San Diego Beer Week saves one of its biggest weekends for last, and AleSmith is giving it a proper anchor. The Speedway Grand Prix returns to the brewery’s Miramar tasting room Thursday through Saturday, November 12 to 14, for three days built around Speedway Stout, the coffee imperial stout that has been AleSmith’s calling card for years. The brewery calls the event “a San Diego Beer Week tradition.”

Admission is free. A $20 Lap buys four 4-ounce tasters, $35 buys eight, and the $50 Victory Lap buys twelve, and every Lap includes a collectible glass. You pick your pours from three themed Pit Stops and mix and match across them. Laps are sold through Eventbrite in advance and at the door while they last, but a Lap is only good for the date you buy it for.

The lineup is the draw, and this year it runs to more than a dozen variations. Pit Stop 1 pours the specialty creations: Bananas Foster, Pandan Coconut Thai Tea, Mole Negro, and Mile High Club. Pit Stop 2 is the ice cream shelf, with Turtle Sundae, Cookies and Cream, Vietnamese Coffee Crunch, and Neapolitan editions, all 12 percent and all built to taste like the dessert counter. Pit Stop 3 goes barrel-aged, with Dubai Chocolate, Vanilla Lavender, Samoas, and Fluffernutter editions. The headliner is a new Barrel-Aged Speedway Stout: Old Fashioned Edition, a collaboration with Sons and Dotters aged in bourbon barrels that previously held their Old Fashioned cocktail. It pours as a taster with any Lap, and limited 16-ounce cans will be on sale all weekend.

The extras are half the fun. Two of the ice cream editions, Vietnamese Coffee Crunch and Turtle Sundae, also come as custom beer-infused ice cream, included with the Ice Cream Editions flight. The Speedway Espresso Martini Bar is back with two creations, a Pistachio Cold Foam version and a Raspberry Jam version. Thursday night opens with a trip into the cellar: eight vintage Barrel-Aged Speedway Stout pours spanning 2020 to 2025 at $6 a pour until they are gone. Friday and Saturday bring Mario Kart tournaments with a trophy for each day’s winner, and Saturday adds live screen printing of the Grand Prix shirt. Local food vendors rotate through all three days.

If you cannot wait until Thursday, you do not have to. A four-pack of the ice cream-inspired variants is already on sale at the Miramar taproom, including the Cookies and Cream and Turtle Sundae editions.

A few practical notes before you go. The event runs 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at 9990 AleSmith Court in Miramar. Kids and leashed dogs are welcome. Parking is free in the lot, but the brewery recommends a designated driver or a rideshare, and we would second that.