In 2020, Carlsbad-based Burgeon Beer Co. announced it had taken over the former home of Escondido Brewing with plans to reopen it under its flag as “The Oasis”. The response from fans of the original operation was resoundingly positive. Though one of the smallest brewery venues in the county—or just about anywhere—Escondido Brewing had amassed a fierce following made up mostly of locals who enjoyed weekends spent supporting their all-outdoor neighborhood nano. Of the beers the animal feed store add-on produced during its three years in business, none was as beloved as a West Coast IPA dubbed Hopcondido.
An award-winner for its creator, Ketchen Smith (pictured below, at left) on both a homebrew (second place at the 2017 National Homebrew Competition) and commercial (first place at the 2019 Green Flash Brewdown Festival competition) level, Hopcondido has been sorely missed since Escondido Brewing went out of business around the onset of the pandemic. Though open to the right opportunity, Smith has been out of the brewing industry for the past two years, but the Burgeon crew recently pulled him back in, collaborating with him earlier this week to brew Hopcondido at their facility to tap the beer at The Oasis next month.
“I feel this collaboration is extremely significant for both breweries. Ketchen and I go back about seven years or so to when I was brewing at Back Street Brewery in Vista. He would always come in to share beer, and chat about recipes and ideas,” says Burgeon co-founder and Head Brewer Anthony Tallman (pictured above, at right). “Ketchen and I brewing together has been a long time in the making and it’s an honor to finally get it on our calendar, let alone be brewing something so special to him.”
An upcoming special event was the impetus for getting Tallman and Smith’s brew date scheduled. On June 12, Burgeon will hold The Oasis Block Party as part of a series of annual summertime events held at each of the company’s three locations (its Carlsbad headquarters, The Oasis and “The Arbor” in Little Italy). The block parties are designed to celebrate the communities Burgeon has built a presence in and, in this case, the craft-beer legacy that was established before they arrived.
“When we would talk shop at Back Street, I told Anthony I was going to start a small brewery, and he told me he was in the beginning stages with Burgeon. His brewery opened about six months before Escondido Brewing, so it was a great time for both of us,” says Smith. “While it was sad that I had to close my brewery at the beginning of COVID, I welcomed Anthony and the Burgeon team to take over. It’s fitting that we can brew my most popular beer together to celebrate that, and I am grateful to take part in this collaboration.”
Hopcondido’s malt bill consists of two-row, Pilsner, white wheat and Carafoam, and the beer is hopped with a pair of of-the-moment (Mosaic, Citra) and old-school (Centennial, Columbus) varietals. The result is a 7.5% alcohol-by-volume West Coast IPA that hits a sweet spot between classic and modern hop-bombs thanks to a pungent citrus bouquet offset by pininess on the palate and tacky bitterness on the backend.
“I had several batches of Hopcondido from the beginning when it was Ketchen’s homebrew recipe, up to when he was working with Rip Current to produce larger batches,” says Tallman, referring to the contract relationship Escondido Brewing entered into with San Marcos’ Rip Current Brewing to help meet demand for their best-selling beer. “We’re pretty lucky with this recipe because Rip Current produced it on their 15-barrel brewhouse, which is the size we will be brewing it on, so it has sort of already gone through a scaling-up process. For me, the exciting part is going to be seeing how closely we can produce Hopcondido to what Ketchen was making.”
The Oasis Block Party will take place at its namesake venue on Sunday, June 12 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hopcondido will be available on-tap and in four-packs of 16-ounce cans at that location as well as Burgeon’s Carlsbad and Little Italy tasting rooms.
Burgeon Beer Co.’s The Oasis is located at 649 Rock Springs Road in Escondido