Rough Draft? – Great Draft

Meeting up for beers, but you aren’t sure if the kitchen quality will be up to the same high standards of San Diego craft breweries? Rough Draft might be your go-to place. Offering an excellent variety of San Diego style IPAs and a first-rate kitchen; Rough Draft is among a few local brewers serving lunch and dinner in-house. I caught up with Rough Draft owner Jeff Silver at the tasting room and kitchen located at 8830 Rehco Rd Suite D, San Diego. Silver opened the doors of Rough Draft in 2012, and in 2015 he added the kitchen. The local food trucks, while offering good food, couldn’t always accommodate his desire to have a consistent presence. Having a kitchen solved that problem.

The Rough Draft name came from a pun intended to mean a work in progress, as well as the beer reference. Silver is always trying new beer recipes with a goal to always be growing the business. He sees the business as a local operation that is part of the community. All of the beer-making takes place in the same location as the tasting room; visitors can see where the beer is being made while they imbibe. The entire operation is on display, from grinding the two row barley to fermenters, the last and longest step in the process. I saw some spent grain destined for re-use at Stehly Farms; Silver said that he gets the grapefruit for the Weekday Grapefruit IPA in return. If you can’t make it to the tasting room, Rough Draft is being sold in local Costco, and in restaurants and stores in San Diego. He is also examining where he might add up to two tasting rooms. I suggested Bay Park, which is starting to accumulate some breweries.

Silver has a plurality of West Coast IPAs in his line-up, due to local demand, but he also has a variety of styles among the 18 beers on tap. Even though Rough Draft brews a variety of IPAs, the Amber Ale is the best seller. San Diegans expect a mix of IPAs, so 7 of 18 taps had that variety. I asked him about Freudian Sip, an American Strong Ale, one of my favorites. It was originally designed to be barrel aged, but he found it was excellent even before aging, so it is offered in two varieties. He just introduced a hazy (unfiltered) IPA; that couldn’t quite be described as a New England style IPA. In my opinion, it competes in that area. Rough Draft also has an extensive barrel aging program. Right now, they are aging primarily in Pinot Noir and Bourbon barrels. Some of the barrel aged beer is available in bottles, with more on tap.

The tasting room has a nice mix of seating arrangements, including a traditional wood topped bar facing two big screens with sports. There are also four person bar tables and stools, and some longer tables for bigger groups. The barrel aging room next door doubles as an event venue, with ales and dinner available for your event. The kitchen menu includes Paninis, hot and cold sandwiches, flat-breads, charcuterie boards, meat pies, and sausage rolls. The kitchen menu options are very complementary to the ales. The Cubano sandwich I ate was crispy and perfect, with just the right mix of mustard and pickles to go with the porchetta.

On this visit, I sampled six beers. I tried the best-selling Amber Ale first. Creamy caramel comes right at you up front. This is a solid beer with lots of malt body and is very smooth; I only noticed the hops at the end. Identity Crisis is a great name for a blonde stout and an example of Silver’s desire to experiment with new varieties. Without the darker roasts, it isn’t as bitter as other stouts, yielding a semi-sweet vanilla and coffee infused drink. Apricot Wundersauer is a sour BerlinerWeisse. This beer is tart, but not overly so; the apricots provide a mellow backdrop as does the wheat. This is a very good beer for the style. Eraser IPA is in the Northwest style, characterized by more malt, darker color and more resinous hops. If you like your IPA bitter, this IPA is for you. Grapefruit Weekday IPA is a lower alcohol offering infused with local grapefruit. You can really taste the ruby red; it seems like a great brunch beer. There is a load citrus hop taste up front in AmaGalaCitraScade, a hazy IPA. It has good carbonation, bringing out all the citrus bitterness that lingers on the palate. My last sample on this trip was Bourbon Barrel Aged Freudian Sip, one of my few five-star beers. A tang from the ale hits the front of the tongue first. The bourbon flavor carries the booziness on the back. Finally, subtle floral notes linger if you sip this beer slowly. My wife and I have also enjoyed Hop Therapy Double IPA, Emboozlement Tripel, and Southern Triangle IPA on other visits; these are all excellent as well.

Rough Draft is that go-to place where you can count on great beer and great food in one location. It’s worth the trip from Clairemont.

Jeff Silver in front of the Mash Tun at Rough Draft Brewing.

This article was originally published in the Clairemont Times on page 13.