The Crafty Pint's senior writer, Will Ziebell, is in the States for the Craft Brewers Conference but is taking the opportunity to do some exploring further afield too. You can read the other entries in the Letters From America series here.
As he was preparing to his flight home, he sent one final reflection on his experiences.
Where am I?
Los Angelos, California.
Why am I here?
My flight from LAX is leaving over the next few hours but I've spent most of the last few days in San Diego.
What have I been up to?
Chasing down West Coast IPAs, largely. San Diego is a large and sprawling place that's filled with breweries, but I still managed to make it to a lot of the pioneering names – Coronado, Ballast Point and Stone – alongside some newer breweries like Burgeon Beer Company.
What has surprised and impressed me the most?
Coronado Brewing were definitely a surprise. Despite knowing they were a pioneering San Diego brewery with coastal vibes that helped pioneer West Coast IPAs, I somehow missed the memo that their brewpub feels like a British pub.
I'm probably writing this about a decade too late, but Stone's Escondido home is an absolutely stunning place. You can only enter and leave through a room filled with merch, hot sauces and scented candles (breweries looking for an extra revenue stream take note), and the main bar comes complete with a fish pond. But the pièce de résistance is the expansive beer garden and dining area out the back, which is filled with flowering plants and is where I spotted my first ever hummingbird.
The beers I've enjoyed most in recent days are…
The Lost Abbey's Peach Afternoon is a beer that'll stick with me for a while. The sour beer is made with both fresh peaches and peach tea and had a flawless balance between refreshing drinkability and complexity.
I also enjoyed my first Pliny The Elder and drank it exactly as it was intended: from a paper cup in a motel room while eating a burrito.
You can read all of the articles from Will's travels and interviews in the US here.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
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Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
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Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
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Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
