Don’t look now, but there’s a renewed interest in beer-focused events throughout San Diego. That much is evidenced by the increased demand and consumption for annual Russian River Brewing release, Pliny the Younger, which, despite being available in greater quantities, sold out faster at tapping events across the county. That fan fervor is notable, especially considering data indicating decreasing consumer interest in beer over the past several years.
The heightened interest in Pliny the Younger was driven in part by a number of the businesses tapping it doing more than silently hooking up kegs and let nature take its course. To the contrary, hospitality venues employed social-media strategy and took their events a step further. Case in point, Kearny Mesa’s O’Brien’s Pub, which offered a ticketed tasting of a dozen triple IPAs where attendees were presented a scoresheet with which to blind-judge and rank all 12 beers before enjoying a full pour of Pliny the Younger. The ticket also included food, plus access to all of the triple IPAs ahead of the general public.
In recent months, brewery taprooms, bars and restaurants have found greater success by going outside the box. It’s not that the standards – beer releases, pint nights, trivia and the like – don’t work, but with so many businesses offering them in a county saturated in craft beer, there’s always another of those basic events right around the corner. This is also true of beer festivals, which, despite having seen greater patronage over the past 12 months, are still significantly down from attendance figures recorded prior to the pandemic.
But like other programming, added interest can be drummed up by doing things differently, offering something beyond the norm and bringing multiple players together to bolster an event’s value proposition. Such was the thinking when Ballast Point Brewing was developing plans for an intimate public event offering a broad selection of beers while going beyond that beverage to explore the art created by the breweries forging those ales and lagers. Dubbed The Art of Beer, it will take place on Saturday, March 14 at 1 p.m. and bring multiple San Diego brewing companies together at Ballast Point’s Little Italy location to interface with fans.
“Each brewery is going to have its own little universe where they’ll be featuring anything they want to showcase, anything that represents who they are right now,” says Ballast Point Brand Ambassador Jeff Lozano. “They will be urged to be as flamboyant as they want with the setup, and alongside their table there will be a blown-up piece of artwork of their choosing to create a visual element that ties into their beer and brand story.”
Those enlarged art pieces will be nearly seven feet tall and three feet wide. In addition to exploring each brewery’s “little universe” and interacting with representatives of those organizations, attendees will also cast their vote for awards such as “best beer” and “best label”. There will also be a panel discussion featuring local brewers. In other words, there will be more activities for attendees to enjoy and participate in than an average beer festival.
“What I like about this thing is that it’s not a beer fest or something where you go around and speed-date your way through a sea of tents…although I absolutely love those,” says Lozano. “This is built to be slower, more intentional and intimate, a place where it feels more like a creative meet-up and art show. The art of the beer labels, brand logos and the beer itself – it’s part tasting event, part art walk and part community hang.”
While Ballast Point will host and serve its beers at the event, it is allowing all of the attention on aesthetics to fall on its guests. The list of participating breweries includes 3 Punk Ales, AleSmith Brewing, Coronado Brewing, Fall Brewing, Harland Brewing, Pizza Port Brewing and Societe Brewing. With so many great beers and brand-art in San Diego, Lozano says one of the hardest parts of planning the event was deciding which breweries to invite.
“As funny as it might sound, we didn’t necessarily look at each brewery’s artwork when inviting brewery friends and artists to show everyone what they do through this event. I mean, who are we to judge what ‘great art’ is?” says Lozano. “This is something we wanted to invite beer titans in town to attend; the ones who acted as architects of the movement, along with breweries we think have made an impact with either their beer, creativity, philosophy or all of the above. It was tough narrowing down the list, but this event is our proof of concept. If San Diego shows up the way we hope they will, this will absolutely become an annual tradition with more friends on the roster.”
Lozano and his colleagues don’t plan to stop their exploration beyond beers’ traditional borders anytime soon. He says they are looking to get multiple collaboration beers going, while presenting beer-pairing dinners and other immersive events. Additionally, Ballast Point is bringing back its Dedicated to the Craft podcast, which ran from 2020 to 2022. That production will be recorded at a new studio which is currently under construction at the company’s Little Italy location.
Tickets for The Art of Beer are available online, and include a VIP option allowing ticketholders early access an hour ahead of the official event start time, exclusive limited tastings, food pairings and a $10 gift card from each guest brewery.
Ballast Point Brewing is located at 2215 India Street in downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood