Thursday 19th of April 2012 11:12:58 AM

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Breakwater Brewing is at one corner of a large shopping center building right on the palm tree lined Coast Highway, five blocks from the beach and the Oceanside Pier. The space is a long narrow room with a worn painted concrete floor, a high unfinished ceiling with exposed ducts and rotating fans, and full windows along the long street side.

A long light wood (maple?) bar is topped by glass and lined by black padded stools. The bar back is a large structure with inset mirrors and is made from the same wood. Black tables and padded black chairs fill the rest of the space. There are several TVs (sound off). Partially covered outdoor seating (with TVs!) is on the wide sidewalk on the smaller side street.

The atmosphere was quite low-key on our afternoon visit, but it looks like a good place to hang out. Brewery-logoed surfboards hanging on the wall are the primary decoration.

There were 39 taps on our visit, including ten house-made beers and a Mead. The selection covered quite a wide range of mostly craft beers (and mostly local). We liked both the DMJ IPA and the Maverick’s Imperial IPA.

There is no table service. Growler fills are available.

We didn’t eat anything but the food is appetizers, salads, pizza (some innovative variations), hot panini, and toasted sandwiches.

Monday 3rd of October 2011 09:20:47 PM

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It's called Breakwater…a beach term meaning that place where the wave (hopefully perfect) rolls over letting the surfer to challenge him/her self and capture it at it's peak and ride it in all the way to the shore.

A grand name for a brewpub…if only the beer was up to the challenge.

I have spent some time in several WONderful pubs, drinking their delicious concoctions, loving some…not loving others….giving others a shrug of the shoulders for an "eh" rating…but I have never been in a brewpub quite like this where the atmosphere holds much promise until you taste their product.

I would like to be more complimentary but everything from the pizza bread (not bread but small, square cheese pizzas with tasteless dipping sauces of tomato and I think, ranch) to almost everyone of their beers was just "eh" with a coupla of "Oh Dear God, that's medicine, not beer."

Eleven beers came in a sampler that deserves a big thumbs up….for a nominal eight bucks…another whoooo-hoo…but only 2 met with any kind of reaction other than a "not bad" to a "aaarrrgggghhh" gag reflex.

The best of bunch could truly be called a California beer, infused with large amounts of sagebrush…you smell it in the nose, taste through-out and even when it's finished, it lingers. Reminded me of the first taste of spruce tip beer I had…delicious. This Kali Kush and the Railslide Red, a malty, full - throated brew were the best of the bunch. The IPA's lacked body for hop-heads; the stout was watery; the Rasbiscus Mead, a fizzy, fruit punch; the Amalgation was without a doubt, truly hawr-a-bul!! Drinking penicillin would have been more enjoyable.

A lot of Marines and 12-year old Navy boys hang out here, a chance to get off the base and away from the leering, evil eyes of the Drill Instructors, a chance to breathe, to experience life in the "outside" world and I'm glad Breakwater exists for them.

For me, I'd rather break wind loudly in a church than have to return and drink what they have to offer.

Wednesday 9th of March 2011 02:29:15 PM

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Breakwater brewery is a good place if its not packed. they operate understaffed. they have a huge beer selection with a good amount of there own home brews. i went with my wife and buddy and his wife and the pizza is delicious and so is the beer but it very cramped in breakwater. my friend and i went to grab beers from the bar and it took around 10 minutes of waiting for the 1 bartender to even ask what we wanted. this is a definately a place to try but for me i wont be going back for a while

Tuesday 5th of January 2010 10:33:34 PM

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We heard about Breakwater while in Carlsbad for a beer festival. A group of us had been talking about our experiences at Pizza Port and someone mentioned that Kirk McHale was here so we added it to the list of stops. Our visit was the last of the day so we were pretty full of great food & beer from other stops so kept just to the beer list.

Beer selection was good and the beers we sampled were excellent. Very friendly service and atmosphere is conducive to family outings.