San Diego Beer Events March 24th – March 30th

Tags

awesome beer drinkers, brewdog, brewdog bashah, brewdog keep the glass, brewdog tokyo, Bruton Brewery, cantillon, cantillon Classic Gueuze, Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary, Iacopo Lenci, Jean Van Roy, Mango Mongo DIPA, march madness beer tasting, mission valley craft beer festival, Paradox Imperial Stout, suds for surgeries, The Handlery Hotel & Resort, union jack ipa

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday Mar 24th:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is doing a Pizza Port Keep the Glass night. They’ll have a tun of Pizza Port OB beers as well as a few favorites from the other PP locations. They’ll also have some treats from Lost Abbey as well including Red Poppy.

Friday Mar 25th:

More Pizza Port fun, Downtown Johnny Brown’s is doing a Pizza Port/Port Brewing Co. night with 17 different beers on draft. They’ll also have a cask of Mango Mongo DIPA.

Live Wire might not be the first place you think of when you think craft beer, but some say they’re the original San Diego beer bar. They’re featuring a Firestone Walker showcase with four draft beers, including Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary as well as a cask of Union Jack IPA.

Saturday Mar 26th:

My friends over at West Coaster, Awesome Beer Drinkers and Best Damn Beer Shop have teamed up to host a charity beer tasting at The Beer Company downtown. They have an insane VIP bottle list lined up as well as a more standard regular session with a chance to try five beers from The Beer Company, including three never seen before.

Sunday Mar 27th:

Jean Van Roy, owner and brewer at Cantillon, producer of some of the world’s most sought after sour beers will be at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens Sunday afternoon. They’ll have Classic Gueuze on draft and six other Cantillon beers available in bottles. All Cantillon beers will only be available at the outside bar in 4oz pours only.

The Handlery Hotel & Resort is hosting the Second Annual Mission Valley Craft Beer Festival, Suds for Surgeries to benefit Fresh Start Surgical Gifts. They’ll have unlimited tasters as well as food and live music, all for a good cause.

Monday Mar 28th:

Another European brewer will be in town, this time it’s Iacopo Lenci from Italy’s Bruton Brewery. He’ll be at Hamilton’s Tavern with five of his beers.

Tuesday Mar 29th:

I haven’t heard of anything special going on. If you know of something please email events@sandiegobeerblog.comto get it added.

Wednesday Mar 30th:

There’s a lot going on for a Wednesday night, but BrewDog night at URGE Gastropub looks the most promising. They’ll have two different kegs of BrewDog’s Paradox Imperial Stout aged in different Scotch Whiskey barrels and have it on cask as well. They’ll have kegs of the 18.2% ABV Tokyo as well as the  BrewDog/Stone Brewing Co. collaboration Bashah. They’ll even send you home with your own BrewDog glass.

The Beer Company, San Diego CA

Tags

alesmith speedway stout, downtown san diego beer, downtown san diego craft beer, huntington beach beer company, newport beach brewing company, san diego beer company, san diego brewing company, san diego brewpub, speedway stout, the beer company san diego

It’s been a few months since we’ve written about the opening of a new brewery in San Diego so it seems like we’re overdue. The Beer Company, a brewpub located on the corner of Broadway and 6th St downtown had their soft opening last week and while they’re still working out a few of the kinks that come along with opening a new brewpub they’re definitely a welcome addition to the downtown beer scene.

When we stopped in they only had two house brewed beers on tap, a Blonde and a Hefeweizen but I was told by Jordan, an assistant brewer (whose last name I didn’t catch) that once the brewing process gets dialed in they plan on having a rotating selection of four house beers on at all times. In addition to the blonde and hefe they’ll be brewing a Pale Ale, IPA, Brown Ale and probably more. They also plan do some barrel aged and cask beers down the line.

I opted for samplers of both house beers so I only got a small amount of each, but plan on stopping in again in a few weeks when they bring more taps online. The Hefeweizen was the favorite of the two. It was hazy with a strong banana smell. The taste was sweet, the banana from the yeast stood out foremost. The Blonde was heavy on the malts with very little hop presence. There was a grassy or almost hay like taste to it. It finished very crisp and clean. As I said, with such small samplers it’s impossible to give a real, thorough review of the beers, but when they bring more beers on line we’ll be back to check them out.

In addition to the house brews they had a handful of guest taps, with plenty more to come. They had about ten or fifteen beers on last night, with room for plenty more. If I counted right they have around 56 taps that they plan to fill up. The guest selection was good with plenty of locals, some non-San Diego craft beers and a few imports. Prices were reasonable, I had an Alesmith Speedway Stout, served in a tulip glass (I’d estimate it was around 1ooz) for $6, which seems to be the going rate for Speedway Stout.

The food was mostly typical pub grub, burgers and fries, fried appetizers and sandwiches and again the prices were pretty reasonable. They also had wood fired pizza’s which looked good, but I didn’t try any.

I’m told that the owner of The Beer Company is involved with Huntington Beach Beer Company (The Beer Company was originally going to be called San Diego Beer Company, but changed their name quickly, maybe San Diego Brewing Company objected?) and that the headbrewer came from Newport Beach Brewing Company of which I’ve heard good things about their beers.

While The Beer Company has a few things to overcome (getting more of their house made beers brewed and on tap, filling the rest of their guest taps, having a printed tap list or a board listing beers on tap to name a few) but I’m certain they’ll work out the kinks. With so few craft beer options downtown The Beer Company  has the potential to be one of the go to beer spots in the downtown area.

Photos by Kinsee Morlan