The Linkery Investigating Brewing on Premises

Tags

north park brewery, north park brewpub, the linkery brewing

The Linkery has always focused on well made, handcrafted (and often local) food. In their own words from their website, “Making everything by hand, from scratch, including house-baked bread, house made mustard and sauerkraut, and hand spun ice cream.” The Linkery has a great beer lineup but they have never been able to make their own beer, however in this blog post by Linkery owner Jay Porter he announces that The Linkery is looking into brewing their own beer.

I don’t have any more info than is in the Linkery’s blog post, and Porter stresses that this is still very early in the planning process, adding “It may be that making no change [to The Linkery] at all is the best action; we’ll see.”

Done right, I think a brewpub would be a great addition to the neighborhood. The uptown neighborhood’s of South Park, North Park, Normal Heights and University Heights have some of the best beer drinking establishment’s around in my opinion but only one “brewpub” (Blind Lady Ale House/Automatic Brewing Co. being the only current brewery in those neighborhoods).

Click over and read more about it on The Farm and the City (The Linkery’s blog). Their blog doesn’t allow comments, so if you have any thoughts on the prospect of a brewery at The Linkery feel free to leave a comment below.

Photo from The Farm and the City

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Farmhouse Friday: Iron Fist Brewing Co. Hired Hand

Tags

hired hand, hired hand saison, iron fist hired hand, iron fist saison, san diego saison

I first had Iron Fist Brewing Co.’s beers during their opening weekend last October. I sampled all five beers in their initial lineup on draft and took home a bottle of what was my favorite, their Saison called Hired Hand. When I opened the bottle a few days later at home to say there were problems with it would be an understatement. I emailed the brewery and they were very nice about it, acknowledging there may have been a problem with their capper (it’s understandable, they had only been open for three days at that point) and offering to exchange it. I never got around to taking them up on that offer and continued to enjoy their beers on draft, but hadn’t had Hired Hand since they first opened. Seven months later I decided to give a fresh bottle of Hired Hand another chance. I picked it up at Bottlecraft in Little Italy $9.

Thankfully it appears as if their early bottling problems have been fixed as the beer in this bottle tasted just as great as when I had it on draft.

Hired Hand is a bit darker than many other Saisons with a slight reddish hue but it’s not necessarily out of the ordinary looking. The smell is more floral than I expected, but that isn’t a bad thing. There isn’t much floralness to the taste, it’s earthy, just a little sweet and reminiscent of spices that I can’t identify (but not peppery). As with most Saison’s the finish is dry. It does feel a little slick and oily in your mouth, but not so much so to distract from the beer.

I can see myself drinking quite a bit of Hired Hand as the weather warms up this summer, but thankfully it’s a year round beer, available fresh for those warm winter days we get here in San Diego as well.

Update: This price of Hired Hand at Bottlecraft has been updated, I originally incorrectly listed the price as around $10.99 when in fact it is $9 a bottle.

San Diego Beer Events May 26th– June 1st

Tags

Belgian Beers with Goat Chees pairing, Belgian Beers with Goat Cheeses, cigar city, green flash mira mesa, green flash moving, green flash vista closing, Insider Belgian Cream Ale, marron acidifie, new belgium beerbq, new belgium grand cru, new belgium super cru, pints for prostates, shipyard brewing company, veritas 009, veritas 009 release, whistle stop

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.  Not all of the beer events happening in a given week make it on the list below, I pick one or two per day to avoid information overload. Make sure to check out the Events page or the calendar below this post for all the week’s events.

Thursday May 26th:

It’s probably your last chance to get some of Automatic Brewing Co.’s latest beer, Insider Belgian Cream Ale brewed for in collaboration with FM 9/49 for the North Park Festival of the Arts Craft Beer Block. They’ll be offering it up at Blind Lady Ale House by the glass and growler from 5pm until it’s gone.

Friday May 27th:

Hamilton’s Tavern will be hosting their 3rd Annual Shipyard Brewing Company Lobsterfest with a ton of the Portland, Maine’s beers on draft, two casks and as the name implies, plenty of Maine lobster.

Saturday May 28th:

Saturday is going to be a busy day. Most of the hardcore beer geeks within a 200 mile radius will be lining up at The Lost Abbey well before 10am when they open for the Veritas 009 release. A bit was poured last weekend and reports are that it’s great. 750ml bottles will be $35 with a limit of four per person.

If you’re looking to stay more central Blind Lady Ale House will be doing Bruery flights to celebrate The Bruery’s Third Anniversary. They’ll have The Bruery/Cigar City Marrón Acidifié collaboration and more.

Over at KnB Wine Cellars they’ll be hosting a New Belgium BeerBQ. They’ll have some delicious New Belgium beers including the recently release Grand Cru and Super Cru as well as grilled foods made with New Belgium beer.

Sunday May 29th:

It’s Green Flash Brewing Co.’s last day in Vista, and they’re throwing a customer appreciation party to thank everyone before they close shop and head down south (see Wednesday, June 1st below). They’ll have complimentary food and prizes.

There’s also a special Sunday daytime Drinkabout benefiting Pints for Prostates. The free shuttle will run from 1-5pm, going to all the usual Drinkabout spots in addition to Whistle Stop and Eleven. $1 from every beer purchased at each spot will be donated to Pints for Prostates.

Monday May 30th:

It’s Memorial Day, but it’s also Monday, that means $3 local pint night at Toronado.

Tuesday May 31st

Up at Stone Brewing Co. World Bistro and Gardens they’ll be pairing Belgian Beers with Goat Cheeses. $39 gets you seven pairings total. These events at Stone have been selling out, so if you’re interested I suggest buying tickets ahead of time.

Wednesday June 1st:

If things goes as planned, Green Flash Brewing Co. will officially be opening the doors at the new brewery and tasting room in Mira Mesa to the public from 3-9pm. I expect them to open as planned, but double check before heading over there to make sure there wasn’t a delay in their opening. This is only the soft opening, they’ll have a big grand opening celebration later this summer.

Aztec Brewery to Move Into Green Flash’s old Vista Location

Green Flash appears all set to move down to their new brewery in Mira Mesa next week, but one lingering question is what would become of their Vista brewery.

Aztec Brewery, a new brewery that has yet to produce beer commercially has announced that they will be taking over Green Flash’s Vista location at 1430 Vantage Ct.

No word on when Aztec Brewery will start brewing, but Green Flash is holding their Customer Appreciation party and last day in Vista this Sunday from 12-4pm. They’ll open the doors and the new facility on Wednesday, June 1st and have a Grand Opening planned for July 23rd.

Firehouse Brewing Company Sold at Auction

Tags

firehouse auction, firehouse bankruptcy, firehouse brewing co auction

Firehouse Brewing Company, which filed for bankruptcy protection about two months ago, was sold at auction this morning. The company’s assets were broken down into about 150 lots ranging from complete brewing systems to miscellaneous office products.

Some of the lots including the most valuable brewing equipment sold for over $100,000 which seems like a pretty good deal to me based on what was included.

The Firehouse brand, the name, the website, the recipes, etc sold for a mere $1,500. It’s obvious it was the brewing equipment that was so sought after, drawing large crowds of hopeful brewers looking for a deal, not the Firehouse name.

There were two lots with quite a bit of brewing equipment (mash tuns, boil kettles, fermenter tanks, etc) as well as another lot with a bottling line in addition to miscellaneous equipment including bottles, kegs and more things useful to a brewery. Quite a bit of general office furniture and office supplies were auctioned off as well, some for what appeared to be quite a deal.

According to West Coaster, all lots combined sold for about $350,000 with the brewhouse going to one party, the bottling line to someone else and everything else going to various individuals. Jeff Fischer of Fischer Auction tells me the total from the sale was about $400,000.

A listing of all items sold as well as the final price can be seen here.

I haven’t heard who walked out of there with some of the more desirable brewing equipment or what might become of it. It could have gone to an existing brewery looking to expand, those looking to start a new brewery or (it seems to be a slim possibility at this point but still possible) someone could revive the Firehouse Brewing Company, either with their old equipment or not.

If you know who picked up brewing equipment or the Firehouse brand, shoot me an email at events@sandiegobeerblog.com or leave a comment below.

I wrote a summary for West Coaster with a bit more info, you can read it here.

This post was updated 5/24/2011 at 6:00pm to add additional information and a link to West Coaster.

San Diego Beer Events May 19th – May 25th

Tags

Bacon & Eggs, Cho Saiko, Falco Imperial Red Ale, judgement day party, judgment day, kelsey mcnair, Night Rider, Night Rider Imperial Stout, North Park Beer Co., Pereo Pilsner, Pizza Port OB anniversary, Pizza Port Ocean Beach anniversary, San Diego County Session Ale, San Diego History Center, San Diego Now, The State of Beer in San Diego, Trintas Belgian Pale Ale

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.  Not all of the beer events happening in a given week make it on the list below, I pick one or two per day to avoid information overload. Make sure to check out the Events page or the calendar below this post for all the week’s events.

Thursday May 19th:

A brand new brewery is opening up in Carlsbad. On the Tracks Brewery is holding their 3 day Grand Opening celebration and kicking it off today from 4-7pm. They’ll be doing it again tomorrow from 4-7pm and Saturday from 1-7pm. I don’t know much about them but they say they are “specializing in the darker side of beer with tasty ales, ports & stouts,” they’ll have seven beers and one mead ready to go. If you stop by On the Tracks this weekend drop me a line and let me know what you think: events@sandiegobeerblog.com

Friday May 20th:

The third installment of Hess Brewing Co.’s Friday Afternoon Club (FAC) is shaping up to be the best yet. The Barnacles will be playing some music, a wood-fired pizza truck will be serving up some pies and of course there will be beer. Three new beers to be exact. They’re introducing Trintas Belgian Pale Ale, Falco Imperial Red Ale (a 9.3% ABV, 90+ IBU red using Falconer’s hops) and Pereo Pilsner, a rye based German Pilsner 100% Nelson Sauvin hops and designed by home brewer extraordinaire Kelsey Mcnair (of North Park Beer Co. and San Diego County Session Ale).

Saturday May 21st:

Some people say it’s Judgment Day. Whether the world ends at 6pm or not, the hours leading up to it at Lost Abbey should be a fun time. They’ll have discounts on their Belgian-style Quad as well as prize giveaways and the original label art on display. Apocalypse themed costumes are encouraged.

Blind Lady Ale House says they’ll have a flight of beers from The Bruery, I don’t have many details on it but the beer is bound to be good. I haven’t heard for sure but it sounds like The Bruery flight might be postponed. I’ll update this if/when I hear one way or the other. Read about the flight from The Bruery they had last summer (no word if Patrick Rue will be around this time).

Sunday May 22nd:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is celebrating their One Year Anniversary all weekend long (starting Friday night and ending Sunday night). They’ll have some special beers from all the Pizza Port locations as well as The Lost Abbey and Port Brewing Co. Pizza Port OB brewed Cho Saiko and Bacon & Eggs will be back on draft as well as an OB anniversary beer.

Monday May 23rd:

It’s Monday, that means $3 local pint night at Toronado.

Tuesday May 24th:

QUAFF holds their monthly homebrew club meeting at Randy Jones All American Grill in Hazard Center.

But if that’s not your thing stop by The Tipsy Crow downtown where they’ll be tapping a cask of Pizza Port Carlsbad Night Rider Imperial Stout.

It’s also Toronado San Diego’s 3 Year Anniversary. Rumor has it they’re throwing a party but details are scarce at this point. Look for a full post with details when I know them.

Wednesday May 25th:

I don’t know much about this event, heck I’m not even sure there will be beer there. But from 6-7:30pm the San Diego History Center will host a discussion on The State of Beer in San Diego featuring “local brewmasters and industry leaders”. No word on who those people might be, but it could be interesting. Grab a beer at The Prado’s happy hour before hand or head somewhere after for a pint, the event is free.

Stone Brewing Co.’s Big Expansion Plans

Tags

la milpa organica, stone announcement, stone brewer point loma, stone brewery expansion, stone brewery liberty station, stone brewing co. expansion, stone brewing co. liberty station, stone brewing co. point loma, stone brewing co. pt loma, stone expansion, stone farms, stone liberty station, stone point loma, stone south park

Stone Brewing Co. is holding a press event today which I and many other beer writers and bloggers will be attending. Stone is expected to make some big announcements but exact details are still mostly under wraps.

The Union-Tribune’s beer writer Peter Rowe has a story outlining some of Stone’s plans, according to Rowe:

• Stone will open a 400-seat restaurant at Point Loma’s Liberty Station, complete with bocce courts, and outdoor movie area and beer garden and a small brewery onsite.
• Stone will expand their current space in Escondido allowing them to produce up to 500,000 barrels a year (Stone’s estimated capacity this year is 150,000 barrels).
• Stone has acquired an 18.7 acre farm (formerly La Milpa Organica) to provide organic produce to their restaurants.
• And of course, as we all know, Stone is opening a retail store with bottle, growler and keg sales in South Park

Let’s hope Stone left out at least few details from the above story and there are some surprises in store for us still.

Myself and many other are sure to be posting details and pictures to Twitter and Facebook as the day goes on. You can follow me on Twitter @SDbeer or Facebook SdBeerBlog or follow the Twitter hash tag #StoneDay for a feed of various people at the event.

 

Turista Libre Tijuana Craft Beer Tour

Tags

Cerveceria Insurgente, Cerveceria Tijuana, Cerveceria Zesde, mexican craft beer, mexico craft beer, tijuana craft beer, tijuana craft beer tour, turista libre, turista libre beer, turista libre craft beer

Saturday June 4th Turista Libre, which leads atypical day tours in Tijuana (in their own words: “No strolls down hooker row. No donkey shows. No gringo stereotypes.”), will be focusing on the craft beer of Tijuana. Turista Libre is run by Derrik Chinn, an American who has been living in Tijuana for the past three plus years.

Derrik is a friend of mine and was my neighbor while I briefly lived in Tijuana a couple of years ago. We’ve drank many a Tecate together (sometimes it seems as if Tecate owns the entire city), but he was just as excited as I was to find that there is a small but growing craft beer community in Tijuana.

We’ll meet just inside Mexico mere feet from the final border gate at 12pm. We’ll head over to Cerveceria Tijuana, which I believe is the oldest brewery in Tijuana and has the most presence in the US (they were at last year’s Stone Anniversary Festival). There we’ll sample six 5 ounce tasters (Morena Dark Lager, Guera Pilsner, Bronca Pilsner, Brava Dark Lager, Bufadora Bock, TJ Light Lager) as you can tell by the names, Cerveceria Tijuana focuses on lagers, but they’re quality lagers based on those found in Europe. From there we’ll head to the newer breweries of Cervecería Insurgente (3 six ounce tasters, La Lupulosa, Tiniebla, Brown), and  Cervecería Zesde (3 six ounce tasters, DasFalco IPA, Vanilla Sky Stout, Strawberry Fields Ale).

We’ll also stop by The Beer Box, a bottle shop with many Mexican, American and European craft beers so you can purchase a bottle or two to take home.

Tickets are $35 and space is limited, so make sure to prepay to reserve a spot. The tasters listed above as well as transportation from the border is included in the ticket price, but you’re on your own for bottles at The Beer Box. We’ll stop for tacos at least once because we’ll surely need them with all that beer. The day will end around 7pm in Downtown Tijuana near a few of the new beer bars if you’ll looking for more, or a short walk or cab ride back to the border.

So grab your passport and we’ll see ya June 4th!

There’s plenty of information about past tours and what to expect on Turista Libre’s website.

Questions: email me at events@sandiegobeerblog.com or Turista Libre at turistalibre @ gmail.com

Read more about Turista Libre: Urbanist, LA Times, NBC San Diego, and MSN

Farmhouse Friday: Goose Island Pepe Nero

Tags

black saison, dark saison, goose island, pepe nero

I picked up this 22oz bottle of Goose Island Pepe Nero for $7.99 at Palm Springs Liquor in La Mesa a few weeks ago, I’ve since seen it at many other bottle shops around town for about the same price.

I bought this bottle for a few reasons:

• I’ve been wanting to try some dark Saisons
• I hadn’t seen this around before
• Goose Island recently got sold to Anheuser-Busch, I figured this might be my last chance to have a non AB brewed Pepe Nero (even though AB says they won’t be changing things at Goose Island and I doubt the quality will decrease, I like to support the little guys)

Pepe Nero is dark, not quite black but a very dark brown, it had a light tan head that stuck around for a while (it should be noted that I forgot to snap a photo, so I snagged this  picture from flickr, mine had quite a bit more head). This beer smells really good, pretty sweet and less spicy than I expected, with just a bit of an earthiness to it and some not too bitter roasted aromas. The taste starts off with that very familiar slightly earthy saison yeast flavor but gets roastier and just a bit bitter as you drink. The finish is extremely dry and peppery (black peppercorns are one of the ingredients in the beer).

Overall this is a nice beer, not my favorite Saison, and not like most Saison’s but well worth drinking. I’m hoping to try more black or dark Saison’s in the future as I don’t have much to directly compare this to.

Photo: CC flickr user mitch_j

 

San Diego Beer Events May 12th – May 18th

Tags

american craft beer week, american craft beer week san diego, ballast point day, Barrel Aged Sea Monster Stout, Barrel Aged Tongue Buckler, Barrel Aged Victory at Sea, hamilton's second saturday, karl strauss beach to brewery, lost abbey 5th anniversary, LOVELIKEBEER, north park beer festival, north park festival of the arts craft beer block, port brewing 5th anniversary, progressive cask, stone green tea ipa, stone japan benefit beer, stone japan benefit collaboration, stone second saturday

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.  Not all of the beer events happening in a given week make it on the list below, I pick one or two per day to avoid information overload. Make sure to check out the Events page or the calendar below this post for all the week’s events.

Thursday May 12th:

LOVELIKEBEER is putting on their first all Vegan Beer Dinner at Sea Rocket Bistro tonight from 6-10pm. Each food and 6oz beer pairing is $10 and 10% of the night’s sales go to the International Rescue Committee.

Friday May 13th:

Seems to be a quiet Friday in regards to beer. Blind Lady Ale House will be doing another Progressive Cask with lunch as they do most Fridays. They haven’t announced what the beer will be but it’s sure to be something good. And only $2 from 11:30am-2pm with the price going up by a buck per hour after that until it’s gone.

Saturday May 14th:

It’s going to be a busy Saturday. If you don’t  have tickets to the sold out Lost Abbey/ Port Brewing 5th Anniversary Party don’t fret, just head over to Karl Strauss’s main brewery in Pacific Beach for their 8th Annual Beach to Brewery festival. There will be some great local music and of course great beer on tap.

But that’s not all, 2nd Saturday at Hamilton’s Tavern this month is featuring Stone Brewing Co. The lineup looks pretty good with some barrel-aged and vintage Stone treats, many Stone collaborations and of course some free grub.

Sunday May 15th:

Just a few blocks from 30th Street in the heart of North Park during the North Park Festival of Arts is the Craft Beer Block. $25 in advance, or $30 at the door gets you ten tasters from over 20 breweries.

Monday May 16th:

Monday marks the start of American Craft Beer Week so there should be plenty of great beer events going on throughout the week.

Beer U: Inside the Craft Beer Industry at Stone Brewing Co. is sold out, but in celebration of ACBW Stone is dedicating all the taps in the Bistro to Southern California breweries so stop in and have something local.

Tuesday May 17th:

Ladies only: Chicks for Beer at The High Dive hosts The Lost Abbey. $25 in advance, or $30 at the door gets you five tasters and food pairings in addition to learning a bit about beer.

Wednesday May 18th:

Third Wednesday of the month means it’s Drink About time! Get on the (free) bus and head to some of the best beer bars in the city.

Stone is teaming up with a couple brewers from Japan to brew a Green Tea IPA as a benefit beer. Ex-Stone brewer Toshi Ishii (now of Ishii Brewing Co.) will be on hand with Bryan Baird of Baird Brewing Co. to brew it up with Stone’s Mitch Steele and company. As with most Stone collaborations they’ll be hanging out afterwards, from 4-6pm at the Bistro to chat with beer drinkers.

As if all that wasn’t enough, May 18th is officially Ballast Point Day here in San Diego and they’re heading to The High Dive to celebrate. They’ll have 20 BP beers on tap (including Barrel Aged Sea Monster Stout, Barrel Aged Tongue Buckler, and Barrel Aged Victory at Sea) as well as four cocktails made with Ballast Point spirits.