Background
Tom Vogel is the CEO, Owner, and General Manager of Belching Beaver Brewery. He had been a backyard brewer and winemaker for many years and decided that he wanted to open a brewery. He worked with Troy Smith, his fellow poker friend who worked at Coronado Brewing Company, to help create the beers and his architect friend Dave Mobley to create the structure of the brewery. Belching Beaver Brewery and Taproom opened in Vista in 2012. A second location in the North Park community of San Diego opened in 2013. A second production brewery in Oceanside opened in early 2016. The second facility in Vista, a brewpub opened in 2016. And in late 2016 they opened a tasting room in Ocean Beach.
In 2018 they expanding the original brewing facility in Vista into a full restaurant experience they call Pub980. Rumor has it; Vogel would like to see a facility in the Los Angeles area in the future.
Experience
We stayed in a VRBO in North Park and walked to the Belching Beaver on 30th Street one Friday evening. It is a nice open air tasting room and that night there were a couple tables open. We chatted with the beer tender and started with a flight. That night they had 23 beers on tap. Enjoyed Brut Willis a nice Brut IPA & Tooth and Tails a collab hazy IPA. The Beaver isn’t one of our favorites but we enjoyed ourselves and tried some varieties that are not available in the grocery stores.
The North Park area is a fun area with Barn Brewery, Eppig, and The Pariah very near The Beaver.
