The Brewhouse At Eastlake

Atmosphere - When you walk in it looks and feels like every other brewpub thats in a strip mall. It looks like it wants to be hip and trendy but with a corporate sheen so it doesn't have its own look. There are fermenters scattered around the place thats kinda cool.

Quality/Selection - They had eight house beers on tap and a good number of guest taps. The house beers I had ranged from good to bad from weird flavors. The bartender hooked me up with a sample of a Port beer that was very good.

Service - I sat at the bar during lunch time so it wasn't busy there so I had some good service. The bartender was nice and we talked most of the time that I was there.

Food - I got a turkey sandwich during my visit that was pretty damn good but lets face it its not all that hard to make.

This is my first review on Beerfly. I've been to "The Brewhouse" 3 times now. The first time was the opening night, second, was about 3 months later, and the last was on 2 June. I will say this, thank god there is a brewhouse here in 91913. We need something fun, but this isn't the finished product, however the potential is there.

First the beer. While I find the selection of house beers plentiful, the brewhous is lacking in craft taps and bottles for folks who want to try some other stuff. If you are a true beer lover you will find the bottle and tap selection slim to none. That is unless you love Bud, Bud Light, and Coors. Each time I have been there they have a San Diego County Guest Beer. Each time they were "out" of said beer. Leaving me to choose from the house brews.

Let's talk about those house brews.

At review they offer 7 brews.

1. Bonita Blonde
2. Wolf Canyon Wheat
3. America's Finest Amber
4. Palomar Pale Ale
5. Rolling Hills Irish Red
6. Star of India IPA
7. Otay Lakes Oatmeal Stout

I was able to sample 6 during my first visit with a sampler. I missed the IPA as it was not available, however after my other visits I was able to try the IPA. I won't go into detail here, but the brews are well above the quality of any brew house in Eastlake. Read they are the only brew house in Eastlake, seriously though, the brews are well worth the trip as good beer is few and far between in these parts of South San Diego County. However, as I type this an Oggi's Brewing Co. is being built not less than 1 mile from their location. The stout is a Nitro, fans of Guiness will like that. The true SoCal beer hound will find the selection less than what we are used to. Seriously, this place needs a better tap selection and a better bottle selection to be able to really call themselves a brew house.

On to the menu, great selection, unfortunately they are rather pricey. I will hold off my review on the food until later on as I have had 2 of 3 bad meals here, but I'm chalking it down to it being a new joint.

All in all if you live in the 91913 give it a shot it's not bad on Friday and Saturday, and more patronage could only equal a better brew selection and a better overall experience. As it stands right now I hope it gets better, so we all can experience a worthy San Diego County beer house. Here's to more independent brewhouses like thins one!

Visited 28 March 2008, around 8pm

My sister-in-law and her husband live less than a mile from this new brewpub and were very excited to take my wife and me to check out their new 'neighborhood brewery' on our weekend visit to SD/Chula Vista. Having not visited them for a couple years, it was surprising to see the continued fast-paced growth of the area around their Eastlake subdivision.

The Brewhouse sits amidst a slew of home decorating-oriented businesses in the curiously, but aptly, dubbed 'Fashion District'. From the outside it's another monolithic concrete and glass storefront, tucked behind a frothing circular fountain and massive sail-like canopies (outdoor dining area). A couple stone fireplaces cast some warmth on a chilly late March evening, but not a soul was sitting outside. Inside was quite busy - a dozen or so plasma TV's, nearly every table filled, a mixed din of jovial conversation & blaring 80's rock. Remarkably comfortable, considering the lofty emptiness above those skillfully hung ceilings and lights.

We were given a table near one corner and perused an extensive menu. There's plenty of food to choose from and what we choose was generally good - a couple of (slightly underdone) pizzas (BBQ Chicken and Spicy Shrimp), a heaping bowl of Chicken Mac n Cheese (tasty), and a Crab Cake Sandwich (not good). Perhaps my favorite thing was the beer battered onion rings (with chipotle-ranch) appetizer - tasty and perfectly prepared. Entree prices seemed a little high, but portion sizes were too large to eat at one sitting - 3 of 4 of us had our leftovers boxed up for later.

On to beer: I gravitated toward the sampler, which offered tastes of 5 of the 7 house brews for $10. I picked: Bonita Blonde, America's Finest Amber, Rolling Hills Irish Red, Star of India IPA, and Otay Lakes Oatmeal Stout (nitro). Of those, the Blonde and Stout were clear winners in my book, with the Amber being unbalanced toward hops, the Red and IPA pretty average (though I'd have liked to try the IPA again, as well as the Wheat and Pale Ale which I skipped). I thought quality of the house brews was generally good; guest taps included Wyder's Pear Cider, Kona Longboard, Dos Equis. Oh, and Stone Smoked Porter, which the waitress failed to mention as an option when I asked. My wife picked the Amber and brother-in-law got the Red (sister-in-law stayed with the 'yummy!' Cider). Pints are $5 - a bit more costly than what I'm familiar with... growlers could be purchased/filled for $16, refilled for $10.

Service was friendly enough and reasonably prompt on a busy Friday, but I'd say the beer knowledge was not too high. And the failure to list the Stone among the 'guest taps' kinda irked me...

All in all, not a bad brewpub, though kinda generic feeling and 'forced' considering it's setting in a warehouse-like shopping district (though I could probably use a pint or two after a couple hours of carpet/upholstery/dining room suite buying...). Worth visiting when in the area...and a place I'm sure we'll go to again next time we're in town.