the brewery, which starts with propaganda about making good beer and walks you through the manufacturing lines.

If you drink four pints a day from the big fermentation tanks, it would take you sixty five years to finish the tank. That’s close to 12,000 gallons of beer. I’ll just stick to a small tank of beer, thanks.

Unfortunately all these kegs and bottles are empties.

Some goodies to take home. Stone is currently working on building a hotel behind their brewery. I guess people love their beer so much they travel just to get a taste. It’ll be Beer Disneyland!

Port Brewing/Lost Abbey had my favorite tasting room.  This location is actually Stone’s old facility. Although it was in an industrial park like the rest, they put together lots of space for people to sit down and enjoy their beers while watching a Chargers game.

More goodies to take home with us.

The final brewery on our beercation before we returned to our regular lives was Iron Fist. Another small brewery in an industrial park, they had customers drawing on butcher paper and designing their walls. I really like how locals come to these tasting rooms like they would a local watering hole.

Some of Iron Fist’s beers. Hired Hand, Golden Age, Dubbel Fisted, Trippel Fisted.

Totally off topic, but Iron Fist’s head brewer, Brandon looks like he could be the lovechild of Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter. It’s like the “If They Mated” sketch backfired on The Conan Show.

The day’s bounty: Port Brewing’s Wipeout IPA. Two bottles of Lost Abbey’s Judgement Day and a bottle of Ten Commandments. Bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale, Self-Righteous, Belgo Anise, Cali-Belgique IPA, and two bottles of Stone’s Imperial Black IPA. Two bottles of Iron Fists’s Dubbel Fisted and a Renegade Blonde.

Day three was the close of the brewery tour trip, and I have to say it was quite enjoyable. I really enjoy the beer scene down south. They understand that good beer is about more than just inebriation. It’s about community. Sharing a beer next to a total stranger didn’t seem strange at all. It was familiar and comfortable. I like that.

Drinking beer as a marathon activity and hopping from brewery to brewery is very tough. First, you have to stay sober enough to drive. Safety first. Even while staying sober it’s hard to keep up when the beer makes you so full. I have to think that if I were a few years younger, I also wouldn’t have needed the naps. Still, it’s totally worth it. Life’s too short to drink bad beer.

First stop, Green Flash! Look at Green Flash, all corporate with a glass front on its new building.

Green Flash has lots of room to grow into their new digs.

Even their tasting room setup gives plenty of space for visitors. There is a whole patio outside, where you can catch some rays while enjoying your beer.

Starting with one of my favorites, Le Freak.

Trippel, Summer Saison, Hop Head Red, and Double Stout.

I absolutely love that all these breweries are in industrial parks. AleSmith looks like it could be a retail store.

I don’t have very many pictures of AleSmith for some reason. I do recall enjoying their brews and that these women were looking at a dog.

Back to Hess Brewing for a pit stop. We couldn’t buy the growler Tim wanted the day before because of their special event. Another nitrogen pour of Ex Umbris and we were on our way.

Tim wanted to drive to the next spot, but I thought he might draw too much attention to himself with the Hess flag flying behind the all terrain golf cart.

The next stop was Ballast Point. While I enjoy their beers, this was my least favorite tasting room only because it was much too small. Even AleSmith’s tasting room was larger than this.

That still didn’t stop us from picking up a few drinks. This is a beer trip, right? Big Eye IPA, Marlin Porter, Sculpin IPA, and Amber Ale.

After finishing up we realized we should probably eat something, so we went with a friend’s recommendation of Lorna’s Italian Kitchen. He said it was the standard by which he compares all other Italian food. We showed up and were quite skeptical when we saw the address was in a strip mall, but we were too tired to look for something else. I don’t know if I would call this a measuring stick for Italian food, but it was very good.

Vegetable Soup. Nice hint of spiciness in this cup of soup.

Meat Lasagna. Cheesy goodness.

Linguini with Clams. This actually reminds me of some of the pasta I ate when I was in Italy.

Lunch was followed by one of the best naps I’ve ever had. We woke up trying to figure out if we could catch the Mayweather/Ortiz fight anywhere, but we just ended up at Oggi’s because all my beer drinking called for some wings.

I enjoy comfort food so much more when I drink beer. That only compounds the calories we drank earlier in the day.

Of course there were hot wings. The wings were decent, and the heat slowly built up, one wing after the other.

What better way to cool down the fire than with a pint of McGarvey’s Scottish Ale. Remember what they say. If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap!

The day’s bounty: Bottle of Green Flash’s Le Freak. Growler of Hess’ Ex Umbris. Bottle of AleSmith’s Grand Cru, IPA, and Wee Heavy. Bottle of Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA.