Coronado Brewing Company and Pizza Port Brewing Company are two of San Diego’s pioneering breweries, and over the years the two have forged a deep and lasting friendship. “I’ve known Gina, Vince, and the Pizza Port crew since back in the early days of the San Diego beer scene,” says Rick Chapman, Co-founder, Coronado Brewing Company. “Recently we got to talking and we realized we’ve never brewed together. We laughed and immediately got to work on this collaboration. Both of our brands have a lot of similarities—we’re both laid back, love our coastal lifestyle, and don’t take ourselves too seriously. It seemed like a home run to partner up.” Gina Marsaglia, Co-Founder, Pizza Port Brewing Co., says,“We are so fortunate to have known Rick and the Coronado crew over the years and when the mere mention of a collaboration opportunity came up we immediately started the creative process. Seeing it come to fruition has been the best way to celebrate the amazing relationship we have built throughout time. Cheers!”
The concept for the two-part collaboration series centered on the theme “beers between piers”—a fun play on words as the two breweries are both peers in the craft industry, and the physical breweries are located to the north and south between beach piers. From there, the concept evolved to have Coronado Brewing releasing the first beer in the series: South of the Pier IPA, and Pizza Port releasing the second installment of the series, North of the Pier IPA. “When we first met with the Pizza Port crew, we immediately knew we wanted to brew two different takes on IPAs. Both of our breweries are known for brewing IPAs, so we thought we’d have fun playing on the idea of North and South with the hop profiles,” says Mark Theisen, Head Brewer, Coronado Brewing Company.
Coronado’s take on the collab, South of the Pier IPA, is a classic west coast IPA brewed with Mosaic, Amarillo and southern hemisphere Waimea and Motueka hops. The beer is dry-hopped with two pounds of hops per barrel for a bright, tropical aroma with lingering sweet orange citrus notes. “What I really love about this IPA is the huge fruit-forward aroma and flavor with a crisp, dry finish,” says Theisen. “We kept the malt bill simple to really let the hops shine and keep in line with that classic west coast profile.” Pizza Port’s take on the west coast IPA will feature northern hemisphere hops to play off the North of the Pier name. “We wanted our version to showcase Pacific Northwest and newer European hops to have a slightly different take on what we brewed with Coronado’s version. It was fun to showcase the difference in northern and southern hop profiles with our two beers,” says Sean Farrell, Director of Brewery Operations, Pizza Port (and former head brewer for Coronado Brewing Company).
South of the Pier IPA debuts at Coronado’s three locations and select Pizza Port locations on Friday, January 17. The beer will be available in 16oz can 4-packs and on draft, throughout Coronado’s distribution network. Pizza Port’s version of the collab, North of the Pier IPA, will release in May 2020, available in 16oz six-packs at its pub locations and wherever Pizza Port beer is sold. For more information about South of the Pier IPA, visit www.coronadobrewing.com. Stay Coastal. Cheers.
