Background
Modern Times Beer is the brainchild of Jacob McKean, a longtime home brewer and Stone Brewing’s former social media guru. In January 2012, McKean walked away from his job at Stone Brewing and raised enough capital in 6 months to get the brewery off the ground. A kickstarter project helped the fundraising process. He found a location in a factory-centric area of Point Loma (Lomaland) and bought a 30bbl brewery set up. In addition, McKean managed to hire some of the most inventive, experienced brewers a start-up brewery could hope to land. Matt Walsh, former head brewer at Lost Coast; Derek Freese, the recent head brewer at Monkey Paw; and ex-Ballast Point brewer Alex Tweet. Consultant Michael Tonsmeire, a well-known home brewer and author of The Mad Fermentationist blog, took a sabbatical to launch the brewery’s wild yeast beers.
Since the opening of Lomaland, the brewery has expanded. That facility now boasts a neighboring 7,800 sq foot warehouse for packaging and increased production system with 120 bbl fermenters and towering silos. In 2014 Modern Times opened a second taproom and brewing facility in the North Park neighborhood dubbed The Flavordome. McKean, in 2017 decided Modern Times Beer would be the first California employee-owned brewery.
Not to rest on his successes, McKean next opened a downtown Los Angeles brewery & restaurant called The Dankness Dojo in 2018. A Portland,Oregon location, The Belmont Fermentorium was also created. And finally, a new location in Encinitas, The Far West Lounge also featuring a food menu. Future sites are said to be Santa Barbara & Anaheim.
What’s in a Name
How about the Modern Times Beer name? “Modern Times” was a Utopian community built on Long Island in 1850 by a bunch of wild-eyed wingnuts who thought they could demonstrate to the world what a more perfect society might look like. They bartered, lived without a state and sometimes ignored the conventions of marriage. Generally experimenting with creating a less exploitative, more pleasurable world. Naturally, the whole thing eventually imploded when legit nut jobs from New York City found out about the “free love colony” just a train ride away and overran it. It’s now Brentwood, NY.
Experience
We arrived on a Monday afternoon just after opening. This was just days before all the bars shut down for Coronavirus. The Far West Lounge is completely accessible. The tasting room has a unique feel as does the Point Loma location. Two large front windows open to the sidewalk. There are plenty of 2 and 4 seat tables and a large U shaped bar. As usual for Modern Times they had a couple “unique setting” areas and eclectic art along all the walls.
We grabbed a couple stools at the bar and ordered a flight of four. My favorite was the Death To False Beer, a fruity Double NEIPA. I wanted to leave with some cans but they had not received any yet at that location. Also enjoyed Dream River, Green Futures and DDH Orderville. A food menu is available although we did not eat. The location also offers cans, crowlers & coffee to go.
Modern Times is one of our favorites. We suggest you try out one of their many locations. There is a Best Western Encinitas nearby. When in the area check out Mason Ale Works, Wild Barrel Brewing and Abnormal Brewing.
http://www.moderntimesbeer.com/tasting-room/encinitas
