Tower 10 IPA is one of the beers that put Karl Strauss on the map as a hop-forward San Diego brewery. It takes its name from Lifeguard Tower 10 in Mission Beach, the spot where two college grads and a 75-year-old master brewer sketched out the plan for San Diego’s first craft brewery since Prohibition back in 1989. The beer itself is a classic West Coast IPA from an earlier era of the style: assertive but balanced, with caramel malt standing shoulder to shoulder with the hops instead of hiding behind them.

The basics

• Brewery: Karl Strauss Brewing Company (San Diego, CA)
• Style: American IPA (West Coast IPA)
• ABV: 7.0%
• IBU: 60

What to expect

Tower 10 pours a clear light amber with a white head that leaves lacing down the glass. The kettle is loaded with Chinook hops, giving it intense grapefruit and pine flavors that linger through a dry finish, and a dry hop of Cascade and Centennial adds a floral citrus aroma on top. A touch of lightly kilned caramel malt rounds it out, so the beer reads maltier than a modern West Coast IPA even at 60 IBUs. The body is medium and smooth, the bitterness firm but not punishing, and the whole thing finishes dry and clean. It is a well-made, old-school San Diego IPA, the kind that tastes like the place and time it came from.

Our rating

6.8/10

Rated by Alex (6) and Nick (7.5). Alex gave it a 6 and Nick a 7.5, and we land between them. Tower 10 is a solid, well-balanced IPA with real grapefruit and pine character and a malt backbone that keeps it honest. It does not have the explosive aroma or the razor edge of the best modern West Coast IPAs, and next to the current crop it can taste a little tame. But as a piece of San Diego beer history that still drinks well, it earns its score.