Refuge owner Curt Kucera opened Refuge Brewery in December 2012 . His idea was to bring the concepts of old world Belgian breweries to Temecula. Curt’s youngest son Jake works at the brewery. Other son, Chad is the head brewer and was trained in Munich Germany. Kucera likes to partner with either different wineries or grape producers to obtain grape must which is freshly crushed grapes, leaves and a few stems and ferments them together with their standard Belgian Ale yeast to come up with unique styles of beer.
Within four months of opening Refuge was lucky enough to find a fan in a former brewmaster for Stone who introduced the brewery to the Stone distribution group. Stone picked them up and at the time, they were the youngest brewery ever to be brought into the portfolio. In 2015, Refuge grew nearly 300 percent and became the second fastest-growing brewery in California. Earlier this year, they started distributing beyond their local turf. Their beers are currently available in about 3,000 locations. To keep up with demand, the brewery will produce about 7,000 barrels this year.
We arrived on a Thursday evening about an hour before closing. There was only one other couple there at the time. The two beertenders were quite friendly and told us about the brewery. I was amazed at the capacity of this brewery. Their most popular beers, Blood Orange Wit and Grapefruit IPA are canned and distributed. My favorite was the Cloud 7 with a huge juicy nose and cloudy delicious hopiness (Had to get a Crowler to go). Also enjoyed the Cherry Sour with big cherry, with a bit of tart, Pumpkin Jack bourbon barrel aged Saison, pretty good, light on bourbon & yam and The Huracan is an excellent Rogue Rum barrel aged Tripel. We were very impressed with the variety and quality of beers they are experimenting with and highly recommend a visit.
No nearby lodging noted, Weins brewery is very close. They do not offer food on site.
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