On the last weekend of January, Pure Project Brewing (9030 Kenamar Drive, #308, Miramar) will become the first tenant of H.G. Fenton’s Brewery Igniter program to open for business. What was once a stark white, nondescript, ready-to-use tasting room space just waiting to be given personality is now outfitted in stylish reclaimed wood, belly bars fashioned from felled trees and a screen featuring projections of nature-based videos. The first chance to peruse this rather Zen spot will be Saturday, January 30 starting at noon.
Upon entering the tasting room, guests’ eyes are sure to dart right to the Pure Project logo composed entirely of three varieties of bulging green fauna with a swirled fluorescent blue water droplet dotting its plant-based insignia. Next up is a beer-board stocked with a dozen different beers—quite the number for a brand-new operation. By opening day, brewmaster Winslow Sawyer plans to have three India pale ales on tap—a single, double and five gallons worth of a Brettanomyces-fermented version. But it’s not all about IPAs here…far from it.
Many of Pure Project’s beers are infused with tropical ingredients, which is fitting considering the brewery was originally going to be founded in Costa Rica. Examples include a hibiscus saison, ginger-citrus blonde and coconut quadrupel—a bizarre additive for a monastic Belgian-style ale. An orange-vanilla cream ale, session rye pale and Kölsch will provide a trio of refreshing options. The latter is proudly adjunct in nature and brewed with rice. Light-bodied and refreshing, it flies in the face of most enthusiast’s definition of craft beer, but it’s tasty and should help to transition the uninitiated to more adventurous offerings. A coffee milk stout and Russian imperial porter make up the darker end of the spectrum and though the stout could use more body, it has nice flavor.
Though they have yet to sell their first beer, ownership is already looking ahead. More than a dozen barrels lay waiting to be filled in the back of the brewery. Sawyer intends to siphon a lambic and Flanders-style red ale into Pinot Noir barrels procured from Napa, and has bourbon whiskey barrels from Coloroado’s Breckenridge Distillery ready to house his porter.
Pure Project’s opening weekend festivities will extend to Sunday, January 31. Following that, the tasting room will be open seven days a week, though that may change once ownership finds the business’ groove.