Barrel Room Spotlight | Horus Aged Ales

Welcome to Round 3 of the Spotlight! For this installment all eyes are on Horus Aged Ales, a one-man operation out of Oceanside, CA. Kyle Harrop, the mastermind behind Horus, originally established himself in 2015. From there, he progressed it from a humble homebrew operation into what it has become today. Through experimental barrel-aging, unique adjunct additions, and countless collaborations with breweries all over the country, Horus has been able to stand out in one of the most competitive beer regions in the United States. We had the opportunity to pick Kyle’s brain and learn more about the methods and techniques he uses, and gain some further insight into what makes his barrel program successful.

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Pure Project | Lief Méthode Traditionnelle

San Diego-based Pure Project started its craft brewing journey in Costa Rica in 2014 but has been firmly ensconced on the west coast since 2016. However, the brewery still focuses on many of the elements that made its Costa Rican location and the initial brewery concept unique like using pure, unique and local ingredients whenever possible, giving back to environmental nonprofits and often starting with the ingredients before determining the style of beer they’ll create. Lief is one such beer.

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Brewery Showcase | Rincon Reservation Road Brewery

Rincon Reservation Road (3R) Brewery has the powerful honor of bridging Native American ancestral heritage with the craft beer community. Tucked away in Valley Center, 45 miles from downtown San Diego, Rincon Reservation Road Brewery is attached to Harrah’s Resort and Casino, cheekily re-labeled in advertisements as Funner, California. Much like this entire region of Southern California, Funner was inhabited by indigenous tribes, such as the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians. 

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Karl Strauss Brewing Co. | Aurora Hoppyalis

Once in a while, some news story comes out talking about how the Northern Lights are visible from not-too-far away. This excites us sky geeks. For most of us in the U.S., unfortunately, the caveats are extreme (e.g. hiking three miles into un-mapped forest in the hopes that the sky is clear enough during the five-minute window when the Aurora Borealis can actually be seen). Finding a good location that’s dim enough to see this spectacle of nature is a challenge if you live in the lower 48.

On the other hand, if you live in a hot craft beer city like San Diego, it’s real easy to find quality beer. So save the skywatching for your bucket list vacation to Iceland, or if you have to lay low for a while and need to move to Alaska. We’re not here to judge; what you do in the privacy of your own back-alley gambling hall is your own business. Beer though…that’s our business. And business is booming, dammit.

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2 Days, 2 Nights | San Diego’s Craft Beer Scene

Anyone that’s familiar with the craft beer scene knows that San Diego is one of the best places in the country to go for a beercation. The official number of breweries constantly fluctuates, but there are approximately more than 150 operational breweries in San Diego County. That number doesn’t count the numerous satellite taprooms that many breweries have around town.

One thing that’s great about the San Diego area is that with the seemingly endless amount of breweries there isn’t a bad place to start your brewery tours, regardless of where you’re staying. Many breweries you probably already know, such as Modern Times, Coronado, Karl Strauss, Stone Brewing, Pizza Port and, well, there are so many it’s hard to name them all. San Diego offers several, diverse beer experiences. For instance, North Park has smaller, cozier taprooms and Miramar has larger (and sometimes massive) production breweries. So, here is a quick guide to just a small number of the area’s numerous breweries — some you know, some that may be new to you. We hope it helps you when you visit San Diego.

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Modern Times Beer | Fruitlands

Peanut butter and pretzels. French fries and ice cream. Gose and fruit. These are just some perfect sweet and salty pairings; and if you have never tried fries with ice cream go to the store now!! It’s just one of nature’s torrid love affairs that stands the test of time. Modern Times Beer Fruitlands marries this divine pairing in a delightful way.
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Modern Times Beer | Blazing World

ABV: 6.8% | IBU: 85

Seeing that the times are what they are, you know with politics, fake news, real news, climate change, brewery buy outs, you may think that Modern Time’s hoppy amber Blazing World was named after… modern times. Not exactly. “Yeah, we definitely never intended it to be that timely of a name,” said Modern Times communication coordinator Dan Reed.

Despite how depressingly timely the name may be, the “hoppy, dank, amber” is truly an uplifting beer. “The stickiest of the icky,” as Reed described. “It’s a luxuriously hoppy amber loaded up with intemperate quantities of Nelson, Mosaic and Simcoe hops, which are some of the fruitiest, dankest hops sweet, sweet money can buy,” Reed added. Read More