Pizza Port in San Clemente + A Bruery Stop On The Way Home

My friend Pete and I went to Pizza Port in San Clemente, which is about an hour drive from our house, and met my buddy Steve "Milton" Timmins there and his girlfriend. We shared a few good rounds of beer. To be honest I was disappointed by their selection. For the Pizza Port side they had on their Carlsbad Chronic Amber Ale, a golden ale, wheat beer, oatmeal stout, scotch ale, barley wine, and an English Pale on cask. I started off with the Ripper English Pale on cask. It was ok, nothing to write home about.

I was sorely disappointed when I didn't see any of Pizza Port's IPA's listed on the wall. I was really looking forward to a nice dose of hops in the morning. However, on their white board list of beers they had "El Camino" listed, which I know is one of their main IPAs, so I asked the bartender and he told me they had ran out. Then 5 minutes later he comes back and says they just put another one on. Score!!! I ordered a pint of the El Camino IPA and it was awesome. I got a growler to go for the Kal vs. USC game tomorrow.

I finished off with their T-Street Wheat since I was driving. A good wheat beer. I love the banana part of wheat beers, and this had plenty of that.

On the way home Pete and I stopped by the brewery where we tried their new release Humulus Gold from both the tap and cask. Tap was much more pungent, but cask had a much bigger orangy smell to it. It was advertised as having Simcoe + Amarillo hops which is one of my favorite combinations (think Alpine Duet IPA).

Patrick (owner of The Bruery) was also nice enough to share a bottle of Pizza Port Killer Dana Double IPA which I have heard people talk about. I guess he got the bottle at the GABF. I would probably have not been able to try this beer for many years if it wasn't for him so I thank him greatly for that opportunity. Killer Dana (named somewhat in part for the city of Dana Point which neighbors San Clemente, that I spent many months of my childhood in) is a double IPA, about 9% ABV. It's a different take than the prototypical DIPA Pliny the Elder for sure, but it's still tasty. It's pretty sweet with a resiny bitterness in the taste. I wish it had a more pungent hop aroma, but it smells pretty sweet. Either way I really enjoyed the taste, so thanks again Patrick!

I knew The Bruery wouldn't be doing growler fills of the cask Humulus Gold, but little did I know it would be on tap as well, and they were filling growlers of it from there, but I hadn't brought my growler so I missed out on that for now.

Good day so far, now I gotta go eat dinner with my family and my soon-to-be-brother-in-law's family at Downtown Disney.