Offering brewery tours, and the brewery started to take off (157Cong.Rec.S3537)

Sometimes I hate my own suggestions. TJ had mentioned that he wanted to do one more race before we left the area, but he figured that there wouldn't be many in December and January. So then I come across this 50-miler, and I actually send him a link to the online registration. Thankfully, he decided he wouldn't be able to train properly for the long run, so he signed up for the San Diego Trail Marathon instead. Ever humble, he hoped to finish within 5 hours. As you can see from the photo (left), he trampled that prediction and ended up coming in ninth in his age/gender category and 24th overall. For his "sub-par" effort, he received a clever medal that was also a key chain-can opener combo (right).

The prize was fitting because after the race, I planned to help him re-hydrate with a few visits to some local craft breweries. In the last month, I had exchanged what felt like 26.2 miles of e-mails with a limo company to arrange a brew tour I had purchased through LivingSocial. We finally managed to schedule it for a Saturday in November, right before our vouchers expired, but the night before the tour, the company canceled because one of its drivers -- ours, I presume -- had a heart attack. With the holidays coming up and then us leaving shortly thereafter, we knew we wouldn't have time to re-schedule. I tried to get a refund, to no avail, but dang it, I was still going to have me a brew tour.

I compiled a list of seven breweries that were relatively on our way home from the race. TJ picked Iron Fist Brewing as his first choice after trying its Spice of Life, a spiced pale ale, during our San Diego Restaurant Week dinner at Brooklyn Girl Eatery. TJ obviously knows his brewing like he knows his running because its tasting room, in an industrial zone in Vista, was packed (left). We bought a set of tasters for $6 that included Renegade Blonde, a blonde ale; Hired Hand, a farmhouse ale; Dubbel Fisted, a Belgian dubbel; and Spice Rack, an imperial stout (right). About halfway through, TJ realized he should have more sustenance than salt tablets, energy shots, and hops with malt, so we shared a delicious, and inventive, lamb torta from Epic Eatz, a food truck that was parked right outside the warehouse.

 

From there, we headed to Aztec Brewing, mainly because it was right down the road, tucked farther in another business park than the more tribally offensive Indian Joe Brewing. We were happy to stop by because the microbrewery has a past steeped in Mexico. Cervercería Azteca started in Mexicali in 1921 during Prohibition, then moved to Barrio Logan in San Diego as Aztec Brewing Company, or ABC, after alcohol regulation ended in the United States. In the 1950s it was bought by a competitor basically to be put out of business, until the name was resurrected by a family of brewers in 2008.

In fact, within the tasting room was an old ABC advertisement that depicted a bottle of beer nearly the size of Torre de Agua Caliente, the distinctive replica of the casino tower in the Plaza Club de Leones at the Fundadores intersection in Tijuana (left). I don't know if the brewery truly speaks beer, but its beers certainly spoke to us. Not only did we have two pints -- a $4 amber ale for me and a $5 Sacrifice, an American red ale, for TJ -- but we also tried a flight of tasters for $6: El Dorado, a blonde ale; Agave Wheat; Doomsday, a barley wine; and Cacao Chocolate Porter (right). Sadly, the establishment's free Taco Takeover events were thwarted by an anonymous complaint to the health department, but we didn't mind paying for a trio of tacos from La Casa de los Alambres, although as TJ will tell you, the burrito would've been a better deal.

 

TJ's final choice was Hess Brewing, in another industrial area near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, because he wanted to see a nanobrewery, no doubt to envision how his own dreams could become reality. Indeed, this tasting room had a much more work-in-progress feel -- the bathroom was right next to the sanitizing sinks, for example -- although it, too, had a food truck parked outside its garage door. We might've been tempted for yet another snack, but Underdogs Gastro Truck was sold out of sauerkraut poutine already.

Here, the blackboard-broadcast tasting menu cost $12, but it included a pint glass and a set of five 4-ouncers: Claritas, a Kolsch; Grazias, a Vienna cream ale; Helicon, an American pale ale; Deceptio, an American India pale ale; and Brunus Robustus, an American porter (left). TJ then took up the on-tap special: a half-pint of Receptio Wee Heavy for $6. To be honest, it was hard to tell which he found more satisfying: the under-5-hour marathon finish or the more-than-5-ounce spot of Scotch ale (right).