Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Short on seats, big on beer

Encinitas' crowded barstools speak for themselves

Left to right: hoppy wheat, blond ale, brown ale, tart cherry wit, and Mosaic IPA at the Culture Brewing Co. taproom, Encinitas.
Left to right: hoppy wheat, blond ale, brown ale, tart cherry wit, and Mosaic IPA at the Culture Brewing Co. taproom, Encinitas.

The city of Encinitas hasn’t been 100-percent welcoming to local breweries eyeing its downtown retail district along the Coast Highway. The local planning committee is hesitant to permit any brewery presence, and even when it grants permission, organized appeals from opposed citizens and law enforcement have threatened to revoke it.

Place

Culture Brewing Company Encinitas

629 South Coast Highway, Encinitas

Nevertheless, last August, Culture Brewing Co. rallied enough local support to become the first brewery to open a tasting room here. And judging by a recent visit, the effort was worth it.

Sponsored
Sponsored

On a Sunday afternoon at 2:30, I found the place filled up, with more people than seats. As at Culture’s locations in Solana Beach and Ocean Beach, there’s a definite beachy vibe to this crowd. I spotted lots of cut-off denim shorts, swimsuits worn under street clothes, and a whole lot of people wearing sunglasses indoors.

In truth, the suntanned clientele provides most of the atmosphere. The taproom’s essentially a concrete box with a bar in one corner, and a window counter overlooking the Encinitas sidewalk. A smattering of upright oak barrels serve as small tables. There aren’t a ton of places to put your beer.

Only after I’d ordered a tasting flight did I realize this presented a problem. Many breweries offer trays to hold a flight of small glasses, but Culture’s not one of them. I was served five Belgian tulip glasses, and no tray. I couldn’t even carry the bulbous glasses at once, so when I imposed on a couple to share their barrel tables, it took two trips from the bar for my flight to fill their small tabletop.

Nobody seemed to mind. In fact, we weren’t the only people in the joint sharing space, and when that couple promptly finished their beers and left, two other parties joined me. One of them was an Encinitas resident, who’s made visiting the taproom something of a weekend ritual since it opened last summer. She drops by during walks with her dog, and orders the same thing every time: Mosaic IPA.

That was part of my flight, and bore the Mosaic hop’s characteristic musky grapefruit aroma — terrific if you’re a fan of hop oil slickness in your IPA. I liked it slightly more than the nice, bready Tart Cherry Wit, and considerably more than my flight’s weakest link: a Hoppy Wheat Ale that boasted an incredibly smooth body, but proved light on flavor.

Unsurprisingly, my favorite pours were of Culture’s recent Great American Beer Festival medal winners. The 2017 bronze medal blonde ale drank like a pale ale with the bitterness dialed way down, for an only lightly bitter finish. The 2016 gold medal brown especially did it for me. It showed a maple aroma, which translated to sweet toffee notes hitting the palate. However, it reined in the sweetness to stay beautifully dry; almost always my beer preference.

It’s been more than a year since I last dug into Culture’s lineup, and in that time it’s promoted Aleks Kostka to head brewer. I’d say she’s raised the overall quality of the brewery’s beer, but that Culture Encinitas desperately needs more seating.

However, after taking a look at the town’s other craft beer bars, which were also packed on a Sunday afternoon, it’s possible the whole town simply needs more places to sit and drink.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Left to right: hoppy wheat, blond ale, brown ale, tart cherry wit, and Mosaic IPA at the Culture Brewing Co. taproom, Encinitas.
Left to right: hoppy wheat, blond ale, brown ale, tart cherry wit, and Mosaic IPA at the Culture Brewing Co. taproom, Encinitas.

The city of Encinitas hasn’t been 100-percent welcoming to local breweries eyeing its downtown retail district along the Coast Highway. The local planning committee is hesitant to permit any brewery presence, and even when it grants permission, organized appeals from opposed citizens and law enforcement have threatened to revoke it.

Place

Culture Brewing Company Encinitas

629 South Coast Highway, Encinitas

Nevertheless, last August, Culture Brewing Co. rallied enough local support to become the first brewery to open a tasting room here. And judging by a recent visit, the effort was worth it.

Sponsored
Sponsored

On a Sunday afternoon at 2:30, I found the place filled up, with more people than seats. As at Culture’s locations in Solana Beach and Ocean Beach, there’s a definite beachy vibe to this crowd. I spotted lots of cut-off denim shorts, swimsuits worn under street clothes, and a whole lot of people wearing sunglasses indoors.

In truth, the suntanned clientele provides most of the atmosphere. The taproom’s essentially a concrete box with a bar in one corner, and a window counter overlooking the Encinitas sidewalk. A smattering of upright oak barrels serve as small tables. There aren’t a ton of places to put your beer.

Only after I’d ordered a tasting flight did I realize this presented a problem. Many breweries offer trays to hold a flight of small glasses, but Culture’s not one of them. I was served five Belgian tulip glasses, and no tray. I couldn’t even carry the bulbous glasses at once, so when I imposed on a couple to share their barrel tables, it took two trips from the bar for my flight to fill their small tabletop.

Nobody seemed to mind. In fact, we weren’t the only people in the joint sharing space, and when that couple promptly finished their beers and left, two other parties joined me. One of them was an Encinitas resident, who’s made visiting the taproom something of a weekend ritual since it opened last summer. She drops by during walks with her dog, and orders the same thing every time: Mosaic IPA.

That was part of my flight, and bore the Mosaic hop’s characteristic musky grapefruit aroma — terrific if you’re a fan of hop oil slickness in your IPA. I liked it slightly more than the nice, bready Tart Cherry Wit, and considerably more than my flight’s weakest link: a Hoppy Wheat Ale that boasted an incredibly smooth body, but proved light on flavor.

Unsurprisingly, my favorite pours were of Culture’s recent Great American Beer Festival medal winners. The 2017 bronze medal blonde ale drank like a pale ale with the bitterness dialed way down, for an only lightly bitter finish. The 2016 gold medal brown especially did it for me. It showed a maple aroma, which translated to sweet toffee notes hitting the palate. However, it reined in the sweetness to stay beautifully dry; almost always my beer preference.

It’s been more than a year since I last dug into Culture’s lineup, and in that time it’s promoted Aleks Kostka to head brewer. I’d say she’s raised the overall quality of the brewery’s beer, but that Culture Encinitas desperately needs more seating.

However, after taking a look at the town’s other craft beer bars, which were also packed on a Sunday afternoon, it’s possible the whole town simply needs more places to sit and drink.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years

Union-Tribune still stiffing downtown San Diego landlord?
Next Article

Top Websites To Buy Instagram Likes + Bonus Tip!

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.