Last December, Wild Barrel Brewing closed its doors after years of fighting the good fight but being unable to get back out of the red financially. This included not only shuttering its San Marcos base of operations, but also the six-year-old business’ secondary tasting room in Temecula. More removed from ground zero and less in tune with the company’s struggles, frequenters of the satellite location, which opened in 2017 in the Promenade Shopping Center, were both surprised and disheartened to see it go. It’s something those regulars have shared with Wild Barrel co-founder Chris White, and his current partners, Chris Banker and Chris Gayer, following the recent reopening of the venue under the banner of their shared craft-beer concern, Barrel & Stave Brewing.
“From the beginning, the plan [for Barrel & Stave] was to open three-to-four tasting rooms in Southern California, but have our home base in North County,” says White. The Temecula tasting room is the third location for the company, the first of which, Barrel & Stave Pour House, launched in the Orange County city of Fullerton in 2020. “We’ve always felt Temecula is an underserved and unsaturated area [from a craft-beer perspective]. Most of the local breweries and tasting rooms are either in the Old Town area or the business parks west of Interstate 15. There was a void in northeast Temecula near the city’s largest and busiest mall, and all the nearby residential developments.”
It was Thursday, October 17 when White (not to be confused with the same-name owner of Miramar-based yeast-production company, White Labs) welcomed patrons back to the 2,500-square-foot Temecula space, which seats 128 (plus 20 on an outdoor patio) and now serves 16 taps’ worth of Barrel & Stave’s ales, lagers and hard seltzers. Opened in 2022, that operation is based in Vista’s CoLab Public House – a craft-beverage co-op that also houses Breakwater Brewing, Propaganda Wine Co. and 117 West Spirits – and headed by former homebrewer Chris Banker.
We had a loyal following when this was a Wild Barrel tasting room, and many regulars were sad to see it close. Since we’ve opened back up, many of them have found out and come back in. Although the beers aren’t the same as Wild Barrel’s, customers are happy with our offerings.
Chris White, Owner, Barrel & Stave Brewing
Those offerings are largely made up of modern-day styles, including low-alcohol and hoppy lagers, kettle-sour ales, and IPAs both clear and hazy.
White says it’s also a bonus having axe-throwing outfit, SoCal Axe, located next door, just as they were in San Marcos when Wild Barrel was still in operation. (That local branch has since moved into a building next door to Jacked Up Brewery in Escondido.) That added draw has helped make for a successful first two weeks in operation at the Riverside offshoot.
On the beer front, Barrel & Stave recently released its Sun Diego Sour Series of fruited Berliner weisses, the latest edition of which is infused with peaches and apricots. And this week, Banker will re-release Mostraveza, a spiced coffee stout that is similar to one of his award-winning homebrews called Xocoveza. That beer took top honors at Stone Brewing‘s AHA (American Homebrewers Association) Rally in 2014 and went on to become an annual winter seasonal offering for the Escondido-based company.
In other Barrel & Stave news, White is looking to expand beer distribution throughout all of Southern California and ramp up packaging efforts to support that effort. As for future locations, he says they will likely wait a year or two before seeking something out unless a quality spot “falls into his lap”.
The Temecula tasting room’s hours of operation are 3 to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 1 to 10 p.m. on Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. on Saturdays, and noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays. Barrel & Stave is currently running a special where customers that purchase two pints get $5 off axe-throwing next door, and White says the venue will soon begin offering trivia and bingo, as well as live entertainment.
Barrel & Stave Brewing’s satellite tasting room is located inside the Promenade shopping center at 41493 Margarita Road, Suite G106B in Temecula