Booze News
About 16 years ago, Gaston Martinez moved to San Diego from his native Durango, Mexico. “It’s always been my dream city,” he says, “I came here for a two-week vacation and that was it.” Having …
Open seven days a week, the Kearny Mesa tasting room of Societe Brewing Company has been a bustling hub of San Diego beer for most of its eight-plus years in business. Bolstered by a reputation …
When covid-19 shut down San Diego beer venues in March, most of us gave little thought to how the pandemic might affect San Diego Beer Week, nearly eight months in the future. Now that the …
Fans know it. Brewers know it. And for the fourth time in five years, the judges of the Great American Beer Festival have affirmed it: the best robust porter in the United States is brewed …
It took nearly eight years and the impact of a pandemic, but Kensington Brewing Company now officially brews beer in its namesake neighborhood. Founded in 2012, the nanobrewery spent years quietly making beer in Grantville …
Oktoberfest is canceled in 2020 — that is, the massive, more than two-week-long Munich beer drinking festival that’s taken place since 1810. The spirit of the event has survived the pandemic, however, and a number …
Back in the days of Prohibition, party boats would sit off the coast of San Diego and other California cities, just outside U.S. jurisdiction, where revelers could booze, gamble, and otherwise indulge. “They had free …
“Times are moving fast right now and we are adapting,” read the email from Pure Project. The Miramar-based brewery had originally reached out to let me know it would begin serving beers at its new …
For most of its years in Sorrento Valley, New English brewing has epitomized the classic San Diego craft brewery experience. Its industrial park setting within the city’s tech hub made it a natural place for …
Coffee and bourbon fans take note: a new flavored whiskey brand hit the shelves in San Diego in August. First Light Coffee Whiskey debuted in local shops with two bottled flavors of coffee whiskey: original …
Stone Brewing is one of the cornerstones of San Diego beer, and of the craft brewing industry as a whole. Behind marketing slogans such as “yellow fizzy beer is for wussies,” Stone has long postured …
Amid the ever-changing rules about how breweries may do business, at least one positive development remains constant: the ability of breweries to deliver beer directly to consumers’ doorsteps. This regulatory relief has offered an opportunity …
After Black Lives Matter protests appeared demanding social justice and police reform, a number of local breweries voiced support for the effort. Three dozen of them decided to participate in the nationwide Black is Beautiful …
Rollercoaster 2020 continues to hammer home the message we have little idea what’s coming next. At this writing, San Diego somehow escaped being one of the 19 California counties the governor ordered or recommended bars, …
This is usually the time of year to spotlight San Diego’s best outdoor brewery venues. However, in the summer of 2020, that could be just about anywhere. Thanks to some late May regulatory relief by …
“Veteran owned,” notes an easy-to-miss sign on the Third Avenue storefront of Chula Vista Brewery. In fact, brewery cofounder Tim Parker retired from the Navy at the end of 2019, following two decades of service, …