Ebenezer Scrooge may have ditched the bah-humbug ’tude if he had known he could do good by drinking better.
For instance:
1. At least two dozen San Diego County breweries are now pouring Kokua IPA, a beer created by Maui Brewing. Until Jan. 1, 2024, a portion of all Kokua sales will benefit
recovery efforts on the fire-ravaged Hawaiian island of Maui.
So far, more than 750 breweries around the world have joined this cause, selling the beer, branded Kokua T-shirts and other items.
“A little over $200,000 has been raised just through October,” said Trent Tokos, vice president of marketing for Craft ‘Ohana, the company that owns Maui Brewing and Modern Times. “We’re hoping to collectively get to $1.5 million.”
2. For several years now, a quartet of developmentally disabled pals have teamed with My Yard Live to create beers that raise funds for charity.
This year’s entry, 4 Wise Dudes Red IPA, will be released Sunday at the brewery, 288 Rancheros Drive, San Marcos. $1 from every pint will be donated to local causes.
3. One percent of all sales at Pure Project’s five county locations are donated to Surf Rider San Diego, the Conservation Alliance and other eco-charities. This ongoing effort, as explained a Pure Project open letter from 2016, aims “to ensure the existence of our planet in its natural beauty and effectiveness for generations to come.”
Judith Downie, CSUSM’s former Special Collections & Historian Librarian, looks at items in the university’s Brewchive beer history colleciton.
(Don Boomer/Don Boomer)
Our beer-stained past
A friend recently shared the Journal of San Diego History’s Spring/Summer 2022 edition, which contains Judith Downie’s revelatory account of San Diego beer’s early days.
A semi-retired historian/archivist from California State University, San Marcos, Downie takes readers from our first commercial brewery, opened in 1868 by Austrian immigrant
Christian Dobler, to the 1953 demise of ABC, once a landmark lager.
One gem: San Diego Brewery and Mission Brewery united to campaign against Prohibition in 1908, a dozen years before alcoholic beverages were banned nationwide.
“THEORIES don’t make men TEMPERATE! Prohibition is a theory,” read the breweries’ ad in the San Diego Union. Beer and wine, the blurb continued, “are the staunchest safeguards of temperance and sobriety.
“Leave Well Enough Alone. Protect your HOME industries.”
Hot coffee in white cup and roasted coffee beans, coffee cup on brick wall background
(Getty Images)
Coffee, LPs and Beer
If you’re seeking a good $2 cup of coffee, here’s a tip: Head to Modern Times’ Fermentatorium in Point Loma and its Far West Lounge in Encinitas.
Modern Times has been roasting coffee throughout its decade-long existence. Current java offerings include Ugly Disco Sweater Holiday Blend and Heavy Weather Winter Blend. Coffee is available in whole bean gift sets or by the cup. While sipping mugs of Ugly Disco Sweater, you might also check out the Vinyl Record Rarities shop inside the Fermentatorium.
Jake Nunes, the Point Loma brewery’s director of hospitality, finds ample overlap among consumers of LPs, coffee and beer.
“It’s pretty much on-brand for us,” he said.
The Next Round
Guests sip brews and browse model train exhibits at a previous edition of San Diego Model Railroad Museum’s Ales N’ Rails event.
(San Diego Model Railroad Museum)
Sunday: In honor of National Lager Day, Common Theory will trim 50 percent off the cost of your first non-ale beer. Common Theory: 4805 Convoy St., San Diego.
Dec. 16: Ales N’ Rails, a beer tasting and ugly holiday sweater contest, will steam through Balboa Park’s San Diego Model Railroad Museum from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Tickets, $45, can be purchased at sdmrm.org.
Quick Sips, We Wish You a Beery Christmas Edition
Jubilale Holiday Ale.
(Courtesy of Peter Rowe)
Jubilale
From: Deschutes, Bend, Ore.
ABV (Alcohol By Volume): 6.7 percent
Style: Holiday Ale
Drink or dump: Drink. Now in its 35 th year, this is one of the West Coast’s oldest Christmas beers. (Anchor’s Our Special Ale predates it by 13 years but — alas — plans are afoot to close that San Francisco institution.) Jubilale is a seasonal gift to malt lovers, with jolly notes of toffee, dark chocolate and French roast coffee.
Kilowatt Brewing Christmas Ale.
(Courtesy of Peter Rowe)
Christmas Ale
From: Kilowatt Brewing, San Diego
ABV: 9.6 percent
Style: Holiday Ale
Drink or dump: Drink. Honeyed malts and nutmeg take the lead in this well-carbonated ale, followed by faint cinnamon and ginger notes. This festive brew, Kilowatt maintains, is made in the “Cleveland Style,” whatever that is. ‘Tis the season to be charitable so, OK, whatever.
Duck Foot Brewing’s Deck the Hops 2023 double IPA.
(Courtesy of Peter Rowe)
Deck the Hops 2023
From: Duck Foot Brewing, San Diego
ABV: 8 percent
Style: Double India Pale Ale
Drink or dump: Drink. This looks like a classic copper-hued double IPA, an impression reinforced by the piney, citrusy aroma. But Deck adds a delicious twist to your standard IIPA: spruce tips and rosemary join in the waltz of Pacific Northwest hops and pale malts. Movie buffs take note: Deck salutes Bruce Campbell, the square-jawed hero of Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy.
Rowe is a freelance writer.