San Diego Beer Week: In Search of Karl Strauss’ Peanut Butter Cup Porter

In case you didn’t know, San Diego is home to more than 60 breweries and is one of the top-tier regions for quality craft beer production and a leader in craft brew tourism. From the seemingly endless craft beer events taking place nearly every weekend, to the “Bottled & Kegged: San Diego’s Craft Brew Culture” exhibit currently running through Jan. 20, 2014, at the San Diego History Center – there’s truly something for everyone to enjoy.

Last week was San Diego Beer Week, hosted by the San Diego Brewer’s Guild, and though we weren’t able to attend many of the major events, we heard Karl Strauss had brewed a special, Peanut Butter Cup Porter and we were determined to find it. Luckily for us, the Karl Strauss location in La Jolla featured it as their Cask Night special last Thursday and we couldn’t wait to give it a try! (There was even a Google Calendar Invite involved in the planning process, as well debate over how early to get to the restaurant so we wouldn’t miss getting to try the one-time brew.)

We made our way through rush hour traffic just in time grab a perfect outdoor, patio table and order two pints of the Peanut Butter Cup Porter. It was definitely worth the planning and the wait! Honestly, it could be C’s favorite beer ever. Ever. Super smooth, with a lot of chocolaty flavors and a peanut butter finish, the porter is the closest thing to dessert-in-a-glass we’ve ever had.

The plan all along was to also have dinner, so with our first pints of the porter we enjoyed the new Beer Pretzels with cheese and mustard sauces for an appetizer (they were so delicious we completely forgot to take a picture). We also shared the Smoked Gouda burger with fries, and the carmelized beer onions really made the burger! We were already pretty full at this point, but one look at the dessert menu and we knew we had to try the Chocolate On Tap concoction: warm chocolate brownies, Red Trolley Ale caramel sauce, dark chocolate sauce, vanilla bean ice cream, whipped cream, and toasted almonds. Yum!

While C ended up having a second pint of the Peanut Butter Cup Porter, G tried the Big Barrel Double IPA and really enjoyed it. Check out our gallery below to help entice you to visit Karl Strauss soon!

We say it all of the time, but there is SO much to do in San Diego! While we think we’ve really made the most of our first 7 months here, we’re already mapping out 2014 to include even more races, recipes, and adventures.

Tomorrow starts week 9 of G’s ultra training, and we’re both running the Silver Strand Half Marathon next Sunday.

Enjoy your Sunday, and have an amazing week!

GnC

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