Tap Handle #322: Capistrano Brewing - Honey Pale Ale

When I saw this tap I had to have it. When the swallows leave Capistrano in the spring, they migrate north. I'm always happy to see them arrive and start building nests in the eaves of the shop...it means summer is right around the corner. The tap depicts a swallow on top of a piece of wood. It is in fact made of wood, and the paint job is not great - it's wrinkling and starting to flake. It's still a beautiful tap, though, and very rare - this is the only one I've ever seen, and Capistrano Brewing is (apparently) no longer in business.

There is very little information available about Capistrano Brewing. It was founded in 2004 in San Juan Capistrano, California. While their beers did win gold medals at the Los Angeles County Fair and the California State Fair Craft Brewing Competition that year, a lack of marketing held the company back and kept them relatively obscure. Some comments on rating sites suggest bottling sanitation issues were also a problem, and ratebeer.com has no entries after 2009 and shows the brewery as closed, Untappd indicates people were still drinking beer at the brewery as late as September...maybe they stopped bottling and the beer was only available on tap? At any rate, the brewery's website is gone, a good indicator that it is truly closed.

Capistrano Brewing Honey Pale Ale was an American pale ale that was described as crisp and clear, with floral bouquet and dazzling citrus flavor, well-hopped with a beautiful golden color and a robust head. Opinions were quite polarizing, and weighted average on ratebeer.com is 2.46 out of 5.

The website link to Capistrano Brewing is defunct.