- Location
- San Diego
Avoiding the 102-degree weather where we live, we headed down to south San Diego where under windy, overcast skies we checked out the 2025 version of the San Diego Beer Festival.
With a series of brewery booths and tables, the beers were poured from kegs, bottles, cans and in the case of Barley & Sword Brewery, poured as a cask ale.
Everywhere Brewing in Orange CA is one of the top breweries in SoCal, so I began by heading straight for their tent, where I was able to snag their Really, Really, Really Fun Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (13.3%), aged in Bourbon Barrels with peanuts, flambeed bananas, Peruvian pompona vanilla beans, and sea salt. Best and flavourful stout of the day and I later discovered that the keg kicked 15-minutes after I got my pour.
Two more stouts followed, both from Jackie O's Brewing Co. out of Athens, Ohio. We lived in Ohio for 20-years after moving to the states, so we know Jackie O's very well. Sitting right on the cusp of Appalachia, it's located in an attractive college town.
I started with their Big Snail Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (13.2%), brewed with Fireweed Honey, a string of dark malts and aged in Bourbon Barrels for 15-months.
This was followed by Overcoil Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (12.9%), again brewed with six different malts and aged in Bourbon Barrels from three different distilleries for 20-months.
Both gorgeous and worthy runner ups to Everywhere's Really, Really, Really Fun Imperial Stout.
Next up was my favourite beer of the entire festival: Jackie O's Bernarda (4.7%), a mixed fermentation Saison, with Pilsner malt, raw wheat, flaked oats and German Northern Brewer Hops. Absolutely gorgeous with beautiful sour-like flavours. This brewery was right on target for the festival.
I was hoping to avoid IPA's, but I couldn't resist the two on offer from Radiant Brewing, another highly ranked brewery from SoCal - Forward Thinking Double West Coast IPA (8.2%) and Come to Realize Hazy IPA (8.0%). Both were fabulous IPA's with Come to Realize featuring two of my favourite hops: Cashmere and Mosaic, producing lovely tropical flavours.
A new brewery by the name of Roadies Brewing from Vista CA (just up the road from where we live) had two IPA's on tap, including the fabulous Headbanger DIPA (8.5%).
Lastly, a word about San Diego's Barley & Sword Brewery with their cask ale named CAMRA Blonde Ale (5.2%).
I'm not exactly sure if CAMRA had any input with this beer, but I tried a Barley & Sword cask ale at their brewery a few months back. Absolutely hideous with a bitter flat taste. I spoke with the barman and he explained that the beer had suffered from some bacterial spoilage although he couldn't explain why the beer hadn't been taken off tap.
On that note, I vowed never to taste a Barley & Sword cask ale again, so when I saw CAMRA Blonde Ale on cask at the festival, words from the great Jim Royle went through my head: "Cask Ale? Cask Ale MY ARSE!"
And that brought us to the end of the San Diego Beer Festival for 2025!
With a series of brewery booths and tables, the beers were poured from kegs, bottles, cans and in the case of Barley & Sword Brewery, poured as a cask ale.
Everywhere Brewing in Orange CA is one of the top breweries in SoCal, so I began by heading straight for their tent, where I was able to snag their Really, Really, Really Fun Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (13.3%), aged in Bourbon Barrels with peanuts, flambeed bananas, Peruvian pompona vanilla beans, and sea salt. Best and flavourful stout of the day and I later discovered that the keg kicked 15-minutes after I got my pour.
Two more stouts followed, both from Jackie O's Brewing Co. out of Athens, Ohio. We lived in Ohio for 20-years after moving to the states, so we know Jackie O's very well. Sitting right on the cusp of Appalachia, it's located in an attractive college town.
I started with their Big Snail Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (13.2%), brewed with Fireweed Honey, a string of dark malts and aged in Bourbon Barrels for 15-months.
This was followed by Overcoil Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (12.9%), again brewed with six different malts and aged in Bourbon Barrels from three different distilleries for 20-months.
Both gorgeous and worthy runner ups to Everywhere's Really, Really, Really Fun Imperial Stout.
Next up was my favourite beer of the entire festival: Jackie O's Bernarda (4.7%), a mixed fermentation Saison, with Pilsner malt, raw wheat, flaked oats and German Northern Brewer Hops. Absolutely gorgeous with beautiful sour-like flavours. This brewery was right on target for the festival.
I was hoping to avoid IPA's, but I couldn't resist the two on offer from Radiant Brewing, another highly ranked brewery from SoCal - Forward Thinking Double West Coast IPA (8.2%) and Come to Realize Hazy IPA (8.0%). Both were fabulous IPA's with Come to Realize featuring two of my favourite hops: Cashmere and Mosaic, producing lovely tropical flavours.
A new brewery by the name of Roadies Brewing from Vista CA (just up the road from where we live) had two IPA's on tap, including the fabulous Headbanger DIPA (8.5%).
Lastly, a word about San Diego's Barley & Sword Brewery with their cask ale named CAMRA Blonde Ale (5.2%).
I'm not exactly sure if CAMRA had any input with this beer, but I tried a Barley & Sword cask ale at their brewery a few months back. Absolutely hideous with a bitter flat taste. I spoke with the barman and he explained that the beer had suffered from some bacterial spoilage although he couldn't explain why the beer hadn't been taken off tap.
On that note, I vowed never to taste a Barley & Sword cask ale again, so when I saw CAMRA Blonde Ale on cask at the festival, words from the great Jim Royle went through my head: "Cask Ale? Cask Ale MY ARSE!"
And that brought us to the end of the San Diego Beer Festival for 2025!
