San Diego News

Originally published in sandiegobeer.news

San Diego brewery opening coastal taproom in Manhattan Beach

Culture Brewing opened to the public in Solana Beach’s Cedros Design District in 2012. At the time, it seemed like any other local brewery, but its owners had a long-term plan to build taprooms in coastal communities and sell every drop of its beer across Culture’s network of bars. And they’ve stuck to that plan. Over the past eight years, Culture has opened tasting rooms in Encinitas and Ocean Beach. The latter shuttered earlier this year (and was quickly snapped up by Chula Vista-based Novo Brazil Brewing), but by next week Culture’s oceanside empire will be three strong once more when it opens its first taproom outside San Diego County in Los Angeles’ Manhattan Beach community.

“We believed there wasn’t a lot of real estate left in San Diego, especially the coastal communities, so we began to get excited about the possibility of expanding further north,” says Director of Operations Whitney Johndro. “We had been looking for a new space to call home up and down the California coast and believed Manhattan Beach was another city that fit our brand perfectly and was similar to those of our other locations. Our new location is close to the ocean in a high-density shopping and walking downtown area, and a popular family destination, which we love so much.”

The new 2,300-square-foot spot will resemble Culture’s other locations, utilizing wood, concrete, steel and barrels, with plants hanging from the rafters and stools as the primary seating option. It will also feature a cold box outfitted with glass so that patrons can see the kegs, and doors so they can reach right in to grab beer to-go. Amenities like that will have to wait until Culture is able to have its new spot open for more than the curbside pickup that will be its only form of sale initially. But they will put this time to good use, working on creating an outside patio area and a social-distancing plan for on-site service. They plan to partner with local restaurant and food vendors, as well as artists, small businesses and South Bay charities.

All of Culture’s venues will soon be stocked with a variety of canned beers. The company has canned special releases in the past, but moving forward, customers can expect to see a greater variety of styles being funneled into aluminum. The array releasing on September 4 will include La Cerveza lager, Mosaic IPA and 2X Hazy IPA. Pilsner and Passion Fruit Haze IPA will be two of the five beers offered during the next round of canned Culture beers. As cans keep rolling out, expect to see more hazy IPAs and higher-alcohol fan favorites.

Culture Brewing’s new taproom is located at 327 Manhattan Beach Boulevard in Manhattan Beach 

Beer Paper is excited to share with our readers that Brandon Hernández, one of our favorite beer writers on the planet and the leading voice, champion of the critically acclaimed San Diego beer scene has created an all-things-San Diego-beer website, San Diego Beer News.

Hernández and Beer Paper’s Daniel Drennon have been colleagues, contemporaries and have shared a friendship and mutual respect since each began covering their respective beer scenes well over a decade ago. Drennon was thrilled when Hernández reached out to offer an alliance in which Beer Paper will provide north of San Diego coverage for San Diego Beer News and, similarly, San Diego Beer News will be the de facto San Diego correspondent for Beer Paper.

“It is the proverbial win, win scenario. We have had tremendous respect for Brandon over the years. His relentless honesty and integrity covering San Diego’s breweries and beers won us over early and remains the foundation of the mutual respect we share. We are super stoked to be able to share his unparalleled knowledge of everything San Diego beer with our readers and aspire to do the same about the Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire and Ventura County for his readers.”

Beer Paper will run a monthly San Diego feature from our sister publication San Diego Beer News in our newspaper and on our website. Beer Paper’s hard copy edition is currently on hiatus until such time that brewery tap rooms are back open to capacity with beer fans and readers.

Cheers! Stay safe. Stay strong!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact: Brandon Hernández

Founder & Executive Editor, San Diego Beer News^®

Phone: (858) 945-3462

Email: brandon@sandiegobeer.news

New San Diego Beer News^® website is on tap online!

Most extensive, comprehensive online resource for key information on San Diego’s world-famous brewing scene debuts to help struggling businesses during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

 SAN DIEGO, CA (August 10, 2020)—Last week marked the launch of the SAN DIEGO BEER NEWS^® website (www.sandiegobeer.news), a one-stop resource for all things #SDBeer. Packed with news on San Diego’s 150-plus breweries, openings, closings, work-in-progress projects, and what’s happening and tapping around the county, it’s the most extensive resource that’s ever existed for information on the region’s renowned beer scene. And it arrives when local brewing companies need it most as they struggle to survive during the pandemic.

“With our world-class breweries facing so many challenges due to COVID-19, I was motivated to pull the trigger on my longtime ambition to create a modern, comprehensive platform for telling their stories and helping people further discover and patronize the businesses making up San Diego’s vibrant beer scene,” says founder Brandon Hernández, a native San Diegan who has covered the county’s brewing industry for local and national magazines, newspapers and online outlets for 13 years (full bio provided below).

Designed by local film and multimedia firm Paradeigm, the San Diego Beer News^® website features:

• Articles on local beer-industry news, beers, events and industry happenings
• Guest columns from industry insiders sharing opinions on subjects that matter to them
• A constantly updated map listing every San Diego brewery-owned venue in the county
• Up-to-date COVID-related information for the county’s breweries and tasting rooms
• Beer-and-food pairing articles and recipes for dishes and beers from local chefs and brewers
• Job listings from San Diego County breweries (coming soon)
• Dedicated platforms for partners, including:
  • 91X FM’s Beer for Breakfast video series
  • ALT 949 FM’s Rock & Roll Happy Hour broadcasts
  • The Indie Beer Show podcast series
  • California Craft Brewers Association, local breweries’ representatives in Sacramento
  • Pink Boots Society, a women’s advocacy industry non-profit organization
  • Mujeres Brew Club, a Latina women’s education group
  • QUAFF, San Diego’s largest, most award-winning homebrew club
  • Beer Paper, a trusted publication serving L.A., Orange, Riverside and the Central Coast

Each week, San Diego Beer News^® delivers a This Week in #SDBeer email newsletter to subscribers listing beers being released at breweries around the county, as well as events (post-pandemic) and other features such as a Beer of the Week and beer selections from local bottle shop chain, Bottlecraft, providing a valuable informational resource that has never existed in San Diego County.

To further assist the local brewing industry during these tough times (and beyond), a percent of annual profits earned through the website will be donated to the San Diego Brewers Guild, the volunteer-driven organization serving and composed of staff from local brewing companies.

“People are under the impression there is little or nothing going on in the brewing industry during the pandemic, but one look at the site will disprove that,” says Hernández, who also worked in the local industry for seven years and wrote two guides to the county’s breweries. “There has never been a greater need to give San Diego breweries a helping hand an spotlight their high-quality beers, hard work, and indomitable spirit, It’s an honor to do the best job I can for them while also giving people like me—fans of amazing San Diego beer—the type of reliable resource we’ve been thirsting for.”

The San Diego Beer News^® website URL is: http://sandiegobeer.news. Fan can sign up for the weekly email newsletter there, and follow San Diego Beer News^® on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Those looking to support the site can sign up to do so and get news first at: http://patreon.com/sandiegobeernews.

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ABOUT BRANDON HERNÁNDEZ: A native San Diegan, Brandon Hernández is an award-winning journalist who has covered his hometown’s brewing industry for 13 years and authored two editions of the San Diego Beer News^® Complete Guide to San Diego Breweries. He was the first-ever beer columnist for San Diego Magazine and San Diego Reader, and served as Senior Editor for beverage publication West Coaster for nearly a decade. He has served as a craft-beer correspondent for FOX 5 San Diego and The CW San Diego, consulted for Food Network, Zagat and numerous San Diego County breweries, ghost-written and contributed to numerous cookbook projects, and been featured on numerous TV shows, radio programs and podcasts. He and his work have been featured in dozens of publications, including USA Today, Wine Enthusiast, Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, All About Beer Magazine, Beer Magazine, The Beer Connoisseur Magazine, Beer Paper, Celebrator Beer News, Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, Imbibe Magazine, The New Brewer Magazine, The Full Pint, Edible San Diego Magazine, Modern Luxury, Pacific San Diego Magazine, Ranch & Coast Magazine, Tasting Table and many more. He worked within the brewing industry in marketing roles with Stone Brewing, AleSmith Brewing and Societe Brewing, and is the founder of Beer to the Rescue, a charity campaign that has raised more than $150,000 for the Lupus Foundation of Southern California since 2015. For more information, consult Brandon Hernández’s writing website.

Originally published in sandiegobeer.news

Though currently out of the beer biz, Alpine Beer Co.’s familial brewers, Pat and Shawn McIlhenney, have maintained a strong presence in the San Diego beer community. Much of that has come via collaboration beer projects they’ve engaged in throughout the county. But if all goes as planned, soon, the father-son team will be hosting collaborative brewing sessions at their own facility, the very same one they owned and operated from 2002 to 2014 in the unincorporated town for which they named their business.

“We have formed a company called Mcilhenney Brewing,” says Pat. “We have a lease on our original brewery and tasting room in Alpine. We will be up and running as soon as possible after the current tenant vacates.”

The current tenant is Green Flash Brewing, which purchased Alpine Beer Co. from the McIlhenneys in November 2014. It followed roughly a year of Green Flash contract brewing some of Alpine’s beers at its Mira Mesa headquarters to help the McIlhenneys better meet demand for their products. At the time, it was envisioned as something of a teaming of two local entities, with Pat and Shawn remaining on staff to maintain quality and company heritage as a sub-brand of Green Flash. 

But in March of 2018, with Green Flash in the midst of massive declines, the company was foreclosed on by Comerica Bank, which had previously issued a loan to owner Mike Hinkley. Comerica then sold its assets (including those of Alpine Beer) to a newly formed investment group called WC IPA LLC. That spelled the end for Pat’s involvement in the company, and this March, the parent company laid off Shawn and other members of the Alpine team. 

Per terms of the aforementioned lease, Green Flash has until June 30 to vacate Alpine’s original location or incur additional charges. Meanwhile, the McIlhenneys are negotiating on the potential sale of brewing and cellar equipment at that facility.

Alpine Beer Co. (the future home of Mcilhenney Brewing) is located at 2351 & 2363 Alpine Boulevard in Alpine