Helix Brewing Co. is the pride of La Mesa, and the only brewery left in the city. It opened in the summer of 2015 in a converted brick towing dispatch office on Commercial Street, built by hand over 14 months by founder Cameron Ball, a civil engineer and homebrewer who grew up on Mount Helix. More than a decade later, it is still a small operation where one brewer makes nearly all the beer and almost all of it is poured on site. That focus shows in the glass.

The basics

• Location: 8101 Commercial Street, La Mesa, CA 91942.
• Founded: Summer 2015, by Cameron Ball. Ball started homebrewing while studying civil engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, then spent nearly three years planning the brewery after La Mesa changed its zoning to allow breweries in 2012.
• Known for: Hoppy ales, led by Galaxy Rye IPA, which has been on tap since opening day, and barrel-aged sour beers brewed next door under the Sourworx name.

The taproom

The taproom is a converted brick warehouse with exposed wooden beams, red brick walls, and an enclosed courtyard beer garden that has only gotten better with age as the vines spread across the brick. The brewhouse is visible from the tasting room, and Ball likes to brew while the room is open so visitors can watch, smell, and listen to the process. Food comes from rotating food trucks, and weekends bring live music. The room is dog friendly and family friendly, with a backyard party feel that regulars keep coming back for.

Next door sits Sourworx, the separate tasting room Ball opened in October 2018 for his barrel-aged sours. It holds 176 wine barrels of sour beer aging in oak, and pours golden, red, and dark sours in 5 oz pours. It is one of the most unusual rooms in the county: racks of barrels instead of stainless tanks, and a menu that lists the microbes in each beer.

Standout beers

• Galaxy Rye IPA: The flagship, 6.4% ABV and 70 IBU. A passionfruit IPA brewed with rye malt and five hops, on tap since opening day. We rated it 8.0/10.
• Mosaicoholic: A 7.5% double IPA with Mosaic and Amarillo hops, pouring since 2014. Guava and passion fruit lead. We rated it 8.0/10.
• MTNS: A 7% IPA built on New Zealand Nelson Sauvin and Motueka hops, with crushed grape and tropical lime and a white wine finish. We rated it 6.8/10.
• King Rufus Porter: A 6% American porter, described by the brewery as a chocolate rye bomb with UK Fuggle and Willamette hops. We rated it 5.9/10.
• Active IPA: A 4.4% IPA brewed for the active lifestyle, aggressively hopped with Cascade, Centennial, Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic. The session beer of the lineup.
• Moon Juice: The West Coast IPA brewed for the brewery’s 11th anniversary in August 2026, built on Strata and Australian Galaxy hops with Citra and Mosaic underneath.

Our take

Helix is what a neighborhood brewery is supposed to be. The beer is consistently good across styles, the room is warm and unpretentious, and the Sourworx program next door gives it a second act that no other brewery in East County can match. Galaxy Rye IPA alone is worth the trip: the rye spice gives a familiar hop profile a backbone that most San Diego IPAs do not have, and it has been pouring for eleven years for a reason.

The honest caveats are small. The location is in La Mesa’s industrial zone, so it is a destination rather than a stop on a walkable crawl. Distribution is minimal, so most Helix beer is best enjoyed at the source. And the lineup leans heavily on hops, so stout drinkers will find less to love, though King Rufus Porter and the Sourworx dark sours cover the darker end.

None of that should keep you away. Helix is an easy drive from anywhere in central San Diego, the beer garden is one of the most relaxing rooms in the county, and the combination of a hoppy flagship and a serious sour program makes it two breweries in one. Order the Galaxy Rye first, a Sourworx pour second, and whatever is fresh on the small-batch list third.