Mmm... 2kids Beer...

I realize that it's a little early in the morning to be posting about beer, but it is Hump Day, after all. Not to mention, my latest life goal is to go to bed earlier and get up earlier than the masses to get more of what I want to do (i.e. reading, blogging, plotting world domination, etc.) done. At least for the past two weeks, I've been successful at that endeavor and once past the initial alarm-induced groan, haven't regretted getting up early at all.

Anyway, back to the wort of the matter. I spent the past weekend in San Diego, which is never quite complete without a stop for craft beer. Moreover, in my opinion, no trip to San Diego is complete without a stop specifically at 2kids Brewing Company - a nanobrewery with a flair for unusual ales, but none of the pretense that typically comes with that kind of self-description.  I've known brewers Sam & Rob since high school and have watched them go from beer connoisseurs to prolific homebrewers to successful business owners with the opening of their tasting room nearly a year ago. And had the privilege of drinking some tasty and wittily named beer all along the way.

While I've been to their establishment previously, it was early on in this project and I felt that I didn't do their beer justice with the pictures I took then. It was exciting to return with camera in tow to properly capture some of their brews.

Photographically speaking, the challenge I experienced here was the indoor lighting. In the past several months, I have found myself increasingly preferring to shoot in natural, outdoor light, but that presents a major limitations when the interesting stuff is actually inside. To make this even more of a challenge (she says as if the following was intentional), we went to 2kids directly after dinner out and I had forgotten to bring my flash bounce along. I only had my trusty 35mm lens and built-in pop up flash at my disposal. No matter, I managed for the most part with some guerrilla flash diffusers improvised from my hand, a coaster, a translucent envelope, and a dollar bill.  Unexpectedly, the best results were obtained between my hand and the back of the coaster.

In any case, if you find yourself in the San Diego area, you should go check out 2kids, taste their brews, and have a chat with Sam & Rob yourself. Address and tasting room hours are below - they also come up on Google and Yelp searches for anyone like me who relies almost entirely on various device(s) to navigate through life.

2kids Brewing Company
8680 Miralani Dr. #123
San Diego, CA 92126

Tasting Room Hours:
Thursday:  3:00 - 9:00pm
Friday:       3:00 - 10:00pm
Saturday:   1:00 - 10:00pm
Sunday:     1:00 - 8:00pm

Its 5 o'clock somewhere!

Taps

The beer is so clear, you can see the effervescence. Almost poetry.
Diffusing the flash didn't work so well here, unfortunately.

Dat foam.

My favorite: Winning! Chocolate Stout.  All I need is some vanilla ice cream...

I really did buy a growler and a half. And then some. These just happened to make the photo.

More Cheers

Active Shooting Hours: 1.5 hours
Review Hours: 2.5 hours
Hours to Date: 138

A Sanctuary from the Heat

It's been hot.  As in, I worked up a sweat putting on make up this morning hot.  And worst of all, it's been humid.  Sweating is not at all helpful when it's this muggy out.  Instead of evaporation wicking away heat to leave you cooler and more comfortable, you're now just soaked in sweat in addition to still being hot.  This seems like a flawed adaptation to me... as if the entire human race got the whole sweating thing down and then called it a day and never developed a way to deal with heat when the air is too saturated with moisture for evaporation to work its magic.

I'm sure people from around the country (and the world) will tell me this is their normal, "it's not that hot" and to quit whining... but fantastic weather is precisely why I pay a premium in both taxes and the cost of living to live where I live and dammit, I'll whine about it because I can.

Anyway, to beat the heat (and extend the bacchanal debauchery that is Birthday Week), we headed down to the Stone Brewing Company's World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido for a brewery tour and to cool off with some deliciously hoppy IPAs.  And so I could get some shooting in... although photographic skill (like many other skills) deteriorates quickly once drinking is factored into the equation.  While the creativity in composition might have been there, the hold-the-camera-steady motor skill was totally not happening later in the afternoon.  Fortunately, I managed to get plenty of shots before succumbing to beers with ridiculously high ABVs.  And even better, I wasn't driving and had all afternoon to recover.  As it turns out, getting older means day drinking gets harder.

Beers I had today:
Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale
Arrogant Bastard Ale
Ruination IPA
Levitation Ale
RuinTen IPA - perhaps my new favorite, because it's hopped up like crazy, yet still pleasantly light, tropical, and citrusy, and a whopping 10.8% ABV.

Absolutely beautiful grounds

You would think there would be gargoyles all over the garden, but there were none.  In fact, in the entire place, I counted 3 and this was the only statue, which apparently they found at Lowe's.  Yes, normal people ask beer brewing & related questions during a brewery tour... having Wikipedia'd all of that already, I ask about the lack of gargoyles.

Beer, hanging out in bourbon & Bordeaux wine barrels and soaking up deliciousness

Taken with the iPhone.  I love me some hoppy goodness.  Hoppity hop hops.

Hours to Date: 17