{"id":11287,"date":"2015-07-16T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=11287"},"modified":"2015-07-10T14:06:40","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T21:06:40","slug":"beer-touring-kilowatt-brewing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2015\/07\/16\/beer-touring-kilowatt-brewing\/","title":{"rendered":"Beer Touring: Kilowatt Brewing Company"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"kilowatt_03\"<\/a>
The tasting room at Kearny Mesa nanobrewery, Kilowatt Brewing Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first time I ambled into Kilowatt Brewing Company<\/a> <\/strong>(7576 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Kearny Mesa)<\/em>, there was zero signage to mark the under-construction nanobrewery\u2019s presence and little more than a fold-up table, ladder and assorted tools inside. Such is normally the case when I conduct pre-open interviews, and after hearing co-owner Steve Kozyk<\/strong>\u2019s grand plans for using his experience in professional lighting to lend uniqueness to the future tasting room, I was eager to get back and see what my mind\u2019s eye had trouble envisioning. I recently returned to find Kozyk made good on his lofty promises with a well-lit, artistically provocative space.<\/p>\n

\"kilowatt_01\"<\/a>Upon entering the purposely dim tasting room, my eyes immediately trained in on a trio of fluorescent green light fixtures fashioned to look like hop cones. It was the type of thing that looked so perfect, it made me wonder why this was the first time I was seeing something like this in a tasting room. They also do a good job of drawing attention to the colorful bars of light that run the length of the room and can change with the ease of a chameleon to fit the mood Kozyk and company are going for (red, white and blue for Independence Day, red and white for Christmas, etc.).<\/p>\n

\"kilowatt_02\"<\/a>The next thing I noticed was the elephant in the room\u2014an old Volkswagen Bug covered in meaningful scenes based on the members of Kilowatt\u2019s ownership team. The colorful and impressive project was the work of Kozyk\u2019s mother, as are a number of the paintings tiling the tasting room\u2019s west wall. The others are the work of Kozyk\u2019s sister. It\u2019s a family affair that punches the place up nicely and gives drinkers something to enjoy beyond TVs. Though there are nice, big flat-screens above the bar. Speaking of the bar, it can change colors, too. And thanks to creative design that makes it look uneven and wavy beneath its see-through glass top, many patrons have psyched themselves out to the point where they nearly spill their beers.<\/p>\n

More than a dozen beers were available the day I visited Kilowatt, and I sampled my way through almost all of them. While there are some straightforward beers including amber and brown ales, Kilowatt brewer Chris Calva<\/strong> is mostly about introducing flavor-enhancing ingredients, often in sensible combinations. Case in point, the beer I enjoyed the most, the Chocolate Macadamia Stout. Instead of coming across sweet, the beer has bitter, dark chocolate presence and a nuttiness that tastes rich in its roastiness. A coconut- and chai-infused porter has big-time flavors, though it could probably convey them better given a little more body. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a 5.4% alcohol-by-volume blonde ale infused with strawberries is vibrant in its fruit character and perfectly suited for summer.<\/p>\n

\"kilowatt_04\"<\/a>And though Calva is frank about the fact he\u2019s not as high on IPAs as the majority of San Diego beer enthusiasts, he has crafted a number of hop-centric ales. As one might expect from a brewer whose heart isn\u2019t drenched in humulus lupulus<\/em>, the majority of them could stand to be a bit hoppier, most notably the Kilowatt Pale. Fortunately, there\u2019s another pale ale on tap that\u2019s dry-hopped with Simcoe offering bigger botanical presence. Also heartier in its hoppiness is an entry from Kilowatt\u2019s single-hop \u201cHoptastic Voyage\u201d series incorporating New Zealand\u2019s Dr. Rudi varietal. Coming in at over 100 IBUs (international bittering units), it\u2019s a fun way to get a taste of a hop many have yet to experience. The next hop they plan to tackle will be Equinox.<\/p>\n

Like most young breweries, there is room for fine-tuning. One 63 Imperial Stout is too bitter for my tastes and Belt-Notcher Brown Ale is a bit thin and overly sweet, but all in all, it would appear Kilowatt is on the right track. They\u2019ve carved out an identity, both from a brewing and decorating perspective, and brought something new to Kearny Mesa, which isn\u2019t easy to do these days with so many breweries popping up there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I ambled into Kilowatt Brewing Company (7576 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, Kearny Mesa), there was zero signage to mark the under-construction nanobrewery\u2019s presence and little more than a fold-up table, ladder and assorted tools inside. Such is normally the case when I conduct pre-open interviews, and after hearing co-owner Steve Kozyk\u2019s grand plans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,1],"tags":[1353,376,442,1692,1721,390,391,926,1719,1718,1680,1722,1439,1011,1720,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-11287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-beer-news","7":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","8":"tag-sdbeer","9":"tag-beer","10":"tag-brandon-hernandez","11":"tag-chocolate","12":"tag-chris-calva","13":"tag-craft-beer","14":"tag-craftbeer","15":"tag-kearny-mesa","16":"tag-kilowatt","17":"tag-kilowatt-brewery","18":"tag-kilowatt-brewing","19":"tag-macadamia","20":"tag-san-diego","21":"tag-san-diego-beer","22":"tag-steve-kozyk","23":"tag-stout","24":"entry","25":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-2W3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}