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Get Your Homebrew Ready: Competitions and Homebrew Share

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Homebrewers: get your best beers ready, a few local beer businesses are hosting homebrew competitions and beer and recipe swaps in the coming weeks.

First up is Escondido’s Holiday Wine Cellar’s 3rd Annual Homebrew Competition. You might remember last year’s winner, Indra Kunindra Curry Export Stout, which was brewed by Ballast Point and led to homebrewer Alex Tweet landing a job at the brewery. For this year’s winner will be brewedin collaboration with Iron Fist Brewing Company. There’s no entry fee, homebrewers are limited to three entries each and entries must be in by January 30th. So if you’ve got something good ready to go, read all the details here.

Next up is Bottlecraft’s homebrew share and recipe swap. This one isn’t a formal competition, just a friendly bottle share and recipe swap. There’s no charge, just bring some homebrew and recipes to share. It’s happening Wednesday February 15th at 7pm. Check Bottlecraft’s Facebook page for more info as the date nears.

Last but not least, Monkey Paw is hosting their first ever homebrew competition in February. Monkey Paw’s head brewer Derek Freese got his start as a homebrewer (in fact Monkey Paw is his first pro brewing gig). Entries are free and each brewer can enter two different beers. Beers must be delivered to Monkey Paw by February 24th. The winning entry will be brewed at Monkey Paw, check here for all the details.

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San Diego Beer News | Aug 15th, 2011

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Here are a few bits of news that I didn’t feel were worthy of full posts by themselves, but are noteworthy none the less.

Green Flash Brewing Co.’s Palate Wrecker a 9.2% ABV double IPA that uses a unique brewing process (see below) recently won the Michael Jackson American Cask Ale award at the Great British Beer Festival out of more than 100 entries. Today Green Flash announced on their Facebook page that Palate Wrecker will be their first seasonal release of 2012 which will be released on draft and in both 12 and 22oz bottles. Here’s how Green Flash describes the brew process for Palate Wrecker:

Chuck [Silva] came up with a new method to make a Double IPA by performing a double brew to make a single beer. First there is a single infusion mash and subsequent boil at 65 IBU with Columbus and Centennial hops. Then a second duplicate mash using the 65 IBU wort instead of water and a second 65 IBU boil using the same hop schedule. The result is a higher gravity beer with kettle caramelizing in place of crystal malts and an elevated hop flavor and bitterness that might not be achieved with the same amount of ingredients in a single brew. Hop Heads, this beer is for you!

New English Brewing Company recently received a brewing license for a new location in Sorrento Valley. According to New English owner Simon Lacey they will have a 3.5 barrel brewhouse at the new facility which will focus on specialty beer development and cask beer production as well as house a tasting room. New English currently brews at the Old Mission Brewery building in Middletown which is where their standard beer production will remain when the new facility opens up. No word on when the new facility located at 11545 Sorrento Valley Rd, Suites 305 & 306 will open.

Speaking of the Old Mission Brewery building, Coronado Brewing Company which has supplemented their brewing capacity at their brewpub in Coronado by contract brewing with 5 Points Brewing Co. at the Old Mission Brewery building today announced they will be opening a new facility with a 30 barrel brewhouse and 60 barrel fermenters, tasting room and retail shop at 1205 Knoxville St in the Tecolote Canyon area. Coronado expects to have the new facility open by Spring of 2012. I was talking with some folks from Coronado Brewing Company a few weeks ago and they expect that they will cease production at 5 Points Brewing Co. once their new facility comes online. According to CBC President Rick Chapman the Coronado brewpub will focus on specialty beers and one-offs once the new facility opens. In a news release sent out today Chapman noted that CBC sales were up 64% in San Diego alone last year.

Tin Can Alehouse, which while they do have an impressive amount of beer available in cans is more of a live music venue than a beer focused bar has applied for a transfer of their liquor license from their current location in Banker’s Hill to a new spot in downtown’s East Village neighborhood. An email sent to Tin Can Alehouse was not returned, but the license for the new spot at 701 16th Street is currently pending review with the ABC. One thing I noticed was that the new license lists the business as “Tin Can Live Music,” so maybe they will be dropping the “Alehouse” moniker all together. Update: Here is Tin Can’s new liquor license application. Update 2: While the status on the application still shows as “Pending”, I’ve heard that Tin Can withdrew the application and will not be moving to 701 16th St.

In other East Village news I hear that Monkey Paw, the new brewpub from Scot Blair is coming along nicely and should be opening real soon. No word on an exact date but I’ve been told the bar and restaurant portion could be open before the end of the month if things go smoothly. I’m also told the brewhouse is shaping up as well, but is a bit farther out. Expect updates on both the bar opening and brewing beginning as soon as I know more.

Last, but certainly not least, Stone Brewing Co. today released their Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA. I haven’t tried it yet, but was certainly impressed with the Stone SoCal Hop Salute Double Black IPA given to NHC attendees in June. While not the same recipe, the two beers are of the same style, it will be interesting to see how they differ.

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Monkey Paw, a new Brewpub Coming to the East Village from the Owner of Hamilton’s and Small Bar

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Monkey PawUpdate: As of 5pm, Tuesday 8/23/11 Monkey is now open! Monkey Paw on Facebook.

If you’re reading this blog you probably recognize the name Scot Blair. If not you almost certainly will recognize the names of his drinking establishments: Hamilton’s Tavern, Small Bar and Eleven. Soon Downtown’s East Village neighborhood will have a new brewpub, courtesy of Scot Blair.

Monkey Paw will be located on the corner of 16th St at F St where the Jewel Box used to be. Blair says things are moving along well and he expects the bar and restaurant portion of Monkey Paw to open within 60-90 days in late summer or early fall. The interior space is being completely remodeled, with almost nothing remaining from before. When Monkey Paw opens it’s doors they’ll have somewhere between 35 and 43 taps, pub food similar to Hamilton’s and Small Bar with a great cheesesteak as well as quality spirits. But Monkey Paw won’t only be a pub like Blair’s other establishment’s, it will be licensed to brew on premise making it a brewpub. “A brewpub has always been what I wanted to go after,” Blair tells me as he explains the idea behind Monkey Paw.

The brewing portion of Monkey Paw will come sometime after the bar and restaurant portion opens, Blair says he hopes to be brewing by the end of the year but doesn’t yet know if it will happen. They’re still in the process of acquiring brewing equipment, which he tells me will be either a 7 barrel or 10 hectoliter (approximately 8.5 barrels) system. A brewer for Monkey Paw is lined up and they’ve been refining some of the beers they expect to brew at Monkey Paw on a homebrew pilot system but declined to name the brewer at this time. He did tell me the brewer is an award winning homebrewer, of which I have a guess or two as to who it might be, but won’t speculate right now. Beers brewed at Monkey Paw will get sprinkled around to other places, most likely Blair’s other bars and some beers might even make their way up the coast to LA or San Francisco, but not to expect the full lineup of Monkey Paw’s beers in one place outside the brewpub itself .

The downtown neighborhood’s have come a long way in terms of craft beer in the last fews of years and it looks like Monkey Paw will continue this trend with another spot to get great beer downtown in addition to quality cocktails and food in what Blair assures me will be an unpretentious environment that aesthetically looks different than his other bars.

Only time will tell what will happen with Monkey Paw and craft beer downtown, but if the success of Hamilton’s Tavern is any indication it could help turn Downtown’s East Village into a real beer destination as it adds to what is already there (Neighborhood and Mission Brewery).

Image via Monkey Paw’s Facebook Page

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