Beers of summer: best brews for the San Diego Padres’ Opening Day

Swingin’ for the Fences

It’s spring, and my mind — inspired by this week’s unveiling of Swingin’ Friar Beer — is turning to baseball beers, from San Diego and beyond.

Swingin’ Friar. After All-Star third baseman Manny Machado, Ballast Point’s new brew may be the second-most anticipated addition for the Padres’ 2019 season. Debuting Opening Day, March 28, this pale ale with fruity Simcoe hops is the team’s official craft beer and will be available on draft in Petco Park and in bottles around town .

.394 Pale Ale. AleSmith’s tribute to the late Padres legend, Tony Gwynn, has a high batting average, winning over craft cognoscenti and Joe and Josephine Six-Packs. One of this brewery’s best-sellers, it’s widely available in bottles and on draft.

Curve Ball. This gentle summer blonde ale (5 percent alcohol by volume) is pitched by Seattle’s Pyramid Brewing. Hard to find, it tends to make a local appearance later in the baseball season.

Welcome to Worcester. A Vienna lager from Massachusetts’ Wormtown Brewery, it can’t be found outside New England. Still, it deserves recognition because some batches are brewed on wooden baseball bats.

Blue Moon Belgian White. Purists may complain that a mass-marketed MillerCoors product doesn’t belong here, but look at its pedigree: Created at the SandLot Brewery inside Denver’s Coors Field, it was originally named Belly Slide Wit. Available everywhere.

P.B. Revival?

As the weather warms up, the beach beckons. So should Pacific Beach Alehouse, which is just steps from the surf.

Until recently, though, it was easy to resist this place. Since Erik Jensen left in 2012 to become head brewer at Green Flash, the Alehouse’s beers have been unremarkable and inconsistent.

“The house beers,” Dan Enjem said, “were not our focus.”

Enjem became the Alehouse’s head brewer in November. As a home brewer and then as a professional at Thorn Street and Ballast Point, Enjem learned lessons he’s determined to use to revive Pacific Beach’s craft beer reputation.

To a lineup that includes easy-drinking Japanese lagers and American blonde ales, Enjem is also adding what he calls “advanced beer-drinking beers.”

“These are not your average beers, they have more complex yeast-driven flavors,” he said. “If you are an old pro at drinking beer, these are the beers you look for to show what a brewer can actually do.”

The Alehouse will host its official re-launch on Sunday, April 7, National Beer Day.

Kings of Beer

I’m a sucker for the lightly spiced Belgian tripel style, and for lovely tropical fruit flavors. Twisted Monkey (5.8 percent alcohol by volume) brings these wonders together, adding mango to Victory Brewing’s excellent tripel.

The recipe includes earthy, herbal Tettnang hops; bready Pilsner malts; Belgian yeast imparting notes of coriander and ginger; and juicy mango. These ingredients come together in a harmonious package that is sweet and spicy, with a clean, fast-fading finish. While not as potent as a classic tripel, this Monkey is twisted in just the right way.

Random Question from my Editor

Q. Is the craft beer boom purely an American thing, or is this happening in other countries, too?

A. This is a global phenomenon, but don’t take my word for it. Listen to Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, the Danish founder of Evil Twin Brewing. “Around the world, the craft beer scene has exploded, and an interesting selection of beer is no longer a 12-hour drive away,” he wrote in 2018’s “Where to Drink Beer.”

I love that book, by the way. This thick volume lists the best places to hunt craft beer everywhere, from Solana Beach’s Pizza Port to the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Best of the Week

This is the last day to score a $30 ticket to Friday’s Bankers Hill Art & Craft Beer Festival. The seventh annual fest, which from 6 to 9 p.m. will occupy two floors of the historic Abbey, offers unlimited pours from more than a dozen local breweries, bites from local restaurants, art from local artists.

The Abbey is at 2825 Fifth Ave., San Diego. The tickets are at new.bankershillbusinessgroup.com and rise to $35 Friday.

Words to Drink By

“Remember the 1340’s? We were doing a dance called the Catapult. You always wore brown, the color craze of the decade, and I was draped in one of those capes that were popular, the ones with unicorns and pomegranates in needlework. Everyone would pause for beer and onions in the afternoon, and at night we would play a game called ‘Find the Cow.’ Everything was hand-lettered then, not like today.” — from “Nostalgia,” by Billy Collins. The former U.S. poet laureate’s 76th birthday is Friday.

Wanted: Your Opinion

We’re considering adding spirits to this column, transforming Brewery Rowe into Brewery/Distillery Rowe. Are you in favor? Register your opinion with the proprietor, peter.rowe@sduniontribune, or his bourbon-loving editor, mark.platte@sduniontribune. We thank you in advance!

Twitter: @peterroweut

peter.rowe@sduniontribune.com