White Labs Tasting Room

Love this place, super stoked this great company is based out of San Diego! The best yeast on the market for any brewing need. Best part is the taster flights with the same recipe and multiple yeast used. Really showcases the importance of yeast in the beers flavor profile.

Great Unilocal experiences and great craft brewery experiences seem to go hand in hand these days for sure! White Labs is no exception to that… HOWEVER, this is not your average craft brewery experience. Yes they are craft, yes they make beer… which makes them a brewery. Ok OK. You get it. But, they are first and foremost a yeast manufacturer. Why is that important? Well, as the saying goes in many brewing circles; «Brewers make wort, Yeast makes beer.». Yeast is the unsung hero in the craft beer world and White Labs produces more heroes that Marvel and DC combined. White Labs tasting room is the few things you liked about science class and everything you love about a craft brewery tasting room. Win Win! Do yourself the favor and order the flight by beer style. I most often get the IPA or the Heffe flights. What you get is 3 – 5 beers made with the same ingredients, except they use a different yeast strain in each beer. You get to smell, see and taste the different characters these little hero yeast strains apply to the same beer. It is indeed mind blowing at times. But don’t let your heart be troubled… they have ever rotating styles it seems and even a few experimental beers such as a raspberry ESB which was amazing on it’s own.
No lab coat needed, but get in here and drink some science into ya!

If you see YEAST in lights, you are at the right location.
Interesting brewery with a great concept. They have several beer flights that are categorized by flavor. From my understanding, the beer flight consists of the same 4 beers with different yeast added into them. & that yeast is what creates the different flavors. Pretty cool.
I ordered a pint of American Hefeweizen Mango & Pineapple for $ 4 +change… It was delicious, fruity, & refreshing. A top notch Hefeweizen!
Customer service was a little off. The bartender was informative but not friendly. We came at 7p & maybe he was eager to go home because he was very quick to inform us that they would be closer soon… (they close at 8p).

Came here for trivia night with my team, The Clint Yeastwoods. Our win was most definitely a result of everything San Diego State’s finest educators at the college of engineering could teach us. Our game-​owning double or nothing question was to name songbirds in order of age. A question us Yeastwood’s have training for our entire lives in the Wild West. There was no contest. I’ll be back for more pint glasses and happy hour prizes.
Had a tabberer flight which was good and a California barley wine that was great. I like the location, it’s kind of discrete but the inside has a fair amount of space and a nice ambiance. The crowd was mixed with mostly younger professional-​types. I’ll definitely be back to do more tasting.

This place is one of my favorite tasting rooms in San Diego! My go to beer is the kolsch beer which my fiancé turned me on to! We always come here together and it’s so funny because as soon as we walk in the guy immediately knows to pour her the kolsch. It makes us feel good as customers to know that he pays attention to his customers! The atmosphere is always really chill and welcoming. This place will always be on of my favorites on the beer list of places to go!

Great beers tasting room is pretty and it’s real chill. The staff is super friendly and they have some of the best beer in SD very consistent in taste and in service great place to come in drink anytime.

One of our favorite breweries… it’s so fun & simply scientific. Service is great & selection is as unique as their concept. We are regulars when in town visiting our parents.

Let me start by saying, if my labs class were like this in school, I would’ve gotten A’s in chemistry and biology!!! Wow! This place makes it clear that this place is a full operating laboratory that specializes in yeast. Don’t let these lab geeks in White coats fool you! Who better to make your beer! Cool bar area with viewing windows into their operation. The beers were excellent. Each one I tasted was full of flavor! A must visit!

What makes this brewery stands out is it offering in flights and its focus on yeast.
I was told this place is actually more of yeast supplier than a brewery, since they supply most of the yeast to the surround brewery.
So, what’s unique about this place is that you can get a flight of a beer, same everything else, but different yeast, the result are very interesting. It really focus on the difference a yeast can bring to the table. I had the saison and porter flight, must say: some are good, and some aren’t. But wow, the difference is obvious and gives you a whole new appreciation with the craft.
If you are into beer, this is definitely a cool place to stop by.
Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to do a tour, would of been cool. Next time!

Easily the nerdiest brewery ever conceived, much less actually built and commercially successful. But, this place is GOOD. Definitely a great competitor amongst the San Diego brewery wars. Very knowledgeable staff, nice ambiance, cheap (normal) prices.

Type.. .. .. .. .. .Tasting Room
Location.. .. .…North SD, close to Alesmith
Prices.. .. .. .…Normal
Tap Selection.…Immense, 20+ house beers
Bottle Selection. .Probably none
Full Bar.. .. .. .. .No
Samplers.. .. .. …Yes
Full Pours.. .. .. .Perhaps
Beer Level.. .…Modest
Food Level.. .. …None
Staff.. .. .. .. .. .Friendly
Growlers.. .. .. …Yes
Noise Level.. .. .Quiet
Décor.. .. .. .…Modern, Dark Wood
Good for Kids.. .No
Parking.. .. .. . …Private Lot
Cash Only.. .…No
Recommended. .Good for ticking only
Comments: New, modern tasting room to showcase White Labs’ yeast strains. They make a handful of base beers and then you can sample four or more versions of the same base wort fermented with various WLP strains. It is more of an educational experience than anything else. Great for understanding how yeast affects beer flavor. Excellent for getting your tick on as well. Any given time, there are probably over 20 new beers ticks to be had. It is close to Alesmith and many other SD breweries. Could be worth a stop. However, the beer flavors range from okay to plain bad.

The beers here were great. We ordered the IPA and porter flights. The fourth one on the IPA wasn’t my favorite, too bitter for me. And my tried my friend’s porter flight, we both didn’t like the fourth port either. They were out of the Frankenbrau :(However the guy working was the only one on a Sunday, wasn’t that enthusiastic about the tour and had a nonchalant attitude, maybe his laid back demeanor made it seem like he wasn’t all in to being there.
We came back for the tour, cool place! (No pictures allowed) like a lab. (We are both biologists so it was cool to see science meeting food). We had tasters while we waited, $ 1.50. I tried the whiskey yeast… tasted very similar to the Karl Strauss red trolley ale.
The tasting room isn’t as big as other breweries, but that just speaks to the close knit feeling of white labs and their specialty in growing Yeast strains and supplying to other breweries.
Cool to take friends to if they are into science.

Highly recommend this place! What a difference various strains of yeast makes! They sample a great selection of brews and explain how the yeast works. Very helpful staff

After recently visiting White Labs– I have a tip for anyone going for the first time. Ask whoever is working to explain the beers to you. We thought we were walking into a normal brewery (silly out of towners) so we didn’t really understand the process. Basically, they sell yeast and ingredients to other breweries, so you order based on that… so you could get the same ingredient making 4 different beers… I’m probably not helping at all. you should just ask them yourselves!
Unfortunately for us, we came during beer week, so we couldn’t get most of their flights. The beers we did have were really good though. The concept was very cool. I would definitely like to come back again and do a full flight, especially after understanding more about their process.

I love the concept of varying the yeast! I had the flight of their Pasteur Flight (porter) for $ 6. I preferred the porter with the German Ale II Yeast. I would love to come here again to try the rest of their beers.

This place is like a magical location where a beer fanatic and a science nerd have found heaven.
The entire place is decked out with lots of awesome lab stuff — flask light fixtures, tube handles for the beer, and even an actual lab.
The cool part of this place is that they don’t really make beer, they make beer to test all the yeast they sell to other liquor companies (Jack Daniel’s was one). So any beer testers you get are made from various different yeast tests they’ve got going on. So sometimes you find a really awesome beer, and sometimes it sucks. But either way, it’s pretty cool knowing that the menu sort of changes with every visit you make.
Great place to hang out and learn about beer!

Came here for the first time the other day.
Excellent service from manny (?)
Fantastic beers
Awesome flights
There was an option to order a pint of something, a set flight or build your own flight. We tried two flights the heffe and the dubbel.
There wasn’t an actual description of the individual beers but there’s a summarization of the flight. They were both absolutely amazing. The fruity aroma and the spices. Mmm I would definitely come back.
The tasting room was very cool also. The lights were made of test beakers. The handles had test tubes.

I wasn’t a big fan of the beer here but the tasting room was really nice. There’s a window view that you can peak into the lab as the beer geeks are conducting their experiments. A bunch of taps available and some modern looking seating area. We tried about 20 different beers and none of them were to my liking. I appreciate that I could try the different yeasts with every beer style, but the flavors of the beer were lacking.
I can see that this would be an awesome place for home brewers, so I can’t knock them on that part of the business.
Parking is also limited here, so street parking might be the only option. I probably wouldn’t come back unless I start homebrewing, so its good to know there’s a really local place to get yeast.

San Diego County Craft Brewery Road Trip Week!
When the beer nerd friend I homebrew with (& fellow Unilocal Elite) planned a week vacation down in San Diego with the wife & kids, he asked if I might want to take that same week off & go down there too. Hmmm, a whole week of drinking beer at craft breweries all over San Diego County? Oh Hell yeah!
With the accelerating proliferation of craft brewing across this fine Nation of ours, a number of cities have distinguished themselves as being great beer cities. San Diego, of course, is 1 of those cities. But it’s the presence of the White Labs Tasting Room that seals the deal & makes SD the #1 beer city in the whole US of A for any truly hardcore beer nerd.
It’s a singular & unique qualifier, but this is a unique place. It’s all about the yeast here. & the White Labs Tasting Room provides the opportunity to experience how using different strains of yeast affects a certain style of beer. The tasting flights are arranged by beer style. Within that style, there are 4 tasters, each made more or less identically but with slightly different yeast strains.
Along with my beer nerd compatriot, we chose the IPA & Hefeweizen flights. Each flight was $ 6. It was truly fascinating tasting how much variation in the final flavor of a beer can come from yeast. For the homebrewer, this is a fantastic way to try different yeasts & maybe even get a little inspiration, without having to brew multiple batches to get an idea of how it might turn out.
Really, where else can you do something like this? For me, that’s a big reason why SD is America’s #1 beer city. Oh sure, there’s lots of beers down here. & lots of distinctive, well-​known craft breweries. Other cities, to a certain extent, can make similar claims. But it doesn’t get any beer nerdier than the White Labs Tasting Room. Only in San Diego.

What a cool place to grab some brew!!!
The fiancée and I came here for beer tastings and a tour. Unfortunately the time we came it was super crowded and they were not available to conduct tours. Oh well…
The tastings were ridiculous! We had 8 tastings each for a total of 16 samples. Honestly, we couldn’t even finish them. I stuck with more of the lighter brews (ales) and the fiancée got the darker IPAs.
Great atmosphere and super kick back. Good beers to check out while in the Mira Mesa area!