THE NEWEST BREWERIES TO OPEN IN SAN DIEGO THIS YEAR
Owners exploring unique ways to enter market, including models combining beer and wine
New breweries are nothing new to San Diego. Over a dozen new beermaking operations have opened annually, on average, over the past seven years. About a half-dozen have debuted so far this year, with an astounding four opening over a 40-day period between April and May.
At least as many are poised to come online over the next several months, but it’s far from business as usual. Brewery owners are exploring a plethora of new avenues for entry into the market, some of which are brand new to the local industry.
An alternating alternative
So far this year, only Bill Carter has gone the traditional route, taking over the former home of the Sand Crab Restaurant in Escondido to install his passion project, Backyard Brewery. A maintenance mechanic at Palomar Medical Center and homebrewer of 15 years, Carter opened to the public on April Fools’ Day, debuting an assortment of IPAs augmented by English- and Belgian-style ales. Those beers are brewed on a nanosized one-barrel system and sold
exclusively at the brewery. It’s a straightforward, familiar tale of engineering-minded amateurgone-pro that now registers as something of an anomaly.
The collegial trio of homebrewers behind Voodoo Child Brewing started out looking for a spot all
their own but ended up being led down a road less traveled when Savagewood Brewing owner Darrel Brown asked if they’d like to enter into an alternating proprietorship. After helming the Scripps Ranch brewery for five years, Brown and his family decided to move out of state, but he didn’t want to shutter his business.
Brown asked the Voodoo Child team — which he had collaborated with to brew several limited-edition beers in 2021 — if it would be interested in taking over the daily operation of his facility. The brewery agreed, and the business has since been rebranded with Voodoo Child’s New Orleansmeets-tiki bar motif. In addition to its own IPAs and U.K.-style ales, the Voodoo Child team continues to brew some of Savagewood’s more popular beers.
“Starting from the ground up would have been a long road for us. Being able to jump in and contribute to the business in a short time frame was a big consideration and a positive,” says Voodoo Child cofounder Jake Deardorff. “When thinking about sharing space, most would immediately consider the money aspect, but besides sharing costs, we are also sharing customers and clientele. We have already seen people that we know through other avenues starting to get to know many of the existing regulars. That is great, not only for the business but the community.”
Despite producing beers for two brands, Voodoo Child has the
basic preplanning tools, an after-loss checklist, document storage and collaboration tools. A one-time $149 fee provides access to more resources and the ability to create additional plans.
Cake’s free features include end-of-life planning, online memorials, a postloss checklist and document storage. A $96 annual subscription buys unlimited storage, a legal online will and one-on-one consultations with the app’s support team, says Suelin Chen, Cake’s co-founder.
Some apps partner with employers, insurers, banks and other companies that provide the app’s features to employees or customers as a benefit. The apps also may earn referral fees for connecting users with service providers. Lantern has a “Funeralocity” tool to search for funeral homes, for instance, and Cake partners with Eterneva, which turns cremated remains into diamonds.
Plan at your own pace
Henson says she chose Lantern because she wanted a digital solution that allowed her to complete preplanning tasks at her own pace and share them online with trusted people. That felt more manageable than tackling estate planning all at once and storing the documents in a locked filing cabinet, which is what her mother has done, Henson says.
“It can be really overwhelming to think about it in one sitting, but the idea that every once in a while you can pop in and add more is helpful,” Henson says.
People shouldn’t rely on apps to do all their estate planning, says certified financial planner and physician Carolyn McClanahan of Jacksonville, Fla. Wills and trusts, for example, are tricky to draft and best done by experienced attorneys, she says.
But McClanahan likes apps that help with tasks such as funeral instructions, advanced care directives, pet care plans and obituary drafts.
“Anything that can get people to start thinking about planning for end of life is good,” McClanahan says.
Thinking about your legacy
Planning for your death can be a tremendous gift to the people you leave behind, sparing them confusion and stress. But dealing with death’s aftermath can still be a heavy load, made even more complicated by grief.
Families often spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on postdeath tasks, says Ron Gura, Empathy’s co-founder and CEO. Those duties can include arranging the funeral, probating the estate, closing accounts, canceling services and dealing with various government agencies, including Social Security and the IRS. Apps allow people to answer a few questions and get personalized advice.
“We can show you only the things that you need to do right now and also tell you what can wait,” Gura says.
Death-planning apps primarily focus on practicalities, such as completing tasks and uploading important documents. But many also encourage users to think about their legacies.
Everplans, for example, has a worksheet to help people create an ethical will, a document that communicates their values, life lessons and most important experiences. Everplans also has templates and guidance for writing letters and creating videos with a legacy message.
Cake’s Chen says people often ask her if running a death-planning app is depressing. Quite the opposite, she says. Thinking about what we value and how we want to be remembered is an essential part, not just of the death-planning process, but of life, Chen says.
“It really gets at the core of what makes life meaningful,” she says. “I am reminded every single day to make the most of the time that I have.”