When Fredy Zurcher (pictured above, at right) moved from Switzerland to San Diego in 1996, he quickly became enamored with the county’s small but notable collection of breweries. He was amazed by the vast styles offered by Hang Ten Brewing, Karl Strauss, Pizza Port, Stone Brewing and Ballast Point’s OG location at Home Brew Mart. A full-bore craft-beer fan was born and over the past 30 years, Zurcher has kept up with the region’s beermakers. Not only that, but he’s shared his knowledge of those artisans and their wares. Over the course of a 27-year career as an IT pro, coworkers were the main recipients of his local-beer insights. Nowadays, the primary beneficiaries are individuals who’ve hired Zurcher as their personal brewery tour guide. Last summer, the retiree started offering private tours of local breweries and beer-centric locales, listing his “Private San Diego Beer Tasting Tour” services through TripAdvisor. Within two weeks he had his first booking and it’s been a whirlwind ride – both for Zurcher and his beer-thirsty customers – ever since. In a day and age where many brewery-touring companies have fallen by the wayside, Zurcher’s success shows there is still interest in experiencing what San Diego has to offer in the way of ales and lagers (particularly among out-of-towners) and that, much as today’s consumers seem to prefer small, independent neighborhood breweries, they are drawn to a more intimate, personalized tour provider. With groups averaging two-to-four people typically being transported to three-to-four breweries by Zurcher in his personal vehicle – with him sharing three decades of info, stories and anecdotes all the while – the retiree’s new hustle is fit for the current market. We recently sat down with him (at a barstool versus the back seat of his Volvo XC40) to find out more about his approach to showing clients all San Diego’s vast beer scene has to offer.
What inspired you to retire from retirement in this manner?|
I’ve always enjoyed meeting new people, hearing their stories and sharing my own with them. I used to take friends to visit different breweries around town when they would come to San Diego, and they told me how much they enjoyed their trips along with all the beer and brewery stories I would tell them. I enjoyed it a lot, too, and thought maybe there was a niche for doing this as a side job. I did some research and found that there is no offering in San Diego for a small, private group tour. There are party buses with fixed schedules, but nothing for two-to-three people wanting to explore the brewery scene.
How many tours do you do per month?
When I started, I had one-to-two bookings a month, then toward the end of 2025 it started getting busier. Over the holidays, I had a tour every second day. On average, I get one-to-two bookings a week now, so five-to-eight a month. Each tour lasts about four hours. I’m based in Carmel Valley, and most customer pickups are from hotels in the downtown area, but I also have had a few in North County.
What types of people or groups seem drawn to your tours?
There have been customers with deep knowledge about the industry, but mainly my clientele are more casual beer-drinkers. During some tours, customers will ask me to order flights for them, while others know exactly what they want. Two scenarios seem to be the most common when I get a booking. The first is people whose better halves booked them a tour as a birthday present. In most cases, that better half is not into beer, so I’ll make sure I visit places which offer some alternatives, like hard seltzers, cider or kombucha. I also get cruise ship passengers who are in San Diego for the day and don’t want to go on a tour organized by the cruise ship operators.
How do you work to ensure customers get an experience that suits their preferences?
I ask each customer what beer styles they like. Based on that and their pickup location, I design a tour of three or four breweries. I want them to spend time at breweries and taprooms instead of driving from one end of the county to the other. And it’s not all about the beer. I also like breweries and taprooms that are in a unique place or have a special ambiance, like Eppig Brewing’s Waterfront Biergarten or The Church by The Lost Abbey. Occasionally, after finding out more about what customers enjoy, I’ll change my plan mid-tour. Food is also based into my route-planning. I ask customers up front if they would like to have a stop which also provides food. Blind Lady Ale House and North Park Beer Co.’s Bankers Hill location have been favorites when it comes to food-and-beer combinations.
What have been some fan-favorite tour stops over the past year?|
Based on feedback, The Gärten in Bay Park with Deft Brewing, Lost Cause Meadery and Oddish Wine. It has something for everybody and a really nice setup. For groups, The Church, Belching Beaver Brewery and Pure Project Brewing. I also have a lot of requests for European-style beers, and Barley & Sword Brewing, Deft and Eppig are great choices. Other places that always get really great feedback are Bottlecraft and the Stone Brewing tasting room on Kettner Boulevard.
What are some fun stories from your first year as a tour guide?
I had a group from LA that included someone from the Philippines who had only ever had lagers. His friends in the group started ordering him everything but lagers. He’d take a sip of a stour or a sour and declare, “this is not beer,” then go order a lager. Then there was a young couple from Escondido that wanted to go to a bunch of North Park breweries. After getting a little tipsy, they fell asleep on the way home.
Zurcher’s brewery-touring services can be booked via his official website