As we work our way through the last, fleeting moments of 2025, rocketing toward a brand-new 365-day span, we’re pausing to look back on the year that was. It’s a San Diego Beer News tradition to reveal the 25 news stories that garnered the most engagement among our readership (not including standard fare about events and beer competitions results or features such as our travel guides, Beer of the Week pieces and brewery-staff spotlights). But there was so much going on in the local brewing community over the past 12 months, that we decided to take things further, presenting the top 50 articles. The following are numbers 21 through 30.
30. Bock to offer best of Germany and Mission Valley
March 11, 2025
One of the most successful new arrivals of 2025 was Bock, a European-themed bar constructed at the former home of South Park’s Hamilton’s Tavern, which burned down in 2020. Offering ales and lagers of the Old World and West Coast varieties, plus German-inspired food care of a kitchen run by longtime foodtruck standout, Biersal, there’s a lot to love about the new spot. That includes traditional lagers made by the foremost local expert on those types of beers, Puesto Cerveceria Director of Brewery Operations Doug Hasker, who produces several especially for Bock.
29. Local brewer headed for holy ground
December 10, 2025
After 14 years spent brewing a wide array of beers – most notably barrel-aged creations, experimental styles and wet-hop brews of all ilks – Daniel Cady announced that he had resigned from his position as head brewer at North Park brewpub TapRoom Beer Co. (TRBC) so he could return to his home state of Washington to accept a position at Seattle’s esteemed Holy Mountain Brewery. It was a bittersweet decision for Cady, who cut his teeth with El Cajon Brewing and Twisted Manzanita Ales before flexing his creativity in leadership roles at Mikkeller Brewing San Diego and TRBC.
28. Sneak Peek: Michi Brew Co.
April 29, 2025
After taking over the facility of longtime San Marcos beer operation Double Peak Brewing, the owner of Michi Brew Co. was eager to provide San Diego Beer News readers a first look at how he’d transformed the space. That included a tasting room converted from a trailhead motif to one replete with island style, an upgraded private-event space with ample furnishings and chandelier fixtures, and an opening-day beer list comprised of easy-drinking lagers and hoppy ales sharing the names and regional lore of famous bodies of water around the world.
27. Two local breweries go sans suds
September 2, 2025
This year, two long-tenured local beer companies opted to stop brewing and switch to a bar-and-eatery model. The first was decade-old La Mesa-based Bolt Brewery, which put its production facility on the market while retaining its restaurants in Little Italy and Old Town, rebranding them to Taco Loco. The other was 12-year-old Groundswell Brewing, which quietly shuttered its Grantville brewery, but kept its satellite location in Chula Vista going with beers from other breweries, all while retaining a name that implied it was a beer-making operation when, in fact, it no longer was.
26. New local investors and venues for Ballast Point
August 13, 2025
This summer, Ballast Point Brewing CEO Brendan Watters announced that he had brought on new San Diego-based investors, replacing entities he had partnered with when purchasing the company from its previous parent, Constellation Brands, in 2019. That duo included RMD Group, the hospitality company behind a number of popular restaurants and nightlife businesses, and Cypress Ascendant, a group with investments in the PGA Tour, Wonderfront Festival and numerous other ventures. With that duo onboard, Watters expressed excitement over his newfound ability to grow the company, most notably by adding new public venues.
25. Santee brewery to close at month’s end
September 14, 2025
When a trio of homebrewers went pro via their small Santee operation at the height of COVID-19, they had no idea if they would be able to make a go of it. It was the worst of times to launch a new business, yet with grit, determination and friendliness, they managed to build a fan base which only continued to grow once pandemic-era limitations were lifted. Their Three Frogs Beer Co. made it a half-decade even as other breweries closed up shop. While that fate eventually befell the business, its founders were pleased to share their beers and passion while making memories that will last them a lifetime.
24. Beer Briefs: Switching to coffee, striking gold, moving on
September 22, 2025
As is often the case, this Beer Briefs roundup was a mixed bag. It led with news that Modern Times had signed on to take over the suite at North Park’s CRAFT by Brewery Igniter facility that had recently been vacated by GOAL. Brewing, and would be converting it from a brewery to a coffee op dubbed the Cathedral of Caffeination, then shared news of Hodad’s Brewing‘s Turtle Town Hazy IPA medaling at the European Beer Star Awards for the second straight year, before sharing that Harland Brewing was moving out of Del Mar Highlands’ One Paseo development after six years of operating a taproom there.
23. End date set for North Park brewery
June 4, 2025
While the owners of North Park’s El Cid Brewing, a Naval-themed brewery at the former site of The Homebrewer and Home Brewing Co., announced they would be closing in June, they ended up keeping the business going in a low-key manner as something of a suds speakeasy. Going by the new (and little-known) moniker der Achmë Secret Brewhaus, it operated through September, when the owners announced they were closing for real…then kept going sporadically into October. But it’s totally closed down now…we think.
22. Beer Brief: The Lost Abbey gets its own HQ!
July 23, 2025
While this news roundup included items about the San Diego Brewcycling Collaborative’s BrewSCRAPS Transportation Pilot Program and South O Brewing closing its restaurant, The Mill Room, after just two months of operation, the lead story was The Lost Abbey entering into negotiations with the parent company of Mason Ale Works to take over the 16,000-square-foot production facility it began operating when assuming management of the Eppig Brewing brand in 2023. The move provided the 19-year-old, world-renowned business with a permanent home after a split with owners from Pizza Port sent co-founder Tomme Arthur in search of a new HQ two years prior.
21. Shoots inherits space where its concept was born
August 18, 2025
In 2021, the owner of brewery-heavy design-build firm CLTVT teamed with restaurateur Davin Waite and professional surfer Cheyne Magnusson to open Shoots Fish & Beer as a walk-up poke and seafood enclave (with beers contract-brewed by local operations such as AleSmith Brewing) inside Bottlecraft’s bar and bottle shop at Oceanside’s Tremont Collective. That business has been enough of a success that, when Bottlecraft owner Brian Jensen asked if his tenants would be interested in taking over the entire Oceanside spot, they were able to make it happen. Now, Shoots’ name is on the building, and they run every aspect of it with helpful consultation from Jensen.
Click here to see which of this year’s news stories ranked 31 through 40