From the Beer Writer: It’s been a big couple of months for Kearny Mesa’s Common Theory Public House. After three years in business, the bar and restaurant picked up popular gastronome A.G. Warfield (formerly of San Marcos craft-beer haven Churchill’s Pub & Grille), who promptly got to work overhauling CT’s entire menu. A bevy of new dishes from that revamped bill of fare (which includes sweet and spicy pork belly with kimchi, a field-and-stream duo of fried chicken and crab cake, and a “Convoy Burger” featuring ground chuck, a duck egg, pork belly and duck gravy between ramen-noodle “buns”) debuted last week as part of the venue’s third-anniversary weekend. There was another new and special consumable available to event-goers, as well: Pure Project CT3 Triple IPA. Produced by Miramar’s Pure Project Brewing especially for Common Theory, it’s a 10.3% alcohol-by-volume, hazy IPA brewed with 600 pounds of strawberries sourced in Escondido. On paper, it’s a bruising brew from a booze perspective, but the fresh fruit and late-addition hops come together to give this beer a dose of refinement and flavors of citrus and strawberries that keeps it almost dangerously drinkable. Only one batch of this beer was produced and it’s going fast…but Common Theory is tapping a fresh keg today. Just sayin’.
From the Brewer: “The team here at Pure Project was really excited to be approached by the Common Theory crew to brew a beer for their third anniversary. Seeing as it was a very special occasion, we decided to brew a truly lavish beer. Strawberry season is one our favorite times here at Pure, so we decided to blend one of our favorite fruits with a big, murky triple IPA in order to really show off hand-picked, organic strawberries that seamlessly meld with the fruitiest designer hops. A huge, multi-dimensional dry-hopping of Mosaic and Hallertau Blanc hops bring all the fruit you could want from a juicy IPA, while still leaving room for the strawberries to shine through in their local, agricultural elegance. Grab some while it’s still around!”—Winslow Sawyer, Head Brewer, Pure Project Brewing