What are you drinking right now?

This gets the CL seal of approval. A big boy beer. You're hired.

 

Have you been to North Coast? That was the first I had by them, will have to look for more. What are your top 5 Cali breweries? Mine -- Firestone, Lagunitas, Ballast Point, 21st Amendement, Alesmith

I know Russian River belongs on that list, but haven't had anything from there.

What are the best Cali breweries that don't distribute on the East Coast?

 

Isn't that what Oktoberfest beer is for?

 

I think Mr Gee prefers mixed drinks. Mass has some outstanding breweries. Boston Beer Co is not one of them. Treehouse, Trillium and Night Shift are.

 

Another Pollinator by Magnify Brewing. Very good.

 

Boulevard Single-Wide IPA

 

Man, you're asking questions I can't honestly answer. I'm really not a huge beer connoisseur. My friends and I have done the limo tour in NoCal about 4 times. It's a once-a-year deal. Usually you pop in, look at the chalkboard, try to pick one and that's it. Drink it down and move on, so we're really only trying one beer each, but we usually share. If you like the beer, great. If you don't, well, there's another place just down the road. We usually don't do samplers, kinda slows down the process. It's usually East Bay locations, but we move into SF for a couple of stops (the longer in the limo, the less amount of time in the breweries). 21st amendment is in both places, a restaurant/brewpub in SF two blocks from At&T Park and their new giant warehouse tasting room in San Leandro. Really like their beer. We go there every year.
I have not been to North Coast but friends who have are in love with the place. My daughter used to work in a gourmet burger joint. Their bar has about 4 taps and they change quite often. They brought in Prankster for a few months and I thought it was excellent.
All of the ones you mentioned are very popular, but people really rave about Stone Brewery in San Diego. Nothing bad about that place. I've never had Alesmith. Just googled it and it looks interesting. Belgian is the best. (No joking matter obviously, but when those terrorist bombings occurred in France and England recently, I said that it might be beneficial if they bombed Belgium, because that would piss off all the beer drinkers and the whole world would go after the terrorists.)
I bought a mixed case from Kona Brewing at Costco a couple of weeks ago. I really like their Golden Ale and you can pound Longboard. I didn't like the IPA. The Red Ale was OK but not as good as the Golden Ale.
I'll be in Dallas this weekend. I hope I don't get stuck with Billy Beer the whole trip.

 

I envy you West Coasters for Costco. We have Costco and some have beer, but it's not real good beer. Just from beeradvocate, it's great to be able to pick up a couple bottles of Parabola or Stickee Monkee at Costco. In NJ, you won't get more than 1 bottle of that from whatever place unless you got a hook.

 

I haven't visited all of them, but my favorite California breweries would be, in no order:
Stone
Russian River
Speakeasy
Green Flash
Ballast Point
Kern River

Also note even smaller places like Kaweah, Temblor, Lengthwise and Dust Bowl.

Twenty years since leaving the East Coast, I still miss it, but California is a great, great beer state, no denying.

 

Almost forgot Smog City.

 

When I remember I rate the latest beer I've had at beeradvocate.com. Just finishing an after work Sam Adams Belgian Session. I've rated 74 beers offer the bast 5 years. Not all the different ones I've had just when I remember to do it and it's not obnoxious THese are the my top rated beers I've had

 

Lot of good ones on there. I like Mad Elf also, my buddy couldn't drink it. You ever have 120 minute IPA? 18%. Nice.