Late to this thread, but a few of my favorite breweries:
Ballast Point (just about anything by them, especially Indra Kunindra [curry stout], Victory at Sea [Vanilla Imperial Porter], and Sea Monster [Imperial Stout])
Green Flash (also just about anything, but especially their Serano Double Stout - have to go to the brewery itself for it though)
Mission Brewery (their Chocolate/Cherry porter - on tap at the brewery only atm - and Dark Seas - probably my absolute favorite Imperial Stout, it's heavy on toffee taste)
I also recently moved to the Paso Robles area in central California, so I've been spending a lot of time at the Firestone Walker brewery. And holy crap their Proprietor's Reserve series (read: Barrel-aged just about everything, and ridiculously delicious for being 10+% abv) is amazing. Today I'm having Stickee Monkee, a barrel-aged Belgian Quad. PM me if you're reading this and ever in the area and find yourself wanting to hit up FW