Kevin Conover is co-owner of TapRoom in Pacific Beach with his brother, Kyle. They’re gearing up for a big bash tomorrow, but took some time out to answer five questions for us.
You’re about to host your 6th anniversary party on Saturday. Where did the idea for TapRoom come about?
The idea came from just a lot of brainstorming and talking with brewers. We wanted to create something that really focused on the amazing local breweries that were coming out of San Diego (7 years ago!). We first talked with Peter from AleSmith about doing an AleSmith restaurant and tasting room, and it just kind of evolved into the TapRoom which focuses on all of the local breweries instead of just one.
What special beers will you be serving on Saturday?
On Saturday we will be serving up some pretty amazing beers including, AleSmith Barrel-Aged Old Numbskull, Ballast Point Rum Barrel-Aged Victory at Sea on Nitro, Cuvee de Tomme, and we’ve even got some bottles of Cantillon we will be opening. It’s a pretty bad ass lineup. Check it out here.
What are your top-selling beer styles?
IPAs are #1 of course. We weigh our draft list pretty heavily with IPAs. We just hired a new beer buyer, Peter Perrecone, who has been getting us some pretty awesome rare and crazy stuff like barrel-aged variations and awesome sours. Oh and we’ll be debuting “TapRoom Coconuts on Rye” – our 6th Anniversary beer brewed by Kevin Buckley from Latitude 33.
What breweries are you looking forward to trying more this year?
There are so many that are putting out awesome beer. Societe, Rip Current, Belching Beaver, etc. It’s an exciting time for craft beer.
Your website’s live beer list, complete with keg percentages and “on-deck” beers is pretty cool. How did you implement that?
It started with an idea of an inventory system that could be posted to our website in real time for the customer to see. My brother Kyle and I built it from a simple spreadsheet and have been adding to it and improving it ever since. It’s a lot of work to keep track of all these beers so the inventory part of it is pretty helpful, especially now since we have an off-site beer cellar in Miramar where we store and age lots of beer. Plus people always like to see how much is left in that Pliny keg!