More beer on tap for Oceanside

Oceanside’s hopping beer scene is about to get a little more crowded when two new breweries open in the next few months.

Inside the building at 2002 South Coast Highway, preparations are underway for a new brewpub by Grant Tondro, who co-owns Urge American Gastropub in Rancho Bernardo. And across town in an industrial area, Vista-based Belching Beaver Brewery is opening a production facility at 1334 Rocky Point Drive that will later include a tasting room.

Belching Beaver owner Tom Vogel said the facility will allow the company to increase production from about 10,000 barrels a year to about 38,000 barrels to meet demand.

“We just can’t produce enough beer,” Vogel said.

Production in the facility should start in November with the tasting room opening by the end of the year, Vogel said.

Oceanside received a lot of attention from craft beer fans last year when former Pizza Port brewer Jeff Bagby opened his own massive Bagby Beer Co. restaurant and brewery on South Coast Highway, joining Legacy Brewing, Breakwater Brewing and Oceanside Ale Works.

Bagby’s brewery and the city’s growing restaurant scene attracted Tondro to Oceanside, he said.

Tondro and his partners had been looking to open an entertainment center in Vista that would have included a brewery, restaurant and bowling alley. Those plans fell apart last year due to various problems.

Tondro said he started looking around elsewhere and found the Oceanside building at the corner of Vista Way and South Coast Highway - a former sporing goods store.

“Oceanside is what’s happening right now,” Tondro said.

About 1,500 square feet of the 9,200 square-foot building will house a 10-barrel brewing system. It will also include a bar, dining room and patio. The brewery will have 41 beers on tap including its own list of West Coast style IPAs and hoppy pale ales, Tondro said.

Source: DiscoverSD