Neighborhood - Press & Events

It hasn't exactly cooled off, but fall is definitely in the air. Taking advantage of this typical San Diego weather we are grabbing up the end of the summer brews and welcoming in some new fall seasonal releases all at the same time....

We grabbed up a few favorite German brews to celebrate Oktoberfest like a classic black lager from Kostritzer, it's on tap right now. Its crisp and clean with roasted malts for a touch of depth and extra earthy flavors. Schneider Weisse is a great Bavarian hefe with a lot of complex flavors and rich cloudy body, that keg is waiting on deck patiently and will go on soon. We snagged a few Marzen Oktoberfest kegs as well from some favorite near-by breweries like Coronado and Craftsman and will be tapping those over the next week or so. The Bruery of Placentia makes an interesting take on a pumpkin beer called Autumn Maple. They start with a strong Belgian brown ale, add fall spices and a ton of fresh yams. The final result is a little sweet, a little spicy, quite warming and overall tasty. We'll wait to tap that one until it cools off, we think you'll appreciate it more. For those that follow AleSmith closely you know that October means Evil Dead Red is lurking around. It's on right now and is as good as ever.

A few months ago we tapped a keg of DogFish Head's Tweason ale, a gluten free option that we are seeing more of a demand for. It's light and a touch fruity as it's made with fresh strawberries. We grabbed up what was left of it and will tap it soon, while it's still hot. Ballast Point has been putting out some lighter brews and lagers and we are pretty happy with how they've turned out so we are offering Even Keel, a session IPA and Longfin Lager, a German style helles, right now.

Much like grapes, hops are harvested once per year, in the fall. It is this time of year that hop growers hit the fields, working long days harvesting the hops at their prime. Many small breweries will even send some folks out to help harvest and then bring back some of the fresh sticky little cones of bitter goodness to brew fresh hop IPAs. They tend to showcase more layers of flavor than the dry or pellet versions. We will be offering fresh hop IPA's from New Belgium and Port Brewing over the month.

See you at the Hood.