Burgeon Beer Company is the rare San Diego brewery that grew up exactly the way its name promises. Three friends from La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad spent years homebrewing together, then traded their day jobs for a 15-barrel brewhouse in an industrial park just south of the airport. Ten years later, Burgeon pours at four taprooms across the county, took home Champion Brewery at the 2024 San Diego Beer News Awards, and did it all while planting tens of thousands of trees. The beer is the draw, but the story is why people keep coming back.

The basics

• Location: Brewery and taproom at 6350 Yarrow Dr, Suite C, Carlsbad, CA 92011. Satellite taprooms: The Oasis in Escondido (649 Rock Springs Rd), The Arbor in Little Italy (1326 Kettner Blvd, San Diego), and The Grove in Vista (501 S Santa Fe Ave).
• Founded: 2016, by Matthew Zirpolo, Derek van Leeuwen, and Anthony Tallman, three Carlsbad natives who grew up together and homebrewed for more than a decade before going pro. Tallman came up brewing at Stone, Rough Draft, and Backstreet Brewery in Vista. The name means to grow and flourish, and the brewery was first conceived under the name Abstract Brewing before trademark trouble forced a change.
• Known for: Treevana IPA, the Mosaic and Amarillo West Coast flagship; a deep bench of hazy IPAs led by Juice Press; and a nature-first identity, from the wood and greenery in every taproom to a sustainability program that made Burgeon the first brewery triple-certified by Climate Neutral, 1% for the Planet, and Ocean+Positive in 2024. Burgeon was also one of the first San Diego breweries to brew New England style IPAs, and the first in the county to brew a zero IBU beer.

The taproom

The Carlsbad taproom is where the whole thing started, and it still feels like the home base. It sits in a business park, which sounds unpromising until you walk in: reclaimed wood, plants everywhere, big windows, and a long tap list that runs 16 deep. It is dog friendly and kid friendly, and rotating food trucks handle the food, so the room stays focused on the beer. There is also a private event space called the Greenhouse.

If you want the full Burgeon experience, the other three rooms each have their own personality. The Oasis in Escondido is a mostly outdoor beer garden that took over the old Escondido Brewing site in November 2020, with 15 taps and a small pilot system brewing limited releases on site. The Arbor in Little Italy, opened in April 2021, is the only Burgeon spot with a full scratch kitchen, and it pairs 18 taps with fish tacos, wings, and a cedar trellis patio that feels like a beer garden moved indoors. The Grove in Vista, the newest location, opened in February 2024 with 18 taps in an open-air room looking out on South Santa Fe Avenue.

The service is a real part of the draw. Burgeon has won Best Customer Service at the San Diego Beer News Awards twice, in 2020 and 2023, and the staff tend to be the kind of people who remember your usual. Hours shift by location, so check the site before you drive out, and note the Carlsbad room closes early on weeknights.

Standout beers

• Treevana IPA: The flagship, a 7.2% ABV West Coast IPA hopped with Mosaic and Amarillo, 54 IBUs. Clear bright gold with citrus, berry, and orange marmalade over a crisp malt backbone and a dry, bitter finish. BeerAdvocate scores it 91, and Craft Beer and Brewing gave it a 95. This is the beer that pays the bills and the one to judge the brewery by.
• Juice Press Hazy IPA: A 6.8% ABV hazy IPA hopped with Citra, Nelson, and Mosaic. Opaque straw yellow, soft and juicy, with tropical citrus, stone fruit, and a light bitterness that keeps it from turning sweet. It took first place in the Hazy IPA category at the 2024 San Diego Beer News Awards.
• Carlsbad Crush Pale Ale: A 5.8% ABV West Coast pale ale brewed solely with Mosaic and Mosaic Cryo hops. Clean, bright, and crushable in the literal sense, with the same hop character as Treevana in a lighter frame. It won first place for Hoppy Beer (Non-IPA) at the 2024 San Diego Beer News Awards.
• Dutchman’s Pipe Imperial Stout: A 10.3% ABV imperial stout brewed with Steady State Roasting coffee and Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans, with lactose in the mix. Rich, roasty, and dessert-leaning, and the dark counterweight that proves Burgeon can do more than IPA.
• Pistil Pilsner: A German-style pilsner, and the one to order off the side-pull tap at Carlsbad if it is pouring. Crisp, floral, and quietly excellent, the kind of lager that shows a hop-focused brewery also sweats the details on the other side of the tap list.

Our take

Burgeon is one of the best-run small breweries in San Diego County, and the 2024 awards sweep backs that up: 15 medals, eight of them gold, including wins in West Coast IPA, Hazy IPA, and Imperial IPA, plus the Champion Brewery title. That range is the point. Plenty of breweries brew a great West Coast IPA or a great hazy IPA. Few brew both at this level and also pour a pilsner worth ordering and a stout worth cellaring.

What we like most is that Burgeon never chased a trend it did not believe in. It brewed hazy IPAs early, when San Diego was still a West Coast IPA town, and it kept brewing clear, bitter West Coast IPAs after haze took over. Treevana is the proof: a 2017-era recipe that still holds up against anything pouring in the county today, and a beer that has never needed a rebrand to stay relevant.

The sustainability work is genuine rather than decorative. The 1% for the Planet membership dates to the beginning, the Reclaim the Wild IPA with the National Forest Foundation has helped plant more than 25,000 trees since 2019, and the 2024 triple certification is a first for a brewery. It is also the rare brewery where the environmental pitch and the taproom experience point the same direction: the rooms are built around wood, plants, and daylight, and the beer tastes like it belongs there.

The honest caveat is that Burgeon is a North County brewery first. The Carlsbad room is the brewery, and it is the one to visit if you want the full tap list and the freshest pours. The Arbor is the best bet if you are downtown and hungry, and the Oasis is the best bet on a sunny Escondido afternoon. None of the four rooms is a destination brewpub in the Stone or Ballast Point sense, and that is fine. Burgeon is a neighborhood brewery that happens to have four neighborhoods, and it is better for it.

For a North County beer day, start at Burgeon in Carlsbad, then work your way down the coast or inland to the Oasis. Order Treevana first, Juice Press second, and Pistil last, and you will have a fair picture of what this brewery does best.

Sources: Story and Impact, Burgeon Beer Company, https://burgeonbeer.com/pages/story-impact ; Meet Matthew Zirpolo of Burgeon Beer Co. in Carlsbad, SDVoyager, https://sdvoyager.com/interview/meet-matthew-zirpolo-burgeon-beer-co-carlsbad/ ; Have a Beer with Burgeon Head Brewer Anthony Tallman, San Diego Magazine, https://sandiegomagazine.com/archive/have-a-beer-with-burgeon-head-brewer-anthony-tallman/?operator=or&tagID=394%2C581%2C173 ; Craft beer burgeoning in Carlsbad, San Diego Reader, https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/sep/17/beer-news-craft-beer-burgeoning-carlsbad/ ; Burgeon Beer Company Opens on South Santa Fe Avenue in Downtown Vista, North County Daily Star, https://northcountydailystar.com/burgeon-beer-company-opens-on-south-santa-fe-avenue-in-downtown-vista/ ; Winners from the 2024 San Diego Beer News Awards, San Diego Beer News, https://sandiegobeer.news/winners-from-the-2024-san-diego-beer-news-awards/ ; Praising the Bar: Burgeon Beer Co., San Diego Beer News, https://sandiegobeer.news/praising-the-bar-burgeon-beer-co/ ; Treevana, BeerAdvocate, https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48082/268667/ ; Review: Treevana, Craft Beer and Brewing, https://beerandbrewing.com/review/amp/burgeon-beer-company-treevana-1651173517 ; Juice Press, BeerAdvocate, https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48082/356435/ ; Burgeon Beer Company, BeerAdvocate, https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/48082/ ; The Complete List of Breweries in San Diego County, San Diego Tourism Authority, https://www.sandiego.org/article/san-diego-breweries ; 1 Percent for the Planet, Burgeon Beer Company, https://burgeonbeer.com/pages/1-percent-for-the-planet