Tommaso Maggiore is the owner and brewmaster of Acoustic Ales Brewing Experiment.
Can you tell us about the beers you make?
We’re starting from scratch, so the beers we brew are new to us and we like to think they are unique for the end craft beer drinker. We’ve traveled the globe in search of beer and have seen uniquely different styles and tastes based on the different equipment and processes; this has helped mold the styles we wish to emulate. Because of the name Acoustic Ales Brewing Experiment — you can’t go wrong with music and beer — most of our beers have some sort of musical influence in their names. For example our nut brown ale that just won a gold medal at the San Diego International Beer Festival is named “Shake Your $ Maker” Brown, and then there’s “The Groupie” Belgian-style blonde, the “Mad Dub” Belgian-style dubbel, and the “Mosh Pit” West Coast-style red. Coming up with the names can be just as fun as making the beers.
Who are your brewers?
Myself and brewer Zach Jones are both relatively green without a lot of experience in the commercial brewing setting. That poses plusses and minuses; there has definitely been a bit of a learning curve, but that’s part of the sun. The plus side is that we are not locked into a specific way of doing things, and we haven’t brought baggage from previous breweries. One of the downfalls is that this is a trial by fire. if we don’t know how to do something, we try to sort through it, and on occasion it has bitten us in the ass. There are many other breweries opening up in San Diego which are off-shoots from other San Diego breweries , so it seems the beers coming out are just slight variations on previous creations.
What makes your tasting room unique?
The brewery and tasting room are located at the historic Mission Brewery Plaza — located right off the 5 freeway at the Washington Street exit — which is the oldest pre-Prohibition brewery building still standing in San Diego. Its roots date back to 1912 when the building was built for the original Mission Brewery, which cranked out suds for the masses along with many other San Diego pre-Prohibition era breweries, but unfortunately Prohibition – formally known as the 18th Amendment – was passed in 1919, and although Mission was trying to make a run with a hop-infused Soda “Hopski,” they were unsuccessful and the doors of the original brewery closed. After that, it was turned into a hospital annex during the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic, and then a seaweed processing plant until the 1980s. It’s changed hands since then, and we’re looking forward to creating beers inside a historic brewing building.
Do you have any events coming up?
Our tasting room just opened its doors, right off the Washington Street trolley station, and we have still a bit of work to do, but there are plans to offer beer classes, plus brewing classes and tours of the brewery. We’ll be working with a lot of local gastrotrucks to create beer-infused foods, and we’re looking at starting a barrel aging program with used small-batch Scotch whiskey barrels. We’ll have plenty of events in the near future, and we’ll list those on our website; or, like us on Facebook.
What are you looking forward to during SDBW?
SDBW is a beautiful celebration of beer and San Diegans love their craft beer! There are so many great events to go to, new people to meet that love craft beer, events to plan, beer dinners to attend. There’s just not enough time to get to everything. We will be doing some fun one-off cask conditioned ales and nitro beers specifically for SDBW.