What’s Tapping (4/20/23)

Welcome to San Diego Beer News‘ weekly list of beers tapping for the first time or returning to beer lists at breweries throughout San Diego County. For more details regarding release/tapping dates, times and locations, consult the official website or social-media accounts of the brewing companies listed.

And keep scrolling for Bottlecraft staffers’ recommendations about beers they are excited about that can be found at their bottle shop locations in North Park, Little Italy, Point Loma and Oceanside!

• 13 Point Brewing (Lemon Grove): LG Basic Blonde Ale, 6%
• 13 Point Brewing (Lemon Grove): My Trusty Llama American Pale Ale, 6.2%
• Abnormal Beer Co. (Rancho Bernardo): Familia Mexican-style Lager, 4.5%
• Arcana Brewing (Carlsbad): Irish Red Ale, 6%
• Athletic Brewing (Miramar): Good Heavens Non-alcoholic Helles-style Lager, < 0.5%
• Aztec Brewery (Vista): Yuzu Lily Blonde Ale w/ Yuzu
• Ballast Point Brewing (Miramar, Little Italy, Morena): Crystal Pier Double IPA, 9.7%
• Ballast Point Brewing (Miramar, Little Italy, Morena): Iterum IPA, 7.2%
• Barrel & Stave Brewing (Vista): Peachy Lychee Hard Seltzer w/ Peach & Lychee, 6% (collaboration w/ Study Break Hard Seltzer)
• BattleMage Brewing (Vista): The Green Knight IPA w/ Terpenes, 6.5% (collaboration w/ Booze Brothers Brewing)
• Black Plague Brewing (Oceanside, Escondido): Beautiful Oblivion West Coast IPA, 5.7%
• Black Plague Brewing (Oceanside, Escondido): Hell In The Cellar West Coast IPA, 7.2% 
• Booze Brothers Brewing (Vista, Oceanside, Fallbrook): Pinky Promise IPA, 6.6%
• Burgeon Beer Co. (Carlsbad, Escondido, Little Italy): Paloma Fresca Fruited Sour Ale, 6.6%
• Burgeon Beer Co. (Carlsbad, Escondido, Little Italy): Soul Caravan Hazy Double IPA, 8%
• Burning Beard Brewing (El Cajon): Fleet San Diego Pale Ale, 5%
• Chula Vista Brewery (Chula Vista, Eastlake): Humble Double IPA, 9.5%
• Coronado Brewing (Bay Park, Coronado, Imperial Beach): Cloudbreak Hazy IPA, 7.3%
• Coronado Brewing (Bay Park, Coronado, Imperial Beach): Hibiscus Blonde Ale, 5.2%
• Craft Coast Beer & Tacos (Oceanside): Baja Especial Helles-style Lager, 4.8%
• Craft Coast Beer & Tacos (Oceanside): Critical Liquid Unfiltered West Coast IPA, 6.9%
• Creative Creature Brewing (El Cajon): Adam West Coast IPA, 6%
• Creative Creature Brewing (El Cajon): El Cajones Mexican-style Lager, 4.2%

• Duck Foot Brewing (Miramar, Leucadia): Zombie Beer Slushies, 5%
• Embolden Beer Co. (Miramar): Broken Record San Diego-style West Coast IPA, 6.8%
• Fall Brewing (North Park, South Park): Brainwash Quintuple Dry-hopped Hazy IPA, 7.1%
• Fall Brewing (North Park, South Park): Wolfgang von Wolfhaus German-style Lagerbier, 5.4%
• Harland Brewing (Scripps Ranch, South Park, Bay Park, Carmel Valley): Western Tropics Double Dry-hopped West Coast IPA, 7%
• Helix Brewing (La Mesa): Pours American Lager, 4%
• Hopnonymous Brewing (Kearny Mesa): Slammin’ SD Hazy IPA, 7%
• Hopnonymous Brewing (Kearny Mesa): Thaï-me Of My Life Mango Sticky Rice Kettle Sour Ale, 7.1%
• InZane Brewing (Vista): I.I.I. Mexican-style Lager, 4.8%
• InZane Brewing (Vista): SMASH IPA, 7%
• Kairoa Brewing (University Heights): Camp Kumquat Fruited Berliner-style Weisse, 4.8%
• Kairoa Brewing (University Heights): Orange Dreamsicle Fruited Berliner-style Weisse, 4.8%
• Kairoa Brewing (University Heights): Toetoes Bay Hazy IPA, 7.1%
• Kairoa Brewing (University Heights): Undie 500 Pale Ale, 5.4%
• Karl Strauss Brewing (Downtown, Sorrento Mesa, 4S Ranch, Carlsbad): Live and Let Rye IPA
• Mcilhenney Brewing (Alpine): Bestest Buds IPA, 6.3%
• Mcilhenney Brewing (Alpine): Family Phranchise Double Dry-hopped West Coast IPA, 6.4%
• Mission Brewing (East Village): Sandy Eggo Maple Scotch Barrel-aged Amber Ale
• Nickel Beer Co. (Julian): T Money IPA, 6.4%
• North Park Beer Co. (North Park, Bankers Hill): Aroma Constrictor Double Dry-hopped Hazy IPA, 7.2%
• North Park Beer Co. (North Park, Bankers Hill): Fiestaveza Mexican-style Lager, 4.8%
• North Park Beer Co. (North Park, Bankers Hill): I See Dead People Double Dry-hopped West Coast IPA, 6.5%

• One Season Brewing (Grantville): Coastal Eddy Hazy IPA, 6.7%
• Plan 9 Alehouse (Escondido): Lethal Mullet Double IPA, 9.5%
• Plan 9 Alehouse (Escondido): Lowriders From Mars IPA, 6.5%
• Poor House Brewing (North Park): 30 Hop West Coast IPA, 7.2%
• Poor House Brewing (North Park): Low Life Pilsner, 5.2%
• Poor House Brewing (North Park): Tangled In Light Mixed-fermentation Saison, 6.7%
• Pure Project Brewing (Vista, Carlsbad, Miramar, North Park, Bankers Hill): Envision Murky IPA, 6.7%
• Pure Project Brewing (Vista, Carlsbad, Miramar, North Park, Bankers Hill): Never Say Never Amber Ale, 5.9%
• Pure Project Brewing (Vista, Carlsbad, Miramar, North Park, Bankers Hill): Perezoso Smoothie-style Ale w/ Mango & Blueberry, 6% (collaboration w/ Tripping Animals Brewing)
• Resident Brewing (Downtown): Armada Rum Barrel-aged Imperial Stout w/ Coconut & Vanilla, 15%
• Resident Brewing (Downtown): Espinosa Reposado Tequila Barrel-aged Saison w/ Watermelon, Prickly Pear, Ginger & Lime, 6.5%
• Rip Current Brewing (San Marcos, North Park): 2023 Barrel-aged Rescue Buoy Imperial Stout, 13%
• Rip Current Brewing (San Marcos, North Park): Lupulin Lust OG IPA, 8.3%
• South O Brewing (Oceanside): Pacific Boysenberry Blueberry Hard Seltzer, 5%
• TapRoom Beer Co. (North Park): Bee the Buzz Honey Ale, 5.7%
• TapRoom Beer Co. (North Park): My Favorite Part Unfiltered IPA, 6.6%
• Viewpoint Brewing (Del Mar): Bohemian Raspberry Tart Wheat Ale, 4.6%
• Viewpoint Brewing (Del Mar): Fan Fare West Coast IPA, 6.2%
• Viewpoint Brewing (Del Mar): Just A Haze Hazy IPA, 7.3%
• WestBrew (Vista, East Village): Planet WestBrew American Light Lager, 4.9%
• Wild Barrel Brewing (San Marcos): Brewers Gold Pale Lager, 4.8%
• Wild Barrel Brewing (San Marcos): Set List West Coast IPA, 6.7%
• Wild Barrel Brewing (San Marcos): Tiki Punch Imperial Cocktail Sour Ale, 8.5%

Gene Fielden | North Park Bottlecraft Manager

This week features a very special single-brewery spotlight for Moonlight Brewing! This is the very last of the Northern California breweries on our longtime wish list who have begun distribution here in San Diego, and hence his pallet of immense importance and meaning to me. Moonlight has been operating in Santa Rosa for over three decades and and was for a long time only available on draft at selected accounts in the Bay Area. I have been a huge fan since first tasting their Death & Taxes flagship black lager at the (now sadly closed) Beer Revolution in Oakland’s Jack London Square, early on in my beer odyssey. The owner and head brewer, Brian Hunt, was for many years also the only employee. My father met and chatted with him at a beer fest sometime in the 2000s, whereupon Mr. Hunt volunteered that occasionally he would employ his daughter to drop off a keg here and there, but otherwise it was a one-man show. 

Moonlight’s 50% acquisition by Lagunitas seven years ago (prior to the latter being subsumed by Heineken) allowed for canning to be a possibility, and at long last one could find cans of Death & Taxes and the relatively newer Reality Czeck pilsner at smart establishments around the Bay.. A trip home to my father’s house since then invariably has meant multiple four-packs of each being picked up from Berkeley Bowl, just two blocks away. In an interesting twist, Patrick Rue (of The Bruery renown) purchased that 50% stake from Lagunitas just last year, meaning that Moonlight is once again an independently owned craft brewery.

I am over the moon (so to speak) that Moonlight will henceforth be freely accessible to us and look forward to ordering huge piles of their beer from now on. They make flawless lagers, impressive IPAs and have branched out into saisons and barleywines in recent years. They are a living link to a recent past when craft beer was niche, and have maintained extraordinary quality throughout all the variegated concatenations of an ever-changing beer market.

Moonlight Bombay By Boat | West Coast IPA (6.2%): Surveying today’s craft-beer landscape, it is sometimes difficult to remember that a clear IPA did not always mean one stripped to the bone of malt. In fact, caramel malt was once a hallmark of the hoppy beers gracing our presence in decades past. Bombay By Boat is a periscope view of this brewing tradition, and furthermore explicitly references the origins of the India pale ale right there in the title. Firmly bitter with that tried-and-true pine-and-grapefruit dichotomy that leads one to wax rhapsodic.

Moonlight Pale Dry Lager | Helles-style Lager (4.8%): As if it weren’t enough to mark the debut of Moonlight in San Diego, we received (in addition to their three core offerings) a brand-new lager at the same time as delighted drinkers up north. Pale Dry Lager is a pitch-perfect biscuity Helles, bready and clean with impressive head retention. The foam cascades downwards into the liquid seconds after the pour off the draft line (like pulling a shot of espresso) before forming a solid layer atop thereafter, eventually settling in like a comfy easy chair. The lace curtains on the edge of the glass bring the metaphor full circle.

Moonlight Death & Taxes | Black Lager (5.3%): Just in time for Tax Day, the beer that put Moonlight on the map has arrived. As with other exquisitely crafted black lagers, this is the ideal beer to demonstrate that “dark” and “heavy” are not synonymous. Cold roast dances up to the edge of bitterness before drawing back, with a silken velveteen texture on the palate. The only two sure things in life are…?

Click here to explore the quality beers at Bottlecraft’s four San Diego locations.