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. 

Whole Lot of Tart – Council Brewing

This month’s brewery visit was to Council Brewing.  I talked to Tasting Room manager Kelsey Eck about Council’s history and business. The tasting room and brewery first opened for business in 2014.  Liz and Curtis Chism, the owners, had sold their home and started up their new brewing business in 2013, after winning awards for their home brew ales.  They wanted to emphasize traditional ale styles, which includes Saisons. They experimented with a sour version of this traditional French farmhouse ale that uses lactobacillus in addition to yeast.  The result was the Beatitude series of tart Saisons, their signature series. Beatitudes incorporate a variety of fruit flavors, such as passion fruit, mango, and raspberry. The Chisms started with a 3 barrel system adding fruit that was donated to them by customers. They have since expanded to three 45 Barrel fermenters. They seem to have found a niche that was missing in the San Diego Beer Market, now bottling the series and selling to 160 accounts, primarily in Southern California. Even with the increase in production Kelsey said they have no plans to open a satellite Tasting Room.

Like many San Diego breweries, Council Brewing is located in an industrial park. They are in Kearny Mesa at 7705 Convoy Court. The interior has an old-school feel with wooden barrels stacked up at the entrance and a long wooden bar in front of the 16 taps. Music from the 60s to the 80s played in the background during my recent visit. The tasting room is advertised as kid friendly, but only service dogs are allowed and was fairly full mid-week. Food trucks are typical limited to the Friday and Saturday.

If lightly hopped, low alcohol tarts aren’t your style, Council has a a full lineup of traditional ales, from IPAs to stouts to Tripels. Their Bully Pulpit IPA won Bronze at the San Diego International Beer Festival in 2015 for American IPA and is a solid entry in this traditional local category.  Liz Chism’s brewing philosophy is to go for complex but balanced ales. While visiting the brewery on two occasions, this philosophy delivered some great beer.  The Belgian Tripel with Brett came out spicy and smooth.  It is one of the offerings from the “Magic Factory” where Liz can experiment with new recipes.

As I mentioned before, Bully Pulpit is an excellent IPA.  Both my brother Dean and I give it high marks; it has great hopping with citrus/tropical Mosaic hops and enough malt backing to give it great balance. My personal favorite was the Pirate’s Breakfast Stout.  Stouts run the gamut from sweet and creamy to bitter chocolate.  This stout found the perfect balance between the two to keep your interest. (The brewery is having a “Talk Like a Pirate Event” September 17 and 19.)  I felt that I would have been remiss had I not tried some tarts, even though they aren’t my favorite style.  The Beatitude Cherry Tart Saison was impressive. The sweetness from the cherries offset the sour tart base just enough to make a very enjoyable beer.

This post was originally published in the Clairemont Times. 

After this article was published, Dean had this to add:

Had a nice little convo with Curtis after you left as he actually recognized me after meeting him a few times.  Told him I would drop off a few copies of the Clairemont Times when it dropped.  Also, they will soon be canning Bully Pulpit (praise be!) for sale at the tasting room.  The label includes the likeness of Teddy Roosevelt!  Lastly, names of the IPAS are not evocative of legalese (which I mistook in the term "counsel"), rather our 18th and 19th century town "councils" that were gaveled to order and which people used as a bully pulpit for airing of grievances.

Kelsey Eck showing some tart at Council Bewing tasting room.

Mid-week at Council Brewing.

Dan Lawrence at the Helm – Helms Brewing

A little over 3 years ago, four San Diego shipbuilders brought their passion for beer together and opened Helms Brewing in Kearney Mesa.  As a Navy man myself, I wanted to make sure that Helms was one of the first few breweries I reviewed for the Clairemont Times.  My brother Dean and I made a mid-week trip to the tasting room and brewery and talked to Dan Lawrence, Head Brewer.  Dan came to Helms about two years ago, after the operation was up and running, from Ellicott Mills Brewing in Maryland.  Dan keeps busy with a very fully line up of beers at Helms.  In spite of their small size, they currently have 16 different beers on offer at their Ocean Beach tasting room. He said that the variety and number of beers in their lineup is what sets Helms apart.  He also said that the atmosphere here is much more competitive than back east, due to the large number of excellent breweries nearby. Helms is looking into expansion in the near future, with their beers currently shipping all over America, including the east coast.  (They are often locally available at Keil’s foods.)  I asked Dan what presented the most challenge to him as a brewer. It is the Low Tide Blonde, because it is lighter, it is less forgiving of error.

The brewery itself is set in an industrial park at 5640 Kearney Mesa Rd. not far from Societe, reviewed two months ago.  Once you walk past the fermenting tanks, the nautical theme takes over.  There are some great ship photos on the wall, as well as the longest panoramic view of San Diego harbor I have ever seen. The names of the beers feature nautical themes as well. No pretensions here, with sports on TV and chips for sale to go with your beer.

Most importantly, Helms is brewing some excellent beer.  I tried a flight of five 4 oz. samplers for $10. I started off with Summer Equinox IPA.  This is called a Session IPA, due to its lower alcohol content, allowing one to drink a few beers in a “session.”  Beer Advocate has a nice article on the origin of this term.  This IPA was crisp but plenty hoppy, a great way to start our session. I went with another lighter beer, a collaboration with Monkey Paw brewing, Ninja Monkey Pirate.  This is a well hopped Saison, which retained the great flavor and character of a Saison even with the extra hops.  Dan explained that this was due to the dry hopping, which limited the hop exposure of the beer. He also pointed out that Saison’s in general are a French farmhouse styles that get a unique flavor from Brettanomyces, a type of yeast.  Next up were two flagship beers Wicked as Sin and Hop the RIPA.  Wicked is a very floral IPA that I really liked, also because it is different from the normal West Coast IPA.  Hop the RIPA is a Hoppy Red that is the beer that I think Stone’s Arrogant Bastard should be more like.  The underlying red ale base isn’t covered up by the hops. I ended the flight with Dark Waters, strong Belgian Dark ale.  It didn’t disappoint.  Even though it had 9.5 % alcohol, it wasn’t boozy.  There was a little smokiness to this ale that balanced nicely with the Belgian spices.

Helms Brewing is doing great work across a wide variety of beer styles, with something for everyone.

This post was originally published in the Clairemont Times. 

Bitter Brothers – Hidden Gem on Morena

When we think of beer neighborhoods, Morena Avenue in Bay Ho and Bay Park doesn’t necessarily come to mind.  But only a stone’s throw from the Costco, Bitter Brothers has opened up a quality brewery, operating since the start of the year at its location at 4170 Morena Ave.  Co-owner Bill Warnke was on hand to chat with my brother and I about his beers when we visited.  He said that he came to the beer industry by way of being a chef, which got him interested in the local beer scene.  He worked for a while with Lightning Brewing in Poway before deciding to go into the beer business with his brother.

The Bitter Brothers facility is fairly large for a brewery of its size, ensuring everyone has a place to sit.  The beer selection has a nice variety as well, with offerings such as West Coast style IPAs, but also more traditional styles such as stouts, weizens, ESB, and a tart Berliner Weisse. As a tall guy, I liked that the stools were adjustable and my wife liked the purse hooks under the bar on a previous visit.

I tried out some four ounce samples. At only $2 per sample, this is a quality beer bargain.  I usually start with milder varieties, because starting with an IPA will ruin your palate for other flavors.  First up was Brotherly Love, a Dunkelweizen, with mellow chocolate notes that don’t overpower the malted wheat.  (All of the beers have sibling themed names, as befits a brewery owned by two brothers.)   Next was Extra Special Brother, a traditional Extra Special Bitter, that had all of the malt character and mild sweetness I expect. Ironically, ESBs are not especially bitter, despite their name. Bill said that they are trying to deliver beers “true to the style” and I think they have hit the mark.

Black Sheep on Nitro, is a coffee porter filled with a very mild coffee flavor. That is unlike many coffee porters I have tried which have been very bitter. This has a gentle sweetness that might tempt you to drink too many.  I moved on to an IPA, Prodigal Son, made with Amarillo hops. These hops bring the citrusy and bitter taste expected of a true West Coast IPA.  If you are a hop-head, this is your kind of beer.

My final ale was the best of the evening.  I finished with the Double IPA, Big Brother, and wow, was it impressive.  Very balanced and less bitter, it was full of flavor, but remained balanced.  I couldn’t be sure, but it tasted like a mix of yeast varieties had been used, including a Belgian.  As befits a double, it had higher alcohol at 9% ABV.  It had been recently tapped.  $1 of the pour went to ALS charity.  This is a worthy beer to raise money for a good cause.

To sum up, Bitter Brothers is a small brewery doing a lot, but not trying to do too much.

 

Bill Warnke, Co-owner, raises a glass.

This post was originally published in the Clairemont Times. 

Rough Draft - Hardly Rough at All

Rough Draft Brewing is one of San Diego's best breweries and that's saying a lot, considering all of the award winners we have in the county.  I sampled some of their best offerings today as part of a gathering hosted by my financial advisor Ray Taraz, more on Ray later.  This brewery is well laid out, with ample space, big screen TVs with sports and a great kitchen.  This last amenity is not to be scoffed at.  While I understand why San Diego brewers don't want to be in the food business, too often the food trucks on which they rely are no shows.  Rough Draft's kitchen serves up an outstanding menu of sandwiches, salads, paninis and charcuterie.  Dean sampled the sandwich and said that the fresh bread made the meal.

Rough Draft serves up primarily IPAs.  I started with a Belgian just to be different and wasn't disappointed.  Emboozlement, a Tripel, comes in standard and bourbon barrel aged varieties.  I tried the standard, pictured, which had plenty of character, banana and clove notes and a just right alcohol content of 9%.

I got Michele the Hop Therapy, a double IPA that has a big hoppy, bitter taste and plenty of ABV as well.  Next up was Freudian Sip, an American Strong Ale, that I first sampled at the International Beer Fest at the Del Mar Fairgrounds a year ago.  Still one of my favorite beers, it defies characterization, but I'll try.  It is a bit like a very hoppy amber, but with incredible complexity that requires you to take your time to enjoy.  That's Bree, who did a great job as our server in the background.

After, some great paninis and salad, I had desert of sorts with "Stout Stout Baby with Vanilla and Cocoa Nibs." Its name sums it up.  Pretty traditional stout bitterness was offset by the Vanilla, making a great way to finish up.  Some of the barrels used for aging are pictured in the back.

Rough Draft has been brewing in Mira Mesa since 2012, according to our tour guide Melissa.  Owner Jeff Silver had been home brewing and winning awards for 20 years when he decided to brew beer as a business.  Now, Rough Draft can be found as far away as Spain and Canada, and even in Maryland in the U.S.  They have offerings that you can find in San Diego Costco outlets.  Rough Draft keeps an impressive amount of grain on hand in two silos, which they mill themselves.  They typically use two-row barley in their base.  In addition to the IPA line up, they make a blond ale and an amber ale.

The whole event and tour was organized by our financial advisor, Ray Taraz.  Ray is with Ameriprise and consistently gets high marks for customer service in local ratings.  His real value to us, has been to keep our portfolio diversified and balanced, avoiding big losses in 2008, and keeping us from making emotional financial decisions.

Societe Brewing – Excellence in Three Parts

This article was written for the Clairemont Times.  You can see the original on page 11 on Issuu. 

Our family made a Sunday afternoon outing to Societe Brewing (pronounced society) in Kearney Mesa at 8262  Clairemont Mesa Blvd.  This has been one of my favorite breweries for some time, as I am partial to Belgians.  Societe divides their brews into three categories. The first, “Old World,” consists primarily Belgians, but they also have two lagers on tap now.  They have gone to the expense to install refrigeration necessary for the colder fermenting process that lagers require.  Their second category is “Out West.” These are primarily West Coast IPAs, with the full hopping you would expect from a San Diego brewer, although they also brew one English style IPA.  Their last category is “Stygian” for their stouts, referring to their dark and dank character.

We sampled a decent variety of their offerings.  My favorite was “The Madam” a golden Belgian Ale.  It is crisp, spicy, and surprisingly light tasting for a beer with 9% alcohol.  It compares well to offerings from Belgium like Piraat.  One of my all time favorite dark Belgians, the Widow was excellent as usual, but I was more partial to the golden Belgian on this trip.  I seldom sample San Diego lagers, but gave the Heiress (Czech Pilsner) a try. (A pilsner is a style of lager.)  It is an excellent beer that would go great on a hot afternoon with a BBQ burger, but with enough grain and hops to hold your interest. The Bachelorette was a hoppy lager that defied easy characterization, being less hop forward than other beers in this style.

The stouts did not disappoint either.  The Bellowsman had an incredibly smoky flavor but was still easy to drink. The Butcher is a boozy, smooth Stout with some of the clove and banana notes we expect from Belgians.  These are great stouts, but if you are looking for bitter chocolate notes in your Stout, then these aren’t your beers.

My wife, Michele, is the hop-head in the family, so she stuck with one of her go-to IPAs, The Pupil, regularly featured at Luce Bar & Grill on Morena. This is a nice piney IPA with a little extra sweetness that balances it out.  It is above average in alcohol content at almost 8%.  Sample sizes come in 3 oz pours, so you can sample a wide variety over a few hours, or you can order 6 or 12 oz. glasses.  They also offer 1 and 2 liter growler fills to take home your favorites. Unfortunately, they don’t bottle for the store yet.

While Societe is located in an industrial park, the interior character is sort of turn of the century Western, not exactly “old west” like BNS in Santee.  They have a regular rotation of mobile food vendors.  On our visit, the BBQ from Grill Fellas Catering featured mouth-watering wood-smoked pulled pork and tri-tip that was the perfect pairing with great beer.

 The Apprentice, The Widow, and The Harlot (left to right)

 The big board of beers.

 We are clearly having a good time.

We weren't the only ones.