Frank Harton’s passion for brewing was born, like so many others’, after initial swigs of a friend’s homebrewed beer, but the setting for the onset of his “brewing adventure” was a little different. Harton’s first amateur-ale experiences happened atop a mountain he and his buddy, Cliff Matsuda, had just summited. So it’s appropriate that his venture, Double Peak Brewing, shares its name with San Elijo’s nearby Double Peak Park, a destination for outdoor adventurers seeking 360-degree views of mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and numerous North San Diego County communities.
Harton’s affection for his friend’s homebrew drew him into the production process. Before he knew it, he was assisting on brew days, then buying his own equipment, then upgrading to the point where his system required more space than his home could provide. He began looking for a space to rent, but that proved challenging. So, when an opportunity to lease a larger industrial suite came up, he decided to invest in a five-barrel system and make the jump to professional brewing.
That space is Suite 101 at 1801 Diamond Street in a part of San Marcos that Harton finds appealing for a number of reasons. “We wanted to be in a younger, local community that isn’t already heavily populated with breweries. This will allow us to grow with the community and to become a part of it,” he says.”We’re also at a location where San Marcos, San Elijo, Carlsbad, and Encinitas almost meet. This gives these communities not only access to many outlying, great tasting rooms, but also the opportunity to stay a little closer to home and enjoy a cold brew.”
Though a small business, Double Peak’s brewing team is rather robust. Operations are headed by Devin Patterson-Hall, who comes to the business with experience garnered at Karl Strauss Brewing and Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey. He is assisted by Harton’s daughter and Siebel Institute of Technology graduate, Allison Longdon, and her husband, Ziggy Longdon. That duo was solely responsible for Double Peak’s version of Resilience IPA benefiting the Sierra Nevada Camp Fire Relief Fund. The rest of the brewery’s initial menu consists of an amber ale, brown ale, red ale, West Coast IPA and Northeast-style IPA. A porter and stout are on the horizon.
In addition to its five-barrel brewhouse, Double Peak is equipped with a pilot system to develop small-batch and experimental beers. The team has also dedicated room to build a barrel-aging program later in the year.
A month into its existence, Double Peak has so far been open solely on weekends, but Harton and company expect to post expanded, regular tasting room hours by month’s end. Soft and grand opening dates will be announced shortly thereafter.