The recipe for my beer, Pete’s Wicked Pale Ale, was simple:
Take 30 kilos of Rahr pale ale malt.
Add three kilos of Carared malt.
Pour in a vial of yeast.
Ditto, bags of Cascade and Centennial hop pellets.
Stir well with the can-do spirit and crack brewing chops of Guilherme Hoffman.
“It’s just chemistry,” said Hoffman, Novo Brazil’s brewmaster, trying to soothe my mid-brew jitters. “You can do anything you want — there’s no can’t.”
After accepting Novo Brazil’s invitation to brew a beer at its Mission Valley brewpub, I had second thoughts. Having written about this subject for 29 years, I know a few things about beer. For instance: I’m a writer, not a brewer.
Fortunately, Hoffman is a brewing ace. After winning national brewing awards in his native Brazil, he immigrated to San Diego in 2021. He quickly took the reins at Novo Brazil, the award-winning Chula Vista-based brewery that combines Brazilian spirit and Southern California flair.
My beer — our beer, really — will be tapped at Novo Brazil’s Mission Valley brewpub at 6 p.m. tonight. Come by and share your review: Drink or Dump?
My first critic has already weighed in.
“It’s good,” Hoffman said. “It’s really good.”
Novo Brazil is at 1640 Camino del Rio N., Suite 341, San Diego.
Two-year honeymoon
Long ago, I stopped trying to judge the intimate relationships of others. Are their joyful exteriors genuine or do they mask interior sorrows? Not for me to say.
By all appearances, though, Sapporo and Stone — hitched in June 2022, when Japan’s oldest brewery acquired San Diego County’s largest craft brewery — are enjoying a prolonged honeymoon.
Sapporo-Stone Brewing, as the company is now known, recently held an open house/press conference/lovefest at the Escondido brewery.
“We are proud to continue to legacy of Stone and honored to have this full team’s commitment to the Sapporo brand,” said Hiro Kitaoka, the company’s chairman. “We are stronger together and proud to be a growing San Diego business.”
In the past two years, Sapporo has invested $20 million in the Escondido facility, and another $40 million in Stone’s plant in Richmond, Virginia.
Both Stone and Sapporo beers have defied the current trend of falling beer sales, with each line growing more than 13 percent in 2023. This year, the company expects to brew 700,000 barrels — those are 31-gallon barrels — evenly split between Sapporo and Stone beers.
The guests touring the Escondido plant included retired co-founder Steve Wagner. He took in the twin hangar-like brewing and packaging buildings, humming with the non-stop bustle of the nation’s 12th largest brewery.
Was this his goal when he and his partner, Greg Koch, opened Stone in 1996?
He shook his head. “My goal was just to make great beer,” he said.
The Next Round
Sunday: Some books inspire reflection; Johanna Flashman’s “Beer Hiking Southern California” inspires strolls and sips. At 9 a.m., she and the Earth Discovery Institute will lead a 1.6-mile hike below Mother Miguel Mountain, followed by a hydration stop at Chula Vista Brewery. Mother Miguel Mountain Trailhead: 2345 Paseo Los Gatos, Chula Vista. Chula Vista Brewery: 871 District Place, Suite 102, Chula Vista. Register at earthdiscovery.org
Thursday: Hops on the Fairway, the 10th annual San Diego Brewers Guild golf tournament, tees off 10 a.m. at The Links at Lakehouse, San Marcos. Entry fees, $200 on up, include reception, tournament and dinner; proceeds benefit the Guild. 10 a.m. June 13. The Links, 1750 San Pablo Drive, San Marcos. Register at sdbeer.com.
Quick Sips: ‘Imported’ local lagers
Clara
From: Puesto, San Diego
ABV (Alcohol By Volume): 4.7 percent
Style: Mexican Lager
Drink or dump: Drink. Doug Hasker, Puesto’s brewmaster, is known as San Diego’s lager meister. Clara shows why. A lean and crushable beer, it’s effervescent with a pleasing malt spine. The hops are restrained, emerging in the finish, when they add a mild but lingering bitterness.
Sapporo Premium Beer
From: Sapporo-Stone, Escondido
ABV: 4.9 percent
Style: Japanese Lager
Drink or dump: Drink. The flagship beer of Japan’s Sapporo is now made in Stone’s Escondido plant. Light bodied, this lager has a faint but pervasive herbal hop note; sweet but subdued malts; and enthusiastic carbonation.
Japanese Lager
From: Harland Brewing, San Diego
ABV: 5 percent
Style: Japanese Lager
Drink or dump: Drink. Move over, Miller Lite. Less filling, tastes great and a craft beer, Harland’s Japanese Lager is a terrific summer cooler. Puffed Jasmine rice and toasted rice flakes give this a unique flavor profile, crisp and light.
Rowe is a freelance writer.