In so many ways, 2023 was a big year for the San Diego brewing industry. As we prepare for 2024, we are taking a moment to look back, combing through our daily reporting from the past 365 days to see which stories garnered the greatest interest from you, our valued readers. In doing so, we are omitting sure-fire items like winners from brewing competitions such as the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup, neighborhood brewery guides, beer-centric travel articles and features such as Portrait of a Brewer, Rear View Beer, What’s Tapping and Beer of the Week. What’s left are the news stories that generated the most traffic on our site and sentiment from the local beer community.
25. The Roadies Brewing rolls into Vista
Wednesday, November 8
This fall, Diane and Sean Hilz took over the Vista industrial suite previously occupied by companies, Shred Hard Seltzer and Local Roots Kombucha. Prior to habitation by those alternative-beverage companies, it had been home to sour, wild and mixed-fermentation beer interest, Toolbox Brewing. The Hilz are excited to restore the space to an ale-and-lager manufactory with their business, The Roadies Brewing, which isn’t named after the popular “one-for-the-road” slang term, but instead a group of parents the couple worked with to support their kids during their off-site high-school color guard performances.
24. First Look: California Wild Ales
Wednesday, September 6
After eight years operating out of its barrel warehouse and tasting room in Sorrento Valley, the owners of “San Diego’s Sour House”, California Wild Ales, transported their business to a new headquarters just north of Pechanga Arena in Point Loma. In making the new location their home, CWA’s crew built a two-story tasting room with a 20-foot projection screen erected for optimal viewing of local sporting events. Thanks to SDBN’s Korey Kaczur, our article not only provided all of the pertinent details about the new location, but also the first video footage of the space from its friends-and-family pre-open preview event.
23. First Look: Fall Brewing’s new HQ
Friday, August 11
After nine years operating out of its popular-but-cramped facility in North Park, Fall Brewing expanded its production capabilities in a big way in 2023, taking over the 57,000-square-foot Miramar brewery previously operated by Kings & Convicts Brewing and, prior to that, defunct Molson Coors Beverage Co. interest, Saint Archer Brewery. Doing so not only provided the means to brew much more beer, but also service craft fans north of Interstate 8 on their home turf. This article provided the first-ever photos and video of the colorful, indoor-outdoor, concert-poster-smattered tasting room prior to its much-anticipated debut.
22. Harland Brewing hires new director of brewing operations
Tuesday, July 25
This summer, Scripps Ranch-based Harland Brewing found itself in need of a director of brewing operations (DoBO) after the longtime holder of that position, Nick Marron, elected to leave the beer industry and his successor, Ryan Alvarez, quit to move to Oregon where his wife had landed a dream job. In filling the position, Harland’s owners called on industry friend and frequent collaborator, Cody Morris, who came over from Miramar interest Embolden Beer Co. in a bittersweet turn that separated him from his cousin and co-worker, Andrew Kelly, but allowed his longtime righthand man to ascend to the DoBO position following his departure.
21. The future of Rouleur Brewing
Tuesday, March 28
Rouleur Brewing owner Rawley Macias used our Voices of San Diego Beer guest-article series to announce that, after analyzing beer-industry trends, he would be altering course for his six-year-old Carlsbad operation, shifting from increasing production and expanding its footprint to shrinking the business to meet realistic consumer demand in the current marketplace. That meant closing the North Park tasting room he’d opened in 2021, pulling out of a second production facility at Draft Republic in San Marcos, and going back to a self-distribution model after a year-long partnership with Karl Strauss Distribution.