Take it from the tap: Gravity Heights opens amid deafening buzz

Jan. 31, 2019 3 PM PT

Go: Gravity Heights

Know: Opening amid deafening buzz, this brewpub boasts a stellar pedigree: Whisknladle CEO Arturo Kassel unites with #sdbeer pioneer Charles “Skip” Virgilio. Co-founder of AleSmith, Virgilio was the first local brewer to medal at the Great American Beer Festival (a 1994 gold for a Belgian Strong Ale created for the now-defunct Pacific Beach BrewHouse).

Glow: Gravity Heights has 13 house-brewed beers, plus several collaboration brews. Check out the abbey dubbel-style “Stein Beer,” created by Virgilio, Lost Abbey’s Tomme Arthur, Nickel Beer’s Tom Nickel and Rouleur’s Rawley Macias.

Pro: Virgilio is a master of hop-forward West Coast IPAs and spicy Belgian-influenced ales, but don’t miss his blonde ale. “It’s a really tasty, drinkable beer,” Virgilio said. “It’s not dumbed-down like some blondes are.”

Gravity Heights, 9920 Pacific Heights Blvd., Sorrento Valley, gravityheights.com

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Peter Rowe

Peter is a freelance writer who writes about beer in his bimonthly column Brewery Rowe for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He worked as a reporter and columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune from 1984 to 2020. A native Californian who grew up in Encinitas, Rowe is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. He is past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and a former Fulbright scholar. He has won a few journalism awards, but would trade them all for a chance to avenge his 1994 “Jeopardy!” loss. Married to a terrific woman who has saved him from errors in writing and in life, he has three sons.