AleSmith Brewing – Iconic San Diego

I sat down with Peter Zien, owner and CEO of AleSmith Brewing, at their expansive, 100,000 square foot plus facility at 9990 AleSmith Ct. last month. Brewing operations were moved from the Cabot Drive location in March 2015, allowing scaled up production on a new German-made 80 barrel system. Mikkeller occupies the old Cabot Dr. facility as reviewed last month.  The new equipment took some tuning and experimenting before it was producing optimal beers, according to Zien. Beer making doesn’t scale in a linear fashion, and the new equipment was much more efficient. For example, the sugar yield from the system is 15% higher for the same grain load, requiring an adjustment in the amount of barley used. But the new system gives him greater control over the final product, like giving an artist sharper brushes. I also asked Zien fi there was a theme to his beer making, pointing out that AleSmith isn’t known for the West Coast IPA style.  He laughed, because the brewery was once known for its hoppy offerings. He continued by saying that his goal is to make all of the classic accepted beer styles with the highest handcrafted quality. 

The tasting room was opened later in 2015, providing the opportunity to fashion a new experience for an expanded customer base.  Zien wanted to maintain the connection of the brewery to the customer.  The tasting room is laid out with numerous waist high pub tables, great for small groups, with picnic tables outside for larger groups.  There is also a bar area near the taps.  In addition to being able to taste the beer and view the beer making system, there is a barrel room, where one can sample various barrel aged beers and mix ales aged in different barrel styles.  There is outside capacity for two simultaneous food truck operations, with at least one in service every day.  To help pace myself during the beer tasting, I tried some excellent lumpia and pancit from Grandma’s Lumpia.  While I was there, I saw that construction was in progress on a new 120-person event venue, to complement the tasting room. 

AleSmith is also home to the Tony Gwynn museum, dedicated to the memory of the former Padre great, who died in 2014.  San Diego Pale Ale .394 is AleSmith’s tribute to Gwynn. It is not well known that Gwynn was involved in the creation of the beer, discussing what he liked and wanted to improve over the course of three different batches. Zien told me that he felt pressure to make a great beer to match Tony’s fame and what he meant to the city. Fortunately, the 394 pale ale is highly rated in many online beer reviews. AleSmith’s next collaboration will be a Mexican lager with the band Sublime.

I stared beer sampling with the Spezial Pilsner, the latest example of working on world-accepted styles.  It is a German Pilsner, differing from from a Czech Pilsner with a much more malt forward flavor, and the milder German noble hops not as noticeable.  This is a great craft beer that even the average Bud drinker could enjoy. The Nut Brown Ale is a classic English brown, it is pours a very dark amber.  It is nutty, a tiny bit smoky, and very sweet; very easy to drink.  Their IPA is simply called IPA; it hits you with very bitter fruity hops up front, maybe a hint of apple along with citrus.  It stands up to other West Coast offerings.  One of my favorite names for a beer is Old Numbskull; a very big hoppy, malty, and boozy barleywine.  It pours very dark with not a lot of carbonation and tastes of roasted cherries, raisins, and red wine. I took home a bottle, which is etched with real gold on the label, according to Zien.  I expected more of the same IPA flavor when sampling the AleSmith Double IPA; instead I was greeted with a well-carbonated resinous IPA that hid the high alcohol content behind a piney bouquet.  Robust Porter was also well carbonated with lots of coffee notes, but also some sweetness, very smooth overall. My final taster was Noël, a Belgian Quadrupel infused with cinnamon, while retaining the characteristic banana and esters of a quad. That last one might be worth saving for Christmas. 

Two beers that I regularly drink are the .394 Pale Ale, and Horny Devil, a Belgian Strong Pale Ale.  We made beermosas with Horny Devil for Mother’s Day Brunch. It’s high alcohol, sweetness and coriander, make it a great choice to add a little orange juice.  The .394 Pale Ale is a great beer to get your friends interested in craft beer. It is a solid pale ale with a bit of fruit and hop balance; and a great back story.

AleSmith has turned itself into a San Diego icon, with decades of award winning consistency and a big, big presence in Miramar; worth a visit by locals and tourists alike.

Peter Zien in front of the bar and tap line at AleSmith.

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

New Logo for Beers By the Bay

I wanted to brand my column for the Clairemont Times and any other work I am doing related to the local beer industry.  I turned to a new firm, Blank Canvas Marketing to design a logo and business cards for me.  Their rates were very competitive and the printing costs were super low.  Here is the logo:

The logo represents the waves breaking on the sand at a local San Diego beach whilst enjoying a fine craft beer. The waves form the shape of three B's for the column name: Beers By the Bay.  The colors have some meaning as well, please comment if you figure it out.  I was very pleased with the results and look forward to quality business cards to go with.

Disclaimer: Blank Canvas Marketing is owned by my sons.

Supernatural - The Unseen Realm Revealed in the Bible

Did you ever wonder why God said "Let us create man in our own image?" Why does the Psalmist  quote the LORD as upbraiding lesser gods and telling them that they will die like men? (Psalm 82) What is God's purpose in creating humanity in the first place? Why does Jesus call himself the son of man, when we call him the son of God?  Why do angels have fixed positions and proper dwellings as described in Jude 6?

For the longest time, I had questions like those above, and never found the standard answers of my church to be satisfactory.  Neither did Michael S. Heiser, whose book Supernatural:What the Bible Teaches About the Unseen World - and Why It Matters, goes after an all encompassing explanation of God's heavenly realm and how it is revealed in the Bible.  Supernatural isn't a scholarly tome; it is only 167 pages.  But make no mistake, Heiser is a first rate Biblical scholar.  Supernatural is a shorter and more readable version of the ideas put forth in The Unseen Realm, which has the research and footnotes to back his assertions.

Starting with the Garden of Eden, proceeding to the Flood, the Tower of Babel, through Jesus' life, then all the way to Revelations, Heiser lays out how God's plan to make humankind rulers over an Eden on Earth has played itself out over time.  He explains how the lesser gods of the heavenly council betrayed the charge God gave them and came to be in opposition to his plans.  If that sounds blasphemous, I submit that you have been shielded from the difficult passages of the Bible that support this view.

Most importantly, his conclusion is not mere theology.  He argues convincingly that our role as Christians is to be restoring Eden to earth, RIGHT NOW! This is done by our obedience to God and by taking our future role as rulers over angels seriously on this earth.  There are powers and principalities of this dark world that will overcome to help God establish his kingdom.  When we Christians think of our lives in this light, it changes everything.

Here is a lecture from the similar material, but I must say that Heiser is a much better writer than lecturer.



If you like my book reviews, you might enjoy visiting San Diego and staying at our home.

Ballast Point Brewing - One Year after the BIG Sale

This article was originally published in the November 2016 issue of the Clairemont Times on pages 10.

Ballast Point Brewing has always been one of my favorite spots for craft beer consumption. San Diego craft beer drinkers were wondering about the implications of the sale of Ballast Point to Constellation Brands about a year ago, which owns Modelo, Corona, and Pacifico.  Does it presage big changes in the local industry?  I paid two visits to chronicle any change, once to take a home brewing class and once to sample beer.

 An impressive tap line Ballast Point in Linda Vista.

Sports on the telly and craft beer in my belly; a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Ballast Point has four San Diego locations; 5401 Linda Vista Road, the Home Brew Mart, being the location closest to most Clairemont Times readers.  Beer making classes are taught and home brewing supplies sold there.  I took an extract brewing class, which shortcuts the beer making steps that extract the sugars from the malted barley (mashing) by using prepackaged extract directly.  The availability of malt extracts allows the beginning brewer to start learning before investing in the more expensive equipment needed for mashing. It also saves time.  The brewing class is also a great introduction into the science of beer making, explained in easy to understand terms.  Understanding the basic vocabulary and why the brewing steps are needed is a great aid in making good beer.  The emphasis on sanitation throughout the whole process was stressed for its importance in controlling the taste and quality of the end product.

The class lasted about two hours; but we were given tickets to sample some of the craft beer in the tasting room and given a break at the half-way mark. I felt confident of my ability to take my second crack at brewing, but haven’t done so yet.  Overall, the beer making class was a great experience, and really reflects Ballast Points’ dedication to its roots in the home brewing culture of San Diego.

A few weeks after the beer-making class, I returned to sample some beers in the tasting room side of the Linda Vista facility.  They have some great original art from their marketing on the wall, and they put up some sports on two big screens.  The layout is unpretentious, with solid wood tables, benches, and chairs.  There is typically a food truck out back; San Diego Poke Company served up a great spicy salmon poke for my brother Dean and my son on this trip.  Its always good to have great food to go with great beer.

My sampling started with Pescadero Pilsner, a nice hoppy pils with a little extra grain in the taste.  Next, I tried Alt-Hands on Deck, alt-bier is a German style that uses top-fermenting yeast, like an ale but is fermented at colder temperatures.  This sample tasted better as it warmed up with the caramel malt flavor coming out.  Another traditional style is the Extra Special Bitter or ESB, with BP serving up California Amber in this category.  Most English ales of this style aren’t as well hopped; there was a little resinous finish here.  Pumpkin Down is a pumpkin and yam version of the Piper Down Scottish Ale. That makes for a great combination, as Ballast Point keeps the pumpkin flavor subtle, allowing the sweetness of the base ale to come through.  Lastly, I tried a “roots to boots” Biere De Garde. Roots to Boots is a program that allows employees to experiment with new offerings and keeps with the home brewing traditions of Ballast Point.  This was my favorite beer of the afternoon, a Belgian style with lots of banana and cinnamon notes.

Ballast Point delivers as broad a range of styles of any brewery in San Diego.  They never disappoint and I am glad to see that their new owners haven’t altered their formula for success.

If you like my beer reviews, you might enjoy visiting San Diego and staying at our home.

Mikkeller Brewing – Danish Itinerant Finds a Home in San Diego

Mikkeller Brewing San Diego, has a different legacy than the other local breweries reviewed here.  The brewery, located at 9366 Cabot Dr. in Miramar, the product of a collaboration by famous Danish brewer, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, and AleSmith.  Mikkeller Brewing San Diego moved into AleSmith’s former location and opened its doors just over a year ago. Bjergsø had previously achieved fame as an “itinerant” brewer, traveling breweries in Europe and America as a guest brewer.  Beer Geek Breakfast, an Oatmeal Stout with coffee, garnered international attention in 2006, and put Mikkeller brewing on the map.

The tasting room is large and friendly.  Wood bench seats and chairs line the long oak-colored tables.  I also had plenty of room to stand and walk around.  Advertised as dog and kid friendly, there was one baby in a papoose and two small pooches present.  Heavy metal rock was on the sound system, but the baby didn’t seem to mind.  On my second visit, mellow disco dominated the play list. The PokeCraft food truck was offering up bowls with Ahi, Salmon, in traditional, garlic and spicy varieties.  On both trips, the tasting room was comfortably full; filled with customers from their twenties into their sixties. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and low lighting in the main area tasting area.  There is also a brighter room to the side of the entrance that catches more sunlight.

The beer at Mikkeller is a wide ranging eclectic mix. The menu was lighter on West Coast IPAs.  There were 19 beers on tap for my visit; not every variety was sampled, but I did my best.  California Dream, a pilsner that was hopped up as advertised, with plenty of citrus and tropical fruit notes up front.  Sensible Sweater was a new style for me, a New England style American Pale Ale, with lemon drops and brewed with Mosaic hops.  It was hazy with low bitterness, and a juicy mouth feel. Flip Mode was another new style, a Belgian Amber, brewed in collaboration with Monkey Paw. It was a bit sweet, still hoppy, while retaining coriander spice notes Belgians are known for.  The brewery’s flagship IPA is Waves (Bølger), a well carbonated IPA that gives off a nice grapefruit aroma that you taste up front.  It finishes with a bitter piney aftertaste that lets you know you are drinking a San Diego IPA.  The entry into the Double IPA category, is Spells (Filiokus). It had extra malt and alcohol, but not overwhelming bitterness from the grapefruit and lemon hop notes.

After the IPAs, I shifted gears to some sweeter beers.  Shapes, a Belgian Blonde, was very refreshing. It’s mild honey flavor combined nicely with cinnamon and banana spice notes. Mikkeller collaborated with AleSmith on their porter.  It poured very dark and had a nice roasted flavor, with spicy hops for great balance. My last two beers were great for dessert.  Wee Sticky Icky, a Wee Heavy (Scotch Ale) with pecan and caramel syrup was like a caramel sundae with malt.  The famous Beer Geek Breakfast was delicious, a great stout with lots of coffee flavor, with just a hint of chocolate.  Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, Imperial Oatmeal Stout version was also very good. This was a great beer to finish up with, very smooth and rich, lots of lacing on the glass and very thick.  The coffee didn’t overwhelm, but was definitely present.

Mikkeller has brought European craft brewing to San Diego, expanding the style boundary well beyond West Coast IPAs. They are worth a visit, especially if you love stouts and a relaxed atmosphere.

The tasting room at Mikkeller San Diego with 18 beers on tap.

This article was originally published in the Clairemont Times on page 13 and the Mira Mesa News on page 7.

In a subsequent interview with Peter Zien of Alesmith, he said that he still advises Mikkeller on aspects of the local beer business, but his involvement has decreased as Mikkeller has established itself.

If you like my beer reviews, you might enjoy visiting San Diego and staying at our home.

Coronado Brewing in Bay Park

 This month’s review shifts to one of San Diego’s oldest and largest brewers, Coronado Brewing, founded in 1996.  While the original brew pub is still located in Coronado, the brewery opened a larger production facility in Bay Park at 1205 Knoxville St. in 2012.  I talked with Ryan Brooks, the brewmaster, and Aidan Kennedy, Marketing Coordinator about the challenges of brewing in the larger facility and what Coronado is doing.  Aidan said that the Bay Park facility has a 4 vessel 30 barrel brewing system and produced 41,000 barrels of beer last year, putting them in the mid-size brewery classification for which they were 2014 Champions in that category at the World Beer Cup.  Ryan said that new recipes get tested out at the smaller brew pub in Coronado before they are produced for bottling in Bay Park.  Recipes don’t necessarily scale up proportionally, so further experimentation is required to get the taste just right for the bigger batches.  Coronado has seven core beers that are always being brewed and put in cans, bottles, and kegs.  Some beers that were once experimental make it into the core lineup, Stingray Imperial IPA, for one.

Ryan has been working for Coronado for five years, with prior experience at Black Market brewing in Temecula and in Australia.  Often inspiration for a new beer style comes from a new yeast that becomes available.  Other times the lineup is due to seasonal conditions.  The current 18 beers on tap are heavy on IPA varieties because production was ramped up for San Diego Beer Week, and Coronado is known for that style.  The next production batch will use a Danish yeast strain to produce a series of lagers, from basic to dark amber.  A new hop variety may inspire a new recipe as well, Polaris IPA in the current lineup, for instance.  Ryan will also work with the yeast labs to get a mix of yeasts formulated for a specific style.

The tasting room is set in the middle of the large brewing facility but is set somewhat apart.  Wood bars, tables, and chairs give a bit of old school ambience to the tasting room.  College hoops were featured on a couple of large screens, but it was not the focus of the tasting room.  Coronado is dog-friendly, but there was only one pup in the room when I visited.  In addition to beer; shirts, glasses, and other swag is on sale.  Food trucks are scheduled during the week around 4:00 p.m. You can’t miss the three banners from the 2014 World Beer Cup over the walkway to the food truck area.

I sampled some excellent, hoppy beers.  Seacoast Pilsner, a core beer, is a very drinkable Pilsner with good malt flavor, and much improved since my last tasting.  I next tried Berried at Sea, a fruity ale with raspberry dominating and just a little sour. These first two would be delicious on hot summer days.  The Belgian Strong Dark was both rich and spicy, with mild chocolate notes not normally seen in this spicy style; it was very good.  My first IPA, North Island, was well carbonated, and had a full mouth feel with complex floral hopping.  This is the sort of excellent IPA Coronado is known for.  Stingray IPA, also in the core lineup, is a strong citrusy and tropical Imperial IPA.  I serve Stingray when I have out of town business guests.  Polaris IPA was an amazing experience; the intensity of the Polaris hops was a real treat.  This is the sort of experiment that advances the art of beer making.  Finally, I finished with Snowy Plover, a winter IPA.  While not for everyone, I enjoyed the mix of dark malts perfectly balanced against piney hops.

Coronado continues its over 20 year tradition of excellence right in our own back yard.  They have successfully scaled up production while continuing to experiment in the art and craft of beer making.

Ryan Brooks, Brewmaster at Coronado Brewing and the tools of his trade.

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

Quantum Brewing – Stepping Up The Energy

This month I made a trip to another brewery that has recently changed ownership, Quantum Brewing, located at 5375 Kearny Villa Rd.  Martin Beaulieu purchased Quantum three months ago and set about improving the quality of the beer.  Martin is both head brewer and owner; we talked and sampled beers during a recent visit.  He has a PhD in biochemistry, so he is right at home discussing the nuances of the beer making process.  He is about 50% complete with his primary goal of improving Quantum’s beers, estimating that he needs 3 more months to get all of the recipes where he wants them.  Despite being a nanobrewery with only a 3 barrel capacity, he has twelve beers on tap.  The good news is that Quantum is selling all the beer it makes; the bad news is that Martin can’t produce enough to meet demand.  He hopes to expand in the near future.

Quantum brewing is located in a strip mall with plenty of nearby eateries. If you like to eat good food with your beer, Anny’s Fine Burgers and Filippi’s Pizza are two of great places next door.  Like many San Diego tasting rooms, Quantum encourages customers to bring in food.  The tasting room features a spacious interior with pleasant ambience and a big screen TV showing sports while 90s music was playing during my visit.  Also featured in the tasting room are the Quantum ale glasses with their trademark atom logo that are popular with some the geek-set at my day job.

While I sampled more beers than space permits me to describe, they were small tasters, so that I could enjoy all twelve beers on tap.  Like the old Alpine board, Quantum has their IPAs listed on the left and all other beers on the right.  Martin said that the non-IPA lineup is selling better.  I started with Hadron Collider, a Bavarian Wheat Ale which has a banana base and lots of malt.  The banana isn’t overpowering, and the mouth feel is very rich on this great beer. This was a great way to start the tasting, and Martin is justifiably proud of this recipe. 650 Nanometer (the wavelength of red light) was the offering in the Irish Red category, and the most popular ale.  While far more hop forward than a standard amber, it still has the characteristic caramel finish.  This is an excellent beer in this style. I also tried a Habanero Pale Ale, Planck’s Pepper.  The habanero was not overpowering, leaving just a little tang on the back of the tongue and the throat going down.  Another popular beer is the Singularity Stout, an Oatmeal Stout.  This was super smooth and creamy, not at all bitter, with both chocolate and vanilla notes.  A customer also drinking it remarked that he could bathe in it.

Switching over to IPAs, I started with the Chain Reaction Session IPA and was amazed.  Filled with grapefruit and other citrus flavors, but balanced with some sweetness, this could almost be a shandy, without the annoying characteristics that come from polluting your beer with sweetened juice.  This beer stood out against other San Diego session IPAs that I have had in the past.   Anti-matter IPA was more of a standard West Coast IPA, hop forward with reasonable alcohol content at 7% ABV.  However, it wasn’t too bitter, so I was really impressed and the balance between the Cascade and Chinook hops kept the flavor right between citrus and piney.  I finished off sampling the Yellowcake Imperial IPA.  This was the most complex beer on offer, lots of character, thick with bitter hop flavors, and a little more on the citrus side.

Quantum Brewing has great variety and excellence.  Martin Beaulieu’s work to produce a variety of high quality beers is really paying off.  I look forward to another trip, this time with a some local dinner to go with Quantum’s beer

Martin Beaulieu at the tap line.

This post was originally published in the Clairemont Times.