Background
On September 30th, 2017, Wild Barrel Brewing opened to the general public. Wild Barrel was first conceived by two friends Bill Sysak and Chris White. Former Army medic Bill Sysak AKA “Dr. Bill”—spent many years at Stone as the beverage coordinator and one of the company’s key brand ambassadors. Bill met Chris through Stone, doing cigar events. Chris owns a cigar company. Chris brought his financial expertise and real estate connections to the project.
Bill Sobieski, an award-winning homebrewer of 25 years and long-time friend of Bill Sysak, was brought onboard to brew the beer, The two Bills knew each other from their time working together at Stone, but Sobieski had a long history of brewing in San Diego and Orange counties.
Experience
We arrived on a wet Tuesday afternoon to join a few other people in the tasting room. We visited right before the big Corona Virus shut down. Wild Barrel Brewing is one of the more unique venues with the tasting room in the same building as an ax throwing venue. It doesn’t get much better than pairing beer drinking with ax throwing! I was anxious to visit Wild Barrel knowing they are known for their “Vice” series of fruited kettle sours, a constantly rotating selection of “West Coast” & “Hazy Juicy” IPA’s, and big Pastry Stouts.
The tasting room has many various sized tables, a bar and a refrigerator full of beer to go. We started with a flight of hazy IPA’s and Sours. My favorites were the Hoop Madness IPA, Crimson Sunset – a barrel aged Sour & White Chocolate Raspberry Torte a sour. A friendly barkeep set us up with two four packs of all the varieties they had in stock to go.
This is a great brewery we suggest you visit, When in the area check out Modern Times Encinitas, Mason Aleworks, Jacked Up Brewery, Little Miss and a beer bar Plan Nine Alehouse.
