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

Smoking Cannon Brewery dwells in the foothills

"The bigger the cannon, the bigger the beer.”

Civil war photos and rustic wood trim decorate Ramona's new Smoking Cannon Brewery.
Civil war photos and rustic wood trim decorate Ramona's new Smoking Cannon Brewery.

Brewer Mike Nelson is starting the small company with longtime girlfriend Natallie Phillips. The San Diego natives both grew up on the coast but moved to Ramona about 20 years ago.

"We moved up here to get away from the city, and we just love it," says Phillips. "The country is awesome."

Place

Smoking Cannon Brewery

780 Main Street, Ramona

While Nelson originally picked up homebrewing in the late ‘90s, he started making beer consistently about ten years ago. During that time he's entered a number local homebrew contests and done pretty well. "I can honestly say," Nelson adds, "I've only not won awards three times, out of a hundred-plus beers."

Sponsored
Sponsored

While he recently lost a number of those recipes to a computer malfunction, the water utility worker by trade has several of his favorites locked down, including his preferred IPAs and stouts. "I brew to style pretty much," he says, "other than the specialty beers." Those include a kumquat wheat ale and an extract-free smoked peanut butter beer, and a pumpkin saison in the fall.

For Smoking Cannon, Nelson built his own three-barrel system, and both he and Phillips contend they would like to see the brewery remain a relatively small, mom-and-pop shop, with the focus on making good beer. "Once it gets big it's not special," says Phillips. "This is about the passion, not the money"

Family contributions include advice from Nelson's nephew, a brewer at Green Flash, and his brother, who owns a woodworking business and helped the couple build furniture and add wood trim to the tasting room. The 1800-square-foot space was made to resemble a 19th-century saloon and is decorated with Civil War photos. That time in history also inspired the name of the brewery.

"One of my other hobbies is making scale-model cannons," explains Nelson. "I've always liked Civil War stuff." He's naming each of his beers after a different large ordnance.

“There's probably 75 different makes of cannons," he says, including names like Parrott Rifle, Rodman Gun, and the squat, high-caliber mortar dubbed “the dictator.” He hasn't yet matched up cannons with beers but aims to follow the premise, "The bigger the cannon, the bigger the beer.” So, an imperial stout will most likely be named “the Dictator.”

The latest copy of the Reader

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

San Diego Reader 2024 Holiday Guide – like none other

Candle-making, tree lighting, pajama jam
Civil war photos and rustic wood trim decorate Ramona's new Smoking Cannon Brewery.
Civil war photos and rustic wood trim decorate Ramona's new Smoking Cannon Brewery.

Brewer Mike Nelson is starting the small company with longtime girlfriend Natallie Phillips. The San Diego natives both grew up on the coast but moved to Ramona about 20 years ago.

"We moved up here to get away from the city, and we just love it," says Phillips. "The country is awesome."

Place

Smoking Cannon Brewery

780 Main Street, Ramona

While Nelson originally picked up homebrewing in the late ‘90s, he started making beer consistently about ten years ago. During that time he's entered a number local homebrew contests and done pretty well. "I can honestly say," Nelson adds, "I've only not won awards three times, out of a hundred-plus beers."

Sponsored
Sponsored

While he recently lost a number of those recipes to a computer malfunction, the water utility worker by trade has several of his favorites locked down, including his preferred IPAs and stouts. "I brew to style pretty much," he says, "other than the specialty beers." Those include a kumquat wheat ale and an extract-free smoked peanut butter beer, and a pumpkin saison in the fall.

For Smoking Cannon, Nelson built his own three-barrel system, and both he and Phillips contend they would like to see the brewery remain a relatively small, mom-and-pop shop, with the focus on making good beer. "Once it gets big it's not special," says Phillips. "This is about the passion, not the money"

Family contributions include advice from Nelson's nephew, a brewer at Green Flash, and his brother, who owns a woodworking business and helped the couple build furniture and add wood trim to the tasting room. The 1800-square-foot space was made to resemble a 19th-century saloon and is decorated with Civil War photos. That time in history also inspired the name of the brewery.

"One of my other hobbies is making scale-model cannons," explains Nelson. "I've always liked Civil War stuff." He's naming each of his beers after a different large ordnance.

“There's probably 75 different makes of cannons," he says, including names like Parrott Rifle, Rodman Gun, and the squat, high-caliber mortar dubbed “the dictator.” He hasn't yet matched up cannons with beers but aims to follow the premise, "The bigger the cannon, the bigger the beer.” So, an imperial stout will most likely be named “the Dictator.”

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

Live Five: Songwriter Sanctuary, B-Side Players, The Crawdaddys, Saint Luna, Brawley

Reunited, in the round, and onstage in Normal Heights, East Village, Little Italy, Encinitas
Next Article

Birdwatching bonanza, earliest sunset of the year, bulb planting time

Venus shines its brightest
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