Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Reckless Brewing slaughters sacred cows

Like something your precocious punk friends pulled together

Reckless is my bed buddy in its philosophy.
Reckless is my bed buddy in its philosophy.

A metal ball rolls down a ramp, launching an RC car into a series of homemade 2˝x4˝ dominoes. Clack, clack, slam! A stuffed bunny hangs from a noose, a baseball glove drops, and a jug fills with water. A suspenseful pause, then, zoom! A racecar rockets down a track, Batman ziplines across the bar, a basketball plops into a bucket, and nothing happens. “Oh, shit,” says Dave. He pivots a toy golf club, releasing a pinball down a copper ramp, completing a circuit that sets off a fallout siren and powers a motor, pulling open a tap. A pint of Golden Boy IPA spills over as the crowd cheers.

It’s the debut of Reckless Brewing Company’s homespun Rube Goldberg machine after an evening of cock-themed trivia at their new tasting room. The brewery started in Mira Mesa in 2011 as Wet ‘N Reckless Brewing, drawing fire from local brewstergensia for ostensibly promoting an activity from which the industry has spent considerable resources attempting to distance itself. Flames from a welding accident brought the brewery down in 2012. Shedding half the name and a 50 percent business partner, owner/brewer Dave Hyndman (a former Marine and biotechnician) reopened in Miramar in 2014 and, four months ago, expanded two doors down into a taproom.

I’ve always appreciated beer’s Dionysian aspects more than the Apollonian, and Reckless is my bed buddy in this philosophy, priding themselves on slaughtering sacred cows and the expectations of stuffy aficionados in the process. In lieu of guideline-approved brews, Reckless trades classification for playful improvisation and irreverent names: Hard Pour Corn, Crazy Stupid Bitch (“Amber in color and profoundly bitter. You won’t understand why you keep coming back for more.”), Badger Don’t Care. Meanwhile, their DIY ethos comes across in spray-painted and Pollock-splattered plywood bar-tops reminiscent of Sonic Youth’s Evol album cover. It feels like something your precocious punk friends pulled together for kicks, and now we all get to play in it.

Sponsored
Sponsored

To be clear, Reckless isn’t pandering to anybody, except maybe other big kids who never grew out of building forts, nachos, and weenie jokes. Every time I come here, I end up in conversations with off-the-clock genomics wizards and wistful robotics programmers, chatting away like how you’d picture an old Irish pub but in the future with free popcorn.

Truth is, Reckless isn’t a respectable bar. It’s what a bar should be — whatever the hell it wants.

Place

Reckless Brewing Company

9040 Carroll Way, Suite B, San Diego

Prices: Tasters, $1.50–$3; full pours (8–16 oz), $6; growlettes, $10–$16; growlers, $16–$32.

Capacity: Sits about 40.

Hours: Wednesday–Friday, 4–10 p.m.; Saturday, 3–10 p.m.; Sunday, 2–8 p.m.

Happy: Club Reckless, 6 full pours/$24 or 10/$40 per month with three-month credit card commitment.

Food: Free popcorn, $1 ice cream sandwiches and Drumsticks.

Parking: In Reckless lot across the street from Ballast Point.

Events: Trivia every second and fourth Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Winning team gets a pint from the Rube Goldberg machine.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Born & Raised offers a less decadent Holiday Punch

Cognac serves to lighten the mood
Next Article

East San Diego County has only one bike lane

So you can get out of town – from Santee to Tierrasanta
Reckless is my bed buddy in its philosophy.
Reckless is my bed buddy in its philosophy.

A metal ball rolls down a ramp, launching an RC car into a series of homemade 2˝x4˝ dominoes. Clack, clack, slam! A stuffed bunny hangs from a noose, a baseball glove drops, and a jug fills with water. A suspenseful pause, then, zoom! A racecar rockets down a track, Batman ziplines across the bar, a basketball plops into a bucket, and nothing happens. “Oh, shit,” says Dave. He pivots a toy golf club, releasing a pinball down a copper ramp, completing a circuit that sets off a fallout siren and powers a motor, pulling open a tap. A pint of Golden Boy IPA spills over as the crowd cheers.

It’s the debut of Reckless Brewing Company’s homespun Rube Goldberg machine after an evening of cock-themed trivia at their new tasting room. The brewery started in Mira Mesa in 2011 as Wet ‘N Reckless Brewing, drawing fire from local brewstergensia for ostensibly promoting an activity from which the industry has spent considerable resources attempting to distance itself. Flames from a welding accident brought the brewery down in 2012. Shedding half the name and a 50 percent business partner, owner/brewer Dave Hyndman (a former Marine and biotechnician) reopened in Miramar in 2014 and, four months ago, expanded two doors down into a taproom.

I’ve always appreciated beer’s Dionysian aspects more than the Apollonian, and Reckless is my bed buddy in this philosophy, priding themselves on slaughtering sacred cows and the expectations of stuffy aficionados in the process. In lieu of guideline-approved brews, Reckless trades classification for playful improvisation and irreverent names: Hard Pour Corn, Crazy Stupid Bitch (“Amber in color and profoundly bitter. You won’t understand why you keep coming back for more.”), Badger Don’t Care. Meanwhile, their DIY ethos comes across in spray-painted and Pollock-splattered plywood bar-tops reminiscent of Sonic Youth’s Evol album cover. It feels like something your precocious punk friends pulled together for kicks, and now we all get to play in it.

Sponsored
Sponsored

To be clear, Reckless isn’t pandering to anybody, except maybe other big kids who never grew out of building forts, nachos, and weenie jokes. Every time I come here, I end up in conversations with off-the-clock genomics wizards and wistful robotics programmers, chatting away like how you’d picture an old Irish pub but in the future with free popcorn.

Truth is, Reckless isn’t a respectable bar. It’s what a bar should be — whatever the hell it wants.

Place

Reckless Brewing Company

9040 Carroll Way, Suite B, San Diego

Prices: Tasters, $1.50–$3; full pours (8–16 oz), $6; growlettes, $10–$16; growlers, $16–$32.

Capacity: Sits about 40.

Hours: Wednesday–Friday, 4–10 p.m.; Saturday, 3–10 p.m.; Sunday, 2–8 p.m.

Happy: Club Reckless, 6 full pours/$24 or 10/$40 per month with three-month credit card commitment.

Food: Free popcorn, $1 ice cream sandwiches and Drumsticks.

Parking: In Reckless lot across the street from Ballast Point.

Events: Trivia every second and fourth Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Winning team gets a pint from the Rube Goldberg machine.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

East San Diego County has only one bike lane

So you can get out of town – from Santee to Tierrasanta
Next Article

Victorian Christmas Tours, Jingle Bell Cruises

Events December 22-December 25, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader