Ray Astamendi and Kelsey McNair have a lot in common. Not only are they both brewers, but they’re both plying their trade in North Park and both jumped to the industry like Mario clearing a barrel on a downhill trajectory. It’s while working on pixilated interactive software and brewing on a recreational level that they first made each other’s acquaintance.
It happened at a local meeting of homebrew club, QUAFF (Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity) in 2006. They talked brewing, became fast friends, and remain big fans of each other to this day. Nowadays, Astamendi is busy churning out quality beers from a former 30th Street automotive repair facility at Fall Brewing Company, while McNair is building out his long-awaited North Park Beer Co. just a mile away on University Avenue.
Astamendi recently invited McNair into Fall’s brewhouse to craft a beer to celebrate his friend securing a location after many years of searching. The release of this commemorative quaff was timed for this week, which not coincidentally, is when the American Homebrewers Association’s annual National Homebrewers Conference will be held at Mission Valley’s Town and Country Resort. The beer debuted Monday and will also be served today at the NHC welcome reception and The Brewing Network’s 10th anniversary celebration on Broadway Pier.
A session India pale ale called Moscoe—a portmanteau based off the hop varieties, Mosaic and Simcoe—the beer comes in at a svelte 3.8% alcohol-by-volume. Astamendi called it “a pungent beast of a little beer,” while McNair calls it “very crushable” with “piney, oily dankness upfront, juicy-fruit throughout and some strawberry undertones in the background.” Balanced yet vibrant, it provides a nice opportunity for both North Parkers to show amateur brewers from across the country what they’re all about.