Legacy Brewing Co., Oceanside

Legacy Brewing is just south of the Oceanside Municipal Airport. The area is a little strange, kind of “run-down-industrial” with lots of car and motorcycle shops. In fact, from the cars parked outside, my guess is that the car shop next door specializes in turning ten-year-old BMWs into tricked out street racers (I saw one with roll bars and a removable steering wheel, even). There’s a quirky grocery/liquor store/deli up the block, and a random assortment of other things. Parking was also not terribly easy even on a Sunday afternoon. The whole vibe of the block made me wonder whether I was going to like this place. It was certainly quite a contrast from the peaceful garden at the Stone Company Store in Oceanside that I had just left.

But once you get inside you are in a whole new world. The very large interior is comfortable but not fancy. The long bar has lots of seats. There’s a small stage that sees bands and an open-mic night weekly, plus a trivia night and lots of other crowd-pleasing events. Legacy is clearly making strong efforts to draw people to the tasting room. The summer reggae band series will transition to blues bands in the fall, which struck me as a neat way to program the music nights.

My bartender was chatty and knew his beer. He told me that the location used to be headquarters of a famous skateboarding magazine, and that Tony Hawk’s signature is on one of the beams. 

I would say the beer quality is a little lower than average in the Oceanside region (at least for my tastes), but it is fine. I had a much better impression at this Oceanside location as compared to the Legacy Tap & Kitchen in Miramar.

Hellfire IPA (6.7% ABV). This one uses eight different hop varieties. I think they were going for depth of flavor but for me at least it comes across as a bit confused. It is still decent, though.  3.25/5

O-side Summer Session IPA (5% ABV). This was unremarkable. Nothing bad, just unremarkable. If you want to stick to a normalish ABV, this might be your choice. 3.25/5

The Chesty Irish Red (Irish Red Ale, 5.5% ABV). I really wish breweries would stop it with the stupid sexist beer names. Mentioning boobs does not make we want to drink your beer. In this case, the beer itself also wasn’t much good. Untappd ratings are all over the place, from 5s to 2s. For me on this occasion, I got a hint of caramel but otherwise almost no flavor.  2.5/5

Nelson the Barbarian (Double IPA, 7% ABV). This one is accurately named: It tastes like a sweaty barbarian. In a good way, actually.  3.5/5 

Over all, Legacy is not a bad place to visit if you are nearby. Pick a time when there’s an event you like; the beer probably isn’t enough by itself to support a trip from any sort of distance.

http://www.legacybrewingco.com/     363 Airport Rd, Oceanside, CA 92058