A Visit to Modern Times Beer
Modern Times tasting room
In the summer, a couple of guys and I went down to San Diego for a couple of days to drink beer at as many breweries as we could. On the second day of our trip, having visited Ballast Point, Societe Brewing, and Council Brewing, we made it to Modern Times’ Point Loma tasting room. As with many other breweries, Modern Times Beer is located in an industrial warehouse. Unlike many other breweries, however, it had some fascinating decor; with each side of the tasting room having been decorated differently (one wall was a massive picture of Michael Jackson with a monkey, made out of post-it notes). There were wooden spool tables with stools at which guests could sit.
Board of Beers
As we were accustomed to doing, we got flights of beer. We started off with Dancing Plague (4.9% ABV), a Berliner Weisse, which was a little funky, sweet, tart, and very yummy. It was great for warm weather, with a crisp finish. Next up was a variation of it: Dancing Plague with peaches (4.9% ABV), which was lighter, crisper, a little peachy, but not overwhelmingly peachy. It was an easily drinkable beer with a delectable slightly tartness to it. We then drank the Lomaland (5.5% ABV), a saison, which enjoyably had a tropical fruitiness, funkiness, and pepperiness.
First flights of beers
Moving on, we then drank the Fortunate Islands (5% ABV), a hoppy wheat, which was lovely for a wheat. Then, we drank the Fortunate Islands with Lemon Verbena on cask, so the cask effect made the bubbles calmer and smoother. I loved the lemon verbena (okay, I generally love lemon verbena, but this was awesome!) and it made the others in our group think of tea, perhaps because of the leafy character to it. This beer was incredibly enjoyable. Next up, we drank the Oneida (5.8% ABV), a pale ale, which – oh wow – this is a delicious pale ale! It had some lovely tropical fruitiness and nice balance; very enjoyable for a pale ale (okay, for any beer). We then moved on to their Anniversary IPA (7.5% ABV), a juicy IPA, which was piney, danky, and delicious!
Coffee Stouts
Then we moved on to their coffee stout and its variants. We started off with their base coffee stout, Black House (5.8% ABV), a coffee stout, which was smooth, round, coffee and a small finish. Next up was the Black House on nitro (5.8% ABV), instead of carbonated, which was a creamy version of the above (75% on nitro, 25% on CO2). We then drank the Black House with coconut and cocoa (5.8% ABV), which was lightly coconutty, but it takes away the huge coffeeness of it, with cocoa very subtle and gets swallowed up by the coconuttiness and coffee elements. Finally, we drank the Mega Black House (10% ABV), also a coffee stout, which had very sharp coffee flavors.
Wall decorated by comic book pages and oak barrels
While there were other beers on the menu with wine in them, we decided to refrain from drinking those. Nevertheless, all of their beers were very enjoyable and it was a pleasure to experience them!
