A Review Of San Diego’s Brew Hop Tour Company

February 16, 2011kristaNo CommentsNeighborhood Chat

Last night our e-cafe networking group took a tour with Brew Hop, an e-cafe member business.

Brew Hop owned by Summer Nixon, is a San Diego based company, whose entire business is designed for your beer enjoyment,consumption and enlightenment. Brew Hop has a very similar format as wine tasting but geared at beer breweries.

Our tour started out at Gordon Biersch where we were picked up in a Lincoln Navigator and started out on our journey.
Our first stop was at the Ale Smith. As we pulled up to Ale Smith it looked more like an office building rather than a brewery. After walking through the front room you enter into a large warehouse. With beer barrels for tables and one bar tender, the Ale Smith had a humble elegance to it. This highly unassuming place had some of the better micro brews I have had in sometime. Will definitely go back there again soon.

Summer started us off light and we worked down the beer list. With each successive drink we were educated on how that particular beer was brewed and helped us discover different tastes within the brew. Summer not only was extremely knowledgable of the beers specific to the Ale Smith but was also enlightening us on unique beer facts and knowledge. She gave us a lot of information and in a very relatable way as opposed to wine tasting where the wine pourer would tell me, “It has a nice Oakey taste to it” and immediately try to sell me a bottle. This was a much more comfortable tasting experience in my opinion.

We tasted a good amount of beer at Ale Smith for me to admit I walked out feeling pretty good!

Second stop was at Ballast Point.. I was really excited for this brewery as it is one of my favorite micro-brews. Ballast Point had a character all to its own. Brightly colored walls, a small tasting area, and a couple bar tenders on hand to serve. Summer’s knowledge of the Ballast beers was great as well. She even added in a few interesting stories on how Ballast came to be.

After trying a few select beers from the Ballast Point collection we then were taken on a tour of the whole facility. With our safety goggles on Summer took us through the entire brewing process from soup to nuts. Was a great experience, one I won’t soon forget!