For the love of lagers — and the coast

Until a year ago, the only Vincent Falcone I knew was the character who went by the handle Lieutenant Falcon on the ‘80s’ G.I. Joe cartoon. Now, I know a brewer by the same name. I met this Falcone at Pacific Beach AleHouse, where he manned the brewpub until a kitchen fire caused roughly $1 million in damages last month. The business is closed to make repairs and, though a 60-day period has been communicated to the media, that timeline isn’t 100 percent certain.

The day after the fire, Falcone began calling around, looking for a place to wash kegs and lend a hand during the closure. An industry contact told him that La Jolla Brewing Company had recently parted ways with its head brewer, Brett Stampf, and was looking for some help. Two weeks later, he’s the head brewer at the Jewel’s namesake brewpub.

Falcone is enthused to have run of the brewery to the point he can make any style he chooses. He plans to brew a few authentically crafted German-style lagers, something there isn’t much of in San Diego County. In general, he says he’ll be able to produce more of a variety of styles at La Jolla Brewing than he did at PB AleHouse. As far as who will fill his brewer’s boots at his former post, his best bet is his former assistant brewer, Rocky Comancho.

Believe it or not, this isn’t Falcone’s only big news. He’s also working to open a nanobrewery called Doble C// that will produce one barrel of beer at a time. The location for this project is by the beach in Ensenada. He agrees with the popularly held theory that Baja represents the next big brewing region, globally, and looks forward to serving as a beer ambassador from his future coastal abode.