Prior to the pandemic, which rocked the alcoholic-beverage industry as well as consumer drinking trends, it was commonplace for a dozen or so new brewing companies to debut within San Diego County each year. The sizes of those businesses ranged from large companies built to distribute beer throughout Southern California, the entire state or beyond, down to small passion projects with the primary goal of servicing residents of their immediate communities, and boutique operations striving to be known for their niche offerings. Now, not only are brewery openings down, with an average of eight having opened each year from 2021 to 2024, but almost all of them are of the latter, smaller ilk.
Of the five breweries that debuted in 2025, almost all of them are small or “nano”-sized, with one so tiny that a nano classification would be a stretch. It’s further proof that craft beer is trending hyper-local as industry entrepreneurs reevaluate the definitions of success for their brewing enterprises. While widespread fame and riches no longer top brewery owners’ wish lists, there is still plenty of passion for the craft, liquid and consumers, as evidenced by the three most recent entrants into San Diego’s sudscape.
Good Pressure Brewing
7559 Mission Gorge Road, (619) 310-6608, goodpressurebrewing.com/home
In December, Allied Gardens welcomed its first local brewery in the form of Good Pressure Brewing. Located in a 3,500-square-foot former cidery turned brewery along heavily traversed Mission Gorge Road, the business is the product of Erik and Shannon Fowler, a married couple drawing on their shared backgrounds in marketing and customer service, as well as lessons learned over the former’s 12 years notched in the local brewing industry.
The current executive director of the San Diego Brewers Guild, a trade organization committed to promoting the county’s brewing community while providing educational resources to its members, Erik Fowler has the benefit of other brewery owners’ hindsight, having interfaced with a great many and been privy to their successes and shortcomings. Before helming the Guild, he headed craft hospitality for Miramar yeast purveyor White Labs, playing a key role in opening their brewpub in Asheville, N.C.. That was preceded by two years of taproom experience for Stone Brewing and ChuckAlek Independent Brewers.
Erik Fowler, owner of Good Pressure Brewing Company in Mission Gorge, photographed at the brewery in San Diego. (Howard Lipin / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“Beer is the what, not the why,” says Fowler, offering up a key principle that guided him and his wife as they determined what their business would be for its eventual clientele. “People start breweries because they have a passion for beer, but even if it’s the greatest beer in the world, every brewery has beer. It’s important for a brewing company to offer something more to differentiate itself, whether it’s a theme, aesthetic, or some other value-added people can get behind.”
In the case of Good Pressure, the Fowlers are focused on providing a space designed to meet the needs of just about anyone who walks through the door. Their taproom offers a variety of seating, including high-top tables with a view into the production area; larger, standard-height tables; stools at the bar and picnic tables on the front or back patio. Each option has been installed for different types of customers, be they singles, families with kids, or friend groups of varying sizes. A smart layout not only accommodates each, but also provides natural separation so each can be comfortable within their own element.
The Fowlers believe not only anticipating their guests’ needs but meeting — or exceeding them — will go a long way toward making Good Pressure an every-occasion or no-occasion business they enjoy frequenting.
“I want this to be the type of place people go on their first date, then come back to when celebrating their first anniversary or a spot people enjoy stopping at a few nights a week on their way home from work or after a hike at Mission Trails,” says Fowler.
Cans of Good Pressure Brewing Company Blond Ale beer. (Howard Lipin / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
On the beer front, Good Pressure offers popular styles, including clear and hazy IPAs, a Pilsner, blonde ale and American light lager, plus a handful of hard seltzers. Having retained the previous tenant’s wine-making license, the Fowlers look forward to eventually delving into wine and cider production.
Koobrew
9030 Kenamar Drive, #309, Instagram.com/koobrew
Similar to the Fowlers, the beer is neither the “why” — and is barely the “what” — for Koo Miyake. A brewer-partner for a company called Kové, he took over its 1,700-square-foot lease-to-brew suite at H.G. Fenton’s Brewery Igniter facility in Miramar when the hard-cocktail concern folded last year.
Prior to his time with Kové, Miyake was a brewer for Chula Vista-based hard-kombucha company Boochcraft as well as a distiller for Miramar’s Cutwater Spirits. With Koobrew, he is putting his wide-ranging beverage-making skills to work, not just in producing lagers, IPAs and Belgian-inspired ales, but also what he refers to as “functional spritzers.” Fermented with wine yeast, those botanical-infused teas are further flavored with fruit, herbs and spices, and are what Miyake wants his company to be known.
Going beyond what flows through Koobrew’s taps, Miyake would like to see his taproom become a showroom of sorts for all manner of craftsmanship via partnerships with local artists. That includes graphic artists and musicians as well as furniture and clothing designers. He is particularly interested in working with one of the latter to develop a line of brewer’s workwear”
“I want Koobrew to grow into more than a brewery. It should be a creative hub, a place where beverages, design and culture come together,” says Miyake. “My goal is to keep pushing for what’s better and what’s unique, whether through flavors, experiences or partnerships.”
Lyons Peak Brewing
17602 Lyons Valley Road, (619) 852-5770, lyonspeak.com
Well known in local homebrew circles for his lifelong obsession with fermentation and award-winning beers, Chad Steven debuted the first commercial offering from his Lyons Peak Brewing at the onset of last year’s San Diego Beer Week. A traditional Belgian-style kriek, it was spontaneously fermented by naturally occurring microflora and wild yeast at his home in Jamul, then rested for several months in oak and infused with a rare variety of Schaerbeek cherries, which are prized for their pronounced tartness.
Schaerbeek cherries are grown exclusively in Belgium, save for 200 trees Stevens had imported and planted on his estate after receiving USDA approval to do so in 2019. One year in, those trees yielded just two cherries, but four years later, Stevens was able to harvest 1,200 pounds of fruit.
“My wife and I handpick the cherries, which is labor-intensive since, unlike most fruit, Schaerbeek cherries don’t ripen at the same rate,” says Stevens. That harvesting process gave the resultant kriek its name, Handgeplukte (Flemish for hand-picked). Bottles of the beer are for sale at Lyons Peak Brewing, which is only open from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, though Stevens happily does his best to accommodate private tours for interested individuals who reach out to him via the brewery’s website.
With almost zero distribution, scant tasting-room hours and limited production of a single product that’s incredibly expensive to produce, one can’t help but inquire about Stevens’ business plan. He responds as follows, “Business plans, sales meetings, benchmark goals … these are the path toward mediocrity. The beer is all that matters. This is special. I’m a guy who loves to grow trees, loves to make beer and loves to make people happy. That’s it. That’s the plan. Period.”
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 almost two decades. Follow him @sdbeernews or contact him at brandon@sandiegobeer.news