It’s early morning at Kearny Mesa’s Kilowatt Brewing. As usual, beermaking is underway, but head brewer Brian Crecely is multitasking, applying focus to a side project that has him adding a bucket of pickles – brine and all – to one of his brewery’s light-bodied beers. The resultant “Pickle Ale” offers flavors of dill, garlic, coriander, mustard seed, black peppercorns, bay leaf and sea salt, all against a mildly acidity backdrop. It may seem outlandish, but it’s right on trend.
Over the past two years, brewers across the U.S. have begun crafting such sour, saline creations. The primary inspiration is the success of Donna’s Pickle Beer, which debuted in 2023 and has been on a tear ever since.
“It’s no surprise that pickles have moved to the forefront of food and drink of late. There are pickle potato chips, slushies with pickle boba, pickle fries, pickle de gallo, pickle martinis, and, of course, pickle beer,” says Crecely. He jokes that he really “relished” the idea of making a pickle beer, also noting Kilowatt’s Pickle Ale makes a great base for micheladas.
When asked why cured cukes are suddenly enjoying a moment in the sun, he says he can’t quite put his finger on it. “Pickling has been around for thousands of years and was a necessary way to preserve food, but people are rediscovering some of these old processes and bringing them back into the mainstream. People have also been into bigger and bolder flavors lately. This may be part of that trend.”
Then there are people who simply harbor a deep affinity for pickles. Count Hayden and Kyndall Weir as part of that faction. Last year, when the married couple debuted Weir Beer Co. in south Vista, their opening-day lineup included a dill-flavored hard seltzer called “Tommy Pickles.”
“We have always loved pickles, and the idea of making a pickle beverage had been on my mind for years,” says Hayden. The head brewer for his eponymous operation, he flexed the freedom that comes with owning one’s own business and got straight to work on that long-contemplated project. In doing so, he eschewed the pickle-brine route, instead experimenting with dill and dill-pickle extracts, then requesting feedback from customers on several early iterations. The process worked. The Weirs say new customers come in asking for Tommy Pickles, while regulars return to enjoy the alcoholic anomaly.
“It’s more on the fresh dill and cucumber side, flavor-wise; something you can drink more than one of,” says Hayden. “We also keep a pitcher of pickle juice behind the bar for the real pickle-lovers who want to add a pickle-back to their pint, or as we say, ‘upgrade your pickle.’ Funnily enough, this has led to customers adding pickle juice to our other flavored seltzers and even a few of our beers.”
Last month, Weir Beer hosted a “pickle party” event, complete with a pickle-eating contest, pickle-brine water balloon toss, and specialty pickle pizzas from their mobile food vendor. It turned out to be one of the business’s largest ever events and will now be an annual tradition.
Modern craft beer is also trending in a direction suited for cocktail fans, with the advent of beverages mimicking the flavor profiles of island-style tipples. These fruity, oftentimes colorful offerings can be found in beer, seltzer and even slushie form. In fact, many breweries’ first attempts at recreating tropical poolside concoctions were beer- and seltzer-based slushies served as limited-edition or special-event beverages.
It’s only in recent years that brewers have taken the ice and granita machines out of the equation, bringing the entire process into the brewhouse to create products that can be packaged in kegs and cans. No local brewing company has embraced this trend with the vigor or prolificness of Scripps Ranch-based Harland Brewing.
“As much as our team loves drinking beer, we also love grabbing a nice cocktail off-the-clock, so we have tried to replicate cocktails into beers,” says Cody Morris, director of brewing operations. “We have been lucky to really strike a chord with a fanbase that likes these tropical-inspired beers, so we’ve been able to really lean into it.”
Pricier to produce, mostly due to the large amount of fruit that is utilized, Harland’s cocktail beers replicate summery drinks like the piña colada and painkiller, with the latter incorporating orange, pineapple, coconut, nutmeg and pandan syrup. They have even taken on the Blue Hawaiian, right down to its trademark azure hue. The result was a “super-fruited” sour ale made with pineapple, coconut cream and blue curaçao.
Like the Weirs, Harland has developed Aloha Friday events around their popular beverages. And like their Vista colleagues, they have also discovered what a great base hard seltzers can provide in this area. The company will soon have two canned cocktail seltzers in distribution: a take on a paloma made with grapefruit, lime, and agave, and a pineapple margarita concoction called “Matador.”
Such tiki inspiration isn’t limited to alcoholic beverage producers. The country’s largest producer of non-alcoholic beer, Miramar-based Athletic Brewing, is also getting in the mix, having recently introduced a cocktail-inspired non-alcoholic beer called “Tropical Reset.”
“Our challenge was to capture all the hallmarks of a piña colada in the form of a non-alcoholic sour brew,” says Cody Rice, director of brewing process improvement and R&D. “To replicate its signature mouthfeel, we used a heavy dose of wheat, oats and lactose. We also incorporated raw coconut, which adds texture, and luscious pineapple to keep the flavor fresh and vibrant. The result is a brew that doesn’t just nod to the classic cocktail – it delivers a full tropical experience in every sip.”
With the exception of the aforementioned Donna’s Pickle Beer, cans of which can be found at liquor store chains such as Total Wine & More and BevMo!, craft breweries’ pickle-inspired beverages typically fall under the small-batch specialty category. Unlike flagship IPAs and lagers, they are intended to be limited in availability and sold at brewery tasting rooms, where customers’ thirst for experimentation and profit margins are both greatest.
Ditto for cocktail-inspired beers, which help draw increased patronage due to their avant garde, special-edition status. Unlike pickle beers, which Crecely readily admits are “love it or hate it,” beers and hard seltzers emulating cocktails are largely embraced by the general public. This is particularly helpful in providing options or gateway products for consumers who say they don’t like beer or crave a non-beer option, such as wine or spirits.
A version of this article originally appeared in the Business section of the Saturday, August 31, 2025 edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune