{"id":16744,"date":"2017-03-17T11:30:16","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T18:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=16744"},"modified":"2017-03-17T11:19:48","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T18:19:48","slug":"escondidos-offbeat-brewing-shutting-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2017\/03\/17\/escondidos-offbeat-brewing-shutting-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Escondido’s Offbeat Brewing shutting down"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back when I worked Stone Brewing<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Escondido headquarters, many were the nights when me and my marketing colleagues would walk over to the much smaller brewery down the street and knock off with a pint or two. That operation, Offbeat Brewing Company<\/strong><\/a>, was the family-run project of an ex-Stone cellar man following his own muse, crafting mostly sessionable beers, many of which had English roots. So it\u2019s sad to hear that today will be Offbeat\u2019s swan song.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, owner and brewmaster Tom Garcia <\/strong>announced he has made the difficult decision to close the doors to his brewery, but not before one last St. Patrick\u2019s Day hurrah. So if you\u2019re looking for a farewell-taste of Bear Arms Brown Ale or Girafficopter Pale Ale, this is it. Garcia says with his lease up, it made sense to close the book on Offbeat. That said, the 15-year industry veteran says he\u2019s not against the idea of trying his hand at the brewing business again.<\/p>\n

Offbeat opened in 2012 with a bar built from wood from old pallets and discarded furniture, plus a\u00a0makeshift brewery Garcia described as \u201cthe Millennium Falcon of brewhouses.\u201d From the get-go, the space was punched-up from an artistic aspect. The upper portion of the west wall featured a colorful mural with outlandish characters, while the bottom half and many of the other walls regularly featured art from an array of local artists. That art was for sale with 100% of proceeds going to the artist, so that outlet will surely be missed by the creative sect. And painted portraits of outlandish characters like Deer Grandpa and the aforementioned Bear Arms looked good behind the bar.<\/p>\n

In the end, what made Offbeat\u2019s location so great for Team Stone, likely hurt the business in the long run. Surviving in an obscure business park on a side-road a half-mile from a major destination like Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens \u2013 Escondido<\/strong><\/a> must have been challenging. Choosing between the two equates to a no-brainer of sorts for beer-tourists who\u2019ve come any nominal distance to visit Escondido. But plenty of locals enjoyed Offbeat during its time, mostly for its polar-opposite, laidback vibe and beers.<\/p>\n

Offbeat joins other San Diego County breweries that have closed\u00a0their doors since last summer, including On-The-Tracks Brewery, Lightning Brewery, Valley Center Brewery and Pacific Brewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back when I worked Stone Brewing\u2019s Escondido headquarters, many were the nights when me and my marketing colleagues would walk over to the much smaller brewery down the street and knock off with a pint or two. That operation, Offbeat Brewing Company, was the family-run project of an ex-Stone cellar man following his own muse, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16745,"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":[1353,3764,376,442,390,391,3763,1259,2459,2483,3762,3207,1439,1651,1473,1474,3766,3765,1637],"class_list":{"0":"post-16744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-news","8":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","9":"tag-sdbeer","10":"tag-bear-arms","11":"tag-beer","12":"tag-brandon-hernandez","13":"tag-craft-beer","14":"tag-craftbeer","15":"tag-deer-grandpa","16":"tag-escondido","17":"tag-indie-beer","18":"tag-indiebeer","19":"tag-millennium-falcon","20":"tag-offbeat-brewing","21":"tag-san-diego","22":"tag-stone-bistro","23":"tag-stone-brewery","24":"tag-stone-brewing","25":"tag-team-stone","26":"tag-tom-garcia","27":"tag-west-coaster","28":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/logo_offbeat.gif?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-4m4","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744","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=16744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}