It was six years ago today that San Diego Beer News’ (SDBN) website went live. Though the outlet began reporting via social media several months earlier, providing information on brewery openings, closings and more in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, August is when things got really real. Hence, it’s when we celebrate SDBN’s anniversary, something that, like just about everything else we do, involves working directly with local brewing companies.
Since our first birthday in 2021, SDBN has had the privilege of collaborating with a different San Diego County brewery each year to produce a special beer to mark the occasion. Those outfits include Burgeon Beer Co., Eppig Brewing, Pure Project Brewing, Harland Brewing and Mcilhenney Brewing. With one exception (a hoppy saison in 2023), those collab beers have all been IPAs. Given we represent a region that runs on hops, that seems wholly appropriate.
But this year we are veering away from IPA territory, choosing instead to lean on the passion and expertise for another region’s beer styles, which we share with this year’s chief collaborator. That individual is Matt Akin, the Head Brewer for Miramar-based Duck Foot Brewing. While he makes terrific IPAs, he has a marshmallow-degree soft spot for Belgian ales. Though a tad niche in the Southern California market, they are available in great abundance at Duck Foot’s homebase as well as its satellite taproom in Leucadia. Throughout the year, Akin rotates through blondes, witbiers, sours and the staples of monastic brewing: singels, dubbels, tripels and quadrupels.
After Akin kindly accepted our request to brew SDBN’s six-year anniversary beer, we started discussing what sort of beer it should be. Clearly it would be Belgian, but if Duck Foot already offers a version of nearly every Belgian style out there, what could we make that would be unique? The answer: something fun, yet logically driven and, OK, we’ll admit it…fictitious. Enter the Belgian-style quintuple!
“Most of the time we like to make beers that are reasonable, but sometimes we just have to get a little wild. This is definitely one of those wild times,” says Akin. “We are pushing this beer to 15% ABV (alcohol-by-volume), which is really testing the limits of our yeast. Thankfully, we know just how to get some yeast ready for a big beer like this. A fresh batch of our Belgian-style table beer, Friar Duck, is a great warm-up for the yeast and means we get to enjoy fresh Belgian flavor at two very distinct alcohol levels.”
It’s fitting that a table beer (AKA: a Belgian-style singel, by far the lowest in strength of the aforementioned monastic ales) is part and parcel to this anniversary beer, as it will bear a name referencing that style. Dubbed “Under the Table Beer”, the quintuple (an unofficial style we are taking the liberty of categorizing as a strong ale registering at 15% ABV or higher) references “Table Beer”, an award-winning core beer from Akin’s Benchmark Brewing, a Grantville business which operated from 2013 to 2019.
“A Belgian style quintuple is not something you come across very frequently, but it’s perfect for a celebration such as an anniversary, so we just had to make the biggest, most ridiculous celebration beer we could,” says Akin. “We were thrilled to be asked to brew this collaboration. It is quite an honor to be selected to brew for a business that is so dialed in to every aspect of brewing in San Diego.”
Under the Table Beer will be released on tap and in four-packs of 16-ounce cans at both of Duck Foot’s locations on Friday, August 21. There will also be a special edition of the company’s popular “Drinking with Matt” event series, a guided tasting and Q&A session that will feature Under the Table Beer, Akin and SDBN founder and Executive Editor Brandon Hernández . That event will take place at Duck Foot’s Miramar location on Saturday, August 29, beginning at 1 p.m.
Duck Foot Brewing’s taprooms are located at 8920 Kenamar Drive, #210 in Miramar and 978 North Coast Highway 101 in Encinitas’ Leucadia neighborhood