Hangin with the kitties of The Cat Café
A little caffeine, a little feline companionship, a lot of sweet purring
Ian Anderson 4 p.m., Feb. 21
Beverage News
AleSmith at 25: making the classic new again
A craft beer favorite gives new and returning beers a fresh look
As recently as ten years ago, you couldn’t browse a beer section in San Diego without spotting 22-ounce bombers of AleSmith Brewing’s eponymous flagship beers. Subtly featuring the brand’s anvil logo, the labels’ design placed ...
Insurgente brewery shut down again
Governor Bonilla's brother across the street doesn't like the noise
Ian Anderson of the Reader reported in December that Tijuana’s Insurgente brewery resumed making beer in Zona Rio on December 18 after being shut down by city authorities. But now in late January, the state ...
Yerba mate, Paraguay style
Cold brew tea brand Mi Mate grows out of UCSD
You might not know it unless you’ve been to college recently, but the caffeinated South American tea yerba mate has become a bona fide beverage trend. Students returning from semesters abroad in Argentina probably deserve ...
When craft beer momentum slows down, Longship keeps rowing
“Being a local, smaller brewery has better longevity than being the next giant”
Viking longships were the dominant naval vessels of their time, in part due to their versatility. They were pushed by large, rectangular sails, but also fitted with oars so they could row on, regardless whether ...
How Mother Earth quietly became one of our most successful breweries
Brewing in Idaho even made its Vista beer better
Fun fact: Idaho’s largest brewery is headquartered in Vista, California. That’s because, in 2016, Mother Earth Brew Co. expanded beer production to Nampa, Idaho, a small city about 15 miles outside Boise. San Diego beer ...
Latitude 33 sold its brewery and only got bigger
Vista brewer doubles capacity shifting production to Green Flash brewhouse
After seven years in business, Latitude 33 Brewing met a crossroads. Led by flagship beers including Blood Orange IPA and Honey Hips blonde, the Vista beer company had quadrupled beer production in 2016, and doubled ...
Neff Coffee, a roaster on the go
A father-and-son mobile roasting operation hits the streets
While exercising my dog last week, I found San Diego’s newest coffee roaster; or should I say the coffee roaster found me? Neff Coffee Roasters isn’t San Diego’s first coffee truck, but it is the ...
Hopnonymous Brewing unmasked
With a new taproom, an under-the-radar beer company comes into the light
Back in June 2018, a small startup started offering local restaurants a chance to pour their own house beers, using custom-branded, 3-D printed tap handles. In this way, Hopnonymous Brewing Company began as a specialty ...
Biggest San Diego beer news stories of 2019
Rising competition is the force behind of a lot of beer news
In previous years, I’ve used this space to reflect on the number of San Diego breweries that have closed the year prior. Sadly, such closures have become such a common part of the industry. Even ...
Tijuana’s Cerveceria Insurgente has its brewery back — for now
Baja’s esteemed craft brewer survived with help of a hush hush taproom, and beer friends
On Wednesday, December 18, Tijuana craft brewer Cerveceria Insurgente resumed making beer in its Zona Rio brewery for the first time since October 5, when municipal authorities abruptly closed the property, reportedly at the behest ...
Bali Coffee serves digital latte art
A dog photo goes from phone to coffee foam
Dog on the leash, we were only passing by the little, below the sidewalk café in East Village, with its garden patio and a nifty white bench with a built-in, pop-up center table. A chalkboard ...
The ambitious Pacific Coast Spirits brings urban distilling to Oceanside
Grape vodka, heirloom corn bourbon, and a plan to malt its own barley
A December 5 grand opening of Pacific Coast Spirits has officially made the city of Oceanside home to an urban distillery. For the past two years, the craft spirits producer has been transforming the 12,000-square-foot ...
Who are Kings & Convicts Brewing, and what are their plans for Ballast Point?
A look at the surprising new players in local beer, and a reaction from the San Diego Brewers Guild
How did a suburban Chicago nanobrewery wind up buying San Diego’s famous billion dollar craft beer icon? That’s the question that crashed the website of Kings & Convicts Brewing when news broke Tuesday the little ...
Novo Brazil is huge in Otay Ranch
Beer, seltzer, and kombucha flow at Chula brewer's new brewpub
Already the county’s southeasternmost brewery, Novo Brazil Brewing has opened a second location somehow even farther southeast. And it’s not small. The roughly 14-thousand-square-foot brewery and restaurant occupies a corner spot at the upscale Otay ...
Calico Cidery returns with organic natural ciders, and a barn
Julian ranch concocts booze from its own apple, pear, and quince orchards
For several years, the opportunity to sit in a barn drinking hard cider made from locally grown apples has been a charming draw to the little mountain town of Julian. When Julian Ciderworks abruptly announced ...
