Take a sip of the Chief IPA at the brewery at Harrah’s Resort Southern California and you’ll know you’re drinking an IPA, but what you might not realize is that it’s a product that’s reflective of the tribal-owned brewery it came from; there’s a backstory behind the beer’s ingredients from the kind of hops used to the water supplied.
The beer, a new variety, is just one of multiple changes that have come to the brewery as part of a major rebranding effort. The brewery, which opened in 2016 as SR 76 Beerworks, is not only changing its name to Rincon Reservation Road Brewery, or 3R Brewery for short, but also has a new brewmaster and new upgrades to its tasting room.
Frank Mazzetti, a board member for the Rincon Economic Development Corporation of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, said the board wanted to “break clean” and come up with a fresh concept following the arrival of a new brewmaster.
Creating the beers is Shawn Steele, a brewer with more than 20 years of experience who previously oversaw the quality control program at Karl Strauss Brewing Company before becoming director of operations at Coronado Brewing Company. Steele started making the first batches of new beer for the rebranded brewery in early September.
Steele was at the brewery working alongside brewery staff to can batches of the brewery’s four signature beers: Its Chief IPA, Rez Dog hefeweizen, Red Rattler amber ale and the Oasis Blonde ale.
On the lighter side
The slate of beers is noticeably light.
Steele said there are a couple reasons for that: one is that the brewery has to appeal to its casino audience which skews a little older and more traditionalist in its beer tastes. Also, that’s not far off the mark from what people want these days, as the flood of double and triple IPA varieties wanes.
“You’ve got a lot of other examples out there of people in the craft world (who) now want to drink a blonde,” he said. “So I think that’s great for us that that was something we needed to have for the casino crowd, but now that the craft crowd wants to go back to a little bit of an easier drinking beer that you can drink more of.”
Some of the ingredients in the beer tie into the fact that brewery is native-owned. For example, the brewery’s IPA is flavored by Zappa hops, a variety that’s uniquely American and hails from New Mexico (most commercial hops varieties draw their lineage from Europe). The hop gives the beer lighter pine notes than European varieties as well as hints of mango and herbs.
All the beers are made from water from within the reservation.
“The idea is that the water is actually from the reservation from the headwaters there and basically there’s no impurities of blended water from the Colorado River,” Mazzetti said.
The water, which is pulled from an on-reservation aquifer, is softer water, which makes it ideal for making a variety of beers, Steele said. He explained that hard water is good for making IPAs but it’s not good for making other kinds of beers.
By starting with soft water, Steele said, the brewery can make practically whatever beer they want. If they want to make an IPA, all they have to do is add some minerals to make it harder.
Currently, the brewery has only the four beers and will soon bring back a seasonal favorite from SR 76 Beerworks, the Blueberry Saison. Steele said he is hoping to ramp up production to have four signature beers and four seasonal beers at any given time.
The tasting room
Harrah’s Resort Southern California has taken over the brewery’s adjoining tasting room and transformed it into more of a lounge, with a full bar that serves the brewery’s beer but also liquor. Large screen televisions and projector screens line the walls.
Mazzetti said the resort is also working to craft a food menu and some happy hour specials to draw customers in.
Much of the rebranding has already been completed, Mazzetti said, with a lot of the SR 76 signage removed. Guests can already try the new beer both at the lounge as well as several other locations within the casino. However, there will be an official reopening of the tasting room in late January.
The future
Mazzetti said that Steele has shared his brewing expertise with staff.
“Eventually we may try to get more of the tribal members involved in becoming junior brewmasters and make more opportunities for tribal lineals and members to have employment on the reservation and a career that can take them anywhere they want to go,” Mazzetti said.
The beer is currently only available at the casino and reservation stores because Steele said it was important to measure demand on the casino side before trying to supply the product to other businesses. He said as production ramps up the goal will be to have the beers in tasting rooms and bars elsewhere in San Diego County.
“Now we can start brewing more and getting it out to wherever we can,” Steele said.
If you go
Where: 777 Harrah’s Rincon Way, Valley Center (located near Harrah’s Resort Southern California’s valet parking area)
Hours: 2-8 p.m. Monday and Thursday; 2-10 p.m. Friday; noon-10 p.m. Saturday; noon-8 p.m. Sunday.
Information: facebook.com/3RBrewery