Karl Strauss Brewing Company

Last updated
Karl Strauss Brewing Company
Industry Alcoholic beverage
Founded1989
FounderChris Cramer and Matt Rattner
Headquarters San Diego, California, U.S.
Products Beer
Website www.karlstrauss.com

Karl Strauss Brewing Company is a San Diego, California-based craft brewery with nine brewpub locations across Southern California and a main brewery in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego. Besides being available at its own brewpubs, the company's beers are distributed across all of California. [1] Karl Strauss is the oldest surviving brewery in San Diego County, having been founded in 1989, and is credited with launching the county's rise to prominence in the craft brewing industry. [2] Based on 2017 sales volume it is the 47th largest brewery in the United States. [3] In summer 2017 Karl Strauss was declared the Mid-Size Brewery of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival.

Contents

History

In 1988, Chris Cramer and Matt Rattner asked Cramer's cousin, Master Brewer Karl Strauss, to help them develop a brewpub. Strauss was a former vice president of production at Pabst Brewing Company. [4] Strauss agreed, contributing his library of hundreds of beer recipes, helping to design brewing operations, and serving as the company's spokesman on radio advertisements and in public appearances until his death in 2006. [5]

The company's first brewpub, Karl Strauss Old Columbia Brewery and Grille, located on Columbia Street in downtown San Diego, opened in 1989. It was the first brewery of any type to operate in San Diego since 1953, and the first-ever brewpub in San Diego. [6] At the time the craft brewing industry was in its infancy and the American standard for beer was light, mild and mass-produced, but Cramer felt that the country was ready for beers with more personality. He believed that "If we could get this style of beer into people's mouths, we could create converts." [7]

The company's first distributing brewery began producing beer in late 1991. In 1996 the company's distributing brewery operations were moved into a 22,000-square-foot (2,000 m2) home office and brewing building in Pacific Beach. Also in 1991 the company opened its second brewpub: Karl Strauss Brewery Gardens in Sorrento Mesa. Additional brewpubs were opened in La Jolla (1996) (location closed as of January, 2021), Carlsbad (1999), Costa Mesa (2002), 4S Ranch in San Diego's North County (2012), Temecula (2013), Anaheim (2016) and downtown Los Angeles (2016). [8] There was previously a Karl Strauss brewpub at Universal Citywalk in Los Angeles which closed sometime after 2020 and was replaced with a Starbucks. [9] In 2023 a new Karl Strauss beer location opened called Port of San Fransokyo Cervecería at the Disney California Adventure theme park in Anaheim. [10]

In 2009, the company partnered with the Greenhouse alternative energy company in a program to convert its waste to ethanol for use as a fuel. [11]

As of 2023 the brewery has nine locations in Southern California, including five in San Diego County. In November 2023 the company opened its first outdoor beer garden, the Karl Strauss Outpost San Marcos. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craft beer</span> Brewery that produces small amounts of beer

Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, new flavours, and varied brewing techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brewing in Oregon</span>

The U.S. state of Oregon is home to more than 200 breweries and brew pubs that produce a large variety of beer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyramid Breweries</span> American brewery headquartered in Rochester, NY

Pyramid Breweries, Inc., is a defunct brewing company that produced beer under the Pyramid brand name at two breweries and several brewpubs in Washington, Oregon, and California. It was founded in 1984 as Hart Brewing. The brand name is currently owned by North American Breweries, a subsidiary of the Costa Rican company Florida Ice & Farm Co.

The Aztec Brewing Company was a regional brewery founded in Mexicali, Mexico in 1921, which moved to San Diego, California in 1933. It closed in 1953, and was revived as a brand in 2011. It is the only brewing company ever to move from Mexico to the United States.

Pizza Port Brewing Company is a brewpub with five locations in Southern California: Solana Beach, two in Carlsbad, Ocean Beach and San Clemente. A former Pizza Port location in San Marcos spun out of Pizza Port in 2006 and is now an independent operation, the Port Brewing Company / Lost Abbey brewery. It has received multiple awards, including "Small Brewpub of the Year" for both 2003 and 2004, by the Great American Beer Festival and six awards for its beers at the World Beer Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian River Brewing Company</span> Brewery and brewpub in California

Russian River Brewing Company is a brewery and brewpub in downtown Santa Rosa, California, with a second location in Windsor. The company is known for strong India pale ales and sour beers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Strauss</span>

Karl Martin Strauss was a German-American brewer. He fled Nazi Germany in 1939, and went on to become a brewer, executive, and consultant in the American brewing industry. He received numerous awards during his career, which spanned both the large national brewery and the microbrew segments of the industry. Karl Strauss Brewing Company, which he helped found in 1989, continues to bear his name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballast Point Brewing Company</span> Brewery in San Diego, California

Ballast Point Brewing Company is an American brewery founded in 1996 by Jack White in San Diego, California. Ballast Point Brewing Co. started in the back of Home Brew Mart, a homebrew supply store White founded in 1992. As of 2015, it was the second largest brewer in San Diego County and the 17th largest brewery in the country based on sales volume. The company's main production facility is in Miramar. It also has brewery locations in San Diego's Little Italy and Scripps Ranch neighborhoods, as well as its original Home Brew Mart location in San Diego's Linda Vista neighborhood. In 2017, Ballast Point opened its first East Coast brewing facility in Daleville, Virginia, near Roanoke.

SPB Hospitality is a multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company owns several casual dining restaurant chain brands, including Logan's Roadhouse, Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom, J. Alexander's, Stoney River Steak House, Krystal Restaurants, Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurants, and Rock Bottom Restaurants Breweries. As of November 2019, CraftWorks owned and operated over 390 restaurants in the United States, but all of its owned-and-operated locations closed by March 2020, after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy followed immediately by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and CraftWorks terminated its 18,000 employees, leaving fewer than 25 employed. On June 12, 2020, SPB Hospitality purchased Craftworks businesses out of bankruptcy for $93 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell's Brewery</span> Brewing company in Comstock, Michigan, US

Bell's Brewery, Inc. is an American craft brewing company, with operations in Comstock and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bell's brews acclaimed beers such as Hopslam Ale, Oberon Ale, and Two Hearted Ale. It operates a brewpub and a store selling merchandise and homebrewing supplies at its Kalamazoo location. Begun as a homebrewing store in 1983, and producing beer since 1985, it is the oldest existing craft brewery in Michigan and the oldest craft brewery east of Colorado. As of 2021, it was the 6th largest craft brewery in the United States, and was the largest independently owned brewery in Michigan when founder Larry Bell sold the company to the subsidiary of the Japanese Kirin beverage group, Lion - an Australian producer of alcoholic beverages, at the end of 2021. The company also owns Upper Hand Brewery, a separately operated division in Escanaba, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikkeller</span> Danish brewery

Mikkeller is a craft brewery founded in 2006 in Copenhagen, Denmark that was originally based on the so-called "cuckoo", "phantom" or "gypsy brewer" ethos; that is, the company does not operate an official brewery and, instead pays a brewery in Belgium to produce their beer. The company now operates several brewpubs, such as Warpigs in Copenhagen and Mikkeller Brewpub London. Mikkeller was founded by two home brewers: Mikkel Bjergsø, a high school teacher, and journalist Kristian Klarup Keller. Both sought to introduce their home-brewed beer to the public and to "challenge beer friends with intense new tastes", drawing inspiration from the American breweries that "aren't afraid to play and break all the rules".

This article discusses beer in Central America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">21st Amendment Brewery</span>

21st Amendment Brewery is a brewery located in San Leandro, California. Their original location is a brewpub and restaurant in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco, California, two blocks from Oracle Park. The brewery's name refers to the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which repealed Prohibition.

The production of beer in New Jersey has been in a state of recovery since Prohibition (1919-1933) and the Great Depression (1929-1945). Currently, the state has 123 licensed breweries: a large production brewery owned by an international beverage company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and 122 independent microbreweries and 19 brewpubs. The growth of the microbreweries and brewpubs since the 1990s has been aided by the loosening of the state's licensing restrictions and strict alcohol control laws, many of which were a legacy of Prohibition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beer in San Diego County, California</span> Beer in San Diego, California

San Diego County, California, has been called "the Craft Beer Capital of America". As of 2018, the county was home to 155 licensed craft breweries – the most of any county in the United States. Based on 2016 sales volume, three San Diego County breweries – Stone, Green Flash, and Karl Strauss – rank among the 50 largest craft brewers in the United States. San Diego County brewers pioneered the specialty beer style known as Double India Pale Ale, sometimes called San Diego Pale Ale. Its beer culture is a draw for tourism, particularly during major festivals such as San Diego Beer Week and the San Diego International Beer Competition. San Diego County breweries including Stone Brewing Co., AleSmith Brewing Company and Ballast Point Brewing Company are consistently rated among the top breweries in the world.

True Craft was a $100M fund announced in April 2016 with the goal of assisting independent craft brewers. The fund, announced by Stone Brewing Company founders Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, was intended to buy small stakes in interested craft brewers, but no more than 25%. This would allow brewers to continue to operate independently without having to borrow from banks, sell to traditional venture capitalists, or sell to multinational conglomerates. The initiative was discontinued in 2019 after reportedly being unsuccessful in matching the high purchase prices being offered by the larger beer brands.

References

  1. ↑ "Find Karl". Karl Strauss Brewing Company. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
  2. ↑ "Local brewer heads above competition", San Diego Union–Tribune, September 29, 2009
  3. ↑ Connors, Tarcy (March 15, 2017). "Three S.D. County Breweries Make Top 50 List". San Diego Business Journal. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  4. ↑ Washburn, David (2005-05-03). "Spreading the Word" (reprint). San Diego Union-Tribune. San Diego, California. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
  5. ↑ "Karl Strauss, 94; master brewer for Pabst helped pioneer microbrew trend". Los Angeles Times. December 27, 2006. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  6. ↑ Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1989
  7. ↑ Dickerman, Sara (May 25, 2012). "Beyond San Diego's Surf and Sun: Suds". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  8. ↑ Hirsh, Lou (October 24, 2016). "Karl Strauss Brewing Slates Opening for New L.A. Location". San Diego Business Journal. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Dalton, Haley (July 23, 2022). "New Starbucks Replaces Karl Strauss Brewery". WDW News Today. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  10. ↑ Michaelsen, Shannen (July 25, 2023). "Port of San Fransokyo Cervecería Opens at Disney California Adventure (Photos)". wdwnt.com. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Beer-to-Ethanol Triple Threat Teams Karl Strauss, GreenHouse, and E-Fuel". cleantechnica.com. July 21, 2009. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
  12. ↑ "Karl Strauss Expands with Sprawling Outdoor Beer Garden in San Marcos". Times of San Diego. November 8, 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.