For as long as anyone can remember, if you wanted a locally brewed beer in Encinitas, you had to leave town to get it. The nearest breweries were in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista. Biergarden Encinitas served great beer from other producers. The Kraken poured craft taps in a dim, no-frills bar. But nobody brewed here. Nobody had the permits. Nobody had tried.
Four Encinitas residents decided to fix that. Brian McBride, Ryan Van Biene, and two partners filed for a Type 23 Small Beer Manufacturer license, a Type 06 still license, and a Type 74 Craft Distiller license at 1588 Leucadia Boulevard, the former Islands Restaurant space in the Encinitas Ranch shopping center. On March 8, 2026, the Encinitas Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve it.
The Space: 5,500 Square Feet Plus a New Patio
The interior covers roughly 5,500 square feet inside the existing building. The team is expanding the outdoor patio to about 1,565 square feet, which should give the place a solid indoor-outdoor feel for North County's 300-plus days of usable weather. The Encinitas Ranch shopping center already has Trader Joe's, Barnes & Noble, and a handful of other retail anchors, so foot traffic isn't a concern. Co-owner McBride told planning commissioners the center is "a bit weirdly quiet, but I think it works great for what we're trying to do."
What to Expect
The brewery will produce craft beer on-site and plans to add small-batch spirits under the distiller license. A food menu will round out the offering, though specific details haven't been announced yet. Construction is expected to take about five months from the start, with a target opening of September 2026. The timeline is still flexible.
What makes this different from a brewery opening in any other town is the backstory. All four co-owners live in the 92024 ZIP code. They named the brewery after their city. McBride described the project to commissioners as community-driven before anything else. That's a sentence you hear a lot in pitch decks. In this case, the four guys behind it actually live here, have kids in local schools, and shop at Cardiff Seaside Market on weekends.
For the broader Encinitas dining and bar scene, the brewery fills a gap that's been open for years. The Regal Seagull has been a cocktail and beer destination with a 4.7 rating. Mr. Peabody's handles the live-music-and-drinks crowd. But a production brewery with a taproom is a different animal, and Encinitas hasn't had one until now. The closest comparisons are in Del Mar and Solana Beach, where Viewpoint Brewing and Culture Brewing have established loyal followings. Encinitas Brewing Company won't need to compete with those. It's the only game in its own city.
