With three companies building out breweries within its confines, CRAFT by Brewery Igniter (3052 El Cajon Boulevard, North Park) has provided me a great deal of material for my beer-writings. It will eventually be the only place in all of San Diego County where one can visit three breweries in one fell swoop. But before that can happen, those businesses need to open. The first to do so will be Eppig Brewing Company, the soft-opening for which will take place this Wednesday, November 2. Following Wednesday’s debut, Eppig will be open during limited hours seven-days-a-week.
Last week, I had the opportunity to check out Eppig’s recently completed tasting-room and check out its first five beers. Often, pre-open beer tastings turn up multiple beers that could use some work—often by the admission of the brewers themselves—but Eppig’s brewer duo of Nathan Stephens and Clayton LeBlanc (hailing from Ballast Point Brewing’s Little Italy and Scripps Ranch breweries, respectively) are rather happy with their initial offerings. And so was I.
Despite the fact they are brewing in an environment that requires a bit of process-ingenuity and implementation of “Jenga-like” shifting of hoses and other equipment, they have put together a solid line-up of traditional lagers (referred to as “Natural Bridge” beers) and New World creations that I look forward to returning to. The following are my initial impressions of each…
Civility (5.8%): There are numerous hoppy blonde ales in San Diego, but this is the first I’ve had in recent memory that’s more than a slightly more bitter version of a blonde. This beer is big on delicious, fruity flavor characteristics coaxed from its hop-bill.- Even Better (4.6%): A session India pale ale (IPA) brewed with local sea salt to lend just enough mouth-feel to keep the beer from coming across as watery, it finishes with a mild, almost Pilsner-like hop-bite.
- Glitz & Glam (4.1%): A Berliner weisse flavored with raspberries and cherries, it is both refreshing and big on fruit-flavor; and should help appease drinking buddies who aren’t as wowed by beer-flavored beer.
- Festbier (4.6%): An Oktoberfest-style lager with more depth and far less sweetness than local iterations of this bready, Germanic lager. Toastiness and a marjoram-like herb quality make this my favorite of the bunch.
- Zwickelbier (4.6%): Dry-hopped with Centennial, this beer is tasty and clean with a honeyish nose that’s low on the sulfur quality that, when too abundant, can ruin beers like this.
The next beer to hit the menu will be a single IPA called “Factory of Dreams” in reference to a nearby business on El Cajon Boulevard. Similarly, the aforementioned “Glitz & Glam” shares its name with the Friday night show performed at Eppig’s next-door neighbor biz, Lips. The entire Eppig team says their neighbors have been extremely friendly and supportive, and they’re as pleased as can be about being a part of the community developer H.G. Fenton selected for CRAFT.
One thing that makes Eppig different from its fellow CRAFT tenants, Pariah Brewing Company and San Diego Brewing Company, is the addition of a small pilot-system that will be used for experimenting with new recipes before ramping them up to full-batch production. Working on developmental brews in this manner is old-hat for Stephens, who completed roughly 350 brews on Ballast Point’s (much larger) pilot-system over a three-year span. Doing so lent him great experience with a vast array of ingredients from suppliers the world over, knowledge he and LeBlanc put to use at their new stomping grounds.