By TR Robertson Photos by Brian Robertson
The sun was out and so were the crowds as beer lovers and aficionados filled the parking lot along Broadway and Citrus in Downtown Historic Vista on Saturday, enjoying the 14th Annual Rhythm & Brews Fest.. Twenty-three breweries from North San Diego County and beyond, along with several other vendors and food trucks, lined the parking spaces in the large parking lot in the downtown area. These breweries offered those who had paid for admission samples of various beers from their businesses. The selections varied from IPAs, Pilsners. Pale Ales, Stouts, Sours and much more. Some also offered Seltzers and beers with tropical flavors for the summer. Each brewery tried to outdo the other with unique, clever, and witty names for their beers, and for many of those attending, reading the names was part of the fun of deciding which beer to try. The brewers were more than willing to tell each person walking up to their tents anything they wanted to know about the beers they were pouring and what else their brewery had to offer.
Rhythm & Brews was presented by the San Diego Brewers Guild and was part of 4th Annual San Diego Beer Weekend and leads into The Capital of Craft Beer Fest. Along with the breweries in attendance vendors like The Bountiful Bag, offering back packs and other carrying bags made out of some of the bags that held products used in beer making, and a vendor named Beer4Boobs, sponsored by White Labs, whose Tap the Cure motto indicated support of Breast Cancer Awareness and the research to fight breast cancer. Numerous products were available for purchase to support this cause. There were three food trucks set up – Meches Fish Tacos, Ms Potato, and 7 Siblings Burgers. The Ms Potato selection with all of the trimmings looked amazing. On stage, musical entertainment was provided by DJ Goldie, Loom, and Soulsetter.
Breweries in attendance included Fall Brewing – North Park San Diego, Artifex – San Clemente and a tasting room in Oside, Abnormal – San Diego, Lost Abbey – San Marcos, Prey Brewing – Vista, Mother Earth – Shadowridge, Blue Fire – San Marcos, Culver Beer – Carlsbad, Roadies – Vista, Breakwater – CoLab in Vista, Latitude 33 – Del Mar, Weir Beer – Vista, Meche Brew – San Marcos, Belching Beaver – Vista and other locations, Caft Coast Beer & Tacos – San Marcos and Oside, Pizza Port – Carlsbad and other locations, Pure Project – Vista, Battlemage – Vista, Booze Brothers – Vista, Dog Leg – Vista, Barrel & Stave – Temecula, Burgeon – Vista and Carlsbad, Bleck Plague – Vista & Oside. For several of the breweries this was their first time taking part in Rhythm & Brews in Vista. Many of these breweries and others will be seen at the Novemberfest at Alta Vista Botanical Gardens.
Craft Beer Festivals are always popular events in North County and their popularity continues to grow even as a number of craft breweries have changed hands, changed names or dropped from the scene.
