Arcana Brewing Company

Awesome field trip! Quality beer and atmosphere.
Lots of different styles, olde ale was my cup of beer!
Malty, complex, and tasty.
Ryan I think was the bartender and was very good host, keep up the good work

This place is awesome the owners are super cool and knowledgeable probably one of my top 3 favorites

Great little brewery and tasting room. They don’t go crazy with hop-​forward IPAs but rather craft a more balanced lineup of beers. I liked their Honey Pale Ale and the Fly Guy Rye IPA.
The service was friendly and they had a food truck available as well when I was there.

5 Stars. Wish this was closer to where I live. Great brews and a great atmosphere. The brewer, Dan, is knowledgeable and very welcoming. I would stop here again whenever I am back in town. This local brewery tasting room has hit the perfect combination of doing everything right.

Homemade root beer is a non-​alcoholic option for those who don’t drink. I liked it!
I was here for a birthday party that reserved the whole place for the private event. Spacious, and kind of felt like a warehouse party. We were even able to bring in a stage pole for partygoers to dance and play.
I liked the cozy vibes, too. Cool spot!
Staff was really great about getting us drinks quickly and making sure we all had what we needed to have a good time.

Love this place. Dan and Ryan are awesome! My fiancéé has celiac’s and they’ve been beyond helpful with advice on where she can drink and also having some gluten reduced beers available. It’s a great place to hang, stop by and have a pint, you won’t be disappointed!

This is my favorite brewery EVER! Not only are all the beers delicious, but the employees and regulars are soo inviting!
Dan (the evil genius behind the brewery) makes the best beer! I am not a fan of IPAs, but the Headbasher IPA is amazing! My favorite is the Apple Ale and the SD Saigeson.
Ryan manages the bar and keeps everyone happy! He is so personable and remembers all the faces that stop in, and not quite sure how he does it! And an insider tip, if you want to see him cry, bring in a kitten, on a slot car, holding an American flag!
Seriously, this is a great place, I moved to Carlsbad 4 months ago, and have been coming here at least once a week. Glad to call this place my fav, and these guys my friends!

Best brewery in San Diego. Interesting beers instead of the same old stuff. Food available most days, music, dartboards, couches. Legit.

This place has a great feel to it as soon as you walk in. Dan and Ryan are great dudes too! I’ll definitely be back.

I don’t mean to be negative because the server was cool and they did a lot to make the décor interesting. I had four tasters — honey pale, rye, Christmas ale and head bash. The head bash was the only one I kind of could have finished. I left leaving the tasters nearly full. Sorry to say I did not like the beer at all.

A long overdue review for a brewery that’s worth a stop.
We visited here on the last Sunday in August in the late afternoon, yep just getting to this review now. It was a stinkin’ hot, need a cold beer, let’s hit some breweries kind of day. Arcana was our first stop.
Parking: free parking in the lot and plenty of it.
The venue: located in a business strip mall. Parking could be an issue if you come during the week before most businesses close. But all that means is that instead of parking three feet from the door, you might have to park 10, 15 or 20 feet away. :)
It’s a dog friendly, leave the kids at home brewery. Because it’s a working brewery, for safety reasons they prefer that everyone be 21 or over. And because it’s okay to put your dog on a lease and not your child (CPS kinda frowns on that), dogs are welcome.
The décor is steampunkish with art covering some of the walls. If you get tired of looking at the art or talking to your friends you can play darts on one of the two boards near the back of brewery.
There’s a small popcorn machine which appeared to be a serve yourself variety.
There aren’t a lot of places to sit. It’s more of a stand around, drink your beer kind of place.
When we visited the place was empty, maybe about six other people in the brewery. Given all the good ratings on Unilocal,I was perplexed until we discovered why… there is no air conditioning. And not a lot of circulation happening despite the opened roll up door.
Yeah, I get you’re in brewery, but come on, put in some a/​c if you want people to hang out on hot days.
Happy to see a stout on the menu, so without qualms I ordered the Infinity Stout on Nitro. It was creamy and smooth with strong hints of coffee. But the beer was warm.
I know some people prefer their stouts a little on the warm side, but not this gal. I like my big bold stouts cold.
The hubs got an IPA or an Ale (don’t remember which, maybe the Headbasher IPA or the Honey Pale Ale. Whichever one was too wheaty for my taste. But it was cold, so cold.
The bartender (owner maybe) was courteous, not overly friendly. There wasn’t much customer service happening in terms of checking to see if anyone needed/​wanted a refill.
Aside from the warm stout and lack of air conditioning, I’d give it another shot. But next time, I’m coming when it’s not 100 degrees outside.

Easily has the best American made ESB I have had, amazing selection of different beer styles with new additions almost weekly. Dan and Ryan liven up the bar and both are extremely knowledgeable on not just their own beers but other local breweries and styles. I’m on the waiting list for their Mug Club which is a brilliant membership option which also ties into the art and décor of Arcana. Sundays also has a great BBQ food vendor, amazing tasty beer, delicious BBQ and Sunday football cant go wrong!

We had 2 flights so we tried 8 different beers. Highly recommend the Apple Ale! Delicious! It taste like Apple Jacks cereal, apples with a hint of cinnamon! The Honey Pale Ale was also outstanding! Light and refreshing!

This is a small craft brewery with many different fun selections and interesting beers. We tried a few different beers including a bacon ale, infinity stout, apricot saison, and an apple pie beer that was very interesting. This beer was more on the dryer side, with very little sweetness pushing through.
We then tried their headbasher IPA, and decided on a growler to go. It was a cool little spot to try some tasty beer for sure. Everyone is very friendly here and happy to let you try a few to find what is in your wheelhouse.
Grab a growler to go and you surely won’t be disappointed when u get home and want to relax and unwind with that special beer from Arcana Brewery.

Checked out Arcana Brewing with my sister yesterday. It’s a pretty cool place in a business park that has a great steampunk feel to it. There are darts available, and some really nice artwork if you enjoy steampunk (which I do). It wasn’t crazy busy, which is nice as I like to talk the ears off of all brewery people when given the chance. (yeah if you know me, it’s not just brewery people).
We walked in and were quickly greeted by the brewer and given a beer list to peruse. There are options galore, but for those of us that aren’t quite sure what we want, they had four, 4oz tasters ($ 8.00). All in on that!
1. Kevin’s Bacon Ale. It was a very tasty, lightly bacon flavored smoke beer. I dug it a lot. I would really love it with some barbecue.
2. Newton’s Graff Apple Ale. It reminded me of an English Scrumpy. I liked it a lot and it was a lot better than most of the ciders I’ve tried. The brewer let us know it had a little too much cinnamon for his liking, but I enjoyed it. It was like dessert, but not quite that sweet.
3. Annabelle’s Porter. Really good porter. Roasty, but not overly done. Great dark beer and totally up my alley.
4. Infinity Stout (Nitro). Better than Guinness. Yep I said it. It was very fresh and just a classic stout the way I like them.
5. Apricot Saison. Awesome Apricot flavors, but not crazy where it felt fake. I really enjoyed it and could see it on a warm day.
6. Bourbon Barrel Barleywine. Smoothest Barley Wine I’ve had ever. I felt there was a carmel taste that was great. Warmed up well too.
7 Dark Xmas Ale. Very tasty and a slight edge over the Abita I had a few years ago. Nice spicing and very enjoyable.
8. Strawberry Blonde Braggot Mead. Mmmm. Strong honey notes and sweeter than the other beers but balanced. I was really close to bringing some home, but I know I wouldn’t make it to work on Monday if I did.
For a great place to enjoy good beer, play darts, talk to knowledgeable beer people and just enjoy yourself, this is the place.

Bizarre ambiance, friendly staff, high-​quality beer
Of the myriad of breweries near my place, Arcana so far has proven to be the best besides Pizza Port. Big variety of house beers, 15 at least. Huge variety of styles with most being what I would consider off-​the-​wall like apple ale, braggot, wheat IPA. This place had the least brewing flaws and the best beers from our big brewery tour that day by far. Their apple ale was shockingly good. No food truck is a minus. Popcorn was available, free I think. They use Square so paying is easy. Voodoo, Louisana bayou theme I don’t really get but whatever. Nothing they make is bottled AFAIK so gotta get it here. Overall, I will be back and this place should definitely be on your short list of breweries to visit. Oh, and you can walk across the parking lot to visit On The Tracks if you are in a ticking mood, but I would not recommend that.

The beers here were fantastic. One favorite was the sage saison, which was light and had enough sage and other spices to be full of flavor. Another favorite was the mystery milk stout, which was very sweet without being smoky. The Xmas ale had a great body, had a hint of bourbon flavor, and was overall a really rich flavor. Graff’s Apple Ale was a little bland for my taste, but it was a good inoffensive sweet cider, and the apricot saison was a good sour.
On one hand, $ 2 – 3 is a little pricier than the average taster. on the other hand, they are 4.5 oz, which is bigger than average, and you can pay $ 2 for the specialty beers if you order them in flights. overall, it probably evens out to be a pretty standard price structure

The tasting room is quite roomy with plenty of games to play. the service was good and the beers are ok. I got 5 tasters and didn’t quite find a beer that I cared for. This is a cool place to bring a group of friends and spend a lazy afternoon. That’s what gets the four stars for me. Check it out!

If your looking for a secret not so secret brewery in Carlsbad, these guys are your one stop brewery.
Located in a small industrial park along Palmer Way and a stones throw from El Camino, you could possibly blink and miss it. If you travel nth on Palmer way, you come to the last road into the Industrial Park, simply drive through to the very middle and hang a Right. You will see a small company sign and a Neon «Open“sign, if you see these you’ve arrived!
Instantly you will notice a throw back décor to pubs of the past. With a simple layout of long bar, darr boards, high top seating and a small area for bands to play, you simply can’t go wrong.
Now most of the breweries in SD are IPA focused, not this place. With Apple, Pumpkin and strawberry brew flavors to name a few, this brewery doesn’t forget the people who love Pale Ales, Blondes etc. Offerings up jugs and company labeled gear is also for sale.
For jug fills your looking a three tiers, $ 16, $ 20 and $ 48 for the strawberry mead. $ 8 for a jug bottle.
I can recommend the Milk Stout all day! If you like the darker beers this is your brew. No food is served but they do have the odd food truck come by.
Overall
Drink: 4 – 5
Food: 2 – 5 (it’s a brewery not a restaurant)
Coming back: Yes

The very large lady working the bar was a joke. Acted like we were an inconvenience coming in at 8:30 on a Saturday night. My friends ordered beers and she stood around for 10 minutes not pouring, instead she was on her phone texting and acted like she was busy talking to people. What a joke!
Weird ambiance too, not sure what their look or theme is.
Definitely will never be back.

We stumbled upon this little gem at the beginning of the year, and we were pleasantly surprised with everything it offered! On a scale of 1 to hipster, this place is on the «oh-​I-​knew-​about-​that-​band-​years-​ago» level, but definitely not in a bad way. They offer live music (which is played just below conversation level so it’s easy to hear your friends), they have interesting and interactive décor (like very, very old books), and they have a fun little «Mug Club» for the regulars. Careful though, when I showed interest in joining, the bartender started selling it pretty hard (granted, I was a few beers in, so I may have been showing more interest than I meant).
The beer was the best part! I rarely find a place where I like everything I taste… This being one of the few! I enjoyed everything I ordered in my flight of five. They had a fruity beer and a really great stout that stood out to me. I’m not big on IPAs so it was nice that this place had a varied selection.
They also had bar snacks (pretzels) and darts to keep us entertained.
The only con: one of the servers that I spoke with wasn’t very friendly. She seemed to be catering much more to the regulars (with the mugs) than to our group, even though we had been there for a couple hours. It wasn’t until we asked to buy a growler that she brightened up.
I don’t think it’s fair to remove a star just for one server (who may have been having a bad day-​who knows), so I’m still giving this place a very deserving 5 stars!

Nice cool little spot! We stumbled across this place after a terrible experience at another local brewery… and we are so glad we did!
All the different beers we tried were delicious! Especially the stout and the pumpkin ale!
The owner was welcoming and knowledgeable! Great atmosphere and we had fun playing darts!
We’ll definitely be back!

This is a pretty great brewery. A bit hard to find (or maybe I’m just directionally challenged), but has an amazing atmosphere, tasty beer, and most of their staff are extremely friendly!
It’s a super laid back vibe with dartboards, casual and unique decorations, and a decent amount of beer. They’ve even got a mug club you can join if you decide to become a regular. You pay upfront, choose your mug, and that’s yours to use from there on out. They hang it up on the wall and you get to feel super special because you claim that mug for a year.
Their stouts are pretty good and for some reason when we were there they were handing out free sandwiches – I can’t really argue with that.
There are SO many breweries in San Diego to try out, and I think you should definitely put this one on your list.

Checked this place out over the weekend. Walked in and immediately felt like I was in someone’s garage or basement. The look isn’t the greatest. But hey, I went there to drink beer and could really care less about the décor.
But seriously, it was like someone’s junk garage or a basement at your weird aunt’s house. They do have a couple of dart boards and I’m guessing live music during the week and on weekends. Or it could just be they have some decent equipment and you can jam on stuff… whether you can play or not.
Anyway, the tap list was surprisingly large. I wasn’t expecting there to be so many beers so I was pretty happy. They featured everything from a honey pale to a bourbon barrel aged barleywine. Essentially, they covered the whole spectrum of beers. It’s nice to see a brewery offer such a wide variety.
Unfortunately, they didn’t execute many of them as well as I’d hoped. I tried 6 beers. I tried the Honey Pale, the brown, the ESB, the stout, the BBA Barleywine, and the rye ipa. Sadly, of the 6, only the stout was really worth getting again. I’m glad I stuck with tasters.
The beers were decently priced. I think it was $ 2 for all tasters of the beers they were pouring. I think for anything special they charge a little bit more. Decent sized pours for $ 2 as well, so it’s worth it for the price.
Sadly, I’d say if you’re in the Carlsbad business/​industrial park there, just head over to Vista and try one of the many superior breweries.

I’ve been here twice now and I’ve really enjoyed it. This is a no frills brewery located in the industrial district of Carlsbad. It’s Very close to dynamis cross fit, my gym. Since I’m Still working on acquiring the beer taste bud, I didn’t enjoy their usual pours. Their seasonal, however, include a spicy Saison and other shandies,
The service was slow but friendly. The first time I visited there was only one person serving. She seemed overwhelmed with the moderate happy hour crowd. The second time I went right when they opened Saturday Afternoon. There were two people working. Besides myself, there were a Couple and a man there to set up for a concert they were holding that evening present. Service was still a little slow. If you aren’t in a hurry, and honestly if you are in a brewery tasting room, you probably aren’t then just be patient. The people serving are really friendly and will just chat with you, super important when you’re having solo adventures like me. Not a whole lot of seating, but I expect they don’t get big crowds, dog friendly but not kid friendly (I have no problem with this). They do not serve food, but welcome outside food. They had bowls of snacks though to dilute the booze. The beers are very reasonably priced including a mug club for a monthly Fee. Definitely check this out, which you probably will since almost every san Diegan is drinking their way through the county.

Arcana’s beer is delicious and the brewer is always concocting his next potion. I’m a huge fan of their jalapeño pepper beer, and their apple pie… beer. I have always enjoyed creative beers and beer pairing events in the SF Bay Area and it was my first time to Aracana. I predict they will make it big!!! Cheers to the brewer and in hopes he will make those awesome connections that will lead the team to greater success!!!

Cool Funky Vibe… Tasty Beers… There ya go.
Yes, they are not child friendly, I am OK wit that.
I did find the staff great to chat with, they were even willing to show us some special brews and mixes they had come up with.
The selection and variety of brews is also fantastic, they really have something for every pallet here. From light and dry, to hoppy to sweet… They have it.
Get in here!

Love this place!
Great, unique beer selection. Darts. Awesome bartenders. Incredibly unique atmosphere.

All of my previous review still applies except for the fact that they finally got their growlers and other merchandise (pint glasses, shirts) in. They now offer 32 & 64 ounce growlers which at the time of writing this were $ 6 and $ 8 (empty), respectively. The fills per 32 ounces are $ 7, $ 9 and $ 23 depending on what you fill them with. The only downside is that the 64 ounce growler is a twist cap vs. the swing type.
Staff is still awesome, the owner is totally cool, the crowd here is still great, the only difference now is that I have a growler that I can fill up with my favorite brew (Marley’s Ghost). In other words, now I have even more of a reason to drop in when I’m in the area.