Getting the Hang of Brewery Life

Kate & I started to find our footing at the tasting rooms.  Some were good, some were great & others not so much (both the beers & the sales).  Kate & I racked up quite few growlers & even some cool merch along the way. 

And as the days grew longer, we started saving up more money & were able to take off a night here & there.  When Beyonce came to town to play at Qualcomm Stadium, Kate could not pass it up & I decided instead to go camping at Mount Laguna.  

The next day, I drove back & we set up for the first time at Intergalactic Brewery.  A cool tasting room, a little off the beaten path in Miramar, it was full of Sci-Fi posters & out of this world brews.  

The setup was a breeze- we'd back up the Ford Escape around back, get the grill lit, the tables setup & they'd roll open the back door like a curtain to an eager crowd.  It felt like we were on stage!

We were so inspired, the next night we went to Petco Park to see Billy Joel.

Intergalactic quickly became one of our favorites along with Belching Beaver, Coronado, St. Archer, Bay City, Mission, Ballast Point & Alesmith.  We measured how much we liked a brewery setup by a few key parameters:

1. Were the sales worth our time there?
2. How far did we have to drive to get there?
3. Did we like the clientele that ordered food from us there?
4. Was our point of contact at the tasting room nice to us?
5. Did they book us just to have a food option there, even though the place was dead?

We asked ourselves these questions to help weed out the consistently good spots from the mediocre.  There were a few "One & Dones," & several we gave two or three shots before we moved on.  

Afterall, business should be a win-win for both parties & intrigue your customers (& your food vendors) to return.