Gordon Biersch, San Diego

Okay, I have to apologize now: no pics. The camera battery was dead when we got there. Regardless, like every time we take a cruise out of San Diego, we went to a brewpub before we embarked. This time, we went to Gordon Biersch.

Now, when we decide on a brew pub to visit in a city, typically, we visit something unique to the city. I try to stay away from chains. So, you might ask, why did we decide on Gordon Biersch, especially since it is the epitome of chain breweries? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, I have a lot of respect for Dan Gordon, the founder of Gordon Biersch. He is one of the few Americans that has graduated from the brewing engineering program at the Technical University of Munich at Weihenstephan. He also founded one of the few American breweries that follow the Reinheitsgbot, the German purity law of 1516. Also, I was kind of sick of the typical ale brewery. You know: pale ales, IPAs, stouts, and so on. Finally, I had never been to a Gordon Biersch, and wanted to check it out.

When we got there, I was surprised at the scale of the place. This was not your typical seven barrel hole-in-the-wall. It was huge. At one side, they had a glass wall, with massive brewing equipment behind it. It could have been a 15 to 20 barrel system, easily.

The other thing is that it was packed. We had reservations. However, we found out the wait for people who did not have reservations was like an hour and a half. We found this to be a good sign.

When they went to take our order, I ordered the beer sampler. It came with their Golden Export, Hefeweizen, Marzen, Blond Bock, Schwarzbier, and their seasonal, a maibock. They were all award winners in my book. However, the Schwarzbier was my stand out favorite. It was light bodied, but still had the roastiness of the dark malt, a kind of chocolaty, coffee-like goodness.

Also, the food was quite good. In fact, it was one step above the greasy, dive-bar, pub food you find at most brew pubs. No piles of stained paper napkins next to plates filled with hot wing bones here. This was a cloth napkin, polished glass kind of place.

As we talked to our server, I noticed someone behind the glass, in the brewery. I asked, "Is that the brewer?"

"Yes," she responded. "You want to talk to him?"

"Sure!"

She brought me over there, and I got an impromptu tour. On the tour I got to climb up and look into the mash tun and lauter tun. We talked about grain, water, German brewing techniques, Dan Gordon, and more. I truly was in heaven. In fact, did you know that according to Reinheitsgebot, you cannot even add minerals to your water to match the water profile of Munich? I didn't. Now, I do.

That is about it for our visit to Gordon Biersch. I would go there again in a heartbeat.