San Diego, CA
Sour power: Brewers embrace outlandishly herbaceous pickle-inspired beers
It’s early morning at Kearny Mesa’s Kilowatt Brewing. As usual, beermaking is underway, but head brewer Brian Crecely is multitasking, applying focus to a side project that has him adding a bucket of pickles – brine and all – to one of his brewery’s light-bodied beers. The resultant “Pickle Ale” offers flavors of dill, garlic, coriander, mustard seed, black peppercorns, bay leaf and sea salt, all against a mildly acidity backdrop. It may seem outlandish, but it’s right on trend.
Over the past two years, brewers across the U.S. have begun crafting such sour, saline creations. The primary inspiration is the success of Donna’s Pickle Beer, which debuted in 2023 and has been on a tear ever since.
“It’s no surprise that pickles have moved to the forefront of food and drink of late. There are pickle potato chips, slushies with pickle boba, pickle fries, pickle de gallo, pickle martinis, and, of course, pickle beer,” says Crecely. He jokes that he really “relished” the idea of making a pickle beer, also noting Kilowatt’s Pickle Ale makes a great base for micheladas.
When asked why cured cukes are suddenly enjoying a moment in the sun, he says he can’t quite put his finger on it. “Pickling has been around for thousands of years and was a necessary way to preserve food, but people are rediscovering some of these old processes and bringing them back into the mainstream. People have also been into bigger and bolder flavors lately. This may be part of that trend.”
Then there are people who simply harbor a deep affinity for pickles. Count Hayden and Kyndall Weir as part of that faction. Last year, when the married couple debuted Weir Beer Co. in south Vista, their opening-day lineup included a dill-flavored hard seltzer called “Tommy Pickles.”
“We have always loved pickles, and the idea of making a pickle beverage had been on my mind for years,” says Hayden. The head brewer for his eponymous operation, he flexed the freedom that comes with owning one’s own business and got straight to work on that long-contemplated project. In doing so, he eschewed the pickle-brine route, instead experimenting with dill and dill-pickle extracts, then requesting feedback from customers on several early iterations. The process worked. The Weirs say new customers come in asking for Tommy Pickles, while regulars return to enjoy the alcoholic anomaly.
“It’s more on the fresh dill and cucumber side, flavor-wise; something you can drink more than one of,” says Hayden. “We also keep a pitcher of pickle juice behind the bar for the real pickle-lovers who want to add a pickle-back to their pint, or as we say, ‘upgrade your pickle.’ Funnily enough, this has led to customers adding pickle juice to our other flavored seltzers and even a few of our beers.”
Last month, Weir Beer hosted a “pickle party” event, complete with a pickle-eating contest, pickle-brine water balloon toss, and specialty pickle pizzas from their mobile food vendor. It turned out to be one of the business’s largest ever events and will now be an annual tradition.
Modern craft beer is also trending in a direction suited for cocktail fans, with the advent of beverages mimicking the flavor profiles of island-style tipples. These fruity, oftentimes colorful offerings can be found in beer, seltzer and even slushie form. In fact, many breweries’ first attempts at recreating tropical poolside concoctions were beer- and seltzer-based slushies served as limited-edition or special-event beverages.
It’s only in recent years that brewers have taken the ice and granita machines out of the equation, bringing the entire process into the brewhouse to create products that can be packaged in kegs and cans. No local brewing company has embraced this trend with the vigor or prolificness of Scripps Ranch-based Harland Brewing.
“As much as our team loves drinking beer, we also love grabbing a nice cocktail off-the-clock, so we have tried to replicate cocktails into beers,” says Cody Morris, director of brewing operations. “We have been lucky to really strike a chord with a fanbase that likes these tropical-inspired beers, so we’ve been able to really lean into it.”
Pricier to produce, mostly due to the large amount of fruit that is utilized, Harland’s cocktail beers replicate summery drinks like the piña colada and painkiller, with the latter incorporating orange, pineapple, coconut, nutmeg and pandan syrup. They have even taken on the Blue Hawaiian, right down to its trademark azure hue. The result was a “super-fruited” sour ale made with pineapple, coconut cream and blue curaçao.
Like the Weirs, Harland has developed Aloha Friday events around their popular beverages. And like their Vista colleagues, they have also discovered what a great base hard seltzers can provide in this area. The company will soon have two canned cocktail seltzers in distribution: a take on a paloma made with grapefruit, lime, and agave, and a pineapple margarita concoction called “Matador.”
Such tiki inspiration isn’t limited to alcoholic beverage producers. The country’s largest producer of non-alcoholic beer, Miramar-based Athletic Brewing, is also getting in the mix, having recently introduced a cocktail-inspired non-alcoholic beer called “Tropical Reset.”
“Our challenge was to capture all the hallmarks of a piña colada in the form of a non-alcoholic sour brew,” says Cody Rice, director of brewing process improvement and R&D. “To replicate its signature mouthfeel, we used a heavy dose of wheat, oats and lactose. We also incorporated raw coconut, which adds texture, and luscious pineapple to keep the flavor fresh and vibrant. The result is a brew that doesn’t just nod to the classic cocktail – it delivers a full tropical experience in every sip.”
With the exception of the aforementioned Donna’s Pickle Beer, cans of which can be found at liquor store chains such as Total Wine & More and BevMo!, craft breweries’ pickle-inspired beverages typically fall under the small-batch specialty category. Unlike flagship IPAs and lagers, they are intended to be limited in availability and sold at brewery tasting rooms, where customers’ thirst for experimentation and profit margins are both greatest.
Ditto for cocktail-inspired beers, which help draw increased patronage due to their avant garde, special-edition status. Unlike pickle beers, which Crecely readily admits are “love it or hate it,” beers and hard seltzers emulating cocktails are largely embraced by the general public. This is particularly helpful in providing options or gateway products for consumers who say they don’t like beer or crave a non-beer option, such as wine or spirits.
Brandon Hernández is founder of San Diego Beer News (www.sandiegobeer.news), a site providing daily coverage of the county’s brewing industry, a beat he’s covered for 18 years. Follow him @sdbeernews or contact him at brandon@sandiegobeer.news
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Just for a moment, I felt like the Wizard of Mt. Hoo.
A neighbor had casually asked me, “when can we expect the yellow-rumped warblers to be making their fall arrival in Southern California?”
With a confident tone, I said, “well, the first one was spotted on Mount Laguna on Aug. 8, but the main flock is not far behind, just up north in Big Bear and the Angeles National Forest.”
He looked at me with a mix of astonishment and disbelief.
I’m used to that. My three sons never believed half the things I told them, either.
But this was accurate and timely information that I had just gleaned from an amazing online resource that every wildbird lover should have.
It’s called eBird and this free program, available at ebird.org is a robust product managed by the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology, located on the edge of Sapsucker Woods in Ithaca, N.Y.
The success of eBird, however, is due to the collaborative efforts of hundreds of partner organizations and millions of citizen science contributors.
Readers may recall I have often mentioned eBird as a real-time resource to follow bird migrations and rare bird sightings as well as to keep records of your personal wildbird list.
But it’s far more than that, offering both the amateur and the professional birding community an unparalleled data collection that grows daily, thanks to the contributions of enthusiasts who have provided billions of observations since eBird’s creation in 2002.
Some of those observations come from remote and exotic places in the world, but most are from backyard birders who simply track the feathered visitors right outside their windows.
Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with Jenna Curtis, a member of the eBird staff who focuses on the intersection of science, conservation and public engagement. Her title is eBird Community Lead.
“My main goal is to help users so that eBird is a more effective platform,” Curtis said.
Those users’ range for the highest level of environmental scientists, to participants in high school science projects, or this happy birder on Mt. Hoo and millions like me.
Each of those sources provide a collective picture of bird data in what Curtis called, “the largest biodiversity project in the world.”
It’s citizen science on steroids.
And it has grown rapidly.
It took 19 years for 1 billion observations to be recorded. The next 1 billion were recorded in just four years, and Curtis predicts eBird will receive well over 3 billion observations by the end of this decade.
Curtis also works with some of the 2,000 volunteer bird experts who help validate observations submitted by participants.
Here’s how eBird works.
The first step is to create a free eBird account.
Account holders also have access to a free, online course called eBird Essentials that teaches birding skills and the basics of using eBird tools.
After creating an account, eBirders can log on at any time to submit a checklist that records location, time, date and a list of birds observed. Photos and sound recordings can also be uploaded when submitting the list.
Once reviewed and approved by the volunteer experts, your report becomes part of the massive eBird database that is not only valuable to backyard birders, but also for avian scientists monitoring bird populations, migrations and watching for red flags such as habitat changes, population declines or environmental threats.
“This is only possible through the millions of eBirders sharing experiences,” Curtis said. “I can’t stress enough how valuable this information is.”
Managing this amount of data is extremely difficult and requires massive amounts of computing power, but the information is becoming more accurate every day as the number of sightings increase.
Additionally, every checklist uploaded is kept so you have an ongoing record of your birding activity.
Another important feature offers members the ability to explore activity at birding hotspots around the world or in your neighborhood, search species by photos and sounds, and receive daily email alerts of bird sightings in geographic areas you define.
This is a great way to know about seasonal or rare birds as other eBirders report on sightings in your area of interest.
With the hundreds of thousands of checklists that are submitted and reviewed, the result is what Curtis calls a “high-resolution, extremely accurate data model.”
That’s why I was able to share with a neighbor information about when the first migrating yellow-rumped warbler of fall was recorded in San Diego County.
At a higher level, the data accumulated by eBird has been used by researchers to better understand bird distribution, gain deeper understanding of migration patterns, model population trends and predict bird populations over time.
This information has been critical in developing effective conservation and habitat management plans and broader conservation strategies.
The effectiveness of eBird also demonstrates how much wild birds are loved.
Curtis is just one of the millions who love wild birds, and she has recorded over 7,700 sightings on her checklists.
“What’s not to love? They are fun to watch; their behavior is amazing and no matter where you are in the world there are birds. That’s something very special and I want to share that with others,” Curtis said.
Upcoming events
The Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park are inviting the public to a free Harvest Festival from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Nov. 1 at the park.
Located on the western end of Palomar Mountain in San Diego’s North County, the 1,862-acre park is an alpine paradise, offering hiking trails, fishing, campgrounds and a scenic overlook from an active fire lookout tower.
This year’s festival is an expansion of the annual Apple Festival of past years, offering insights into the early history of the area, the pioneers who planted apple orchards, games, square dancing, food, music and crafts.
For additional information, visit friendsofpalomarsp.org.
The 20th annual Anza-Borrego Desert Photo Contest opens for submission of images from Nov. 1 to Dec. 10. The contest is open to photographers of all ages.
Categories include People Enjoying the Park; Animals, Plants, Landscapes and Nightscapes of Anza-Borrego, and a new youth category for high school age and younger.
For contest details, visit theabf.org/photocontest.
Cowan is a freelance columnist. Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniecowan.substack.com.
LA JOLLA, Calif. (KGTV) — Inside LionTree Arena in La Jolla, new UC San Diego men’s basketball head coach Clint Allard leads his team through practice ahead of their first game of the season. It’s a new chapter for Allard at a program he’s known for nearly two decades.
“I have so much pride in UC San Diego,” Allard said. “I’ve seen so much growth, and for me to be the guy calling the shots now, it just means the world to me”.
There are new drills, offensive and defensive sets, but it all comes from the same brand of Triton basketball that helped them make history last season when they reached the NCAA tournament in their first year of eligibility.
“To go into the NCAA Tournament, playing in March Madness in front of 20,000 people, it was just something that was so memorable and something I’ll never forget,” Allard said.
Allard played for UCSD from 2004-08, when the Tritons were still competing at the Division II level. Seventeen years after his last season as a player, he served as the associate head coach for the Tritons’ first tournament team.
Junior guard Aidan Burke recalls how special the moment was for him to make the big dance with the team last year.
“That’s something I dreamed of as a kid, “Burke said. “Coming out of high school, playing in March Madness, obviously that’s a dream. Being able to accomplish it, that’s awesome”.
After one of the best seasons in program history, former Tritons Head Coach Eric Olen accepted a job for the same role at the University of New Mexico. Along with Olen’s departure, multiple players left the program — some graduating and some transferring schools. Those departures leave UCSD with only five returning players from last year’s tournament team.
Burke is the lone returner who played a significant role. He’s looking to use that experience to bring this team together.
“Yeah, we know we got a great group, a lot of talent,” Burke said. “Playing defense, shooting the 3. We just need to put it all together.”
It takes any team time to find their true identity during a new season, but with so many new faces on the sidelines and on the court, it presents a bigger challenge for Allard.
“It’s been a lot of teaching,” Allard said. “We’ve been at this since July, which feels like a long time, and we still have a long way to go to be the best version of ourselves”.
Despite the roster turnover, he’s ready to see his team compete at the highest level and bring continued success to a program he loves.
“We just gotta stick to the process and continue to get better through the season to hopefully be playing for a tournament birth in March”. Allard said.
The Tritons play their only exhibition game on Friday, October 24th, against CSU San Marcos at home. The first regular-season game is on November 3rd.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
San Diego FC coach Mikey Varas and star Anders Dreyer have been named finalists for three of Major League Soccer’s largest postseason awards.
Varas has been named a finalist for the Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year Award, the league announced on Thursday.
The United States Men’s National Team’s former interim head coach, Varas has led SDFC to a record-setting season. Saturday’s win over the Portland Timbers extended the franchise’s record for most wins (19) and points (63) for an expansion team in Major League Soccer history. The No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, SDFC will host Portland on Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-three first round of the MLS Cup playoffs.
Varas is one of three finalists for the award, joining Philadelphia Union’s Bradley Carnell and the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Jesper Sørensen. Philadelphia has won the Supporters’ Shield, given annually to the MLS team with the best regular-season record.
Dreyer is a finalist for both the Landon Donovan Most Valuable Player Award and the MLS Newcomer of the Year Award.
The 27-year-old Dreyer joined SDFC in January as the second designated player in club history, joining Hirving “Chucky” Lozano. Dreyer scored the first goal in franchise history in a Feb. 23 win over the LA Galaxy in Carson, and has gone on to post one of the best performances in MLS. Dreyer has scored 19 goals and logged a MLS-best 19 assists, accounting for 59% of SDFC’s 64 total goals.
Dreyer was named the league’s player of the month in both June and August.
Dreyer’s competition for the MVP award will be stiff. Lionel Messi, the league’s goals leader with 29, is another MVP finalist, alongside Denis Bouanga of LAFC, Sam Surridge of Nashville SC and Evander of FC Cincinnati. South Korean sensation Son Heung-Min of LAFC and Philip Zinckernagel of the Chicago Fire are the other candidates for the newcomer award.
The end-of-season awards are voted on by MLS club technical staff, MLS first-team players and select media members. Winners will be announced in the weeks leading up to the Dec. 6 MLS Cup final.
Timbers win, turn attention to Sunday and SDFC
Portland beat Real Salt Lake 3-1 on Wednesday night, setting up their first-round matchup with SDFC.
Timbers defender Kamal Miller, who scored in Wednesday’s win, said “it’s important to celebrate” wins like Wednesday’s, but that the team is focused on what’s ahead.
“The group is happy, but we know what San Diego just did to us on our home turf. So we can’t get too happy,” he said.
Miller said the team will review film “to see all the areas where we went wrong against San Diego and what we can do better.”
Portland was admittedly sloppy in last weekend’s 4-0, rain-slicked loss at Providence Park. Miller said the Timbers “can’t turn the ball over like that” if they expect to beat the West’s top seed.
SDFC is “efficient and lethal,” Miller said. “They play 11 guys attack and 11 guys defend. They’re a good team.”
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