{"id":16373,"date":"2017-02-02T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=16373"},"modified":"2017-02-01T16:41:02","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T00:41:02","slug":"first-look-pariah-brewing-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2017\/02\/02\/first-look-pariah-brewing-company\/","title":{"rendered":"First Look: Pariah Brewing Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve interviewed many brewers in my day, and when asked about their portfolios, nearly every one of them rifles off the same statement: \u201cWe brew beers that we want to brew.\u201d This answer\u2019s ubiquity in no way detracts from its authenticity, but it means a lot more for the most recent fermentationist to say it to me, Brian Mitchell <\/strong>of Pariah Brewing Company <\/strong><\/a>(3052 El Cajon Boulevard, North Park)<\/em>. Doing things his way doesn\u2019t mean daring to brew a lager in ale-town San Diego, brewing gluten-free beers or shooting for extreme alcohol-by-volume. His family of beers\u2014which will make their official debut at a trio of grand-opening sessions (which are nearly sold out) next weekend, before Pariah\u2019s tasting room opens to the public on Sunday, February 12<\/strong>\u2014are unlike anything being brewed anywhere in San Diego, or pretty much anywhere else.<\/p>\n

Of the six beers that will be on-tap when Pariah opens, the tamest is Off-White Wit, a Belgian-style witbier inspired by Taiwanese boba tea. Honey, green tea, lemongrass, ginger and orange find their way into this exotic brew, but Mitchell leaves out one of this style\u2019s most traditional ingredients, coriander. The result is a wheat beer with herbal notes versus overbearing citrus character. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Uni Stout\u2026and it\u2019s just what it sounds like, a take on an oyster stout brewed with lacto-sugar, sea salt and fresh sea urchin gonads from Catalina Offshore Products<\/strong><\/a>. The sea fare (added in the whirlpool) combats some of the sweetness, drying things out and leaving flavors of chocolate and pumpernickel behind. It makes Dorcha, a nicely balanced stout brewed with molasses, cacao nibs and a proprietary blend of coffee from Bird Rock Coffee Roasters<\/strong><\/a> seem everyday by comparison.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There is one traditional beer on the board, a West Coast IPA fortified with Amarillo and Mosaic hops that\u2019s been cleverly dubbed Dank Drank. Dry with a lasting lemon pithiness, it\u2019s 6.66% ABV and comes in at 66 on the IBU (international bittering unit) scale. But even it is offset by a more avant-garde IPA that\u2019s brewed with mangoes, peach-flesh and hemp oil. Mitchell hates fruit IPAs produced by \u201ccertain local companies\u201d and aimed to use real fruit (versus extract) to marry with and amplify the qualities of the hops used for this beer. The result is an IPA with malt character reminiscent of a Pacific Northwest IPA and heavy tropical flavors.<\/p>\n

The most ambitious of the lot is Erotic City. The name is inspired by the dearly departed \u201cPurple One\u201d, while the recipe for this strong ale resulted from a challenge issued by Mitchell\u2019s wife, who wanted a beer brewed with Muscat grapes, honey and grains of paradise. The resulting beer is big on grape flavor, but low on the mustiness that typically accompanies wine-grape beers. There is some sweetness, as one would expect, but I\u2019ts earthy and honey-like as opposed to cloying. This is a beer for adventurous drinkers, but that seems to be the point at Pariah.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And these aren\u2019t specialties or one-offs. The beers described above comprise Pariah\u2019s core-beer line-up<\/em>. That\u2019s gutsiness that bleeds over into Dogfish Head <\/strong><\/a>territory. (Erotic City actually closely resembles Dogfish\u2019s \u201cancient ale\u201d Midas Touch.) That Delaware-based veteran brewing company has been manufacturing \u201coff-centered ales for off-centered people\u201d for 21 years, growing into the 16th largest craft brewery in the country in the process. Mitchell\u2019s aspirations aren\u2019t that large, however, he does want to grow his business. As such, he has hired employees to handle sales and distribution, something not that many new breweries devote start-up funds to. His business practices seem sounder than many, lending method to what, to beer purists might seem light outright madness.<\/p>\n

With new breweries opening at a rapid clip and nearly 140 operating brewhouses, many wonder if our county needs any more brewing companies. This opinion is fueled mostly by people who feel the majority of each business\u2019 offerings are nearly identical, especially where hoppy beers are concerned. Pariah\u2019s wares soundly answer any questions about why this interest exists\u2014because without Pariah, beers like this wouldn\u2019t exist\u2026anywhere. It\u2019s refreshing to come across a new brewery with so many unique offerings, and even those who don\u2019t take to Mitchell\u2019s creations will likely agree with that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
North Park Brewery Igniter tenants (left-to-right): Pariah Brewing’s Brian Mitchell, Clayton LeBlanc and Nathan Stephens from Eppig Brewing, and San Diego Brewing’s Jeff Drum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pariah\u2019s out-there line-up offers an advantage to a pair of other breweries\u2014Eppig Brewing <\/strong><\/a>and San Diego Brewing Company<\/strong><\/a>. Those businesses are located on either side of Pariah in the second of H.G. Fenton<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Brewery Igniter<\/strong><\/a> complexes. All three companies entered these ready-to-brew, tasting room-supplied spots with equal brewing and cellar capacity. It was up to each to differentiate themselves and that\u2019s just what\u2019s happened. San Diego serves its vanguard staples plus worldly one-offs, while Eppig is gaining a good name behind high-quality lagers and a mixed-bag of hoppy beers and kettle-sours. Then there\u2019s Pariah, which also features the most jarringly disparate environs. Purple (more Prince influence) is the main color in the dimly lit space, which San Diego Brewing co-owner Lee Doxtader<\/strong> has taken to (respectfully) calling \u201cthe dungeon\u201d. But how many captive environments are so nerdy about glassware that every beverage served there comes in its own specific type of glassware (including the aromatic-enhancing Spiegelau IPA glass)?<\/p>\n

Pariah\u2019s tasting room will be open Monday through Wednesday from 12 to 9 p.m.<\/strong>, Thursday through Saturday from noon to midnight <\/strong>and Sundays from 12 to 7 p.m. <\/strong>The tasting room is equipped with 13 taps that will soon be filled. Bottled wild ales are also in the works, as is a three-way collaboration between the North Park Brewery Igniter\u2019s tenants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve interviewed many brewers in my day, and when asked about their portfolios, nearly every one of them rifles off the same statement: \u201cWe brew beers that we want to brew.\u201d This answer\u2019s ubiquity in no way detracts from its authenticity, but it means a lot more for the most recent fermentationist to say it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16376,"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":[367,368,369,371,1],"tags":[1353,376,3592,442,1794,2452,3593,3031,1495,391,3591,577,3030,3597,1793,1739,2483,1010,3040,3039,3032,15,2450,3596,1439,2621,3598,3594,3595,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-16373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-events","8":"category-beer-news","9":"category-beer-styles","10":"category-brewing-ingredients","11":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","12":"tag-sdbeer","13":"tag-beer","14":"tag-bird-rock-roasters","15":"tag-brandon-hernandez","16":"tag-brewery-igniter","17":"tag-brian-mitchell","18":"tag-catalina-offshore","19":"tag-clayton-leblanc","20":"tag-coffee","21":"tag-craftbeer","22":"tag-dank-drank","23":"tag-dogfish-head","24":"tag-eppig-brewing","25":"tag-erotic-city","26":"tag-hg-fenton","27":"tag-india-pale-ale","28":"tag-indiebeer","29":"tag-ipa","30":"tag-jeff-drum","31":"tag-lee-doxtader","32":"tag-nathan-stephens","33":"tag-north-park","34":"tag-pariah-brewing","35":"tag-prince","36":"tag-san-diego","37":"tag-san-diego-brewing","38":"tag-the-purple-one","39":"tag-uni","40":"tag-uni-stout","41":"tag-west-coaster","42":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/pariah_02.jpg?fit=1000%2C823&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-4g5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16373","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=16373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}