Butcher’s Brewing

Yet another stop on my homage to visit all of San Diego’s local breweries. Butchers most definitely does not disappoint. The beers across the spectrum are all very drinkable for even the craft beer novice, but I was able to find two of their IPA’s that were particularly tasty, without leaving my pallet reeling from hop overload. I cant wait to head back in to try a few of their dark offerings!

Butcher’s Brewing is located in Santee, just east of San Diego. What a cool and unique brewery. Every time I step through the door of a San Diego brewery for the first time, it is always something new. Ha! Well, the story here is as good as it gets.
This butcher-​themed brewery doesn’t just talk the talk as they say. Rey Knight was a butcher and founded a salami company. He took the knowledge he gained from experiments with beer yeasts and bacteria in salami and meat curing and applied it to brewing.
The tasting room here is cozy, but there was more than enough room for everyone. The staff and patrons were super cool. I might have learned more about the butchering process than brewing while I was here, but that’s all right. Every man should be able to butcher his own meat.
I really enjoyed the art work that covered the walls as you can see in the photography. The whole experience was unlike any other brewery here in San Diego… I dig it. Thanks Rey!

Intimate brewery where you can try some wonderful new brews. The owner is always there so it’s fun to get to know the creative process of this brewery. Private lot makes it easy to stop in on the weekend.

Butcher’s has a nice selection of beers in many styles. The 10 that I tried were all good beers. Great nitro stout. Friendly staff and they are dog friendly.

As always it’s great! Please offer more beers in your bottle. Friendly staff and they let you bring in food.

This place is great! Love the atmosphere and easy to read list of beers. The beer tender was friendly and helpful. The Imperial IPA is delicious! We will definitely be back.

Not sure how this place got only 1 $ sign at$ 6.50/pint??? Beer is good enough, but definitely not a1 $ Unilocal business. I’d say $$ or even $$$.

I was very impressed with this place! It’s small and doesn’t have the business of the larger Twisted Manzanita, but the beer selection is great! I particularly like the Center Cut, a legitimately smoked beer. You would think you were at Phil’s BBQ with the aromas and taste of this beer! The staff is friendly and knowledgeable and, because there isn’t a ton of people, the service is excellent. On busy nights, it can be difficult to be served in a timely manner at Twisted Manzanita. I think this place deserves a lot more business and I encourage everyone to check it out.

I just left this place and I was just impresed by their beer and selection. Besides the beer that I highly recomend, the guy behind the bar was cool and the place is comfortable enough to have a few drinks.

Get a flight, but make sure it has the Red IPA on it. Really good brew! I didn’t think it was too crazy with price either. The bartender knew what she was talking about too. Really friendly place!

Pretty good beer. Went there today before a football game and tried a taster flight. All were good, nothing excellent. Pretty pricey too, $ 6.50 for a pint is too much.
Décor pretty hipster. Couldn’t figure out where pork, pigs and beer meet…

Great brews. From the Esb and the cream ale to the hubba Bubba and fennel coriander this brewer can turn out some solid suds. The location is a bit out-​of-​the-​way but Def worth the trip. Now, not sure why they ditched the pidgin… I wanted to try the Hawaiian style Ipa! Maybe next time I come by they’ll have it on tap.
Keep up the good work!
P. S. All the images of butchery made me hungry. Can you sell some food? Maybe charcuterie? Or beer sticks? Show-​off what a butcher brewer can do and make those sommeliers squeamish.

Stopped in on Halloween and had an amazing experience. The beer is awesome and not over priced like some out in East County. Mark served us and really added to the experience. He help educate my wife and I not only about beer but about the East County Beer scene. Great place and great beer.

Stopped in with the wife last night on our way home. Wife had a flight and I had the Oktoberfest and Standard. Both were excellent. The Standard was a Black IPA with around 70+ IBU’s and while I’m not an IPA drinker, there was really no bitter finish with this beer.
Amy was serving them up and she was awesome. She help the wife choose her flight and actually wrote down what each beer was for her, very cool. The we chatted for a bit ethnic and spicy foods. Cool gal, we’ll be back to see ya!

Butchers Brewing is the first brewery to actually get me into the true beer scene. Ray, the brewer, is an artist, and has a talent for balancing flavors in his brews. His specialty brews come and go quick, so make sure to stop by often to see what new brews he’s got! And, support local breweries. make sure to request Butchers at your favorite restaurant.

I am an absolute fan of this place! Great brews, great atmosphere and love the set up. Descent size but a very homey? feel. I am a huge fan of Sari Sari, best brew out right now in my opinion. Made with a Filipino citrus fruit from the girl who works there moms back yard. How much more local can it get. I highly recommend this place when in Santee!!!

Some if the most unique and creative beer flavors I have ever had the chance to try, the owners culinary background is probably the reason behind such amazing beer. It’s a must try in San Diego!

This is like one of the hippest (okay, maybe it is *the* hippest) place in Santee. LOL.
My friends’ band was playing here on a Saturday night so I dragged a couple of my beer loving friends to hang out before my friends went on stage. I was glad we came early because it definitely filled up as the night wore on and there is limited space in the tasting room.
I did a 5 taster sampler for $ 8. Staff was knowledgeable about the beers and had good recommendations for my group. I really loved The Old Sow (an IPA) and the Choice Red IPA. The Hubba Bubba (hefeweizen) was pretty good too.
There is a back area with picnic tables if the front room gets super crowded. Downside to that is you can’t bring glass out there, so you have to get your beer in a plastic cup. But that is where the entertainment is, so sometimes, you just have to do it.
Bonus: they do have food trucks and/​or mobile food places that come in (usually when there is entertainment) so check their schedule before you go.

If you like IPAs, they have a lot on tap. I highly suggest you try the old sow session IPA and the choice IPA. The two times I have been there, the bar tenders were really nice. Plus they are dog friendly

I don’t like butchered beer, you know that run of the mill, watered down crap you buy at ball games. My tastes are a little more refined and demanding. I can’t be wasting my time with that junk. So suffice it to say, I’m developing a passion for micro and craft brews. So with what seems like a recent craft brewery boom in happening in SD, it’s exciting for me to see places like Butcher’s Brewing popping up and even more exciting to visit.
You need to rate a brewery by what you like of their offered selection. It’s great to have one beer that you really like and the others just being «whatever». A brewery can still be good as a result, however, a couple things will make a good brewery great: 1.) It’s when you start sampling beers and have a difficult time determining which is your favorite since they all seem so good. 2.) You’ve narrowed down your preference because you don’t like a certain type of beer and then a place comes along and takes that type and makes it so that you not only like it but you remember it.
With that said, butcher’s Brewing doesn’t «butcher» beer like Jack The Ripper. They produce great beer like a great butcher takes quality meat and makes a great cut with surgical precision… Okay, enough with the wordplay, let’s get down to why this place is great…
Location & Setup: Close to home for me. No more needing to drive all the way up north to try out some craft brew. It’s tucked away in a nice quiet industrial area so no need to fight traffic or struggle to find parking. They are right across the street from Manzanita (they actually occupy Manzanita’s old location) so you can kill two birds with one stone if you like. They don’t have a huge tasting room but it’s nice and intimate, great for a small group of friends etc. with a long bar against the wall and about 3 – 4 tables.
Crew: Friendly. There to help explain the beers, get you filled up on nice carby snacks to complement your beer. In my experience they even wrote down the beers on a card for me in the order they were placed on the tray.
The beer: This is the real deal, the real reason why you decide to come here right? They offer a quite unique selection of IPAs, pales, smoked, stouts etc., but doesn’t everybody? Yes, but I really like theirs. Here’s a limited breakdown…
Double Shaka:
As I mention in a lot of my reviews, I dislike IPAs. As popular as they have become, they just don’t taste good to me. It’s the one style of beer I don’t particularly like and causes me to cringe. I still try them but I usually never like them. Butcher’s was the game changer. Their Double Shaka isn’t your typical IPA. It tastes a little sweeter, doesn’t have that awful (opinion) after taste and it’s 10% ABV. It is among my short list of favorites now. They got me to like a type of beer I don’t usually like. That’s a quality of a great brewery. (See #2 above)
Continental Stout & Smoked:
I honestly have a hard time recalling the difference between these two mainly because I think I mixed them up somehow (lost track of which was which) while I was sampling them. If I recall they both had a smokey flavor to them with the Smoked being extremely strong. I think at first I thought the continental was the smoked until I tried the smoked. My brother and I compared one of them to tasting like you poured beer through a coal grill and then bottled it. It sounds disgusting but it actually was quite good and unique. I definitely recommend giving those a shot.
I still missed a few beers on the menu so I will definitely have to come back. This place is an excellent addition to the area. Drop by and I doubt you’ll be disappointed. I sure wasn’t.