Well that sure was one hell of a year, huh? With 2016  it felt appropriate to remember all the great things that happened here at KARL. Take a walk with us through some of our favorite highlights from a year we (and everyone else on earth) will never forget.

For starters, we brewed 137 different individual beers between our main brewery in Pacific Beach and satellite breweries housed within our brewpubs. Everything from English-Style Summer Ales to Beligan Dubbels were poured across California in the name of spreading love for the many flavors of craft we hold dear.

And all that hard work paid off. We won 11 medals in 6 national and international competitions as well as 4 medals and Mid-Size Brewing Company & Mid-Size Brewer of the Year at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival.

We added two new brewpubs (Anaheim & Downtown Los Angeles) and a ton of new folks to the KARL family. Both satellite brewing facilities look amazing and are cranking out a ton of killer small batch beers alongside our award-winning menu of west coast pub fare. Our brewpubs took home the honors of being named Brewery of the Year for 2016 by the California Travel Association as well as a Gold Medallion award for “best microbrewery” in the San Diego chapter of the California Restaurant Association.

We launched Aurora Hoppyalis, our take on the San Diego-Style IPA and, well, looks like you guys really really really loved it.

Inspired by the outpouring of support following the tragic shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, we joined together with Hillcrest Brewing Company to craft a beer that we could sell throughout San Diego to help raise funds to aid in the relief effort. It took off more than we could have ever hoped, with 16 other San Diego breweries joining in by brewing their own versions and bars all over town held special events where folks could taste all the different brews.

We continue to support local music, art, and creative folks through a variety of ways but one of our favorites is the ongoing sponsorship of “A Red Trolley Show”. The gang at Rowlbertos Media have been working hard all year bringing amazing bands from across the globe onto the San Diego trolley for impromptu live performances. This year saw everyone from Anti-Flag and Less Than Jake to Anthony Greene and hometown heroes The Verigolds. We can’t wait to see who else they bring out in 2017! Subscribe to their YouTube page to catch all the latest episodes when they drop each month!

Thanks for hanging with us over the last 27 years as we’ve been crafting the San Diego scene, we can’t wait to grow bigger and better as we head into year 28!